Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 367 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 367 – Part III. 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 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" (Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16). 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.      

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 2247) "Honor your father and your mother" (Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10). (CCC 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.  

(The next question is: What place does the family have in God’s plan of creation?)