Catechism of the Catholic Church

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518 Christ's whole life is a mystery of recapitulation. All Jesus did, said and suffered had for its aim restoring fallen man to his original vocation:

When Christ became incarnate and was made man, he recapitulated in himself the long history of mankind and procured for us a "short cut" to salvation, so that what we had lost in Adam, that is, being in the image and likeness of God, we might recover in Christ Jesus. ¹⁸⁵ For this reason Christ experienced all the stages of life, thereby giving communion with God to all men. ¹⁸⁶

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

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SECTION TWO: THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

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CHAPTER TWO: I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD

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ARTICLE 3: "HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"

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Paragraph 3. The Mysteries of Christ's Life

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I. CHRIST'S WHOLE LIFE IS MYSTERY

Notes for the above paragraph:

185 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 18, 1: PG 7/1, 932.

186 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 18, 7: PG 7/1, 937; cf. 2, 22, 4.

English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.

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