YOUCAT Question n. 367 – Part II. To whom does the Fourth Commandment refer, and what does it require of us?
(Youcat
answer - repeated) The Fourth Commandment refers in the first place to one’s
physical parents, but also to the people to whom we owe our life, our
well-being, our security, and our faith.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 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.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) What we owe in the first place to our
parents—namely love, gratitude, and respect—should
also govern our relations to people who guide us and are there for us. There
are many people who represent for us a God-given, natural, and good authority:
foster or step-parents, older relatives and ancestors, educators, teachers,
employers, superiors. In the spirit of the Fourth Commandment we should do them
justice. In the broadest sense, this commandment applies even to our duties as
citizens to the State.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 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.
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