We are indebted to Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary for the definitions marked with an asterisk. The numbers after the definition correspond to the lesson in which the word appears above.
Apostasy – The total rejection by a baptized person of the Christian faith he once professed (3.6).*
Beatific Vision – The contemplation of God in heavenly glory, a gift of God which is a constitutive element of the happiness (or beatitude) of heaven (CCC, Glossary).
Church Fathers – Saintly writers of the early centuries whom the Church recognizes as her special witnesses of the faith. […] They are commonly divided into the Greek and Latin fathers. It is now generally held that the last of the Western Fathers (Latin) closed with St. Isidore of Seville (560–636), and the last of the Eastern Fathers (Greek) was St John Damascene (675-749) (3.8).*
Communal Dimension of Faith – The love compelling the believer to do good to others and to share the Faith with them (3.6).
Conscience – A specific act of the mind applying its knowledge to a concrete moral situation (3.4).*
Council of Trent – One of the major gatherings of the Church’s bishops, held in the 16th century, in order to decide upon several doctrinal and disciplinary matters within the Church (3.3).
Deification – Through the participation in the Spirit enjoyed by all the baptized in Christ, we become participants in the divine nature. Thus, those who dwell in the Spirit are made like to God (cf. CCC 1988). Also known as “Divinization” and “Theosis” (3.3).
Divine Beatitude – See “Eternal Life” (3.3).
Divine Nature – The nature of God (3.3).
Easter Vigil – The ceremonies of Holy Saturday and the most solemn memorial of the liturgical year [….] The revised Easter Vigil services include ceremonies that go back to the first centuries of the Christian era and stress the Church’s joy in commemorating the night that Christ rose from the dead (3.6).*
Eternal Life – The term used by Christ to describe the state of endless happiness enjoyed by the just in heaven. It means not only everlasting duration but also fullness of life, which the believer possesses already here and now through participation in the life of God (3.3).*
Eucharist – The true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, who is really and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine, in order to offer himself in the sacrifice of the Mass and to be received as spiritual food in Holy Communion. It is called Eucharist, or “thanksgiving,” because at its institution at the Last Supper Christ “gave thanks,” and by this fact it is the supreme object and act of Christian gratitude to God (3.6).*
Four Last Things – Also known as “Eschaton.” Traditional theological term that refers to what happens at the end of human life on earth:
- Death – The cessation of the bodily functions of a human being through the departure of the soul.*
- Judgment – Upon separation from the body, the soul is presented before God in order to receive His judgment as to the soul’s eternal reward. This is also known as the “particular judgment.” At the end of human history, Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. This judgment is known as the “general” or “final judgment.”
- Heaven – Eternal life with God; communion of life and love with the Trinity and all the blessed (CCC, Glossary). If the soul at death is found to be in the state of grace and conformed completely to the Image of Christ, the soul will be with God forever in Heaven. If the soul is not conformed completely, but still in the state of grace, it will undergo purification in Purgatory before entering into the Beatific Vision of God in Heaven.
- Hell – The state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives (CCC, Glossary). If the soul at death is found not to be in the state of grace and rebelled against God in life, the soul will be separated from God for all eternity in hell (3.8).
Freedom (Human) – God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions (CCC 1730). Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility (CCC 1731) (3.4).
Free Will – The power of the will to determine itself and to act of itself, without compulsion from within or coercion from without. It is the faculty of an intelligent being to act or not act, to act this way or another way, and is therefore essentially different from the operations of irrational beings that merely respond to a stimulus and are conditioned by sensory objects (3.3).*
Grace – The supernatural gift that God, of his free benevolence, bestows on rational creatures for their eternal salvation (3.3).*
Holiness – The holiness of God identified his separation from all evil. And among creatures they are holy by their relation to him. Holiness in creatures is either subjective or objective or both. It is subjective essentially by the possession of divine grace and morally by the practice of virtue. Objective holiness in creatures denotes their exclusive consecration to the service of God (3.7).*
Image of Christ – The pattern of Jesus’ life and holiness. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Our creation in the image and likeness of God, once marred by sin, is now restored in Christ. Christians are conformed to the image of Christ in order to be more like Him (cf. CCC 1701ff) (3.7).
Indelible Mark – Baptism seals the Christian with the unremovable spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of final salvation (CCC 1272) (3.6).
Justification – The process of a sinner becoming justified or made right with God. … On the negative side, justification is a true removal of sin, and not merely having one’s sins ignored or no longer held against the sinner by God. On the positive side it is the supernatural sanctification and renewal of a person who thus becomes holy and pleasing to God and an heir of heaven. (3.3).* See also “Sanctification.”
Kerygma – Greek word for preaching or proclaiming, as distinct from teaching or instruction (didache) in the Gospel of Christ (3.5).*
Moral Law – The work of divine Wisdom. […] It prescribes for man the ways, the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude; it proscribes the ways of evil which turn him away from God and his love. It is at once firm in its precepts and, in its promises, worthy of love (CCC 1950). There are four expressions of this law:
- Eternal Law – The plan of divine wisdom, insofar as it directs all the actions and events of the universe. It is, therefore, the unchangeable effective decree of God binding the whole of creation to the fulfillment of its purpose, and to the use of such means for attaining this purpose as are adapted to each nature.*
- Natural Law – As distinct from revealed law, it is “nothing else than the rational creature’s participation in the eternal law” (Summa Theologica, 1a, 2ae, quest. 91, art. 2). As coming from God, the natural law is what God has produced in the world of creation; as coming to human beings, it is what they know (or can know) of what God has created.*
- Revealed Law – Also called divine positive law, it is the sum total of all the prescriptions that God has communicated to the human race by way of supernatural revelation. It is, therefore, revealed law as distinct from the knowledge of God’s will attainable by human reason alone.*
- Civil & Ecclesiastical Laws – Legislation promulgated by the government in a political society (civil). An ordinance issued by legitimate authority in the Catholic Church (Ecclesiastical) (3.4).*
Mortal Sin – Destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him (CCC 1855). An actual sin that destroys sanctifying grace and causes the supernatural death of the soul. Mortal sin is a turning away from God because of a seriously inordinate adherence to creatures that causes grave injury to a person’s rational nature and to the social order, and deprives the sinner of a right to heaven (3.3).*
New Law of the Gospel – The Law of Christ, as distinguished from the Law of Moses. It is new in its stress on the selfless love of God and the neighbor; the universality of its intent, for all mankind; the scope of its extent; and the sublimity of its motivation, i.e., the following of Christ (3.5).*
Obedience of Faith – To submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment (CCC 144) (3.6).
Old Law – Variously known as the books of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, or the Mosaic dispensation. The religious rites, institutions, laws, and traditional customs that prevailed among the Jews prior to the coming of Jesus Christ (3.5).*
“Once Saved Always Saved” – An erroneous teaching held by many Protestants. It maintains that once a person accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior, he or she is now saved and that salvation can never be lost (3.9).
Original Sin – Either the sin committed by Adam as the head of the human race, or the sin he passed onto his posterity with which every human being, with the certain exception of Christ and his Mother, is conceived and born (3.3).*
Pelagianism – A heresy that arose in the early 5th century. Its principal tenets are: 1. Adam would have died even if he had not sinned; 2. Adam’s fall injured only himself and at worst affected his posterity by giving them a bad example; 3. newborn children are in the same condition as Adam before he fell; 4. mankind will not die because of Adam’s sin or rise on the Last Day because of Christ’s redemption 5. the law of ancient Israel no less than the Gospel offers equal opportunity to reach heaven. As Pelagianism later developed, it totally denied the supernatural order and the necessity of grace for salvation (3.9).*
Penance (Sacrament of) – The voluntary self-accusation of one’s sins to a qualified priest in order to obtain absolution from him (3.6).* Also known as “Confession” or “Reconciliation.”
Personal Dimension of Faith – The voluntary response of an individual to the gift of grace that illuminates his intellect with God’s divine revelation (3.6).
Purgatory – The place or condition in which the souls of the just are purified after death and before they can enter heaven (3.8).*
Responsibility – The ability to be trusted or depended on for an office or an action. It therefore adds to imputability the idea of being reliable and not merely held accountable for what is done. Responsibility may be either moral, based on imputability; or legal, based on the disposition of a law (3.4).*
Righteousness – The state of being justified, or right with God (3.3). Also known as “Justice.”
Salvation – The deliverance from straitened circumstances or oppression by some evil to a state of freedom and security. As sin is the greatest evil, salvation is mainly liberation from sin and its consequences. This can be deliverance by way of preservation, or by offering the means for being delivered, or by removing the oppressive evil or difficulty, or by rewarding the effort spent in co-operating with grace in order to be delivered. All four aspects of salvation are found in the Scriptures and are taught by the Church (3.3).*
Sanctification – Being made holy. The first sanctification takes place at baptism, by which the love of God is infused by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Newly baptized persons are holy because the Holy Trinity begins to dwell in their souls and they are pleasing to God. The second sanctification is a lifelong process in which a person already in the state of grace grows in the possession of grace and in likeness to God by faithfully corresponding with divine inspirations. The third sanctification takes place when a person enters heaven and becomes totally and irrevocably united with God in the beatific vision (3.3).*
Sanctifying Grace – The supernatural state of being infused by God, which permanently inheres in the soul. It is a vital principle of the supernatural life, as the rational soul is the vital principle of a human being’s natural life. It is not a substance but a real quality that becomes part of the soul substance [….] It is called sanctifying grace because it makes holy those who possess the gift by giving them a participation in the divine life (3.8).* See also “Justification.”