Catechism of the Catholic Church

282 Part Two II. C hrist ’ s W ork in the L iturgy Christ glorified . . . 1084 “Seated at the right hand of the Father” and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Bodywhich is theChurch, Christ nowacts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. The sacra- ments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. 1085 In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father “once for all.” 8 His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is—all that he did and suffered for all men—participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life. . . . from the time of the Church of the Apostles . . . 1086 “Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might preach the Gospel to every creature and proclaim that the Son of God by his death and resurrection had freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the Kingdom of his Father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life revolves.” 9 1087 Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying: 10 they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This 8 Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12; cf. Jn 13:1; 17:1. 9 SC 6. 10 Cf. Jn 20:21-23. 662 1127 519 1165 858 861