CHAPTER TWO
YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
AS YOURSELF
Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved
you."[1]
2196 In response to the question about the first of the commandments, Jesus says: "The
first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all
your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no
other commandment greater than these."[2]
The apostle St. Paul reminds us of this: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the
law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall
not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this
sentence, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."[3]
ARTICLE 4 - THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the
land which the Lord your God gives you.[4]
He was obedient to them.[5]
The Lord Jesus himself recalled the force of this "commandment of God."[6] The
Apostle teaches: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your
father and mother,' (This is the first commandment with a promise.) 'that it may be well
with you and that you may live long on the earth."'[7]
2197 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.
2198 This commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It
introduces the subsequent commandments which are concerned with particular respect
for life, marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations of the
social doctrine of the Church.
2199 The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship
to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise
concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor,
affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of
pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their
country, and to those who administer or govern it. This commandment includes and
presupposes the duties of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who
govern, all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.
2200 Observing the fourth commandment brings its reward: "Honor your father and
your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives
you."[8] Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual fruits, temporal
fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to
communities and to individuals.
I. THE FAMILY IN GOD'S PLAN
The nature of the family
2201 The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage
and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and
education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create
among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial
responsibilities.
2202 A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family.
This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation
to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the
different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.
2203 In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with
its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common
good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities,
rights, and duties.
The Christian family
2204 "The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial
communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church."[9] It is a
community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as
is evident in the New Testament.[10]
2205 The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the
communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and
education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of
the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God
strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.
2206 The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and
interests, arising above all from the members' respect for one another. The family is a
privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation
by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children's
upbringing."[11]
II. THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY
2207 The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which
husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority,
stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for
freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which,
from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of
freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
2208 The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take
responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are
many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on
other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs:
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans
and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."[12]
2209 The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where
families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping
them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of
subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family's prerogatives
or interfere in its life.
2210 The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society[13] entails a
particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family.
Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of
marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and
promote domestic prosperity."[14]
2211 The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure
especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with
the family's own moral and religious convictions;
- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
- the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the
necessary means and institutions;
- the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the
right to emigrate;
- in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the
aged, and family benefits;
- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs,
pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation
before civil authority.[15]
2212 The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our
brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants
of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the
children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the
One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our
neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in the
human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular
attention and respect.
2213 Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited
to guaranteeing rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations
between employers and employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose
a natural good will in keeping with the dignity of human persons concerned for justice
and fraternity.
III. THE DUTIES OF FAMILY MEMBERS
The duties of children
2214 The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood;[16] this is the
foundation of the honor owed to parents. The respect of children, whether minors or
adults, for their father and mother[17] is nourished by the natural affection born of the
bond uniting them. It is required by God's commandment.[18]
2215 Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the
gift of life, their love and their work, have brought their children into the world and
enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and grace. "With all your heart honor your
father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your
parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?"[19]
2216 Filial respect is shown by true docility and obedience. "My son, keep your father's
commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.... When you walk, they will lead
you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk
with you."[20] "A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to
rebuke."[21]
2217 As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents
in all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family. "Children, obey
your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."[22] Children should also obey the
reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted
them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be morally wrong to obey a
particular order, he must not do so.
As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should
anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions.
Obedience toward parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect,
which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit.
2218 The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities toward
their parents. As much as they can, they must give them material and moral support in
old age and in times of illness, loneliness, or distress. Jesus recalls this duty of
gratitude.[23]
For the Lord honored the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the
mother over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies
his mother is like one who lays up treasure. Whoever honors his father will be
gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will be heard. Whoever glorifies
his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother.[24]
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if
he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise
him.... Whoever forsakes his father is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother
is cursed by the Lord.[25]
2219 Filial respect promotes harmony in all of family life; it also concerns relationships
between brothers and sisters. Respect toward parents fills the home with light and
warmth. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged."[26] "With all humility and
meekness, with patience, [support] one another in charity."[27]
2220 For Christians a special gratitude is due to those from whom they have received
the gift of faith, the grace of Baptism, and life in the Church. These may include parents,
grandparents, other members of the family, pastors, catechists, and other teachers or
friends. "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother
Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you."[28]
The duties of parents
2221 The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of
children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. "The
role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide
an adequate substitute."[29] The right and the duty of parents to educate their children
are primordial and inalienable.[30]
2222 Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human
persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate
their children to fulfill God's law.
2223 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear
witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness,
respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for
education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment,
and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their
children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual
ones."[31] Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By
knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better
able to guide and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod.... He who disciplines his son will profit by
him.[32]
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.[33]
2224 The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity
and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the
compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.
2225 Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility
and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an
early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their
children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the
Church.[34] A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine
preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.
2226 Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This
already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness
of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies,
and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching
their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God.[35] The parish
is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is
a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.
2227 Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents.[36] Each and
everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels,
injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands
it.[37]
2228 Parents' respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote
to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs.
As the children grow up, the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in
the right use of their reason and freedom.
2229 As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right
to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is
fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best
help them in their task as Christian educators.[38] Public authorities have the duty of
guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.
2230 When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their
profession and state of life. They should assume their new responsibilities within a
trusting relationship with their parents, willingly asking and receiving their advice and
counsel. Parents should be careful not to exert pressure on their children either in the
choice of a profession or in that of a spouse. This necessary restraint does not prevent
them - quite the contrary from giving their children judicious advice, particularly when
they are planning to start a family.
2231 Some forgo marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to
give themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends.
They can contribute greatly to the good of the human family.
IV. THE FAMILY AND THE KINGDOM
2232 Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and
human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts
itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their
children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is
to follow Jesus: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and
he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."[39]
2233 Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's
family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my
Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."[40]
Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord's call to one of
their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated
life or in priestly ministry.
V. THE AUTHORITIES IN CIVIL SOCIETY
2234 God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have
received authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise
authority as well as those who benefit from it.
Duties of civil authorities
2235 Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great
among you must be your servant."[41] The exercise of authority is measured morally in
terms of its divine origin, its reasonable nature and its specific object. No one can
command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law.
2236 The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of
values in order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in
authority should practice distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and
contribution of each, with a view to harmony and peace. They should take care that the
regulations and measures they adopt are not a source of temptation by setting personal
interest against that of the community.[42]
2237 Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human
person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone,
especially of families and the disadvantaged.
The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the
requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities
without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised
for the common good of the nation and the human community.
The duties of citizens
2238 Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of
God, who has made them stewards of his gifts:[43] "Be subject for the Lord's sake to
every human institution.... Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext
for evil; but live as servants of God."[44] Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and
at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity
of persons and to the good of the community.
2239 It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of
society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one's
country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission
to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their
roles in the life of the political community.
2240 Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it
morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's
country:
Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is
due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.[45]
[Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all
things as citizens and endure all things as foreigners.... They obey the established laws
and their way of life surpasses the laws.... So noble is the position to which God has
assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it.[46]
The Apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and all who exercise
authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every
way."[47]
2241 The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome
the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find
in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is
respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.
Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible,
may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions,
especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption.
Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of
the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.
2242 The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities
when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of
persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when
their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the
distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore
to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."[48] "We
must obey God rather than men":[49]
When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its
competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded
of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights
and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of
the natural law and the Law of the Gospel.[50]
2243 Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all
the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of
fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance
will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is
impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.
The political community and the Church
2244 Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny,
from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its
line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a
certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly
recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. The Church
invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired
truth about God and man:
Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence
from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them
from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion
of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power
over man and his destiny, as history shows.[51]
2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in
any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the
transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the
political freedom and responsibility of the citizen."[52]
2246 It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters
related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls
requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with
the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and
circumstances."[53]
IN BRIEF
2247 "Honor your father and your mother" (Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10).
2248 According to the fourth commandment, God has willed that, after him, we should
honor our parents and those whom he has vested with authority for our good.
2249 The conjugal community is established upon the covenant and consent of the
spouses. Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses, to the procreation
and the education of children.
2250 "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society
is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life" (GS 47 # 1).
2251 Children owe their parents respect, gratitude, just obedience, and assistance. Filial
respect fosters harmony in all of family life.
2252 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith,
prayer, and all the virtues. They have the duty to provide as far as possible for the
physical and spiritual needs of their children.
2253 Parents should respect and encourage their children's vocations. They should
remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus.
2254 Public authority is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person
and the conditions for the exercise of his freedom.
2255 It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up society in a
spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.
2256 Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities
when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order. "We must obey God rather
than men" (Acts 5:29).
2257 Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny.
Without the light the Gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian.
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