Catechism Part 1, Section One, Chapter 3: "Man's Response to God" (142-184)

The Catholic Church begins this section by defining faith as "man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life." (26) An adequate response to God's revelation is faith, by the submission of one's intellect and will to God.

Article 1: I Believe (144-165)
I: The Obedience of Faith (144-149)
To obey is to hear or listen to in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God who is Truth itself. The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith that Abraham is the father of all who believe. Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith, as her faith never wavered even when her Son died on the cross.
Through the examples of Abraham and Mary, the Church shows that belief requires obedience and submission to God.
II: "I Know Whom I Have Believed (150-152)
Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. Christian faith differs from our faith in humankind. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be false and futile to place such faith in a fellow creature. For Christians believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his Son Jesus Christ. One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Holy Spirit, therefore he is God through the Trinity.
III: The Characteristics of Faith (153-165)
Faith is both a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him, and a human act.  Before this faith can be exercised, man must have interior help from the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth. The human act, believing, is possible only by grace and the interior help from the Holy Spirit. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed are contrary to neither human freedom or reason. In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace.What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason; we believe because of the authority of God himself, who reveals himself, who can neither be deceive nor be deceived. Faith is certain as it is founded on the Word of God.  Faith seeks understanding. It is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. Though faith is above reason there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Man's response to God must be free and therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will.  Believing in Jesus and in One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made a shipwreck of their faith. To live, grow and persevere in faith until the end, we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must work through charity, abound in hope, and be rooted in the faith of the Church.  Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. So faith is already the beginning of eternal life.  Faith can be put to the test by our world that we live in. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and death seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it. It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith, Abraham and Mary, and learn from their lives obedience and trust in God.

Article 2: We Believe (166-175)
While faith is a personal act, it is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbour impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.  As the Apostles' Creed begins with "I believe", the faith of the Church is professed personally by each believer, especially during Baptism. As the Nicene Creed  begins with "We believe," it is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. Both " I believe" and "We believe" are the Church's responsibility to teach to the believer.


I: "Lord, Look Upon the Faith of Your Church" (168-169)
The Church is what bears, sustains, and nourishes the  individual's faith. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. Salvation comes from God alone, but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our Mother. Because she is our Mother, she is also our teacher in faith.


II: The Language of Faith (170-171)
The Church does not believe in formulae of the faith, but the realities they express in communal celebration. The Church guards the memory of Christ's words it; is she, from generation to generation, that hands on the apostles' confession of faith. As a mother she teachers us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.

III: Only One Faith (172-175)
Through the centuries, in many languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father. The Church's message is true and solid in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole world.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 1, Paragraph 1: I Believe in God (199-231)

This first affirmation, belief in God, is the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man it does so in relation to God. All the other articles of the Creed depend on the first. Through the prophets God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God.
First of all, the Church asserts that there is only one God, but belief in Jesus and the Holy Spirit does not contradict this, for they are of the same essence.
Second, God made Himself known by revealing His divine name, "I AM WHO I AM," which is a mystery. By revealing his name, God also reveals his faithfulness. Man discovers his own insignificance in God's presence, but God can forgive those who realize they are a sinner. God is merciful, gracious, and faithful. God is unique, and there are no gods like Him. He transcends the world and history. He made heaven and earth. Through His name we learn that He IS who he is and does not change from everlasting to everlasting .
God is Truth itself, and can be trusted. His truth is wisdom, and His teaching is true instruction. God is also Love, and revealed Himself out of His love. His love is everlasting, and is like a father to his son. In addition, God's very being is love.
 The implications of faith in one God means coming to know God's greatness and Majesty by serving God first. Another implication of faith is living in thanksgiving because we have received all from him. A third implication means knowing the Unity and true dignity of all men. Fourthly it means making good use of created things faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him and to detach from it insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns away from him. Fifthly it means trust in God in every circumstance, even in adversity.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 1, Paragraphs 2-3: God the Father Almighty (232-278)

Paragraph 2: The Father (232-267)
Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ."Before receiving the sacrement they respond to a three part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son, and the Spirit " I do" The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity. Christians are baptised in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit not in their names, for there is only One God , the almighty Father, his only Son, and the Holy Spirit the Most Holy Trinity. The mystry of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystry of Christian faith and life. It is the mystry of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightnens them.It is th emost fundemental and essencial teaching in the "hiearchy of the truths of faith" The whole history of salvationn is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God , Father, Son, and Holy Spirit , reveals himself to men and reconciles and unites withhimself those who turn away from sin. The fathers of the church distinguish theology as refering to the mystery of God most inmost  life within the Blessed Trinity. The economy of the Trinity is defined as all the works by which God reveals himslf and communicates his life. The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God. To be sure God , has left traces of his Trinitarian  begin in his work of creationand in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his imost Being as holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccebtable to reason alone or even or even to Isreal's faith before the incarnation of God's Son  and the sending of the Holy Spirirt. Many religions invoke God as a Father. The deity is often considered the father of goads and of men. In Israel God is called Father inasmuch as he is the creator of the Earth. God is Father because of his covenant and gift of the law to Israel his first born son. God is also called Father of the king of the orphaned and the widowed , who are under his loving protection. By calling God  Father the language of faith indicates two things: that God is the first origin of everlasting and transcendent authority ; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's paternal tenderness can also be expressed by the image of Motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. Human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. No one is Father as God is Father. Jesus revealed the God is Father in an unheard of sense: he is not only in being Creator;he is eternally Father by his relationship through his only Son Jesus Christ. The apostles confess Jesus to be the Word of God made flesh. Following the apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea that the Son is one only God with him. The second ecumenical council held at Constantinople in 381 kept this expression in its formation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only -begotten Son, of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father. " The Holy Spirit is revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father. The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father. The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus glorification reveals in its fulness the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople 381 " We believe in the Holy Spirit , the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father" The Church recognizes the Father as the source of origin of the whole divinity. The Holy Spirit , the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also the same nature. The creed of the Church from the council of Constantinople confesses:"With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified". The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit " proceeds from the Father , and the Son (filioque). The Council of Florence in 1438 explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son;He has his nature and substance at once(simul) from the Father and the Son. ...Since the Father  has through generation given to the only begotten  Son everything that belongs to the Father, except from being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son. The affirmation of the filiouge is not in the Constantinople Creed of 381 however it is confessed by Pope Leo I following the ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition in 447 , even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon it was confessed. From the beginning , the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church 's living faith , principally by means of Baptism. During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith, both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of faith. The Church uses the term " substance" to also known as the "essence" or "nature"  to designate the divine being in its unity the term "person" or " hypostsatsis" to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them and the term "relation" is used to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others. The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons , the consubstantial Trinity. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. The divine persona are really distinct from one another. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: " It is the Father who generates , the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds" . The divine unity is Triune. The divine persons are relative to one another. God is eternal blessed, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.

Paragraph 3: The Almighty (268-278)
Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing in our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it " is made perfect in weakness" . The Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He is called the Mighty One of Jacob , the Lord of hosts, the strong and mighty one. If God is almighty in heaven and on earth it is because he made them. Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal. He is master of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his will.God is the Father Almighty whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us. finally by his infinite mercy, for he displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins. God's almighty power is in God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God;s power which could not be in his just will or his wise intellect. In the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ's crucifixion is thus the power of God and the wisdom of God. Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of believing the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope that holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason has grasped the idea of God;s almighty power, it will easily and without any hesitation admit everything that[the Creed] will afterwards propose for us to believe ---- even if they be great and marvellous things, far above the ordinary laws of nature.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 1, Paragraphs 4-5: Creator of Heaven and Earth (279-354)

Paragraph 4: Creator (279-324)
Scripture begins by saying that God created the Heavens and the Earth .The readings of the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the new creation in Christ, begin with the creation account. Creation was the beginning of the history of salvation, and the first step in God's covenant with His people. God alone is the Creator, and created the everything out of nothing with no aid. The existence of God the Creator can be known with  through his works , and  by the light of human reason. This is why faith comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understandings of this truth. The truth about creation is so important that God in his tender mercies wanted to reveal to his People everything that is salutary to know on the subject. God progressively revealed to Israel the mystery of creation.Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant , the first and universal witness to Gods all-powerfull love. The New Testament reveals that God created everything by the eternal Word , his beloved Son. The Church's faith also confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit the giver of life the Creator Spirit the source of every good. The Old Testament suggest and the New Covent reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with the Father. This is confirmed by the Church's rule of Faith: There exists but one God... he is Father, God the creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, that is , by his aWord and his Wisdom, by the Son and the Spirit who , so to speak, are his hands . Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity. Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: The world was made for the glory of God.St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it, for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness. The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. For the glory of God is man fully alive;moreover man's life is the vision of God:if God's revelation through creation has already obtained life for all beings who dwell on earth, how much more will the Word's manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God. The ultimate purpose of creation is that God who is the creator of all things may at last become all in all,thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude. We believe that God created the world in according to his wisdom. It is not a product of any necessity whatever, nor blind fate or chance. We believe that it proceeds from Gods free will he wanted to make his creatures to share his being,wisdom, and goodness.
He created out of nothing freely with no aid. Since God could create everything out of nothing , he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection.Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered.Because creation comes from God's goodness it shares in Gods goodness.
Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection,but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the creator. The universe was created in a state of journeying toward an ultimate perfection yet to be obtained to which God has destined it. We call divine providence the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection. By his providence God protects and governs, all things which he has made , "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes" even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures. The witness of Scripture is unanimous that divine providence is concrete and immediate ; God cares for all . from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events. And so we see the Holy Spirit , the principal author of the Sacred Scripture, often attributes actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs. God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures cooperation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of actioning on their own, of being causes and principals for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishments of his plan. The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world , cares for al his creatures, why does evil exists? To this question there is  no quick answer. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to these question:  the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit , his gathering of the Church , the power of the sacraments , and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which , by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance . There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil. But why did God create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world in a state of journeying toward its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of  certain beings and the disappearance of others. the existence of the more perfect stuctive gorces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached pefection.  Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures have to journey towards their ultimate destines by their free choice  and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed they have sinned. Thus has mortal evil  incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is no way indirectly  or directly the cause of mortal evil. He permits it, however because he respects the freedom of his creatures, and mysteriously , knows how to derive good from it: For almighty  God because he is supremely good would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself. In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring good from the consequences of an evil, even a mortal evil, caused by his creatures.St Catherine of Siena said to those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind. St Thomas More , shortly before his martyrdom consoled his daughter:" Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best" Dame Julian of Norwich: " Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I should take my stand on  and earnestly believe in  what our Lord shewed in this time-----that all manner [of] thing shall be well. We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases,when we see God, will we fully know the ways by which even through the dramas of evil and sin God has guided  his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth.

Paragraph 5: Heaven and Earth (325-354)
The Apostles Creed professes that God is Creator of heaven and earth. The Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes all that is seen and unseen. The Scriptural expression heaven and earth means all that exists, creation in its entirety. It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes the one from the other; the earth is the world of men, while heaven or the heavens can designate both the firmament and God's own place  our Father in heaven and consequently the heaven to which is eschatological glory. Finally, heaven refers to the saints and the place of spiritual creatures, the angels who surround God. The The profession of faith of the Fourth Lateran Council affirms that God from the beginning of time made at once  out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is the angelic and the earthly and then the human creature who as it were shares in both orders, being composed of spirit and body. St. Augustine says" Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature it is spirit; if you  seek the name of their office it is angel from what they are spirit from what they do angel." With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures as the splendour of their glory bears witness.Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels. They belong to him because they were created through him and for him.They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan.  Angels have been present since creation and throughout history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed paradise;protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples.From the birth of Christ to his accession Jesus was surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. In her liturgy the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes her assistance in the Roman Canons Almighty God we pray that you angel...; in the funeral liturgy. More over in the  Cherubic Hymn of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particular ( st. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels). From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Besides each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.
God himself created the visible world in all  richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine work, concluded by the rest on the seventh day. On the subject of creation the the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God. Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. Each of the variations creatures, willed in its being reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tell us that no creature is self sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other. The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created world results from the diversity of beings and from relationships which exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. The beauty if creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man's intellect and will. The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of six days from the less perfect to the more perfect.Man is the summit of the Creators work as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures. There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and all are ordered to his glory. The sabbath  the end of the work of the six days.In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part man must remain faithful yo this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it.Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation. The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of creation. The eighth day. But for us a new day dawned: the day of Christ's Resurrection. The seventh day completes the first day of creation. The eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds meaning and its summit in the new creation Christ, the splendour of which surpasses that of the first creation.

Section two Chapter one, Article 1 paragraph 6 Man and 7 The Fall

"Paragraph 6: Man

I. In the Image of God
Of all the visible creatures, man is able to know and love his creator. Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer Him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead. God created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to Him. In reality, it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man becomes clear. This law of human solidarity and clarity,without excluding the rich variety of persons, cultures, and peoples, assures us that all men are truly brethren.

II. Body and Soul but Truly One
In Sacred Scripture, the term soul often refers to human life or the entire human person. But soul also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value to him, that by which he is most especially in God's image: soul signifies the spiritual principle of man. The human body shares in the dignity of the image of God: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. The unity of the soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the form of the body. It is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united but rather their union forms a single nature. The Church teaches that every spiritual soul created immediately by God it is not produced by the parents and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death and it will not be reunited to the body at the final Resurrection. Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. Spirit signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God. The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one's being, where the person decides for or against God.

III. Male and Female he Created Them
Man and Women have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other hand in their respective beings  as man and women. Being man or being woman is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and women posses an inalienable dignity which comes immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity in the image of God. In their being-man and being-women, they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness.  In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective perfections of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and a husband.
God created man and women together and willed each other. The Word of God gives us understanding through various features of the sacred text. Man discovers women as another I sharing the same humanity. Man and women were made for each other not that God left them half-made and incomplete he created them to be a communion of  persons,  in which each can be helpmate to the other for they are equal persons and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God  united them in such a way that, by forming  one flesh they can transmit human life. By transmitting human life to their decedents, man and women are spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work. In God's plan man and women have the vocation of subduing the earth as stewards of God. God calls man and women, made in the image of the Creator who loves everything that exists to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them.

IV. Man in Paradise
The first man was bot only created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and  in harmony with himself and with creation around him, in a state that would be surprised only by the glory of the new creation in Christ. The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents Adam and Eve, were constituted in the original state of holiness and justice. This grace of original holiness was to share in ... divine life. By the radiance of his grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and women, and finally the harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called original justice. The mastery over the world that God offered from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason. The sin of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. Work is not yet  a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and women with God in perfecting the visible creation. This entire harmony of original justice, foreseen for man in God's plan, will be lost by the sin of our first parents.

Paragraph 7 The Fall

The Fall
God is infinity good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil

I. Where Sin Abounded, Grace Abounded All the More
Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it. Or to give this dark reality other names would be futile To try to understand what sin is , one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God , for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in it's true identity as humanities rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history. Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin commuted at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize son clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness , a mistake , or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure , etc . Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another. With the process of Revelation the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of original sin, so to speak, the reverse side of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all men need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot temper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ . The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.





II The Fall of the Angles
Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angle called Satan or the devil. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angle, made by God: The devil and other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing. Scripture speaks of sin of these angles. THis fall consists in the free choice of these created spirits who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. The devil has sinned from the beginning he is a liar ant the father of lies.It is irrevocable character of their choices and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angles' sin unforgivable. There is no redemption for the angles after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death. In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led  man to disobey God. The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave physical nature to each man and to society, the action and gentleness guides human and cosmic history,

III. Original Sin
God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The tree of knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom. Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command.  All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. In that sin preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him.  He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully divinized by God in glory.Seduced by the devil, he wanted to be like God, but without God, before God, and not in accordance with God. Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of his first disobedience. The harmony in which they had found themselves,thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and women becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with the creation is broken; visible creation has become alien and hostile to man.Because of man creation is now subject to its bondage of decay. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true:man will return to the ground, for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history. After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. There is Cain's murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise,sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. And even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians. Scripture and the Church's Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history: For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end; and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures. All men are implicated in Adams sin. Following St.Paul the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination toward evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted. a sin which is the death of the soul. Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin. The whole human race is in Adam as one body of one man. By this unity of the human race all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as well as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter , Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would the transmit to a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is by the transmission of human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called sin only in an analogical sense: it is a sin contracted and not committed  a state and not an act. Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it;subject to ignorance,suffering, and the domination of death; and  inclined to sin an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle. The Church's teaching on transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely by the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelgianism, and in sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example.The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that the origin of sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil, which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especial at the second Council of Orange and at the Council of Trent. The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ's provides lucid discernment of man's  situation and activity in the world. By our first parent's sin, the devil acquired a certain domination over man,even though man remains free. Original sin entails captivity under the power of him who therefore has the power of death, that is the devil. Ignorance of the fact that man has wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education,polices, social action, and mortals. The consequences of original sin and of all men's personal sins put the world as a whole in the sinful condition.

IV. You Did Not Abandon Him to The Power of Death
After the fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall. The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the New Adam who, because he became obedient unto death on a cross, makes amends for the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church  have seen the woman announcement in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the new Eve. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life. But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds" Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away. There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good.

God did not make death and he does not delight in the death of the living.It was through the devil's envy that death entered the world. Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan.Their choice against God is definitive.They try to associate man in their revolt against God."

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 2, I-III: Jesus Christ His Only Son (430-445)

I: Jesus (430-435)
Jesus' name means "God Saves," signifying that Jesus will save the people from their sins. In Jesus,God recapitulates all of the history of salvation on behalf of men. The name Jesus signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son,made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone  brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation.  The name Saviour God was invoked only once a year by the high priest in atonement for the sins of Israel, after he had sprinkled the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood. The mercy seat was  the place of Gods presence. In Jesus' humanity, God reconciled the world to himself. Jesus' Resurrection glorifies the name of the Saviour God. for from that time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the name which is above every other name. The evil spirits fear his name; in his name his disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name. The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer.  All liturgical prayers conclude with the words " through our Lord Jesus Christ" The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words " blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart the Jesus prayer says " Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" Many Christians such as St. Joan of Arc , have died with the one word Jesus on their lips.

II: Christ (436-440)
"Christ" is the Greek for the Hebrew word "Messiah", which means "anointed." It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that Christ signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in his name.This was the case for kings,for priests, and in rare instances prophets. It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king, and priest, and also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his three fold office of priest, prophet, and king. To the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus the Messiah promised to Israel. Jesus messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, for the name Christ implies he who anointed, he who was anointed, and the very anointing with which he was anointed. The one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing. His eternal messianic consecration was revealed at the moment of his baptism by John. Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic Son of David, promised by God to Israel. He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man and in his redemptive mission as a suffering servant.

III: The Only Son of God (441-445)
In the Old Testament son of God is a title given to angles , the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings. It signifies an adoptive sonship that establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and his creature. When the promised Messiah King is called son of God it does not necessarily imply that he was more than human, according to the literal meaning of the texts. Those who called Jesus son of God as the Messiah of Israel perhaps meant nothing more than this. From the beginning this acknowledgement of Christ's divine sonship will be the center of the apostolic faith, first professed by Peter as the Church's foundation. Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the Messiah's divine sonship because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so understood. Well before this Jesus refereed to himself as the Son who knows the Father, as distinct from the servants God had earlier sent to his people; he is superior even to the angels. He distinguished his sonship from that of his disciples by never saying our Father except to command them to pray. The Gospels report two solemn moments the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his beloved Son. After his Resurrection , Jesus divine sonship becomes manifest in the power of his glorified humanity.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 2, IV: Lord (446-451)

In the Old Testament, "Lord" was used more often than the divine name YHWH to indicate God's divinity. Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses his apostles. Throughout his public life, he  demonstrates his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illness, demons, death, and sin. Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as Lord. This title refers to the respect and trust those who approach him for help and healing. At the prompting of the Holy Spirit , Lord expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus. In the encounter with the risen Jesus the title becomes adoration. It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition. By attributing to Jesus the divine title Lord the first confession of the Churches faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour, and glory due to God the Father are also due to  Jesus because  he was in the from of God and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory. From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ's lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power , but only to God  the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church believes that the key , the center and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in its Lord and Master. Christian prayer is characterized by the title Lord whether in the invitation to prayer( The Lord be with you)_, its conclusion(through Christ our Lord), or the exclamation full of trust and hope ( Our Lord come!), or (Come Lord!) Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 3: He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary (456-

Paragraph 1: The Son of God Became Man (456-483)
Jesus became a man so we can be reconciled to God, that we may know God's love, to be our model of holiness, and to make us partakers of the divine nature.  The Church calls the Word becoming flesh the Incarnation, the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it.  the belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of the Christian faith.  Jesus was not a mixture of God and man nor part God and part man; he was fully God and fully man,. During the first centuries , the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it. The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity(Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son. But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is begotten not made of the same  substance as the Father, and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God came to be from things that were not  and that he was from another substance than that of the  Father. The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council at Ephesus in 431 confessed " that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man." Christ's humanity was no longer a subject that the divine person of the Son of God , who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb" Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostatis was born from her , the Word is said to be born according to the flesh."  The Monophysites affirm that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451 confessed: Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with us as to his humanity; like us in all things but sin. He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God. We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion,change, division, or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union , but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person and one hypostasis. After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of personal subject/ Against them , the fifth ecumenical council at Constantinople in 553 confessed that " there is but one hypostasis[or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity." Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death: " he who was crucified in the flesh, our  Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory and the Holy Trinity. The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without creasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother. Because human nature was assumed not absorbed in the mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess the full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and will, and his human body. The Church has to recall on each occasion that Christ's human nature belongs , as his own, to the divine person of the Son of God , who assumed . Everything that Christ is and does in this nature derives from one of the Trinity. The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity.In his soul as on his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity. The Son of God worked with human hands , he thought with a human mind. He acted  with human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us like to us in all things except sin. Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the soul or the spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed a rational , human soul. This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person. The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word,knew and showed forth itself everything that pertains to God. Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.At the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other , but co-operate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinly with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ's human will does not resist or opppose but rather submits to his  divine and almighty will.


Christ's body is finite, allowing images to be portrayed of his face. At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus " we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we can not see. The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son. He has made features of his human body  his own, to the point that they can be venerated , when portrayed in the holy image, for the believer " who venerates the icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted. Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony, and his Passion and gave himself up for each one of us. He has loved us all with s human heart . For this reason , the Sacred Heart of Jesus , pierced by our sins and for our salvation, is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that ... love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings without exception.

Paragraph 2: Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit (484-511)

The Virgin Birth is the fulfillment of God's promises.  The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son. The Holy Spirit is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own. The Father's only Son , conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin Mary , is Christ that is to say anointed by the Holy Spirit , from the beginning of his human existence, through the manifestation of this fact takes place only progressively: to the shepherds, to the magi, to John the Baptist, to the disciples.God sent forth his Son, but to prepare a body for him, , he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. For this , from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish women of Nazareth in Galilee. The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be prepared by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a women had a share in the coming of death, so also should a women contribute to the coming of life. Throughout  the Old Covenant  the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary.At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a prosperity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living. By virtue of this promise , Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age. Against all human expectation God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah;Ruth;Judith and Ester; and many other women. Mary stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her , the exalted Daughter of Sion and the new plan of salvation is established. In order for Mary to be able to give free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace.   Throughout the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary full of grace through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. This is what the Immaculate Conception confesses as Pope Pius IX proclaimed it in 1854. The splendour of an entirely unique holiness by which Mary is enriched from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ: she is redeemed , in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son. The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God the All Holy and celebrate her as free from any stain of sin , as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit  and formed as a new creature. By the grace of God Mary remained free of every persons sin her whole life long. At the announcement that she would give birth Mary respond in obedience of faith. Giving consent to God;s word , Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Accepting the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God's grace. St. Irenaeus explains this further. The Church confesses that Mary is truly the Mother of God. From the first formulations of her faith the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit  in the womb of the Virgin Mary , affirming also the physical aspect of this event  : by the Holy Spirit without human seed. The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own. St. Ignatis of Antioch at the beginning of the second century confirms this. The gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility. The Church see the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy in the gospel accounts.   People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St. Marks Gospel and the New Testament Epistles about Jesus virginal conception. The Churches answer is found in St. Ignatius of Antioch answer " Mary;s virginity and giving birth , and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world: these three mysteries worthy of proclamation were accomplished in God's silence. The liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Ever -Virgin as the birth of Christ sanctified his mothers virginity. Jesus is Mary;s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save. Jesus became the New Adam who inaugurates the new creation. By his virginal conception Jesus , the New Adam ushers in the new birth of children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. Mary is a virgin because her virginity is the sign of her faith and her undivided gift of herself to God's will. Mary is more blessed because she embraces faith in Christ than because she conceives the flesh of Christ. Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church: the Church indeed ... by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism she brings forth sons, who are conceived by the Hoy Spirit and born of God, to a new and immortal life. She herself is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her spouse. Through the Virgin Birth, the Father anointed the Son by the Holy Spirit. The Father wanted the Virgin Mary to freely assent to her role as the mother of Jesus. Mary stands out among the poor and humble through whom God works. She was borne by God's grace through the conception and thus redeemed, and she responded by obedience of her faith. The Church confesses Mary to be the Mother of God. Jesus was conceived without human seed, a divine work that surpasses human understanding. The Church believes Mary to be forever a virgin, whose only son is Jesus. By the Virgin Birth, God the Father was Jesus' only father, and was a new creation, the new Adam. Mary's virginity is the sign of her doubtless faith, and the symbol of the perfect realization of the Church.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4: Jesus Christ Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was Crucified, Died, and Buried (571-630)

The Cross and Resurrection is the center of the Good News, and the accomplishment of God's saving plan.

Paragraph 1: Jesus and Israel (574-594)
To the religious leaders of the day, Jesus seemed to be acting disobedient to the Law, and accused him of all kinds of things. Jesus said he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, and was the only one who could keep it perfectly. By fulfilling the Law, Jesus redeemed people from the first covenant. He was a teacher of the law, but his interpretation of the Law did not match the scribes of the day. Jesus had respect for the Temple, and went to the Temple to encounter God. However, he did prophesy the Temple's destruction, which was distorted by his accusers. His claim to be able to redeem sins was the true stumbling block. He enjoyed the company of sinners, and acted mercifully towards them, even forgiving sins. He made absolute claims about his identity such as the Messiah this was considered a blaspheme as Jesus was claiming to be God. Finally, the religious leaders labelled him a blasphemer worthy of death.

Paragraph 2: Jesus Died Crucified (595-623)
The religious leaders were not unanimous in their decision to execute Jesus, and the Jewish people as a whole were not responsible for his death. All sinners have responsibility, however. The crucifixion was part of God's redemptive plan, in which Jesus was made to take the punishment for the sins of man this was to fulfill the scriptures written by the prophets. Through this, we see God's redeeming love. It was not only the Father's plan; Jesus offered himself and his whole life to the Father  for our sins and to freely embraced the Father's redeeming love. Jesus at the last supper anticipated the free offering of his life for humanity. Christ suffered in agony in Gethsemani  about his upcoming sacrifice however he decided to go through with it so that the Fathers will would be done and not his will. His sacrifice is the unique and definitive sacrifice, where he substituted his obedience for our disobedience. In this sacrifice Christ death is both a Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the sacrifice of the New Covenant , which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the blood of the covenant which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross through making possible a redemptive sacrifice for all. We are also called to share in his suffering.

Paragraph 3: Jesus Christ was Buried (624-630)
Jesus not only died for our sins, but tasted death for us. His soul was separated from his body for a brief time, and his mortal body did not decay. Baptism is an outward sign of being buried with Christ because when you go down into the water you die to sin and when you come up from the water you are born into a new life in Christ.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Articles 5-6: He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father (631-667)

Article 5: He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. (631-658)
This article asserts both Jesus' descent and resurrection, saying that Jesus brought forth life from the depths of death.

Paragraph 1: Christ descended into hell. (632-637)
To believe in Jesus' descent into hell is to believe that Christ died like all humans die, and his soul descended into the realm of the dead to free the Spirits of  the just who had gone before him by preaching the good news. Christ went down in order for the dead to hear his voice and those who hear will live. Thus, Christ destroyed the power of death (the devil, the author of death), and delivered those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. The risen Christ hold the keys of death and Hell so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow , in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Paragraph 2: On the third day He rose from the dead. (638-658)
The resurrection is a central truth to the faith. It was a real, historical event, the first sign being the empty tomb, followed by appearances to the Apostles and Mary Magdelene , who became Christ's prime witnesses and later the foundations of the Church. Given their tests of faith, it is impossible to deny the validity of their claims. Christ's resurrected body was a real, physical body, but not bound by space and time. It was not a mere return to earthly life. No one has witnessed the actual event, so it remains a transcendent mystery.
Through the resurrection, the Father raised the Son and incorporated the Son's humanity into the Trinity. Likewise, the Spirit gave life to the Son, and the Son raised himself by his divine power. The Resurrection was a reuniting of soul and body that death had separated.
The Resurrection confirms Christ's claims to divinity, and fulfills the prophecies of the Scripture. As Christ's death liberates us from sin, so the resurrection gives us hope for a new life. We are adopted by the Father through God's grace, and become brethren of Christ. Finally, the risen Christ is the source of our own future resurrection.

Article 6: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father (659-664)

While Christ's resurrected body was veiled in human appearance, through the ascension he returned to divine glory, showing himself only to Paul as a human. Through the ascension, Christ opens access to the Father. Now in heaven, he acts as an intercessor on our behalf. By "sitting at the Father's right hand," we mean the glory and honor of divinity, and the beginning of the Kingdom that will have no end.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 7: From thence he will come again to judge the living and the dead (668-682)

I- He will come again in glory (668-677)
After his ascension, Jesus possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is also the head of the Church and reigns through the church. However, his reign has yet to be fulfilled and is under attack by evil until Christ comes again. This is a time of waiting and watching for Christ's return. The second coming of Christ could come at any moment, but it is suspended until his recognition by "all Israel."This is why Christians pray above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him Our Lord, come! Before Christ comes again, the Church will undergo a period of trial by the deception of the Antichrist one who will come and claim to be God but is not. Because of this, the Church rejects all claims to a messianic kingdom before the eschatological second coming. Only through this trial will the Church be able to follow Christ into heaven.

II- To judge the living and the dead (678-679)
When Jesus comes again, all secrets of the heart and conduct will be judged, and the unbelief that rejects grace will be condemned.  Our attitude about our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass difinative judegment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. Christ did not come to condemn the world; as one condemns oneself by rejecting God's grace and the Spirit of love.

Catechism Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 8: I believe in the Holy Spirit (683-747)

Knowledge of faith is only possible by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit communicates to us by virtue of our baptism, and is the first to communicate us to the new life. The Holy Spirit which is God's spirit reveals God, makes known Christ , his word and living Utterance but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Holy Spirit, at work since the beginning of creation, is now revealed and given. Only through the Spirit does God speak to us, and the Spirit can be heard in scripture, the Tradition, the magisterium, the sacramental liturgy, prayer, charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up, signs of apostolic and missionary life, and in  the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation.

I. Joint Mission of the Son and the Spirit (689-690)
The one whom the Father sent into our hearts , the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. The Spirit is inseparable from the Son and Father in the inner life of the Trinity and  his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial,and individual the Church also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word he always sends his Breath. The Son and the Spirit are distinct but inseparable in their joint mission. When Christ is finally glorified he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him to communicate his glory to them. Jesus is Christ anointed  because the Spirit is his anointing and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from the fullness.

II. The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit (691-701)
The Holy Spirit is the proper name of the third person of the Trinity, which translates from the Hebrew word for "breath." The titles of the Holy Spirit include consoler, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of glory. Symbols used to refer to the Holy Spirit include water, anointing, fire, cloud and light, the seal, the hand, the finger, and the dove.

III. God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises (702-716)
In the Old Testament the Spirit spoke through the prophets about preparing for the coming Messiah and inspired those who composed the Scriptures to write them. Both the Word and his breath worked in the  creation and gave life to all living things. Disfigured by sin and death man remains in the image of God, in the image of the Son but is 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 himself 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. God promises descendants to Abraham as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit. Through Abrahams family line all nations of the earth shall be blessed this is through Christ Abrahams decedent in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will gather all Children of God who have been scattered. God commits himself to this promise as he gives his only Son in order for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit.   Theophanies (manifications of God) light up the way of the promise from the patriarchs to moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Also the gift of the Law  God gave the letter of the law as a pedagogue to lead his people towards Christ.But the law is powerless to save man deprived of the divine likeness, along with the growing awareness of sin that imparts, enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The Law the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts and institutions of that people whom Abraham's faith gave birth. The Kingdom the object of promise made to David would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor according to the Spirit.  The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death; it is Exile, apparently the failiure of promisises , which in fact the mysterious promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. The people of God had to suffer this purification. Prophets point both the the coming of the Messiah and the Spirit.   The people of  the poor those who are humble and meek, rely solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await justice, not of men but of the Messiah are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit 's hidden mission during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. In the poor , the Spirit is making ready a people prepared for the Lord.


IV. The spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time (717-730)

John the Baptist was full of the Holy Spirit, and through John, the Spirit prepared the people for Christ. John also brings the cycle of prophets to an end that began with Elijah , and begins restoring man to divine likeness. John is the voice of the Counsoler who is comingThe Spirit also worked through Mary to prepare for the coming of Christ, preparing her to be full of his grace. She was by, sheer grace, concieved without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty. In Mary the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. Filled with the Holy spirit she makes the Word visable in the humility of his flesh. It is to the poor and first represenatives of the gentiles that she makes him known. Mary became the Women , the new Eve(mother of the living) the mother of the whole Christ. Mary the all holy ever virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the Seat of Wisdom.  Mary conceived through the Spirit, who manifested in her the Son, and began to bring men into communion with Christ. Christ Jesus was anointed by the Spirit, and though he did not reveal the Spirit fully before his resurrection, he alluded to the Spirit. When Jesus was glorified, the Spirit was sent from the Father and the Son. Now the mission of the Son and the Spirit becomgreaes the mission of the Church.

V. The Spirit and the Church in the Last Days (731-741)
On Pentecost, the Spirit was outpoured and the Trinity fully revealed. Since that day , the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him: in the humility of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the communion of the Holy Trinity. By his coming the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the last days. Love is God's first gift to us through the Spirit as God is love. The first effect is the forgiveness of sins, and loving as God loves us becomes possible. Through this power, we can bear the Fruits of the Spirit. The Church completes the mission of the Son and the Spirit, not as an addition but as a sacrament. Christ pours out the Spirit to all the members of the Church through the sacraments, which bear fruit in the life in Christ.Christ pours out his Spirit among the Church to nourish, heal, and organize them in their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and associate them to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world. Finally, the Spirit is the master of prayer as he intercedes for us with the Father.