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Greek Orthodox Catechism
Constantine Callinicos, London, 1926
Part II. Ethical, 23. The Fifth Commandment
What does the fifth Commandment order us?
The fifth Commandment orders us to: give due honour to our parents, respecting them, being obedient to them, helping them and caring for them in their old age, for they begot us, brought us up and went through a great deal of trouble for our happiness. To those who disdained this Commandment, the Mosaic law was very severe, punishing with death anyone who struck, or even calumniated his father or mother. (Exod. xxi. 15—16.) It is a matter of course, that in showing children their duties to their parents, the Decalogue presupposes as naturally self-evident, the duties, material and spiritual, of parents towards their children. Under “material duties” are included the endeavours of the parents for the physical or bodily development of their children as well as the teaching of a trade or profession, by which they shall be made self-supporting. Under “spiritual duties” are included the instruction and admonishment of children in God, for the promotion of character and fruitfulness in good works.
Is this the full implication of this Commandment?
No. Whatever the fifth Commandment demands of the children as a duty towards their natural parents, it demands also as their duty to their spiritual parents, viz., their priests, their teachers, and their political authorities, especially if they are real benefactors of the nation and true shepherds. In a special sense does the active honour to father and mother apply to the Fatherland, which in its Greek rendering ἡ πατρὶς recalls, by its root, the father, and, by its gender, the mother, thus appearing as a very comprehensive home in which are included and under which are roofed all the particular homes, united by a common faith, common history, common language, common customs, common sufferings and common aspirations. Patriotism is shown not only by a wholehearted adherence to all which is connected with our country, but also by the willing payment of its taxes, by ungrudging submission to its laws, and even by the shedding of our blood in its defence. The Old Testament is full of great patriots, and many of the Psalms breathe the aroma of the deepest patriotism. Even Jesus Christ, although, owing to His divine nature, He was outside the limits of nationalism, nevertheless, as a man, felt the pangs of patriotism and wept over the coming destruction of the capital of His country. (Luke xix. 41.) But patriotism must not be stained with a narrow-minded fanaticism and degenerate into Imperialism or Chauvinism. As one home is built beside another and the common Fatherland is composed of millions of homes, standing together in complete peace and harmony, so also one fatherland can well live side by side with other fatherlands, and all together be united under the one roof of the Kingdom of God,