468 YEARN FOR GOD

YOUCAT Lesson 468

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

468   What should a person yearn for most?

The ultimate and greatest longing of a person can only be for God.  To see him, our Creator, Lord, and Redeemer, is unending blessedness.  [2548-2550, 2557]  285

Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well: " Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13b-14) ….. 468

“”My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.”   Psalm 130:6

“In Scripture, to see is to possess…Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive.”  St. Gregory of Nyssa (353-394, Doctor of the Church)

[2548-2550, 2557] 

"I WANT TO SEE GOD"

2548 Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude. . . . In Scripture, to see is to possess. . . . Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive."( St. Gregory of Nyssa, De beatitudinibus 6:Patrologia Graeca 44,1265A.)³⁴⁴ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2549 It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power. –CCC

2550 On this way of perfection, the Spirit and the Bride call whoever hears them(Compare Revelation 22:17.)³⁴⁵ to perfect communion with God: --CCC

There will true glory be, where no one will be praised by mistake or flattery; true honor will not be refused to the worthy, nor granted to the unworthy; likewise, no one unworthy will pretend to be worthy, where only those who are worthy will be admitted. There true peace will reign, where no one will experience opposition either from self or others. God himself will be virtue's reward; he gives virtue and has promised to give himself as the best and greatest reward that could exist. . . . "I shall be their God and they will be my people. . . . " This is also the meaning of the Apostle's words: "So that God may be all in all." God himself will be the goal of our desires; we shall contemplate him without end, love him without surfeit, praise him without weariness. This gift, this state, this act, like eternal life itself, will assuredly be common to all.( St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, 22,30:Patrologia Latina 41,801-802; compare Leviticus 26:12; compare 1 Corinthians 15:28.)³⁴⁶ --CCC

IN BRIEF

2557 "I want to see God" expresses the true desire of man. Thirst for God is quenched by the water of eternal life (compare John 4:14).