Apr 25
Not every prudential judgment the pope makes is correct or binding upon Catholics, but Catholics have a duty to give their spiritual father deference and respectful consideration.
Trent Horn
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Not every prudential judgment the pope makes is correct or binding upon Catholics, but Catholics have a duty to give their spiritual father deference and respectful consideration.
Trent Horn
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Homily II on the Ten Commandments (Advent Vespers; 12/10/25)
Primary Text | Ephesians 6:2-3
Catechetical Text | Small Catechism 1:7-8 (Fourth Commandment) Honor your father and your mother.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? We are to fear and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them.
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Dear People of God, The Fourth Commandment. This is the one about your parents. Honor your father and your mother. Parents are neighbors God has placed very close to you. They may be eccentric. They may give you a headache. They may not even be that great of a parent. This commandment is not about your parents personally. It is about the office of father and mother. God intends parents to be his representatives to children. To provide for them. Feed them. Cloth them. To say, “I love you.” To help children grow in confidence so that they may be of service to society. Most importantly, father and mother are charged with the responsibility to raise their children in the fear and love of God, trusting in God’s word above all things. That’s how this commandment is related to the first commandment. From the children’s perspective, what does it mean to “Honor your father and your mother.” This is a higher call than to love them. Honoring means to show deference to them, to bear with them, to not cause them anger or heartache. It also means taking care of your parents. (pause) The responsibility of the Fourth Commandment to honor your father and mother doesn’t end when you turn 18. It is a lifelong commitment, as are the others. If you and I had not had our parents, or some other person to take care of us, we would have perished in our own filth a thousand times over. Poopy diapers would have killed us. Someone had to change our diapers growing up! Martin Luther exhorts parents to take pride in changing the diapers of their kiddos. No matter how messy and stinky it gets! Changing diapers is a truly holy act to take care of your child in that way. And fathers, you get to do it too! We honor our parents. And we are given a divine promise if we do. God says, “Honor your father and mother…so that it may be well with you and you may live long on this earth.” How often are people’s lives shortened because they give no thought or care to their parents? One thing that we must also keep in mind in this commandment is that not only have our parents, or guardians, or whoever they were…. not only did they take care of us when we were young and vulnerable. But it will so happen that one day you will turn around and the roles will be reversed. Now you must take care of your parent because they have grown vulnerable with their age. And what a reality check that is! That just as they have extended the helping to us, there is also our turn to extend the helping hand to them. Here’s an important Psalm I always come back to. Lord, teach us to count our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12). Pray it often. Lord, teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. God’s intention for the fourth commandment is to show us how much in debt to God we really are. We owe God everything, because he gave us a shelter over our heads, the clothes on our backs, good friends, good neighbors, and upright parents. So, we owe it to God to love the parents we have been given.
Now unfortunately there are many parents who have forfeited the gift that parenthood should be for their children. That is an expression of human sinfulness. Parents are not exempt from sin and even the best of parents can mess up. If it so happens that father or mother, ask you to do something against God’s will…. we must follow God before any human being. An abusive parent doesn’t get to abuse you freely and without consequences. Yet we must never nullify the Fourth Commandment and say it is useless as some do. We honor parents not because they are good or bad, but because we have the commandment from God. Whatever our lot has been. We will never perfectly fulfill this or any other commandment. We are truly mired in sin and cannot free ourselves. And so, I must give you the word of life now. Any sins you have done against your parents, both living and dead….by the authority of Jesus Christ, I forgive them. I don’t say these things on my own. Jesus accepts you, faults and all. Sins and all. Questions and all. Jesus has nailed your sins to his cross. They are good and dead…no longer can your sins be used against you. And, in exchange, Jesus has given you long life, eternal life. God has given your life in Jesus Christ. And God, who is the perfect Father, will see to it that you live joyfully and peacefully, both now, and in eternity. Amen.
Q.58. What is required in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as He hath appointed in His Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to Himself.
Ex. 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Le. 19:30 "You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord."
De. 5:12 "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you."
[Muhammad] said: "Do you have a mother?" [Mu'awiyah ibn Jahimah] said: "Yes." [Muhammad] said: "Go and be with her, because Paradise is at her feet."
Hadith Sunan an'Nasāʾī, #3104
The greatest treasure for people living in the world is a parent's blessing, especially a mother's blessing.
Paisios of Mount Athos
Every mother who weeps because her daughter errs against the commandments of God, and who teaches her to live as well as she can according to her conscience is a true mother; she is a mother of tears, and her daughter is God's daughter for the sake of her mother.
the Voice of Christ, according to Saint Bridget of Sweden (Acta et Processus Canonizationis Beate Birgitte)
Saint Bridget of Sweden, by Carl Larsson, water color, 1900. The younger nun next to her is her daughter, Saint Catherine of Vedstena.
For Jesus' "I" is by no means a self-willed ego revolving around itself alone. "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and my sister, and my mother (Mk 3:34f.): Jesus' "I" incarnates the Son's communion of will with the Father. It is an "I" that hears and obeys. Communion with him is filial communion with the Father — it is a yes to the fourth commandment on a new level, the highest level. It is entry into the family of those who call God Father and who can do so because they belong to a "we" — formed of those who are united with Jesus and, by listening to him, united with the will of the Father[.]
Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, page 117), trans. Adrian Walker
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In taking on human nature, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity chose a life of submitting to, obeying, and honoring mortals. The fact that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords obeyed the fourth commandment and submitted himself to the authority of Joseph on earth is incomprehensible to Satan. God lowered himself to obey and serve creatures made from dust. The filial obedience of Jesus to St. Joseph was met with the disdain of the devil.
- Donald H. Calloway, MIC (Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father, page 221)
Mirror Check: You are Ordered to Trust
By: Gabriela Yareliz Have you ever been ditched or left on your own to figure something out? Maybe, it was a trip where no one planned or an obstacle emerged, and you were left to figure it out; maybe, it was a group project or something at work that needed to be built out and no one knew what they were doing or cared enough, so it ended up on your plate; maybe, it was a health situation, where…
"You're so strict due to your upbringing!"
"Oh, I have way stricter views on the second and fourth commandments, usury, cross-gender physical contact, family-integrated worship, and Lordship salvation than my parents!