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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Life in Christ: The Fourth Commandment


PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER TWO
"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF"
Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."1
2196 In response to the question about the first of the commandments, Jesus says: "The first is, 'Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."2
The apostle St. Paul reminds us of this: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The
commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not
covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."3
1 Jn 13:34.
2 Mk 12:29-31; cf. Deut 6:4-5; Lev 19:18; Mt 22:34-40; Lk 10:25-28.
3 Rom 13:8-10.
PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER TWO
"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF"
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.
I. THE FAMILY IN GOD'S PLAN
The nature of the family
2201 The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family
are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of
the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal
relationships and primordial responsibilities.
2202 A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This
institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It
should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship
are to be evaluated.
2203 In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its
fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its
members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.
* The Christian family
2204 "The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and
for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church."9 It is a community of faith, hope, and
charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.10
2205 The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father
and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work
of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of
the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.
2206 The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising
above all from the members' respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to
achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager
cooperation as parents in the children's upbringing."11
II. THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY
2207 The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are
called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships
within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The
family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and
make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
2208 The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the
young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times
incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary
way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father
is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."12
2209 The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot
fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the
institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care
not to usurp the family's prerogatives or interfere in its life.
2210 The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society13 entails a particular
responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should
consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and
foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity."14
2211 The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own
moral and religious convictions;
- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
- the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary
means and institutions;
- the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to
emigrate;
- in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and
family benefits;
- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography,
alcoholism, etc.;
- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil
authority.15
2212 The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters
we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow
citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every
human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our
relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in
the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and
respect.
2213 Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited to guaranteeing
rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations between employers and
employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose a natural good will in keeping with
the dignity of human persons concerned for justice and fraternity.
III. THE DUTIES OF FAMILY MEMBERS
The duties of children
2214 The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood;16 this is the foundation of the honor
owed to parents. The respect of children, whether minors or adults, for their father and mother17 is
nourished by the natural affection born of the bond uniting them. It is required by God's
commandment.18
2215 Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their
love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature,
wisdom, and grace. "With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your
mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that
equals their gift to you?"19
2216 Filial respect is shown by true docility and obedience. "My son, keep your father's commandment,
and forsake not your mother's teaching. . . . When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down,
they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you."20 "A wise son hears his father's
instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke."21
2217 As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents in all that they
ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family. "Children, obey your parents in everything, for
this pleases the Lord."22 Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to
whom their parents have entrusted them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be
morally wrong to obey a particular order, he must not do so.
As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should anticipate their
wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions. Obedience toward parents ceases
with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has
its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
2218 The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities toward their parents.
As much as they can, they must give them material and moral support in old age and in times of illness,
loneliness, or distress. Jesus recalls this duty of gratitude.23
For the Lord honored the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother
over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies his mother is
like one who lays up treasure. Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his own children,
and when he prays he will be heard. Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and
whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother.24
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if he is
lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise him. . . .
Whoever forsakes his father is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother is cursed by
the Lord.25
2219 Filial respect promotes harmony in all of family life; it also concerns relationships between
brothers and sisters. Respect toward parents fills the home with light and warmth. "Grandchildren are
the crown of the aged."26 "With all humility and meekness, with patience, [support] one another in
charity."27
2220 For Christians a special gratitude is due to those from whom they have received the gift of faith,
the grace of Baptism, and life in the Church. These may include parents, grandparents, other members
of the family, pastors, catechists, and other teachers or friends. "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a
faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in
you."28
The duties of parents
2221 The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must
extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. "The role of parents in education is of
such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute."29 The right and the
duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.30
2222 Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons.
Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill
God's law.
2223 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this
responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and
disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an
apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom.
Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior
and spiritual ones."31 Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By
knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide
and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod. . . . He who disciplines his son will profit by him.32
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.33
2224 The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal
responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences
which threaten human societies.
2225 Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege
of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of
the faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their children. They should associate them from their
tenderest years with the life of the Church.34 A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions
that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.
2226 Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already
happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in
keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of
instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their
vocation as children of God.35 The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life
of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.
2227 Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents.36 Each and everyone should
be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual
affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.37
2228 Parents' respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up
their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up, the
same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.
2229 As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a
school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as
possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian
educators.38 Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the
concrete conditions for its exercise.
2230 When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state
of life. They should assume their new responsibilities within a trusting relationship with their parents,
willingly asking and receiving their advice and counsel. Parents should be careful not to exert pressure
on their children either in the choice of a profession or in that of a spouse. This necessary restraint
does not prevent them - quite the contrary from giving their children judicious advice, particularly
when they are planning to start a family.
2231 Some forgo marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to give themselves
more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the
good of the human family.
IV. THE FAMILY AND THE KINGDOM
2232 Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and
spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and
forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be
convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus: "He who loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me."39
2233 Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in
conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and
sister, and mother."40
Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord's call to one of their children
to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry.
V. THE AUTHORITIES IN CIVIL SOCIETY
2234 God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received
authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those
who benefit from it.
Duties of civil authorities
2235 Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great among you
must be your servant."41 The exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin, its
reasonable nature and its specific object. No one can command or establish what is contrary to the
dignity of persons and the natural law.
2236 The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of values in
order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in authority should practice
distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and contribution of each, with a view to
harmony and peace. They should take care that the regulations and measures they adopt are not a
source of temptation by setting personal interest against that of the community.42
2237 Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will
dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the
disadvantaged.
The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of
the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and
proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation
and the human community.
The duties of citizens
2238 Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has
made them stewards of his gifts:43 "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. . . . Live
as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God."44 Their
loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which
seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.
2239 It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a
spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one's country follow from the
duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of
the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community.
2240 Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to
pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country:
Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due,
respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.45
[Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as
citizens and endure all things as foreigners. . . . They obey the established laws and their way of
life surpasses the laws. . . . So noble is the position to which God has assigned them that they
are not allowed to desert it.46
The Apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and all who exercise authority, "that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way."47
2241 The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner
in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.
Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the
protection of those who receive him.
Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the
exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the
immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude
the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in
carrying civic burdens.
2242 The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are
contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of
the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an
upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the
political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things
that are God's."48 "We must obey God rather than men":49
When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence,
they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the
common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow
citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of
the Gospel.50
2243 Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following
conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all
other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4)
there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.
The political community and the Church
2244 Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it
derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most
societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things.
Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator
and Redeemer. The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions
against this inspired truth about God and man:
Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God
are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some
ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil,
they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny,
as history shows.51
2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with
the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the
human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the
citizen."52
2246 It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics,
whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only
means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men
according to the diversity of times and circumstances."53
IN BRIEF
2247 "Honor your father and your mother" (Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10).
2248 According to the fourth commandment, God has willed that, after him, we should honor our
parents and those whom he has vested with authority for our good.
2249 The conjugal community is established upon the covenant and consent of the spouses. Marriage
and family are ordered to the good of the spouses, to the procreation and the education of children.
2250 "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound
up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life" (GS 47 § 1).
2251 Children owe their parents respect, gratitude, just obedience, and assistance. Filial respect
fosters harmony in all of family life.
2252 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and all
the virtues. They have the duty to provide as far as possible for the physical and spiritual needs of their
children.
2253 Parents should respect and encourage their children's vocations. They should remember and
teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus.
2254 Public authority is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person and the
conditions for the exercise of his freedom.
2255 It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up society in a spirit of truth,
justice, solidarity, and freedom.
2256 Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are
contrary to the demands of the moral order. "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
2257 Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny. Without the light
the Gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian.
4 Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16.
5 Lk 2:51.
6 Mk 7:8-13.
7 Eph 6:1-3; cf. Deut 5:16.
8 Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16.
9 FC 21; cf. LG 11.
10 Cf. Eph 5:21b: 4; Col 3:18-21; 1 Pet 3:1-7.
11 GS 52 § 1.
12 Jas 1:27.
13 Cf. GS 47 § 1.
14 GS 52 § 2.
15 Cf. FC 46.
16 Cf. Eph 314.
17 Cf. Prov 1:8; Tob 4:3-4.
18 Cf. Ex 20:12.
19 Sir 7:27-28.
20 Prov 6:20-22.
21 Prov 13:1.
22 Col 3:20; Cf. Eph 6:1.
23 Cf. Mk 7:10-12.
24 Sir 3:2-6.
25 Sir 3:12-13, 16.
26 Prov 17:6.
27 Eph 4:2.
28 2 Tim 1:5.
29 GE 3.
30 Cf. FC 36.
31 CA 36 § 2.
32 Sir 30:1-2.
33 Eph 6:4.
34 LG 11 § 2.
35 Cf. LG 11.
36 Cf. GS 48 § 4.
37 Cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:4.
38 Cf. GE 6.
39 Mt 10:37; cf. 16:25.
40 Mt 12:49.
41 Mt 20:26.
42 Cf. CA 25.
43 Cf. Rom 13:1-2.
44 1 Pet 2:13,16.
45 Rom 13:7.
46 Ad Diognetum 5,5 and 10; 6,10:PG 2,1173 and 1176.
47 1 Tim 2:2.
48 Mt 22:21.
49 Acts 5:29.
50 GS 74 § 5.
51 Cf. CA 45; 46.
52 GS 76 § 3.
53 GS 76 § 5.

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