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With John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of "the divine likeness," prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth [Jn 3:5] (CCC720). John is "Elijah [who] must come" [Mt 17:10-13; Lk 1:78]. The fire of the Spirit dwells in him and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of "[making] ready a people prepared for the Lord" [Lk 1:17] (CCC718). John the Baptist is "more than a prophet" [Lk 7:26]. In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah [Mt 11:13-14]. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the "voice" of the Consoler who is coming [Jn 1:23; Isa 40:1-3]. As the Spirit of truth will also do, John "came to bear witness to the light" [Jn 1:7; Jn 15:26; 5:35]. In John's sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels [1 Pet 1:10-12] (CCC719). St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way [Acts 13:24; Mt 3:3]. "Prophet of the Most High", John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last [Lk 1:76; 7:26; Mt 11:13]. Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (CCC523).
The prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. Christ instituted this New Covenant [Hos 1; Isa 1:2-4; Jer 2; 31:31-34; Isa 55:3] (CCC762). Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts [Is 2:2-4; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 10:16]. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations [Ezek 36; Is 49:5-6; 53:11] (CCC64). The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but according to the Spirit (CCC710). "Behold, I am doing a new thing" [Isa 43:19]. 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" [ Zeph 2:3; Lk 2:25, 38]. Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning himself. We limit ourselves here to those in which the relationship of the Messiah and his Spirit appears more clearly (CCC711). He chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people.... All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ... the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit" [Acts 10:35; 1 Cor 11:25] (CCC781).
On The Day Of Pentecost The World Enters Into The Last Days
The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates "the fullness of time", [Gal 4:4] the time of the fulfilment of God's promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would dwell "bodily" [Col 2:9] (CCC484). It was the Son's task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Reign of God, promised over the ages in the scriptures. To fulfill the Father's will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of heaven on earth. The Church is the Reign of Christ already present in mystery (CCC763). All the Scriptures - the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms - are fulfilled in Christ [Lk 24:44]. The Gospel is this "Good News" (CCC2763).
Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfilment. We are already at "the last hour" [1 Jn 2:18; 1 Pt 4:7]. Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect [1 Cor 10:11]. Christ's kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church [Mk 16:17-18, 20] (CCC670). Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers [Jn 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 17:26] (CCC729).
The Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the "last days," the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated (CCC732). The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise, with the accents of "love and fidelity" [Ezek 11:19; 36:25-28; 37:1-14; Jer 31:31-34; Joel 3:1-5]. St. Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost [Acts 2:17-21]. According to these promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace (CCC715). On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance [Acts 2:33-36] (CCC731).
The Destruction Of The Temple Is A Sign Of The Last Days
On the threshold of his Passion Jesus announced the coming destruction of this splendid building, of which there would not remain "one stone upon another" [Mt 24:1-2]. By doing so, he announced a sign of the last days, which were to begin with his own Passover [Mt 24:3; Lk 13:35] (CCC585). Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfilment. We are already at "the last hour" [1 Jn 2:18; 1 Pt 4:7]. He even identified himself with the Temple by presenting himself as God's definitive dwelling-place among men [Jn 2:21; Mt 12:6]. Therefore his being put to bodily death [Jn 2:18-22] presaged the destruction of the Temple, which would manifest the dawning of a new age in the history of salvation: "The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father" [Jn 4:21; 4:23-24; Mt 27:5; Heb 9:11; Rev 21:22] (CCC586).
It is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection [Lk 2:8-14; Mk 16:5-7] (CCC333). We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus [Acts 13:32-33]. The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament (CCC638). The Good News that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ (CCC639). Victory over the "prince of this world" [Jn 14:30] was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out" [Jn 12:31; Rev 12:10]. "He pursued the woman" [Rev 12:13-16] but had no hold on her. "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring" [Rev 12:17] (CCC2853). "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" [1 Jn 3:8] (CCC394).
The Renewal of All Things Comes After Final Judgment
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ [Acts 3:21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pet 3:10-13] (CCC1042). Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, "new heavens and a new earth" [2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1]. It will be the definitive realization of God's plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth" [Eph 1:10] (CCC1043). In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men [Rev 21:5]. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" [Rev 21:4] (CCC1044).
The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus [Rom 11:20-26; Mt 23:39]. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old" [Acts 3:19-21]. St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" [Rom 11:15]. The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles", [Rom 11:12, 25; Lk 21:24] will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all" [Eph 4:13; 1 Cor 15:28] (CCC674).