306. In the spiritual meaning, honoring your father and your mother refers to revering and loving God and the church. In this sense "father" means God - the Father of all - and "mother" means the church. In the heavens little children and angels know no other father or mother, since their rebirth in that world comes from the Lord through the church. This is why the Lord says, "Do not call anyone on earth your father, for your father is the One in the heavens" (Matthew 23:9). (These words apply to little children and angels in heaven, but not to little children and people on earth.) The Lord teaches something similar in the prayer that is shared by all Christian churches: "Our Father, who is in the heavens: your name must be kept holy. "

In the spiritual meaning, "mother" stands for the church because as mothers on earth nourish their children with physical food, so the church nourishes people with spiritual food. For this reason in various places in the Word the church is called "mother;" for example, in Hosea: "Bring charges against your mother. She is not my wife and I am not her husband" (Hosea 2:2, 5). In Isaiah: "Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I put away?" (Isaiah 50:1; Ezekiel 16:45; 19:10). In the Gospels: "Jesus reached his hand toward the disciples and said, My mother and my brothers and sisters are those who hear the Word of God and do it" (Matthew 12:48-50; Mark 3:33-35; Luke 8:21; John 19:25-27).