Article 2: Our Vocation to Beatitude

Catechism of the Catholic Church · Part Three › Section One › Chapter One · Article 2 (§§1716–1729)

Paragraphs · 14

The Catechism's text is under copyright, so each paragraph is quoted briefly here with a link to the full text at vatican.va.

§1716 — The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. the Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:vatican.va
§1717 — The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical…vatican.va

§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:vatican.va
§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.vatican.va

§1720 — The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: - the coming of the Kingdom of God; - the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" - entering into the joy of the Lord; - entering into God's rest:vatican.va
§1721 — God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life.vatican.va
§1722 — Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.vatican.va
§1723 — 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.vatican.va
§1724 — The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven. Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step by step, by everyday acts.vatican.va

§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.vatican.va
§1726 — The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God.vatican.va
§1727 — The beatitude of eternal life is a gratuitous gift of God. It is supernatural, as is the grace that leads us there.vatican.va
§1728 — The Beatitudes confront us with decisive choices concerning earthly goods; they purify our hearts in order to teach us to love God above all things.vatican.va
§1729 — The beatitude of heaven sets the standards for discernment in the use of earthly goods in keeping with the law of God.vatican.va