CCC 545 Jesus invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”¹ He invites them to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father’s boundless mercy for them and the vast “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents”.² The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life “for the forgiveness of sins”.³

CCC 994 But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: “I am the Resurrection and the life.”⁴ It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood.⁵ Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life,⁶ announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the “sign of Jonah,”⁷ the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.⁸

CCC 1503 Christ’s compassion toward the sick and his many healings of every kind of infirmity are a resplendent sign that “God has visited his people”⁹ and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins;¹⁰ he has come to heal the whole man, soul and body; he is the physician the sick have need of.¹¹ His compassion toward all who suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them: “I was sick and you visited me.”¹² His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them.

1 Mk 2:17; cf. l Tim 1:15.
2 Lk 15:7; cf. 7:11-32.
3 Mt 26:28.
4 Jn 11:25.
5 Cf. Jn 5:24-25; 6:40,54.
6 Cf. Mk 5:21-42; Lk 7:11-17; Jn 11.
7 Mt 12:39.
8 Cf. Mk 10:34; Jn 2:19-22.
9 Lk 7:16; cf. Mt 4:24.
10 Cf. Mk 2:5-12.
11 Cf. Mk 2:17.
12 Mt 25:36.