Day 284: The Fourth Commandment

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. CCC 2197

Today's reading from the Catechism is brief, consisting of just four paragraphs that introduce the Fourth Commandment (Ex 20:12). Honoring those who gave us life and cared for us is not only about respect, but also about caring for them in return should the need arise. The respect we show them also extends to "all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority". Christ Himself had a mother, the Blessed Theotokos Mary, and what do we see in relation to this commandment? An example for us of honoring our parents: He "was obedient to them" (Lk 2:51).

The Catechism Companion Vol III has some good commentary on this:

Every person's first and most fundamental relationship exists within the context of the family. Each one of us has a dysfunctional heart. None of us have perfect parents. None of us are perfect. So virtually every relationship that we touch is going to be dysfunctional. God gave this commandment knowing that people would receive it while in the midst of dysfunctional families and a broken world... We need to ask God for the grace of discernment, the grace of being able to know what to do. It is hard to live in this world of brokenness. That is why we need each other, and we need God's grace. (p. 84)

Finally, Fr. Mike Schmitz has a great video on this: