Catholic Pocket Dictionary/J

JESUITS             

JESUS             

JOSEPH, ST.             

JUBILEE             

JUDGMENT, GENERAL             

JUDGMENT, PARTICULAR             

JURISDICTION IN THE CHURCH             

JUSTICE             

JUSTIFICIATION             

JESUITS

St. Ignatius Loyola, born in1491, of a noble family in Biscay, and trained to the military profession, received a severe wound in the leg while defending Pampeluna against the French in 1521. When he had sufficiently recovered, he broke with his former life, embraced poverty, and retirement. The thought came frequently to his mind of founding an order, which should support, by example, preaching, and education, the cause of the Gospel and Catholic truth, and carry the light of Christ to the heathen. But to carry out all this, he must become a priest. While a student in the University of Paris he made the acquaintance of a number of remarkable men, chiefly Spaniards, with whom being made one in heart and spirit, he understood that it was now possible to carry out the project which he had long cherished. He conducted them first through the "Spiritual Exercises," which he had composed at Manresa. On the feast of the Assumption, in 1534, in the church of Montmartre at Paris, Ignatius and his companions, Francis Xavier, James Laynez, Alphonsus Salmeron, Nicholas Bobadilla – Spaniards; Simon Rodriguez, a Portuguese; and Peter Fabor, a Savoyard, after they had all received communion from Father Peter Faber, who was then the only priest among them, pronounced the vow which constituted the order. It was, to renounce the world, to go to preach the gospel in Palestine, or, if they could not go thither within a year after they had finished their studies, to offer themselves to the Holy Father to be employed in the service of God in what manner he should judge best.

Preaching, spiritual exercises, works of charity, teaching the catechism, and hearing confessions, were to be their employments.

The Society was confirmed by Pope Paul III in a bull dated Sept. 27, 1540, and at the election of a general, Ignatius was unanimously nominated and elected.

A complete abandonment to the will of the Superior was to be the great feature of the order. The "Company of Jesus" has prospered since its foundation. It consists of six grades; novices, scholastics, temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, the professed of three vows and the professed of four vows. The members are distributed into novitiates, colleges, professed houses and missions.

The head of the society, known as the general, is elected for life. The society is divided in provinces, the superior of each province is the provincial. The motto A. M. D. G., are the initial letters of the latin words Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. Many saints of the church, confessors, and martyrs, were members of the society of Jesus. The number of members of this great order is rated at 12,000.

JESUS

The name means not, as is often said, "Savior" or "God the Savior," but "the Lord [that is Jehova] is help or salvation."

JOSEPH, ST.

St. Joseph was the true husband of Mary, and as such her head. St. .Joseph occupies a place of his own in the devotion of modern Catholics such as is given to no other saint. The devotion to St. Joseph is a striking instance of Catholic usage, modern in itself and yet based on most ancient and Scriptural principles.

In consequence of his authority and his provident care, he is honored with the title of the "Father" of Christ (Luke ii. 48), although of course Christ had no man for His father in the proper sense of the word. To have been chosen by God Himself as the husband of the Virgin Mother and the foster-father of our Lord – these surely are solid grounds for a singular devotion to St. Joseph.

JUBILEE

The year of jubilee was an institution of the Levitical Law.

The Church of Christ has adopted the term "jubilee" from the Jewish Church, and proclaims from time to time a "year of remission" – from the penal consequences of sin: she offers to her children, if they repent and make their peace with God and perform certain pious works, a plenary indulgence, and during this year she empowers even ordinary confessors to absolve from many reserved cases and censures, from vows, &c., &c. An ordinary jubilee occurs at Rome every twenty-fifth year, lasts from Christmas to Christmas, and is extended in the following year to the rest of the Church. An extraordinary jubilee is granted at any time, either to the whole Church or to particular countries or cities, and not necessarily, or even usually, for a whole year. If the jubilee, whether ordinary or extraordinary, be granted to the faithful generally, the conditions for gaining it usually are to fast for three days – viz. on a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; to visit certain churches, and pray according to the intention of the Pope, to give alms, to confess and communicate.

JUDGMENT, GENERAL

Christ will judge all men and angels together at the last day as taught with such clearness and iteration in the New Testament and in all the Creeds. General judgment is intended to manifest before all intelligent creatures the justice of God, to exhibit Christ in his majesty before their eyes, to glorify the just, and to put the wicked to open shame.

JUDGMENT, PARTICULAR

Particular Judgment happens when the soul departs this life and goes before the judgment-seat of God, where a most just inquiry is made into all that he has ever done, said, or thought. This is called judgment.

JURISDICTION IN THE CHURCH

Jurisdiction is the power of those who have public authority over others for their rule and government.

JUSTICE

Justice implies a certain rectitude of order, even in the interior disposition of a man, inasmuch, namely, as the highest part of man is subjected to God and the inferior powers of the soul are subjected to that which is supreme, viz. to reason.

JUSTIFICIATION

It begins, with the grace of God which touches a sinner's heart and calls him to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the love and mercy of God. It is, however, in man's power to reject or to receive the inspiration from above; it is in his power to turn to God and to virtue or to persevere in sin. And grace does not constrain but assists the freewill of the creature. So assisted, the sinner is disposed or prepared and adapted for justification; he believes in the revelation and promises of God, especially in the truth "that a sinner is justified by God's grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus"; he fears the justice, hopes in the mercy, of God, trusts that God will be merciful to him for Christ's sake, begins "to love God as the fountain of all justice, hater; and detests his sins." "This disposition or preparation is followed by, justification itself,which justification consists, not in the mere remission of sins, but in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man by the voluntary reception of [God's] grace and gifts, whence a man becomes just instead of unjust, a friend instead of a foe, and so an heir according to hope of eternal life." . . . "By the merit of the most holy Passion through the Holy Spirit the charity of God is shed abroad in the hearts of those who are justified."