Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
Holy sons and daughters fulfill their duty through their filial attendance to God and True Parents. By fulfilling their obligations their divine character continues to develop. They come to recognize and internalize their true value, dignity and pride as sons and daughter of God. Their character undergoes a developmental process by fulfilling their filial duties in their family, then advance as patriots in the nation, saints in the world, and finally as divine sons and daughters of God in the cosmos. By fulfilling one's duties on higher public levels one's character can come to realize the highest ideal as intended by the Creator and Father God.
Filial sons and daughters of God can achieve their intended destiny through their attendance of God and True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. Through fulfilling their filial obligations they inherit and acquire good fortune for themselves and their lineage, their family, tribe, race, nation, world, cosmos and God. We all have our stations in life. Each must fulfill their duties and obligations in their position filial holy sons and daughters of God though all eight stages.
On the individual level, holy sons and daughters of God must fulfill their duty regarding their vertical responsibility in attending God and True Parents, and their duty regarding sexual morality and ethical behaviors. On the family level one must fulfill their filial duty to their parents, their spouse, children and siblings. One's duty is to fulfill the Four Great Realms of heart.
A male must fulfill his duties as father, husband, child, and brother. A female must fulfill her duties as a mother, wife, child, and sister. On the clan and tribal level one must fulfill their duties of attending their grandparents and ancestors. On the racial level one must fulfill their duties within their own race and embrace all races. On the society and national level one must fulfill their duty as a patriot and attend all elders and central figures on higher public levels.
On the world level one must fulfill their duties as saints educating mankind, all religions, cultures and nations in order to create a world of peace and establish one global family under God. On the cosmic level, our duty as holy sons and daughters of God is to create unity between the spiritual world and the physical world. Finally we must expand the realm of liberation and complete freedom towards the completion of the Kingdom of God.
Parents must provide the education for their children to progress through the stages of filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. They have to teach them to perfect the dutiful way of children of filial piety, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters, all the way up to God. If there is a parent who teaches in this way, then would not God think, "My goodness! That parent is doing what a parent should do. He is doing what a real teacher should do. He is doing what a real leader should do"?
When God says, "You are qualified to be a real parent. You are qualified to be a teacher," then you become a father who has the qualification to be a leader, and, beyond that, a king. Today, the concept of filial piety hardly exists in western culture. The concept of becoming a patriot does not exist. The concept of becoming a saint does not exist. The concept of becoming divine sons and daughters does not exist. This is why cultures will perish.
God wants you all to become divine sons and daughters. Then, who wants you to become a saint? The world does. The country wants you to be a patriot. The family wants you to become a filial child. This is the way of absolute truth. (285-218, 1997.5.19)
You have to perfect and know how to abide by the royal etiquette and palace protocol and all the laws on earth, and those in heaven. Only thus, do you fulfill your duty as divine sons and daughters. Once you have returned to your homeland, you are to accomplish Family Pledge point number two by becoming filial children, loyal subjects, and virtuous women. Family Pledge point number two needs to be realized. I am telling you that because God has been unable to own all this until now; it had all belonged to Satan. (266-145, 1994.12.22)
The time for us to become God's filial children will not always be there. It will not exist in the spirit world after our death. In our earthly lifetime -- which, when viewed against the backdrop of eternity, is as brief as the tick of a clock -- we must establish the condition of having loved God and of having fulfilled our filial duty to Him.
Furthermore, we have to confirm our status as the children whom God absolutely needs, and we must accomplish this within our lifetime on earth. (26-114, 1969.10.19)
There is no other way to possess God than the way of loyalty, and no other way to possess your parents than that of filial piety. Accordingly, you have to fulfill your duty of loyalty and filial piety. (14-90, 1964.6.12)
The Father's circumstances should be felt as our own. Unless someone appears on this earth to fulfill the duty of a child and comfort God, there will never be a way to resolve historical problems.
Even if we were to find ourselves in extremely difficult circumstances, we should not stand before God hoping to receive His sympathy, but rather we should stand in a position to sympathize with Him. (31-73, 1970.4.19)
We arrive at the conclusion that a person who fulfills his duty of filial piety and loyalty has fulfilled the responsibilities that he must carry out in the course of his life. You should live life in this way. (26-297, 1969.11.10)
There are morning meetings everyday between the king of a nation and his subjects. In a Korean family, the children first greet their parents when the parents rise in the morning. Isn't this part of Korean tradition? In order to indemnify fallen history, you should establish the finest set of laws among all laws, including the laws of filial duty to one's parents. Even for a nation, you should establish laws superior to the highest existing standard. (31-275, 1970.6.4)
Everyone needs and loves parents. Everyone wants to see them and be with them. But why? For what reason? It is the age difference that leads to the relationship of superior and subordinate in an orderly manner. Therefore, people should show deference, respect and dutifulness to their parents. Based on all matters of ethics and morality in social life, we should each stand in the position of a subject partner or object partner within a relationship of superior–subordinate. To become a filial son in certain respects, you should display obedience and humility, and long to meet the parents. This is the relationship of parent and child. (112-251, 1981.4.19)
You should meet all the duties of filial piety. (150-218, 1961.4.15)
You have to prepare the way so that your parents can live. That's the duty of a child. You must stand in the position of filial sons and daughters. This is our responsibility. You must pioneer this way without worrying about whether you live or die. You shouldn't care about the good things in the world, or about persecution from the world, or even about going the path of death. You must connect to the way of loyalty and filial piety in order to pioneer this way. (20-122, 1968.5.1)
If you stand in a position where you cannot fulfill your filial duty to True Parents, you should offer those things that you wanted to devote to them to the members instead. Then Heaven can accept this offering as something greater than your filial devotion to True Parents. Such a person will surely be blessed. (78-41, 1975.5.1)
Your body is precious. Do not stain your body but fulfill your filial duty. You have to be responsible to escape from Satan's realm of death with a body that is approved by God. This is the highest goal and the standard that people should have. According to the principle of creation, you cannot help but be that way. (15-202, 1965.10.9)
If you were so poor you had nothing to eat or wear, would you forget about your duties and sell the Blessing you had received from God? (14-161, 1964.9)
Once you become the central figure in the course of fulfilling the duties of love in which you give and give, and forget that you have given -- just as God has done -- the environment surrounding you would never be like a desert, even if you wanted it to be. (215-107, 1991.2.6)
Now we can establish the homeland. In that homeland there would be sovereignty, territory, and citizenry. Furthermore, the people would inherit the lineage of the homogenous race, and the history that can be written by none other than that race. We need to fulfill the duties of emissaries for the homeland. The sooner you complete this mission you have been called to do, the sooner can the basis for restoration of the homeland be laid down.
The work we are carrying out today will be the foundation upon which we can welcome the day of liberation of the homeland. Bearing this in mind, you should march forward, determined in your hearts to complete the mission of emissary as long as you remain standing. Otherwise we cannot receive as our own, the historical world Blessing and heavenly fortune that God can bring us in this era. (29-40, 1970.2.16)
All of you gathered here today must fulfill the mission similar to that of the messiah in your tribes, whichever clan you belong to, be it Kim, Park, or otherwise. Each of you must think, "I am the Messiah!" representing each of your clans in establishing the Kingdom of God. You have to regard yourself as the savior. You must consider that you are the savior of the Kim clan if you are a Kim. In order to do so, you need to fulfill the duties of a chief priest on behalf of the whole Kim clan. (155-265, 1965.10.31)
Originally, the relatives of the first parents should have been registered in the kingdom. However, because those parents fell, we had to pass through numerous periods in history, and gather those to be registered from the entire world. That is why you need to restore through indemnity the unfulfilled mission of Jesus, by accomplishing your duties as tribal messiahs. (269-303, 1995.5.1)
You need to carry out the duties of tribal messiah. (265-142, 1994.11.20)
I proclaim the bequeathal of the victories of True Parents in the physical world as the victorious traditions and unified ideal centered on Heung-jin, the representative of the right of the eldest son in the spirit world. Therefore, every being in the cosmos should, with a grateful heart, pledge loyalty and devotion to the eternal and unchanging nation of love and the Kingdom of Heaven of love on earth and in spirit world, and fulfill the duties of filial sons and daughters, patriots, chaste women, saints, and sages! This we pledge! Amen! This we pledge! Amen! This we pledge! Amen! (332-302, 2000.9.24)
It may be important to live in affluence and to do something in life; however, before anything else, you need to fulfill your duties of filial piety and loyalty to the vertical Heavenly Parent and surpass living saints in your devotion to Him. Such is the original purpose for humankind's birth. He created us in order to meet such people. Such is our underlying purpose. (58-231, 1972.6.11)
Have you ever taken into consideration how your mind inside your body sacrifices time and again in order to fulfill its duties as the subject partner, even amidst persecution, as your comrade and teacher until your death? (217-91, 1991.5.4)
If great people sought to stand before God, He would tell them, "You loved your race, but you failed to love all of the world's people, whom I sought and loved, didn't you," and then those people would not be able to stand in His presence. On the other hand, those who have fulfilled the duties of saints can go directly into His presence. What is the Unification Church seeking to accomplish? Is it trying to create great people or saints? (38-263, 1971.1.8)
When you return home you need to serve your grandparents as you would God. You need to serve your parents as if they were the king and queen; the center of the family. As the sons and daughters of such parents, you are the princes and princesses who are to inherit their respective duties while you are growing up. Once you have grown up, inherit the kingship of the future and lead the world. (221-309, 1991.10.26)
Fulfilling your filial duties to your ancestors and grandfather and grandmother is like receiving education from the spirit world. (Blessed Family -1062)
Above and below represent the duties of children towards parents, front and rear represent the duties between siblings, and left and right represent the duties between husband and wife. Once perfection is achieved in this way, you can then ascend to the level of God in the spirit world and become like Him. (222-321, 1991.11.6)
"We pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family." This means that the father needs to practice the way of filial piety, as do the children. In fact, every member of the family needs to do the same. They need to inherit the tradition of filial piety. (260-157, 1994.5.2)
We have now conquered the summit of this world of death and entered the era when we can come into contact with the heavenly realm. We are aware that a new era centered exclusively on the heavenly spirit world can only begin in the providential time when the spirit world can communicate on an equal basis with the physical world. This requires a foundation of unity of all the tribes of the Unification Church members. Please, Heavenly Father, be with Heung-jin in his endeavors and devotion in bringing together good men and women, kings and patriots representing the sovereignties of the 120 nations, educating them to fulfill their duties of loyalty and filial piety to you. In this way, heavenly law in the spiritual and physical worlds can be established. Amen! (196-257, 1990.1.2)
Now the time has come for the final transition to take place based on the five great saints blessed on June 13, and their blessed followers in the spirit world, members of the groups they have established. Those serving You and the True Parents on earth and in the spirit world will now have to follow the way of filial piety, loyalty and heavenly traditions. That is, the archangelic families on earth should come together and join the liberated realm of the Blessed Families in the position of perfected Adamic families on earth. They should strive to fulfill their duties before You as filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots in the nation, and saints in the world, and inherit the bond of love while tending to the duties of Your divine sons and daughters on earth and in the spirit world. (296-9, 1998.10.5)
The True Parents pledge to govern and teach those on earth the path that they should follow to fulfill the duties of Your filial sons and daughters, patriots, saints, and divine sons and daughters. By guiding them to become a part of Your kindred having dominion over Your blessed kingdom, True Parents will raise them to become eternal heirs to Your kingdom on earth and in heaven. (302-234, 1999.6.14)
In the presence of Heaven, you should offer devotion until your future descendants, ancestors in heaven, and the people of your nation are connected to Heaven's blessing through you. This is the duty of the families that were blessed, which must be carried out until the completion of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. With this in mind, you must once more critically evaluate your lifestyle. (302-250, 1999.6.14)
You must love the grandmothers and grandfathers as if they were your own grandfather and grandmother, and you must love them like God wants to love them. All the people who are like your own parents, you must love them the way God wants to love a mother and father. As a person who is the embodiment of God's love, you should love all the women who are like your wife, the way God wants to love a couple. You should love all the people who are like your son or daughter, brother or sister, in the way that God wants to love them. Centering on this kind of ideal of love, you must take that standard of heart and mind that God has been looking for, and invest them for the sake of the world. Then you must invest again.
When you do that, you will become the son or daughter of inheritance who can carry out God's work in His place, and you will become a soldier of independence in the creation of a nation and a world. Now that you know this fact clearly, all of you must return to your homes and completely turn them around. This constitutes the tong ban breakthrough. You must turn the family around. This is our duty. (209-172, 1990.11.28)
Tithing is a duty, a heavenly duty. (150-218, 1961.4.15)
You must listen well to my words today, clear up your debts, and become new people. What is it that I've told you to do? In order to re-establish through women the tong ban breakthrough system, which the men failed to do, I have now arranged our people centering on the villages and local communities. The tong ban breakthrough activities came to a halt right in front of my eyes, so the women of the Unification Church should not sleep at night, should not eat, and should not play before doing this work. You must know that this is your heavenly duty! (233-52, 1992.7.20)
What is my bitter sorrow? I failed to fulfill my duty as a filial son; I should have cried and pleaded with my parents to join the Unification Church. I am trying to resolve this through you. I could not even witness to my family. There were eight brothers and sisters, but I could not say one word of the Divine Principle. My older brother obeyed me completely whenever I said something. I have restored Cain completely. If I told him to sell the house, he sold the house, and if I told him to sell the cow, he sold the cow. My mother and father could not be like him. To that older brother, I could not speak about the Divine Principle once. (208-183, 1990.6.24)
People absolutely need to fulfill the duties of devoted children, loyal patriots, saints, and holy children. Due to the Fall, saints are needed; the way of holy sons and daughters is waiting to be perfected.
The realm of reciprocal relationships with God can connect from heaven to the world and to the family beginning with the individual. You must, therefore, fulfill all these duties while still on earth. It constitutes the road to perfection. Then, for the nation, the ruler should embody the essence of the father and mother. People would want to engraft to that standard and grow. You cannot stand in front of your nation without establishing your family, but now even the family is coming to ruin in front of the nation, Satan's nation. (285-91, 1997.4.21)
It is not difficult to lead a life of filial piety in attendance to one's parents when those around you are doing so. But when many people are turning away from their parents and avoid choosing this way, should you stand in a position where you try to live for your parents even if it means giving up your precious life, then you will have fulfilled your filial duty transcending your circumstances. We know very well that in this situation you cannot help but achieve the position of children of filial piety. (42-182, 1971.3.7)
Relatively speaking, is a truly devoted son one who fulfills his filial duty when he is well-off or one who truly fulfills his filial duty even though he is poor? If you are brought up in a family in which you are only able to eat one meal a day, but you sell even your flesh and blood in order to let your mother and father eat three meals a day, is this being filial? Or is it being filial when you eat three meals a day, and there is so much left that you cannot finish it all, so that you give your parents the leftovers? Truly devoted children do not come from wealthy families. You must know this.
If your mother, father and younger sibling are starving, your mother will give her food to your younger sibling. Children who watch their mother all night feel this in their bones. They say to themselves, "Mom loves my sibling so much, and so I am going to do as she does and give even one more grain of rice to my sibling." Then when this child gives the mother that rice, the realm of filial piety, the environment of filial piety, is created. People who live only for themselves will be kicked out. From this point of view, a life of filial piety is a life lived for others. The way to become a truly devoted child requires that you have to live your life for others. Yet this does not mean that you live for others only under favorable circumstances. (286-282, 1997.8.13)
There is nothing we can boast about. All we have done is destroy God's sovereignty, citizenry and territory. Now is the time that you must change your heart to one which understands the heart of loyalty and filial piety; to the heart which understands how much you have violated God's sovereignty, territory and citizenry. You must return to the right way -- you who have betrayed heaven. You must have the clear conviction that, even in sadness and hardship, you will recover God's sovereignty, citizenry and territory for Him. You must eat, live and even die for this purpose alone.
Then what must you live for? You must be loyal and fulfill your filial duty toward the earth, your people, all humankind, and God's sovereignty. When you realize your failures, this is the time God can forget your disloyalty, filial impiety and betrayal. So you have to repent on behalf of the people, the nation and the sovereignty. The time when you repent before the Father is passing.
You must repent for the earth. Millions of believers are still waiting eagerly. We must repent for the recovery of God's land and sovereignty. You were chosen in order to recover God's people, territory and sovereignty. So, if you make a mistake, you will go the same way Adam and Eve went. If you do well, then you will be able to welcome the day of victory. (11-150, 1961.5.13)
If you understand your parents, then what must you do for them? You must fulfill your filial duty. You must become a filial son or daughter, and centering on those parents who have led the nation and world, you must become a loyal citizen or patriot in that nation. Before becoming a loyal citizen, you must become a filial child, and before becoming a filial child, you must become a true family member who can boast about your brothers and sisters. 'Family member' is the title that establishes the realm in which siblings can praise each other.
So what does it mean to be a filial son or daughter? You must be more devoted than people were long ago, when a man and woman got married and had children, thus creating a family, and fulfilled their filial duty to their parents. You cannot become a truly devoted son or daughter before you get married.
You can only become a truly filial son or daughter after getting married. You can only establish the realm of true filial piety after you have married and the wife's filial piety is added to the husband's in front of the parents. Only when, through this, you have a foundation of filial piety in attendance to the parents, can a true realm of filial piety be established.
You cannot become a loyal citizen by yourself. The loyalty that the Unification Church talks about cannot be realized by one person alone. You can only become a loyal citizen after you marry and have a family. So in order for you to raise the banner of being loyal citizens, you must give birth to filial sons and daughters.
You must become filial sons and daughters to God. You cannot be a son of filial piety by yourself. You can only become such a son centering on a trinity in which three brothers become one. You know what a trinity is, don't you? You must become one in your trinity.
The three families in a trinity must become one as brothers and sisters, and then again the three children of each family must become one. Then, three times four makes twelve, making twelve children. This became the first foundation for Israel. This is the origin for creating the branches of families, clans and then tribes. (30-220, 1970.3.23)
To become a historical woman, you have to clear up all the failures of history. Also, to become the Eve of the age, you must represent all the women of the age and establish the standard of having fulfilled your duty of loyalty and filial piety in front of Heaven. And as a woman, you must have the heart of a virtuous woman in front of one man, and in front of God. (30-166, 1970.3.22)
Filial sons and daughters must fulfill their filial duty while their parents are alive. Loyalty also must be fulfilled when the king is alive. It is no use at all trying to fulfill your filial duty after your parents have died. Loyalty is of no use at all when the king is dead. People who try to do this are deceitful. Rather than making a big memorial service for your parents after they die, it is much better to say even one good thing to comfort them while they are alive. It is much more beautiful to become a partner in their sadness and try to comfort their hearts while they are alive, rather than setting up a service with thousands of kinds of food for them after they die.
It is much more precious to fulfill your filial duty before your parents die, rather than just cherish their memory. (51-223, 1971.11.28)
Filial children must always unite with their parents' heart and direction. People going the way of filial piety are not those who behave in a way far different from their parents. If the parents go east, then the children should go east. If the parents go west, then they should go west. If the parents have given a certain direction, but suddenly make an about-face, then the filial child must follow them. There should be no dissent from this. If you follow your parents when they leave home, and each time they order you to turn back and go home, you should turn to go back but then do an about-face and follow them anyway, even if this happens ten times.
If you protest, you will not be able to fulfill your filial duty. If parents behave in a strange way, their children also must behave likewise. If parents give an order, then the children must follow accordingly, even if it is means behaving strangely. Acting in a strange manner in itself is not good. You may think that your parents are doing things unknowingly, but actually they know what they are doing. Therefore, you should follow.
Why would parents behave in a strange way? Their strange behavior would serve to identify the most filial child out of all the filial children. If there were one hundred filial children and the parents acted strangely enough, the most filial of them all would eventually emerge. The filial son, who absolutely accommodates his parents' orders at the risk of his life, even though he knows his parents are being capricious, can even become the king of all filial children. (62-32, 1972.9.10)
There have been filial children throughout human history. So, if we want to single out the greatest filial child in all of history, who could we deem to be that greatest or most exemplary filial child?
A youth who demonstrates greater filial piety than an old person is the more precious of the two. Filial children come in all shapes and sizes. Filial piety is practiced at all social levels, by the poor and by the rich, by laborers and by beggars. A person who is still alive cannot truly be a filial child. A person who is still alive cannot enter the ranks of those we call filial children. There are so many people who died in order to fulfill their filial duty; so those who are awarded the medal of filial piety during their lifetime will be accused by all those who died in the cause of filial piety.
From the ranks of those who died, there will be those who did so while trying to fulfill their filial duty. There will be those who died attempting to procure medicine for a sick parent, and even among them, there will be those that went with their own money, and others that had to borrow money. The tougher the situation, the greater is its value. Likewise, a patriot does not become a patriot before death. (49-279, 1971.10.17)
Even so-called patriots must live for the sake of Heaven before they can be conferred the title of patriot by Heaven. The path of the filial child is the same. Thus, you can understand how valuable and precious it is. Everything we do, whether eating, seeing, speaking or acting, must be for this purpose.
We have to realize that we have the responsibility to fulfill our duty as filial children and patriots, even if it entails walking the path of suffering and tears in the place of God, the Lord of Heaven. Even if we collapse while trying to block God from walking the path of tears, we must pick ourselves up again and go this way in His place. The duties of loyalty and filial piety must be accomplished from this position. (41-157, 1971.2.14)
Filial children and patriots cannot truly be termed as such unless they walk with death to their dying day. Nobody is truly a patriot prior to death. No matter how much a person may have suffered, a word spoken today with regret, nullifies any qualification as a patriot. All the loyalty that someone may have previously demonstrated is undone by a single moment of betrayal. It is only when someone has crossed over the peak of death that it becomes possible to determine whether that person has fully discharged the duties of loyalty and filial piety.
Hence, loyalty and filial piety are part and parcel of leading a public life. People who give their lives for their country are called patriots, and children who give their lives for their parents are called filial children. Consider the case of two sons: one had been pious and the other impious until their parents' dying day, but in the parents' dying moments the filial son becomes impious while his brother repents and turns pious; in that moment their positions will be reversed. In that event, the standard of his actions on that one final day would allow him to be elevated and have the title of filial son conferred upon him. Those who pursue their goals unerringly to the end of their days will inherit glory. (64-75, 1972.10.24)
This era requires people whose hearts are burning with desire to fulfill their filial duty. It requires people who will risk their lives for Heaven and strive for Heaven. I think these people will be called Heaven's Revolutionary Soldiers of the Last Days.
God will be looking for individuals, families, peoples and nations who are one with His ideology in seeking to fulfill their responsibility to the world. God has long sought such individuals. Such people must comfort God's heart and demonstrate loyalty and filial piety before Heaven, and resolve all the circumstances of Heaven and Earth. So you have to become a person to whom God can say, "You are the person who can take responsibility for this age. When I see you, I have hope for tomorrow. You can achieve the victory in today's fight." This kind of individual is absolutely essential.
God must be able to say to that kind of person, "You are truly the bone of my bones, the flesh of my flesh, and the heart of my heart." (15-216, 1965.10.10)
God's will for the world and God's love for the world have to be passed down. This must be your legacy even if you die. All you need to realize is that people who devote their lives to bequeath this tradition will become filial children and patriots. We do not need a one-day filial son, or a one-day patriot. Even the most evil robber can become a filial son for a day and anybody can also become a patriot for a day. If you repent immediately, you can still become filial children and patriots. God wants people who live as filial children and patriots from the moment they are born to the day they die.
If you compare yourself to me, then I am probably a more filial child of God than you are. The reason is that I have lived my whole life in the way that God wants. Yet, I would not even dream of assuming that I have fully carried out my filial obligations. In fact, I feel ever more inadequate with the passage of time. When people think they have fully discharged their duties of filial piety and loyalty, they actually cease to become filial children and patriots.
The person who complains, saying, "I am a filial child. I am a patriot. Why do you not recognize me?" is the person who is retreating. You must understand that Heaven's filial child and Heaven's patriot is the person who realizes, as time goes on, how much more of his filial duty remains to be fulfilled. He then renews his commitment and goal to fulfill his filial duty as his life's philosophy. (35-341, 1970.11.1)
I am not suggesting that we now need to learn about a God who is in a state of happiness. You may or may not want to do that. It is not important. What we have to know first is that we have to become filial children, patriots and virtuous women. The person who is to establish filial piety emerges out of difficulties. Loyalty is not fulfilled when a country is in a comfortable position. Loyalty is not realized when the country is enjoying prosperity and its people are well off. A person can only be called a patriot of the nation when, at the time of his nation's greatest crisis, its gravest peril, he asks, "Will you die or will I die? Will the whole country perish or survive?" If, at this moment, he dedicates himself wholeheartedly, risks his life, fulfills his duty and successfully alters the destiny of his country, then he can be called a patriot. The historical records show that it is in the times of difficulty that the great names appear. These loyal, filial and virtuous people are remembered forever. (151-219, 1962.12.15)
You are to unify the spiritual and physical worlds, which are separated. You must know that it is the duty of filial children to then liberate God after having accomplished all this. (115-160, 1981.11.8)
You can only become divine sons and daughters if you attend God in accordance with the law of the royal palace. These are the stages that people must go through.
The filial child is welcomed by the nation; the patriot is welcomed by the saint, and the saint by the divine child. The divine child in turn is welcomed by God. The marrow of all this is true love. It is unchanging and absolute true love.
However, humankind has been wandering about in ignorance of true love and the fact that it establishes the ties that bind absolute filial children, absolute patriots, absolute saints, absolute divine children and absolute parents, and sons and daughters together. You may do all kinds of things, but once you realize this, you still have to go the way of following heavenly principles. Thus, you cannot continue to wander about. (206-62, 1990.10.3)
The conclusion is that without true love there is no such thing as a filial child. At the moment, people have inherited the tradition of secular love, false love. So they presently enjoy free sex and whatnot based on secular love. What they are doing is breaking down all the foundations of love, filial piety and loyalty.
It is only when you stand in front of God for the first time, having fulfilled your duty as filial sons and daughters, as true patriots, as true saints and as true divine sons and daughters centering on the absolute love emanating from the Heavenly Nation, that you can receive your inheritance from God. For the individual family to receive this inheritance, it will do so by automatically growing bigger, adding to it everything in the future country, in the future world and in the future heavenly nation. (286-300, 1997.8.13)
Your grandfather and grandmother may spit at you, your mother may ignore you and your brothers may treat you with indifference, but still you should take care of your grandparents and pay attention to all the rest of the family. When you can give in this way, and forget that you have given, you will then take your place among the ranks of filial children that will be remembered by successive generations.
Someone who says, "I am a filial child. I am doing this and that to become a filial child" is a fake filial child. People who live for others and forget that they have done so will take their places among the ranks of filial children.
What kind of person is a patriot? It is someone who, among all the cabinet members, prepares rice cakes and other things and brings them to the king out of love. It is someone who, seeing the attendants of the king and queen fail in their responsibility, will not sit still but rather points out the failing and does a better job in performing those duties. He will teach them to create a more conducive working environment and then forget about having done all that. (204-94, 1990.7.1)
The heavenly mind of those who are devoted to their parents is drawn into the parents in the same way that the blood flows from the heart through the arteries and returns to it through the veins. If the family stands at the top, then the power of love based on heavenly principles flows out through the arteries and returns through the veins. You do not see it; it just moves naturally. Does the blood flow in the veins by being pulled up on its own or by being pushed up? It is pushed up. Similarly, even if you do not want to receive the blessing, you will. It is like being in the blood stream where even if you resist, you will gradually moved into the big heart. Even if you do not want any blessing, blessings will certainly come to you. That is why you have to do your best to fulfill your filial duty.
The Unification Church teaches people to fulfill their filial duty. If you do not have a mother or father that you can be dutiful to, then live for the country. When your country is in danger, then you have to fulfill your duty to your country even if it means leaving your mother and father behind. If your mother and father oppose you, then secretly pack your bags and go to the front line. If you die there, you have fulfilled your duties of filial piety and loyalty. (147-306, 1986.10.1)
The filial child is the person who can accept what he dislikes more than what he likes. The person who sacrifices his precious love in order to fulfill his filial duty to his parents will be able to go anywhere in Heaven, and if there are twelve pearly gates, then not one of them will be blocked to him. All the gates will be wide open. When my son Heung-jin died, I sent him to the spirit world and decided that Jesus should be called the Old Christ and Heung-jin should be called the New Christ. This is how it has turned out. (163-264, 1987.5.1)
A father who is filial to his own father will want his own son to be even more filial than he is. Only then, can the grandfather and father be able to close their eyes peacefully when they die. The heart that is able to make the son suffer even more than I have is the heart of love for the son.
This goes without saying. By doing this, then together we have to comfort God, who has been suffering for us. Because a father needs such children as his successors, he lets them carry out their filial duty to such a degree that he could not forget it even after his death. That is why I impose great hardship on you. (43-60, 1971.4.18)
Parents with a filial child are people who can relate to and live for their loving filial child. No third party can interfere in this relationship. This is why God sends His loving child to the position of death and then turns a blind eye to what is happening -- this act allows Heaven to bring forth a true filial child and establish a deep relationship as a final condition that cannot be violated by Satan or people who act deviously. This is the heart of God who is trying to restore people who have become unfilial; and it is the guiding method that God uses to re-establish the duty of filial piety. This is surely true. (62-47, 1972.9.10)
The first couple of God's ideal should have returned glory to Him; yet through the Fall they brought sorrow instead of glory. This was not just the responsibility of Adam and Eve; it was also due to the archangel's disloyalty. The archangel should first have fulfilled his duty of loyalty and filial piety toward God. The Fall came about because he failed to do so. Consequently, the providence of restoration is to establish loyalty, filial piety, and virtue.
Because God installed loyalty, filial piety, and virtue in the center of our minds, all religions and paths of faith are destined to uphold them. All the ascetics have striven to achieve this, and even Jesus sought to have a family so as to establish the way of loyalty, filial piety, and virtue.
God founded the nation of Israel for the sake of establishing such a family. Jesus should first have established the way of loyalty, filial piety, and virtue. The high priest should then have established loyalty, filial piety, and virtue, and then Satan would have been subjugated. Our Blessed Families should not be outdone by others in exemplifying loyalty, filial piety, and virtue. All these qualities begin at home. The Blessing signifies inheriting the hope of the Father.
Until now there have been families that demonstrated loyalty and filial piety before God, but not virtue. He cannot establish virtue before we usher in God's Day. Moreover, as long as the condition for Satan to invade remains, virtue will not be established (14-209, 1964.11.4)
In order to understand God's heart, we ought to go in search of a country that has been struck by adversity and which is facing difficult circumstances, and espouse its cause. This must be done. Even from a principled viewpoint, we are required to establish the way of loyalty and filial piety in at least three countries.
Now in Korea when you determine to attend me, and fulfill your duty of loyalty and filial piety to Heaven, you should not think that this loyalty and filial piety that you are practicing is for you alone. You should pray to God, "Father, I am offering my loyalty and filial piety first for this race, first for the world, first for heaven and earth. Please let it remain as belonging to heaven, and belonging to earth."
Then even after your death your loyalty and filial piety will remain as that which belongs to heaven and to earth. Humankind will pass this tradition down as that which belongs to earth. That is how it is. (155-235, 1965.10.31)
Why was Jesus unable to personally teach Heaven's laws enabling us to attend our Parent, namely God? Originally, if there had been no fall, then God would have become Adam's parent, but their father-son relationship was severed by the Fall. In order to restore through indemnity Adam's inability to discharge his duties of loyalty and filial piety required of the father-son relationship, we are now doing it in his stead. God is unable to teach us from the parents' position before this is accomplished. (15-219, 1965.10.10)
Let us compare two people. One is a devoted son who lives his life according to how his parents think. The other is unable to fulfill his filial duty to his parents immediately, because he is doing his best for the restoration of their nation in accordance with the wishes of his people. He is waiting impatiently for that one moment when he can do his best for the sake of the world, while deferring his filial family duties to the future. It is the latter person who is more needed by the world. Viewed from this perspective, we can say that religion has come to represent striving for the future, being loyal to the nation of the future, and firmly establishing the foundation of filial piety for the future. (27-307, 1969.12.28)
We believe in God who wants to realize one world, a world of one purpose. Since God is Jehovah and Lord of all nations, and the center of all centers, when we face Him from afar, we want to be His loyal subjects. We were born for this duty and responsibility. Understand that as we draw near to Him, He becomes our Father to whom we owe the duty of filial piety as His sons and daughters. That is our priority. Only when you have lived like that can you say to God, "If you want to send me to hell, send me there. If you want to send me to Heaven, send me there. Do as you please." Nobody went to hell after living like that. (154-314, 1964.10.5)
An heir of the heart is not an heir who just talks, or someone who merely appears to be an heir, or one who is having a good time; but rather the one who takes ownership of his parents' sadness and suffering, agonizes and grieves in place of his father, and struggles to establish the way to manifest the duty of loyalty and filial piety before Heaven. Only such people can stand before Heaven. (9-30, 1960.4.3)
Since God is a being who forgets Himself and cares for people, someone who does likewise is His filial child. You have to know this definition clearly. We are people who start out on the path of filial children, progressing by way of the path of loyal subjects or patriots, to reach the path of divine sons and daughters. We are not aspiring to achieve sainthood. Based on such contents, by fulfilling the duty of divine sons and daughters through the duties of filial children and loyal subjects, then what nation would we end up with? The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. A country which lives in this way will go to heaven just as it is. What I mean to say is that putting this into practice was God's ideal of creation. (133-241, 1984.7.19)
Pray for your brothers and sisters with the heart of loving the nations of the world. Only in this way can you appear before God's royal presence with the status of divine sons and daughters following their Parents. (283-77, 1997.4.8)
Those who can discharge their filial duties by devoting themselves to their parents, who can discharge their conjugal duties to their spouse within their families, and who can fulfill the obligations of loyal subjects to their sovereign, are the leaders of their families and nation. When such a spirit wells up from within your innermost self and harmonizes with your body so that even Satan comes to respect and follow you, then for the first time you can step forward as the people who seek and establish God's Kingdom and righteousness. (3-131, 1957.10.13)
Eight stages of purity signify fulfilling the duties of chastity, pure lineage, pure love, pure filial piety, pure loyalty, pure saints, pure divine sons and daughters, pure marriage and pure family. (400-155, 2002.11.5)
The reason for becoming a filial son or daughter is to create a stepping stone to the way of a patriot, becoming a patriot is the stepping stone toward becoming a saint, and becoming a saint is the stepping stone on the path to becoming a divine child. Only by passing through those levels can one reach heaven and become the son, the divine child, of God. Then, when one returns home, it is possible to realize the heavenly kingdom on earth. (274-114, 1995.10.29)
Those who live comfortably at home are fools. They inevitably have to remain within the bounds of the family-level heaven. That is exactly how it is. That is why your families have to become representative and central families. You must walk the path of filial sons and daughters, patriots, saints, and divine sons and daughters. That is the path you must inevitably walk.
That is why you must be filial sons and daughters in your families. You must be patriots in your nations. To be patriots, you must not stray from that dutiful path from the time you are born. You should maintain your focus day and night. My focus on God's will has never faltered throughout my life. I continue whether I am awake or asleep. I will keep going forever. (283-77, 1997.4.8)
Do western people have the concept of filial piety? They do not have the concept of patriots. They do not have the concept of saints. They do not have the concept of divine sons and daughters. That is why they are in decline. (285-218, 1997.5.19)