“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Luke 12:49

The Fourth Commandment Honor your father and your mother – CCC, nos. 2196-2257

The first three Commandments help us to understand how to love God with our whole selves. The next seven Commandments teach us how to love each other as we love ourselves. The Fourth Commandment deals with all aspects of family life— parental and filial duties and responsibilities, that is, those of love from child to parent.

This includes the duties of children toward their parents, the duties of brothers and sisters toward each other, and the responsibilities of adult children toward their older parents. This Commandment also addresses the duties of government and the duties of citizens (cf. CCC, nos. 2234-2246), including the responsibility of the state and society to foster family values and to strengthen the family in every possible way.

This is an excerpt from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2006) 375.