361. What is the relationship between the beatitudes and our desire for happiness?
(Comp 361) The beatitudes respond to the innate desire for happiness that God has
placed in the human heart in order to draw us to himself. God alone can satisfy
this desire.
“In brief”
(CCC 1725)
The Beatitudes take up and fulfill God's promises from Abraham on by ordering
them to the Kingdom of heaven. They respond to the desire for happiness that
God has placed in the human heart.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1718)
The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of
divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the
One who alone can fulfill it: We all want to live happily; in the whole human
race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is
fully articulated (St. Augustine, De
moribus eccl. 1, 3, 4: PL 32,1312). How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord?
Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my
soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from
you (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 20: PL
32, 791). God alone satisfies (St. Thomas Aquinas, Expos. in symb. Apost. I).
Reflection
(CCC 1719) The Beatitudes reveal
the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to
his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally,
but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have
accepted the promise and live from it in faith.
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