CCC 575 Many of Jesus’ deeds and words constituted a “sign of contradiction”,1 but more so for the religious authorities in Jerusalem, whom the Gospel according to John often calls simply “the Jews”,2 than for the ordinary People of God.3 To be sure, Christ’s relations with the Pharisees were not exclusively polemical. Some Pharisees warn him of the danger he was courting;4 Jesus praises some of them, like the scribe of Mark 12:34, and dines several times at their homes.5 Jesus endorses some of the teachings imparted by this religious elite of God’s people: the resurrection of the dead,6 certain forms of piety (almsgiving, fasting and prayer),7 the custom of addressing God as Father, and the centrality of the commandment to love God and neighbor.8
CCC 717 “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”9 John was “filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb”10 by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to his people.11
CCC 719 John the Baptist is “more than a prophet.”12 In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah.13 He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming.14 As the Spirit of truth will also do, John “came to bear witness to the light.”15 In John’s sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels.16 “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. .. Behold, the Lamb of God.”17
CCC 1108 In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father’s vine which bears fruit on its branches.18 The most intimate cooperation of the Holy Spirit and the Church is achieved in the liturgy. The Spirit who is the Spirit of communion, abides indefectibly in the Church. For this reason the Church is the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God’s scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy.19
1 Lk 2:34.
2 Cf. Jn 1:19; 2:18; 5:10; 7:13; 9:22; 18:12; 19:38; 20:19.
3 Jn 7:48-49.
4 Cf Lk 13:31.
5 Cf. Lk 7:36; 14:1.
6 Cf. Mt 22:23-34; Lk 20:39.
7 Cf. Mt 6:18.
8 Cf. Mk 12:28-34.
9 Jn 1:6.
10 Lk 1:15, 41.
11 Cf. Lk 1:68.
12 Lk 7:26.
13 Cf. Mt 11:13-14.
14 Jn 1:23; cf. Isa 40:1-3.
15 Jn 1:7; cf. Jn 15:26; 5:35.
16 Cf. 1 Pet 1:10-12.
17 Jn 1:33-36.
18 Cf. Jn 15:1-17; Gal 5:22.
19 Cf. 1 Jn 1:3-7.