Jesus taught us that the pursuit of spiritual life is eternal life and not happiness, because happiness is not a beatitude, but eternal life is: "blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God", Matthew 5:8.
The beatitudes respond to the desire for the good (spirit), the beatitudes are promises like the eternal life, in fact, the hope is the security to inherit the eternal life. The hope is one of the three theological virtues along with charity and faith, the eternal life is the fruition of the hope.
Happiness appears to us as a goal by itself, but in reality it is an apparent good, not all happiness is good, remember the 4 curses in the gospel of Luke 6:24-26.
The gifts are perfections, we cannot attribute imperfections to God, and happiness in itself is not a perfection, happiness for many consists of a series of passing moments. Happiness as a spiritual gift is happiness as a state of the mind, the perfect happiness.
Aristotle in his book Nicomachean Ethics tells us that happiness is the reward for virtue, and that, greater is the virtue then greater is the degree of happiness. For Aristotle, the greatest virtue is contemplative activity.
On the other hand Jesus teaches us: "This is eternal life that they know you the only true God", John 17:3. The eternal life is the knowledge of God, that is eternal life is contemplative activity. The contemplation is the meditation focused on the divine attributes of God, we contemplate the mercy, the piety, the wisdom of God.
The contemplative activity being the most perfect virtue also corresponds to the highest level of happiness, the happiness of the heart: "The eternal happiness consists in the vision of God", Thomas Aquinas.
Happiness according to the teachings of Jesus, is not a goal by itself, but a return, a prize for the development of man towards his nature, the adult life or the conformity to God.
The true good of man is then the knowledge of God, and with this knowledge comes true happiness, radiant happiness, that is, happiness that comes from within us and spreads to others.
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