With your whole heart honor your father; your mother’s birth pangs do not forget. Remember, of these parents you were born; what can you give them for all they gave you?

Sirach 7:27-28

Catechism no. 2214 teaches us that “divine fatherhood is a source of human fatherhood.” In our previous lesson we learned about how we should view our family from God’s perspective. In terms of fatherhood, this means not seeing God’s fatherhood as being like human fatherhood. Rather, human fatherhood should be modeled after the fatherhood of God. As a just government leader receives his authority from God, our fathers receive their fatherhood from God the Father.

Every one of us has a different image of fatherhood because we all have different relationships with our fathers. Some of us have wonderful relationships and are very close to our fathers; others are distant from their fathers or have been hurt by their fathers; and some do not know their earthly father at all. If we have a distant relationship (or no relationship) with our earthly father, this does not mean that God the Father is distant from us. Remember, God’s fatherhood is not like human fatherhood. Sometimes our human fathers fall short of the model that God the Father gives. He loves every one of us and calls us to be close to Him. After watching the video, you were asked if you would be willing to go to the same lengths to make your son happy as Dick Hoyt did for his son Rick. God answers that question with a resounding YES! He was willing to do so much more than run a triathlon. He gave up everything for us.

Parents are expected to provide for their children’s needs physically and spiritually. This means that parents have the responsibility to educate their children on what is right and wrong, on the mysteries of the Faith, and on how to grow in holiness. We often think of teachers as the primary educators of children, but really, education is first the responsibility of parents.

Part of learning what is right and what is wrong is learning to obey and respect the authority of parents (and those who have been given authority over us by God). At the end of our parents’ lives, we then have the responsibility to provide for them, as they provided for us at our most fragile age.

Filial respect (respect towards one’s parents) teaches and promotes harmony in family life and teaches us how to relate to others outside our home. Respecting our families involves more than just parent-child relationships. It also involves relationships between siblings and every other member of our families. The family has often been called the “school of love” because it is here that we have the room to make mistakes, but we are also learning how to love.