Our discussion of the Ten Commandments is drawing to a close. This week, in Lesson Thirty-Third of the Baltimore Catechism No. 2, we examine the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Commandments; next week, we will discuss the Seventh through the Tenth.
Like the Second Commandment, the Fourth Commandment—"Honor thy father and thy mother"—is an extension of the First. We respect those in authority, starting with our parents, because they have been given their authority by God. Conversely, those in authority have duties to those under their charge. In this, they act as instruments of God's Will. Disobedience or stubbornness toward one's superiors (as long as what they instruct you to do is not sinful) is a form of rebellion against God Himself. Submitting ourselves to the will of our parents and other superiors is a means of developing discipline and humility.
The Fifth Commandment—"Thou shalt not kill"—extends beyond murder to include all actions that deliberately cause harm to others and to ourselves. While it does not forbid all killing—for example, in the cause of a just war—it does require us to promote peace and avoid conflict. Our aim in doing so has to be to promote the spiritual welfare of the other person as well as our own.
The Sixth Commandment—"Thou shalt not commit adultery"—may seem among the easiest to avoid breaking, yet like the Fourth and Fifth Commandments, it has a much broader application. As Christ says in Matthew 5:28, a man who looks at a woman in lust commits adultery in his heart; the Sixth Commandment, therefore, requires us not just to avoid adulterous acts but immodesty as well. We should not deliberately look at immodest material (which is all too easily available today through both the internet and television); but we need also to avoid immodesty in our own thoughts and words, so that we do not become an occasion of sin for others.
Lesson Thirty-Third from the Confirmation Catechism has 12 questions. Note that the lesson begins with Question 361, continuing with the numbering from Lesson Thirty-Second.The parallel lesson this week in the First Communion Catechism is Lesson Twenty-Ninth. It includes 11 questions drawn from Lesson Thirty-Third of the Confirmation Catechism.
Check out this week's lesson, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or ask them in the Catholicism Forum!
Previous Lessons in Sunday School:- Welcome to Sunday School!
- On God and His Perfections
- On the Unity and Trinity of God
- On Creation
- On Our First Parents and the Fall
- On Sin and Its Kinds
- On the Incarnation and Redemption
- On Our Lord's Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
- On the Holy Ghost and His Descent Upon the Apostles
- On the Effects of the Redemption
- On the Church
- On the Attributes and Marks of the Church
- On the Sacraments in General
- On Baptism
- On Confirmation
- On the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost
- On the Sacrament of Penance
- On Contrition
- On Confession
- On the Manner of Making a Good Confession
- On Indulgences
- On the Holy Eucharist
- On the Ends for Which the Holy Eucharist Was Instituted
- On the Sacrifice of the Mass
- On Extreme Unction and Holy Orders
- On Matrimony
- On the Sacramentals
- On Prayer
- On the Commandments of God
- On the First Commandment
- On the Honor and Invocation of Saints
- From the Second to the Fourth Commandment