Catechism of the Catholic Church References
Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishemnt of the messianic Kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace. According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and usher in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching CCC#672.
Disfigured by sin and death, man remains in the image of God, in the image of the son, but deprived of the Glory of God, of His likeness. The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son will assume that image and restore it in the Father's likeness by giving it again its Glory, The Spirit who is the giver of life (CCC 706).
The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's faith gave birth. "If you obey my voice and keep my covenant,.....you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (CCC 709).
"Behold I am doing a new thing." Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new Spirit. They converge in the small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in hope the "consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem" (CCC 711).
The Kingdom of heaven was inaugurated on earth by Christ. "This Kingdom shone out before men in the word, in the works, and in the presence of Christ" (LG 5) The church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom. Her keys are entrusted to Peter (CCC 567).
Volume XVII, June 3, 1923
“If man does not turn back ennobled and divinized, to place himself in the prime act of creation and receive My Will as his own life, rule, and daily bread to be purified, ennobled and divinized, to place himself in the prime act of creation and receive My Will as the inheritance God established for him, the very works of Redemption and Sanctification will not have its abundant effects…My Will is one single point that embraces and encloses the blessings of Redemption and Sanctification. What is more, after the soul who lives in My Will has taken its primary place in creation, all these blessings serve not as a remedy but as glory, as the special inheritance [of creation] brought to earth in the Person of the Word by the Will of the Heavenly Father. And if I came to earth, it was precisely for this prime act: To make known the Will of My Father and to bind it anew in souls. The sorrows, the humiliations, My hidden life and the entire immense sea of the pains of My Passion were medicine, remedies, supports and lights to make My Will known. With My pains I placed man in safety; with My Will I restored to him the sanctity lost in the terrestrial Eden. Without the prime act of My Will, My Redemption itself would have served man as dressing to his deepest wounds; as medicine to keep him from eternal death; as an antidote to keep him from falling into hell.”