Why Should We Honor Our Parents & thus Obey God by Obeying His Fourth Roman Catholic Commandment?

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]the degree of ease or challenge that you experience in understanding and obeying the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church is connected to how attached you are to how you feel about your parents and how devoted you are to growing in charity.

[00:00:30]Regardless of your personal relationship with your parents, God commands that parents be honored.

[00:00:40]This Roman Catholic commandment holds even in the case of parents who failed in their duties toward their children.

[00:00:51]And while this may be challenging for many people to internalize, there is more to the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church. The fourth Roman Catholic commandment extends beyond our natural or biological family.

[00:01:16]The fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church extends beyond your extended family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even close family friends.

[00:01:33]The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of God binds us to give honor and respect even to civil authorities in addition to our spiritual fathers serving in the Catholic Church.

[00:01:55]We do this most specifically because all honor that we give is ultimately given to God.

[00:02:05]The fourth Roman Catholic commandment is short. And this is what it says.

[00:02:11]Honor thy father and thy mother that thou mayest be long lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.

[00:02:23]This is from the book of Exodus 20 verse2.

[00:02:29]The fourth Roman Catholic commandment clearly and explicitly concerns honor.

[00:02:36]So what does it mean to honor someone?

[00:02:40]Thankfully, the Roman Catechism has made this quite easy for us to know and understand.

[00:02:49]To honor someone is to think respectfully of him. It is to hold all that relates to him in the highest esteem.

[00:03:00]Honoring someone includes love, respect, obedience, and reverence for him. And if you would like to see this in the Roman Catechism, you may turn to page 440 in the Roman Catechism. I have cited in the description box to read more about what it says concerning honor. It can be challenging for many people converting to Roman Catholicism to understand the import and dignity of the fourth Roman Catholic commandment.

[00:03:41]Many people have feelings towards their parents that prevent them from even being able to fathom how such a response to a parent can be possible. Such feelings are the manifestation of a variety of different reasons stemming from a variety of different circumstances and relationships.

[00:04:07]While it is true that many such feelings are the result of a secular mind seeing proper affection as subjection, it is also true that many such feelings are the result of objectively abusive parents.

[00:04:26]These parents may have violated their children in sry ways.

[00:04:31]It is also true that many parents, even those who identify as Christians, have proposed to their children impious aims as ultimate ends. Such faulty direction leads their children into thinking that human dignity stems from acquisition, wealth, and other favorable circumstances rather than directly from being made in the image of their creator. However, with Christ, all things are possible.

[00:05:10]This includes both understanding and obeying the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church, regardless of your starting point and the various and sometimes nefarious reasons for it.

[00:05:31]The fourth Roman Catholic commandment of God concerns most especially our biological or natural parents.

[00:05:43]It is from our natural parents that we exist. They are in a sense the most direct although not the ultimate reason for our creation and thus for our existence as human beings.

[00:06:02]As such, we see an image of God in our parents as God is the ultimate creator and is ultimately the reason we exist along with all other creatures and created things. It is God who used our parents to give us a soul and to be or exist in his image. Hence, we not only see an image of God in our parents as the most direct natural creators of our existence, but we also participate in his creation through him using our parents to manifest our existence so that we could be his creation.

[00:06:53]As a result of this twofold circumstance of existing and being born, when we choose to freely and deliberately honor our parents and thus obey the fourth ca Roman Catholic commandment of God, we are giving honor to God.

[00:07:16]Nevertheless, our parents are owed honor on behalf of them being our parents.

[00:07:23]Regardless of how our parents executed their duties as parents, our natural mother in every instance of human being went through labor to give birth.

[00:07:38]Regardless of how she fulfilled her duty as mother, she is owed honor because of her labor in bringing us into the world.

[00:07:51]Likewise, our natural father, regardless of how he treated us, directed us, and provided for us, is the reason we exist.

[00:08:02]We owe him honor because he is the reason we were brought into the world.

[00:08:09]While the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church does most primarily refer to our natural or biological parents. The fourth Roman Catholic commandment extends to all those to whom the name father applies or belongs.

[00:08:31]As such, if we are to obey the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church, we are bound to give honor to all our fathers. Our extended fathers include all those who have authority over us in some way. These extended fathers are those who are entitled to our love, obedience, and to our assistance.

[00:09:01]Such examples of our extended fathers to whom we owe honor include bishops, priests, civil rulers, magistrates, teachers, guardians, the elderly, etc. The general idea is that we are one spiritual family.

[00:09:22]If we are to live the will of God on earth and be stewards of his will through how we relate to each other, then we must extend this honor beyond our natural or biological family. Why should we pay this extended honor? It may seem that there is no legitimate bond entitling such extended positions of authority or fatherhood to honor.

[00:09:56]This is the case especially to a secular mind regardless of if the one holding it identifies as a Christian or not.

[00:10:07]Such a way of relating may seem superfluous.

[00:10:12]However, such a way of relating is what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and it is for a good reason. The will of God is always good. While it is better if we obey God without looking into the mechanics or functions of what he commands, the benefit of obeying an extension of honor is obvious. It is explicitly stated in the commandment itself.

[00:10:45]Such a way of relating preserves longlasting life. When we honor someone, we relate to him in a way that protects and preserves the common good. Put bluntly, this honor we pay has nothing to do with the dispositions of the person or how we feel about him. When we relate with honor, we are ultimately showing reverence to the divine providence of God. It is only because of God that such individuals have their positions of power.

[00:11:27]They are only ever functioning as instruments of the power of God. Even in the case when the one to whom we are supposed to pay honor is being hostile to us, paying this honor protects our spirit. This is because honor is a barrier of respect that dismantles unruly passions.

[00:11:55]When we relate with honor, it allows us to think clearly and to move in obedience with God in a way that protects our spirit from being broken, even if our pride is left unfed. Jesus tells us in the gospel account according to Matthew in chapter 23 verse three, "Do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach."

[00:12:34]Our obedience is always ultimately to God. We pay this honor to our natural or biological parents and to our extended fathers because it is the will of God.

[00:12:52]As a result of our ultimate end, if the commands of anyone are wicked, even if the individual has authority over us, we are not bound to obey. Obeying God by obeying the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church is for our best benefit. When we choose to obey the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church, we choose to obey God. While we may be mistreated by those who have authority over us, it is still in our best interest to relate to others in a way that obeys the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church. This is because such obedience to the will of God enables us to have a standard or norm regulating our ethos that protects us from the whims of the world and from the passions of a disordered sinful human heart which can oftent times even be our own. When we are rooted in constancy and when our creed or ethos is determined by the creator of all that is rather than by our emotions or ambitions, we are less easy to manipulate by the enemy.

[00:14:33]While we may face humiliation, embarrassment, and even legitimate abuse, when we respond in a way that is humble by choosing to submit our will to that of God, we are restored to an internal peace that only comes from the Lord.

[00:14:56]Furthermore, even if our parents taught us that our dignity comes from something or from someone outside of our creator.

[00:15:09]When we return to God and allow him to strip the world from us, we are returned to our natural state and have Jesus Christ as our mediator and as our protector should we choose to accept him.

[00:15:27]Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope it was helpful in helping you to at least consider why you should obey the fourth Roman Catholic commandment of the Roman Catholic Church regardless of your personal relationship with your parents.

[00:16:00]My name is Hannah. I am currently in OCIA.

[00:16:06]This means that I am converting to be a Roman Catholic and am being formed in my faith formation.

[00:16:16]I am learning much about the Roman Catholic faith and I am sharing my journey, my Catholic faith formation here on YouTube and on my website the beautifiedsoul.com.