Book Fourteen - A Life Of True Filial Piety
Chapter Seven - God and True Parents
Section 2. Loyalty to True Parents Is Loyalty to God

Humankind is faced with the plight of being children of filial impiety. People are the chief culprits who brought about unhappiness. Having been unspeakably impious toward God, such children must occupy the position that will enable them to become filial sons and daughters, and recover their dignity before Heaven.

Unification Church members are proud of themselves, saying that they have pledged to become filial sons and daughters of Heaven. However, we need to dispassionately undertake a critical reappraisal of ourselves. We have to ask ourselves how much our hands have become the hands of a filial child that Heaven longs for, and how much our faces have become the faces of filial children that Heaven can long for.

If we ask ourselves whether or not we have personally become the catalyst of filial piety, overcoming whatever adversities we may face, day or night, and whether or not we have succeeded in resembling our Father who has toiled relentlessly in order to allow us to pioneer the way of filial piety, we do not have that confidence. (60-19, 1972.8.1)

Those who want to become filial children must become people who come forth to take responsibility for all their parents' suffering, or choose the most difficult path to go in place of their parents. If there are parents who want to make a filial child out of their errant son, what would they make him do? They will probably give him the most challenging tasks. Out of all his brothers, they will choose the most difficult things for him to do, ordering him, "Hey you. Come and do this!"

The one who comes with the name of the filial son without equal is the Messiah. The one who comes with the name of the filial daughter without equal is his Bride. Since Jesus is a man, are we to call all women his brides? Are there many brides? There is but one. Everyone can compete to become the Bride. (62-41, 1972.9.10)

If filial sons have already existed in the history of your hometown, you have to supersede them all as the great king of filial sons. If there have been loyal subjects, then you should surpass them as the great king of loyal subjects. Yet, however much one may become a filial child or loyal subject, without having a horizontal relationship with True Parents, it would serve no purpose. It is only when the True Parent becomes the horizontal Father on the horizontal level that the vertical Father appears. When the absolute minus appears, then the absolute plus comes looking for it. (177-347, 1988.5.22)

The True Parents are the ones who have fulfilled the traditional duties of children of filial piety in the family, patriots or loyal subjects in the nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth. Without such a concept, you cannot stand before God as the filial child that He desires in the family or as the patriot that He desires in the nation that is formed centering on God, or as the saint that He desires in the world; and you cannot attend the divine son, who can become the filial son of heaven and earth.

That is why each of us, in order to restore the satanic world through indemnity, has to fulfill these four main conditions and dedicate them before Heaven. Divine sons and daughters must observe both heavenly and earthly royal etiquette and palace protocol, as well as laws governing both the heavenly and the earthly nation. God's Kingdom, too, has its own palace and nation.

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 the 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)

I am eagerly awaiting the appearance of people who pledge to fulfill their duty of loyalty and filial piety to God across the length and breadth of the Korean peninsula, on behalf of the thirty million Korean people. I had already pledged this before you were even conceived, and I had already trodden this path when you were not thinking of doing it even in your wildest dreams. If you say you are a person of many tears, then I will say that I have shed more tears than any of the thirty million people of this race. Just having someone come to me and saying one word can cause me to burst into uncontrollable tears.

I am a very pitiful person from the worldly point of view. How pitiful am I? However wide heaven and earth may be, I have no place where I can lay my mind to rest. I can understand Jesus' heart when he said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (13-35, 1963.10.16)

Have you shown filial piety to me as you would to your Heavenly Parents? I am telling you that countless filial children in the satanic world, who have come and gone, have had monuments built to their memory in their countries. When have you fulfilled your duty as patriots? You cannot become a filial child or patriot before you have offered your life all the way up to your dying day. I wanted that kind of person, which is why I educated you; nevertheless, you have fallen short of the standard.

When have you loved your country in the true sense of the word? When have you loved your brothers and sisters in the true sense of the word? When have you loved me in the true sense of the word? When have you loved my family in the true sense of the word? According to the principle of restoration through indemnity, do you not have to be better than any other filial child or patriot? Isn't that what the Principle teaches you? Have you attained that standard? You must know this. (68-268, 1973.8.5)

Why are you unable to be loyal to the point of getting gnarled hands in carrying out my orders? Why are you not able to make such a historical condition that will cause those who see you and hear your testimony to get all choked up, and burst into tears, even though what I am asking you to do is quite simple and easy?

I am asking you why you have not practiced filial piety before your parents on behalf of your family, and not practiced loyalty to your nation, and why you have not fulfilled all your responsibilities to Heaven, in spite of having been given the absolute chance to go forth with the authority of historical victory, and unconditionally inherit all the great accomplishments of Heaven. Only when you have accomplished that, will there be no one to block you when you go from the earth through your nation to Heaven.

Satan has blocked the level of the family. However perfect a person may have become on the individual level, it is of no use if he is unfilial to his parents. This is how it is: no matter how filial a person may have been in his family, his piety is of no use if he is disloyal to his country; and no matter how loyal a person is to his country, if he is disloyal to humankind, then he will be unable to go to Heaven. (158-143, 1967.12.26)

Even if you have been impious and failed to love Mother Nature, your birth parents, or the spirit world and God, by virtue of attending me as your True Parent, you will receive the qualification of a filial child. That is why you have to follow me dauntlessly. (105-112, 1979.9.30)

Do they not say that young people in this world cannot forget their first love? As none of you have been married, you may not know it, but I am telling you that first love is unforgettable. The relationship between God and humankind is that of parent and child, and God can never disown those sons and daughters who are remembered as having practiced filial piety. This is because they stood in a better position than Adam and Eve. Did Adam and Eve become filial children? They did not. What is the path of becoming a filial child? In order to tread that path, it is necessary to live according to the will of the Father. A person who is not doing so cannot become a filial child. (57-153, 1972.5.31)

In order to fulfill your duty of filial piety to your Parent who has been toiling strenuously for you, you must first console Him with your tears and then take the cross off His back and go forth, bearing it with dignity. With the heart of proclaiming the fact that the path of the cross God trod for His children has been miserable, you must stand in the position in which you are able to say, "Father, please don't suffer anymore. Father, please don't worry about me anymore!" Don't you think this is the face of the filial child who can stand before God, our Parent, who has been agonizing sorrowfully until now? When I think of it this way, I realize the fact that we, today, have been too brazen and arrogant before God. (31-35, 1970.4.12)

Move with the awareness that when it comes to attending the True Parents on behalf of heaven and earth, you will become people of even greater loyalty and filial piety than any of your ancestors in history or anyone from any other time in history. Then Heaven and all the people around you will be influenced and unite with you. (275-187, 1995.12.8)

Be loyal to your society, your church, and your family. What kind of place is the church? It is the place that helps you to form and nurture your character. Due to the Fall, the church is needed. It does not stop at the family and society. The restoration of character does not happen by itself. Graduating with a doctorate from some university does not mean that your character has been restored. That is why we need the church.

Then where should you practice loyalty? Do so in your church before your family. Do so in your church before your society. The church is the subject; the family and society are the objects. Where does the wise person stand? He does not stand in the position of the object partner, but in that of the subject partner. The position of the subject partner is but one.

The object has to revolve three hundred sixty degrees through the four cardinal points of north, south, east and west; but the subject has no other place but the center. There is only one absolute point in the center, not two. Can there be two points in the center? If the center moves about, there is great potential for failure. (25-126, 1969.9.30)

To become the president, one must prepare a foundation accordingly. Even someone who is born as crown prince must first learn all the relevant laws, rules and regulations in order to become king. So now you must not just talk but also participate in the final course of human history. Then God will stamp you with His seal of approval, "You have been a filial child," and send you to heaven as a filial child of the heavenly nation. How amazing is this love? What did I say was the foundation for this? It is Home Church. The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where filial children will enter.

A villainous son, however much a son he may be, will not enter. To go in with the name of a filial child, doing Home Church is to receive that stamp of approval. (122-124, 1982.11.1)

People who just live comfortably within their families are fools. They can only stay within the confines of the family Kingdom of Heaven. That is why I am telling you to become representative and central families. That is why I am telling you that the way of filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters is the path you must take. Naturally, it is the path you must inevitably follow.

This is why you are to become filial children in the family. Next, you are to become patriots in the nation. From the time of their birth, loyal subjects or patriots do not stray from their duty. They must proceed, remaining focused night or day. Throughout my life, whether asleep or awake, I never lost my focus on God's will. Rising from my bed, I keep going. For a thousand years and even ten thousand years, I keep going. It is because I have gained this kind of victory that I am able to tell you that, even if you had been unable to fulfill your responsibilities as tribal messiahs, you can still wipe out all your past mistakes by fulfilling your responsibilities as national messiahs. This is where you should become filial children and patriots. 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)

I shouldered the nation. On that path, you are meritorious subjects. For that reason, you have to understand that we are treading the path in order to pave the way of the filial child, the virtuous woman, and the loyal subject. This is the mission of the tribal messiah. The position of the filial son is in relation to his family, the virtuous woman's position is in relation to her couple, and the loyal subject or patriot's position is that of the parents representing the country. By becoming loyal subjects, patriots, you will represent the position of parents by being connected with the nation. (220-153, 1991.10.16)

God shed many tears for me. You did not know that, did you? Among all of you, where are the filial sons and daughters who make me shed many tears? That is what I desire. I have not been able to find such people until now. This is a serious matter. (256-26, 1994.3.12)