Honrarás ton pare e ta mare
The Divine Command of Filial Honor
The author establishes that honoring parents is a reflection of our duty to honor God, the Creator of all.
You ought to honor your father and your mother, son, for this is God's commandment, meant to show that just as you are bound to honor your father and your mother because you came from them and because they raised you, so you are bound to honor God, who created you and sustains you—from whom everything that exists has taken its beginning.1 Honor must be rooted in love and fear, because dishonor comes from a lack of love and a lack of regard. For this reason, my son—so that you don't hold your father or mother in contempt, or stop loving them just because you love their worldly possessions—God wants you to show honor to your father and mother.✦2 You can understand, son, that God wants you to be honored, because in the honor of your father and mother you yourself receive honor, and in their dishonor you are dishonored and held in low regard by people.
The Reciprocity of Honor
Honoring parents is presented as a debt of gratitude for their labor and a necessary act of charity as they grow frail.
If through your father's and mother's labors you have riches or honors, son, then in the honor you show them your father and mother receive their payment.✦3 Remember, then, how right it is that you should honor them.4 If honoring the first beginnings were a failing, son, it would be right that God not be given honor; so if you do wrong to your father and mother or fail them, know that you are dishonoring God.✦5 As much as the strength of your body increases in this world, son, so much the strength of your father's and mother's bodies turns into weakness and decline.✦6 So, if it’s an honor for the strong to help the frail and the powerless, then, my son, by honoring your father and mother you can gain honor that will be pleasing to our Lord God Jesus Christ.
Read the original Latin
Honrar te cové, fill, ton pare e ta mare, car manament es de Deu a significar que enaxí com tu est obligat a honrar ton pare e ta mare per so car d ells est exit e per so car tan nudrit, enaxí est obligat a honrar Deu quit ha creat e quit sosté; del qual tot quant es ha pres comensament.
Ab honrar se cové amor e temor, cor deshonor es feta per desamor e per menys preament: on per assó, fill, que tu no ages en menyspreament ton pare ne ta mare e no desams aquells, amant la possessio que posseexen dels bens daquest mon, per so vol Deus que a ton pare e a ta mare fasses honrament.
Entendre pots, fill, que Deus vol que sies honrat, cor en la honor de ton pare e ta mare prens honrament, e en lur deshonor est deshonrat e menys preat per les gents.
Si per los treballs de ton pare e de ta mare has, fill, riqueses o honraments, en la tua honor han ton pare e ta mare pagament. Remembra t, dones, com es deguda cosa quels fasses honrament.
Si honrar los primers els comensaments fos defalliment, leguda cosa fora, fill, que a Deu no fos feta honor: on, si tu a ton pare e a ta mare fas malvestat ni defalliment, sapies tu que a Deu fas desonrament.
Aytant com la vertut de ton cors multiplica, fill, en est mon, aytant la vertut del cors de ton pare e de ta mare esdevé en debilitat e en defalliment. On, si ajudar als frévols e als despoderats es honrament dels forts, per assó, fill, en honrar ton pare e ta mare pots aver honrament, lo qual será agradable a nostro Senyor Deu Jhesu Christ.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.20.12;Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and so that it may go well with you on the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- ↩Exod.20.12;Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and so that it may go well with you on the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- ↩Exod.20.12;Deut.5.16;Eph.6.1-Eph.6.2 — Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and so that it may go well with you on the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Eph.6.1 — Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Eph.6.2 — Honor your father and mother—this is the first commandment with a promise—
- ↩Exod.20.12;Deut.5.16;Eph.6.2-Eph.6.3 — Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Deut.5.16 — Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and so that it may go well with you on the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Eph.6.2 — Honor your father and mother—this is the first commandment with a promise— Eph.6.3 — so that it may go well with you, and you may live long on the earth.
Notes
- 1 ↩Medieval Catalan «tan nudrit» is read as parental upbringing/nourishing (cf. likely «t'han nudrit» or «[ets] tan nudrit»); rendered as «they raised you» rather than a bare past participle.
- 2 ↩The circumstantial participle amant la possessio can be read as the wrongful attachment that leads a child to slight or stop loving parents (love of their worldly goods instead of them), or more loosely as concurrent love of their property. The translation takes the first sense as the moral force of the clause.
- 3 ↩en la tua honor: taken as the honor the child renders (their recompense), not merely the child's own social standing; both senses are possible in Old Catalan, but the honor-rendered reading best sets up s2.
- 4 ↩dones: Old Catalan spelling of doncs ('therefore/then'), not modern Catalan dones ('women'); rendered as then.
- 5 ↩Catalan «los primers els comensaments» is taken as parents as one's first origins/beginnings (the argument's parallel with God as first cause). «Leguda» = lawful/legitimate; «malvestat ni defalliment» = wrongdoing or failing/neglect.
- 6 ↩Medieval Catalan vertut with cors is bodily strength/vital force here (set against debilitat and defalliment), not moral virtue.
Doctrine for Children — Opening companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit