Once I was invited to give communion to a believing sick woman. I came and saw that she was in her late years – probably over ninety years old. After confession and communion, I asked her a question that I always ask people in a similar situation, where I can already guess in advance what the answer will be. I asked this very old woman:
“Tell me, what kind of relationship did you have with your parents? Did you agree with them?”
And this woman’s face shone even more, her eyes shone, and she said:
“To this day, I love my dad and mom so much! And I miss them so much!” And she cried out of happiness.
This is exactly the secret of a long life. Only those people who respect their parents live long. The commandment: honor your father and your mother in order to prolong your days on earth (cf. Exodus 20:12) is the only commandment with a covenant, that is, with a certain promise.
The commandment to honor parents has a broader meaning. This teaches us not only to respect our physical parents, but also godparents, as well as spiritual fathers, pastors and archpastors, we must not forget that either. A man may live idle and break the commandments, but if he fulfills only this commandment of honoring his parents, he will live long. Because God’s promises are unchanging.
Yes, after death he will go to hell and he will be tormented there forever, but because of the fulfillment of this commandment, he will live a long time on earth. Every sin is suicidal, but the sin of disrespecting parents is mortally dangerous for a person, it literally shortens the days of his life.
Here in the Caucasus, people live a long time, and there is a cult of parents, a cult of the elderly. The people there are mostly Muslims, but God’s promise is true. You can be completely unbelieving, but if you respect your father and mother, you will live a long time.
One of my acquaintances – a fan of the club “Spartak” – once went to watch a game against “Terek” in the city of Grozny. Relations were tense at the time, and in order to avoid conflicts, a section with a separate entrance was set aside for Russian fans at the stadium. Chechen fans entered the stands through other entrances.
Suddenly, a small Chechen, a boy of 8-9 years old, entered the Russian sector from somewhere, with badges and scarves hanging on him. He jumped out from somewhere and sat on the bench. The Russian fans were amazed, they surrounded him and asked:
“Aren’t you afraid of us?”
And this child said: “I am not afraid of anyone in this life except Allah and my father!”
And the Russians, Muscovites were shaken.
Respecting fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers is what should be taught to the youth. And in our country there is a cult of youth, everyone flies around them – why should older people fly around them!
Who are we cultivating? We are cultivating hedonists, stubborn scoundrels who will have big problems in their lives because of this wrong upbringing, because conflict with parents is conflict with God.