Foundation Day

Phillip Schanker
January 2013

Foundation Day is not an end; it is a precious gift and an opportunity to forge a new beginning. Since Foundation Day was announced 12 years ago, our Unification Church family has looked forward to this day -- January 13, 2013 by the heavenly calendar (Korean lunar calendar) -- as the culmination of the lifetime efforts of True Parents, the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, and all Unification church members and families.

Foundation Day is, first and foremost, the ultimate offering of everything that our True Parents have accomplished in their lives. And the best part is they want to share it with us. We can celebrate their achievements and inherit the foundation they have created by actively participating in this day with all of our hearts. It is an opportunity for us to offer something beautiful to God and to the world.

With the recent ascension of Reverend Moon and changes in church leadership, some may wonder whether this day has any meaning or what our movement's future could possibly be. Although we may feel unprepared for Foundation Day, True Parents will always find a way to reconcile and reconnect us to all that they have accomplished. They are offering us a chance for grace and renewal. The Divine Principle, Father Moon's main text and teachings, reveals a God of unconditional love as our Heavenly Parent. God cannot realize His ideal without each of His children being a part of it He knows who we truly are and continues to invest in our capacity to live up to our original value and identity. Through God's grace and True Parents' sacrifice, a path was laid to restore the world to God's original ideal. With this grace, we can let go of the suffering and restoration, begin anew in an era governed by the truth of the Divine Principle, and live freely as the direct descendants of God's lineage.

For the past 12 years, Father Moon has worked to establish this original standard and tradition through the couples and families he blessed in the Holy Marriage Blessing ceremony. He spent countless hours establishing God's word as the center of our faith through the practice of Hoon Dok Hae, a daily study of God's teachings at home. He urged families to become one in heart with True Parents so that this tradition could be passed on through us to the rest of humanity. The vision of this ideal world is set to begin on Foundation Day.

We cannot imagine how deeply True Parents long for us to receive this gift. It is through preparing the best heart and most meaningful conditions that we are able to enter the new, substantial era of Cheon Il Guk -- God's Kingdom -- with them. They do not wish to enter alone. Through this path we can commit ourselves to becoming the true sons and daughters of God.

In the first chapter of the Divine Principle, the "Principle of Creation," God shares that a "perfect" person is one whose heart resonates with God's heart so strongly that he or she cannot act in a way that would hurt God. We can have the determination to become such a person through the example of Father Moon's amazing life; he lived so large and so "out loud" in regards to preaching God's heart. What more could he have done to embody and convey who he was? His vision of the ideal world remains unfinished but we cherish the opportunity, through Foundation Day, to reconcile and reconnect with accomplishing this ideal in our daily lives.

Foundation Day is a day for all of us. It will be the opportunity for rebirth for all Blessed Families through the recommitment Blessing Ceremony; it will be the opportunity for people all over the world to make a new beginning to live according to God's Word and ideal. True Parents have also prepared a special ceremony of cleansing and renewal, established through Father Moon's own suffering and ascension, that which we can use to reflect about the New Year. We know that this victory cannot be truly meaningful to God and True Parents unless they can share it with us. Each of us is the fruit of God's long, historical effort to resurrect His children. Father and Mother Moon, who extended their arms in prayer over every couple they have blessed in marriage and took responsibility for our families and descendants forever, have bequeathed to us a legacy and ideal where we can have hope and look forward to tomorrow.

So How Can We Be a Part of This Great Day?

We can make personal conditions of prayer.

We can make a sincere effort to study the Divine Principle (the main text of the Unification Church).

We can make offerings of Jeong Seong (sincerity).

We can share Father Moon's autobiography.

We can invite couples to recommit their marriage by participating in the Worldwide Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony on February 17, 2013.

Any effort to improve ourselves, serve others or make our marriage and family life closer and more loving, which helps build Cheon Il Guk, which Father Moon said is the place "where two become one."