The commandment to honor your father & mother is because sometimes that’s very hard to do.
Mark Shea
WHO IS MARK SHEA?
Mark P. Shea is a Catholic author and blogger who’s also done a spot of podcasting, acting, radio and TV work. His latest book, The Church’s Best-Kept Secret: A Primer on Catholic Social Teaching was published in September 2020 by New City Press. Other works include By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition (Ignatius), Mary, Mother of the Son, This is My Body: An Evangelical Discovers the Real Presence (Christendom), and Making Senses Out of Scripture: Reading the Bible as the First Christians Did (Basilica), Salt and Light: The Commandments, the Beatitudes, and a Joyful Life (Servant), The Heart of Catholic Prayer: Rediscovering the Our Father and the Hail Mary (Our Sunday Visitor) and The Work of Mercy: Being the Hands and Heart of Christ (Servant).
He’s known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He lives in Washington State with his wife, Janet, sons and adorable grandkids. He can be found on Facebook and Twitter. You can read more on his blog at Stumbling Toward Heaven.
The 4th Commandment: Honor Your Father & Mother
In this episode, Mark Shea talks about the 4th commandment and what it means to honor your father and mother. He explains:
-What is the 4th Commandment?
-How do we honor our parents and how do we sin against this 4th commandment?
-Why does it say we should honor and not love our parents?
-What happens when we don’t follow the 4th commandment?
-What to do if we struggle with honoring our parents?
Honoring Parents
I wrote to Mark once I read one of his posts. I didn’t know he wrote an entire book on the ten commandments. Mark agreed to record quickly. What I loved was that from the get go, Mark says our parents are flawed people. And so it can sometimes be hard to love them. His advice to honor your parents is so broad. To impart charity, to forgive, to be grateful, to understand that just our existence is a gift. There’s so much to unpack here.
Mark also explains how this commandment is not just about parents. He talks about his own personal experiences and what has worked for him. I love how he says, take everything and especially your parents to the Eucharist. It’s such simple but profound advice.
He also advises us to get the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. I have taken this four or five times already in New York because my parish did this every First Friday. And I can attest to the graces here. We all carry trauma. Emotional wounds and hurts that accumulate over our lifetime. Bringing these to Jesus is so healing.
I’m so grateful to Mark for talking to us about the 4th commandment and his explanation of what we owe our parents and the generations gone before us for all that we have received.
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