ARTICLE 4
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
Honor your father and your
mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives
you.4
He was obedient to
them.5
The Lord Jesus himself
recalled the force of this "commandment of God."6 The Apostle
teaches: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
'Honor your father and mother,' (This is the first commandment with a promise.)
'that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the
earth."'7
2197
The fourth commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the
order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents
to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are
obliged to honor and respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with
his authority.
2198
This commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It
introduces the subsequent commandments which are concerned with particular
respect for life, marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of
the foundations of the social doctrine of the Church.
2199
The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship
to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It
likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family.
It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors.
Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to
employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who
administer or govern it. This commandment includes and presupposes the duties
of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all
who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.
2200
Observing the fourth commandment brings its reward: "Honor your father and
your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God
gives you."8 Respecting this commandment provides, along with
spiritual fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure
to observe it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.
|