281. “The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness.”

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 281

Ave Maria series

Why do we yearn for happiness?

God has placed in our hearts such an infinite desire for happiness that nothing can satisfy it but God himself.  All earthly fulfillment gives us only a foretaste of eternal happiness.  Above and beyond that, we should be drawn to God.  [1718-1719, 1725]

Saint Monica did not lose faith. She continually fasted, prayed, and wept on behalf of her wayward son Augustine. She implored the local bishop for help in winning him over, and he counseled her to be patient, saying, "God's time will come." Monica persisted in importuning him, and the bishop uttered the words which have often been quoted: "Go now, I beg you; it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish."  We now know St. Monica’s wayward son as Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.…..281

“God wants us to be happy.  But where does the source of this hope lie?  It lies in a communion with God, who lives in the depths of the soul of every man.”  Brother Roger Schultz  1915-2005. 

[1718-1719, 1725]

THE DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

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:–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

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:Patrologia Latina 32,1312.)¹³--CCC

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.)¹⁴  God alone satisfies.(St. Thomas Aquinas, Expos. in symb. apost. I.)¹⁵ --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. --CCC

IN BRIEF

 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. –CCC

Saint Augustine  -Fra_angelico