9015. 'And anyone striking his father and his mother' means blaspheming the Lord and His kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking' as injuring by means of falsities, dealt with in 7136, 7146, 9007, but when used in reference to the Lord and His kingdom, blaspheming is meant by it; and from the meaning of 'father' as the Lord, and of 'mother' as His kingdom, dealt with in 8897, where the fourth commandment has been explained. That paragraph shows what 'honouring father and mother' is used to mean in the internal sense, namely loving the Lord and His kingdom, and therefore in the relative sense loving what is good and true. So also 'striking father and mother' in a relative sense means blaspheming what is good and true in the Church.

9008. 'Shall surely die' means damnation. This is clear from the meaning of 'surely dying' as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494. The reason why 'death' means damnation is that with those who have been damned the truths of faith and forms of the good of charity have been wiped out. These are what constitute the most real kind of life a person has, for they are received from the Lord, who is the one and only source of life. When they have been wiped out their place is then taken by falsities and evils; and these, being the opposites of truths and forms of good which are the constituents of life, are therefore the constituents of death - spiritual death, which is damnation, hell, and eternal unhappiness. The reason why those immersed in evils and falsities, that is, those who are in hell, continue to be alive is that they were born human beings and consequently have the ability to receive life from the Lord. And they do receive life from the Lord, as much life as will enable them to think, reason, and speak, to make their evil look like good and their falsity like truth, and so to give the appearance of life.