Day 233: The Beautitudes

The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love. CCC 1723

Today's reading from the Catechism is on the Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-12), which "are at the heart of Jesus' preaching" (CCC 1716). They give us faithful a proper model for Christian living, and "they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations" (CCC 1717). Each of us is disposed to desire happiness in our lives, and the Beatitudes respond to that because "God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it" (CCC 1718).

The Catechism Compendium summarizes what eternal happiness is:

It is the vision of God in eternal life in which we are fully “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), of the glory of Christ, and of the joy of the trinitarian life. This happiness surpasses human capabilities. It is a supernatural and gratuitous gift of God, just as is the grace which leads to it. This promised happiness confronts us with decisive moral choices concerning earthly goods and urges us to love God above all things. (#362)          

The Catechism Companion, Vol II has some good commentary on this:

True happiness is not the fleeting happiness of mere pleasure. We want to know not just the words in the Bible, but God. For, as St. Thomas Aquinas said, "God alone satisfies" (CCC 1718)... We get to choose between good and evil, life and death. "True happiness is... in God alone" (CCC 1723). Where we spend our time and our money is where we place our hearts. We have many moral choices and need to ask, "What gets my heart above everything else? Is it going to be the Lord - or anything else?" (p. 230)

Finally, Dr. Brant Pitre has a good video on the Beatitudes: