The Fourth and Fifth
Commandments
Honor Your Father and Your
Mother
You Shall Not Kill
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
 After the first three commandments, parents
are next in the divine order of charity.
 The family is the most important community to
which we belong. It is the heart and center of
all other communities.
 Christian parents teach their children that the
first calling of the Christian is to follow Christ.
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
 Requires dutiful obedience to parents, our
elders. But not just these…!!
 This commandment includes all who exercise
authority: teachers, supervisors.
 There are limits to this obedience to authority…
 Virtue acquired: family values
 Sin avoided: irresponsibility, disobedience
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
There are limits to the exercise of authority:
 Civil authorities sometimes establish and
enforce laws that go against moral law.
 When an authority figure commands you
to do something that is inherently wrong,
immoral or against God’s law, or is an
unjust civil law, then you are not obliged
to follow that command.
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
The family is the basic unit of society.
 A healthy family begets a healthy society.
 A weakened family is a threat to society.
 Families must nurture virtues, such as
authority, stability, and loving
relationships, which are essential for a
society that desires freedom, security,
and community awareness.
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
A Christian family is a Domestic Church.
 Faith, Hope, Love—family virtues that
everyone must practice.
 Parents are the primary educators of their
children.
 Young children have a duty to obey their
parents.
 As children grow to be young adults, they are
obliged to honor and respect them.
 Trinitarian in nature.
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
Family duties include:
 Respect parents—Sir 7:27-28
 Children must obey parents: trust in their
goodness, seek their advice; accept their
wisdom
 Become responsible adults: give them
material, moral, and physical support
especially as they get sick or elderly.
 Promote family harmony: avoid rivalries,
angers, envies, and hostilities to each other
including brothers and sisters.
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
Parental duties include:
 Raise children conscientiously: raise children
physically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally,
and morally.
 Emphasize teaching the virtues: self-discipline,
compassion, responsibility, friendliness, work,
courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, and
faith
 Teach children faith and God: how to pray; go
to church regularly
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
Responsibilities of Civil
Authorities
 Respect all human life
 Preserve the dignity of
others.
 Protect human rights of
citizens
 Guarantee freedom,
peace, and safety to all
 Guard against
totalitarianism
Duties of Citizens: Citizens
must work with civil
authorities by:
 Working with them in
truth and justice
 Loving, serving, and
defending the country.
 Paying taxes
 Exercising the vote
 Serving in juries
The Fifth Commandment
“You Shall Not Kill.”
► This
commandment demands that we respect and
protect the sacredness of human life from
conception to natural death.
► Direct and Indirect killing are sins against this
commandment.
► Anger and hatred are often the root causes of
murder
► Virtue to be acquired: sacredness of human life.
The Fifth Commandment
“You Shall Not Kill.”
► The
“Seamless Garment Rule”—all life is
woven into the fabric of this teaching that
ALL human life, from conception to death,
must be defended, protected, and
cherished.
► This teaching is absolute, unchangeable,
and universal
The Fifth Commandment
“You Shall Not Kill.”
Direct (Intentional) Killing
► The murder of an innocent person is against
the dignity of the person, the Golden Rule,
and God Himself. This includes homicide (in
all forms), abortion, euthanasia, and
suicide. (CCC 2258, 2261, 2268)
► Capital punishment (CCC 2266-2267)
► Just war (CCC 2304 ff)
► Self-defense (CCC 2264-65)
The Fifth Commandment
“You Shall Not Kill.”
Indirect or Unintentional Killing
► “The Cult of the Body” (CCC 2289-90)
► Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, and its excesses
► Scientific research and experimentation—if it’s
against human dignity or moral law, DON’T. THE
END CAN NEVER JUSTIFY THE MEANS!
► Kidnapping, hostage taking, terrorism, torture, and
other scandals
The Fifth Commandment
“You Shall Not Kill.”
YOU can be a Terminator and Perpetuator!
► When you strive for peaceful end to
violence and killing, you can be a terminator
of violence and a perpetuator for peace by:
Stopping...Listening…Negotiating
Works Cited
Catholic Church. (1994). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican:
Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Hahn, S. (2003). Lord, have mercy: the healing power of confession. New
York: Double Day.
Klein, P. (2000). The Catholic source book: a comprehensive collection of
information about the Catholic Church. Orlando: Brown-Roa.
McBride, A. (1995). Father McBride’s teen catechism. Huntington,IN: Our
Sunday Visitor.
McBride, A. (2000). Father McBride’s college catechism. Huntington,IN:
Our Sunday Visitor.
Poust, M. (2008). The complete idiot’s guide to the Catholic catechism.
New York: Alpha Books