Guidance for Heavenly Tradition Volume 3

by Rev. Young Hwi Kim
Chapter 37
March 11, 1985

The True Way of Filial Piety
(To Japanese Members)

I would like to speak about our relationship to God this morning. We have learned through the Principle of Creation and Father's speeches that the core of God's ideal is the parent-child relationship. God created the whole universe centered on this ideal. Thus the parent- child relationship is the most important aspect of our life of faith. We have many activities everyday; prayer, study and witnessing or fund raising. The purpose of these activities is to establish the proper parent-child relationship with God, our Heavenly Father.

If God is our parent then we should resemble Him, otherwise we cannot say we are His children. Thus the most important thing in life is to become a man who resembles God. It's easy to say we are children of God, but when asked if we are truly children of God, i.e. if we truly resemble God, it's difficult to answer with confidence. We must realize that in order to become God's children we must be people who resemble God. Then who resembles God? True Parents are God's representatives and resemble Him. So how can we become people who resemble True Parents? This is the same as becoming people who resemble God.

You have many brothers and sisters, yet even you who were born of the same parents have many different characters. One may be good at music, another at writing and still another in the field of science. Everyone is different. What I mean is that we must become children who resemble God not so much in external talent or ability, but in essence; man's heart must resemble God's. So the most important thing in our life of faith is to know God's character and what character He wants us to have. This is the most important aspect of our life of faith. No matter how wonderfully we speak, our words have no value if we lack this essence. Also no matter how hard we work and no matter how much ability we have if we lack the essence of God, our work has little value. Many heroes have existed throughout history, but they acted without any connection to God and therefore as time passes they will be forgotten.

Then what is the essence of God? What is it that God wants man to inherit? I'd like to speak about that now. We often say that someone is good or bad. How can we differentiate? What determines whether someone is good or bad? We say that if a person's heart is good, he is a good person. Good heart comes from God. Therefore a good man is a person who has God's heart. In the true sense such a person is a good man. If someone is externally beautiful, but doesn't have God's heart, he isn't a good man. The ultimate purpose of our life of faith is to become a man who has the same heart as God.

Then how is God's heart manifested? Through love; God's heart is manifested through His love. Where there is no heart there can be no love. How can God love all mankind and the universe? Because He has a parental heart. Parents love their children automatically. Parental love stems from parental heart, which is the heart to sacrifice anything for the sake of one's child. Because God has such a heart, He loves mankind despite the incredible suffering He has had to bear in order to save us.

We must become people who possess the parental heart and love of God; we should inherit this from God. This should be man's basic nature. No matter what great things we accomplish or how beautiful we are, if we cannot inherit God's heart and love, we have no value as a man. The primary goal of our life of faith then is to become a man who possesses the heart and love of God. We must fight for this because this is the most important point in our life of faith. In reality, however, we often focus on other things.

I have illustrated that the most important thing for us to inherit is God's heart and love. This comes first; it is the essence of a true man. What should we inherit next? God's wisdom. The main difference between man and animal is that men have wisdom. What is wisdom? It isn't the ability to invent or discover new things, but the knowledge of man's true essence. Animals don't know their own parents. Men are different, man has the ability to know and understand his parents.

Since God is man's parent, man should have the wisdom to know God. But mankind lost this knowledge through the fall, forgetting that God is his parent. He lost the fundamental wisdom he originally should have had: the most important wisdom of all. No matter how much worldly knowledge we gain, if we lack this fundamental wisdom, our knowledge is worthless. The world is developing rapidly and many people are proud of their knowledge, yet if they don't know God is their parent, their knowledge is without root. To know God, to know that He is our parent and to unite with Him in oneness is the greatest and highest wisdom. We must possess this wisdom. Once we clearly know that God is our parent, we will never be able to leave Him, because we will always be thinking of Him. Parents and children are created to have such a relationship, so we would naturally think of our parents all the time and always long for God. When we pray we should have the conviction that God is my parent, otherwise it isn't a prayer in the true sense. Such a prayer is that on an adopted son or a servant, not that of a child of God. It is important that when we pray we do so with the conviction that God is our parent; then God will listen to our prayer more attentively.

We learn from the Principle and the Bible that God created man through His word. So man is the incarnation of God's word. If man hadn't fallen he would have learned God's word directly from God. But because of the fall we lost God's word and became incapable of knowing what God told man. As a result fallen man took a different direction than the one God originally planned. In order for us to become true men, however, we must know God's word. After all God's word is the expression of His ideal and without knowing God's ideal we are incapable of living as He desires. This is why we study the Principle. People have believed in God throughout history, but they never lived as He desired because they didn't know His word or His ideal; man cannot live as God's child without such knowledge. This is why it's so important to know God's word clearly and correctly; we cannot become God's children otherwise. So man will still need to study God's word after the ideal is realized. It will be an important part of his education. Today's education focuses on external knowledge but disregards the essentials. In the future, however, the basic purpose of education will be to teach God's word. Principle education will be the base of all education. First, men must become true men. If a man is false then no matter what he does, his work will go in the wrong direction.

Even though we are fallen men and untrustworthy God still tries to trust us. Our True Father is the same. I've worked with Father for a long time now and I've noticed that an important part of Father's character is that he trusts people. Once Father gives someone an order, he trusts him to carry it out. Even though he may have many shortcomings or made mistakes in the past, Father trusts him enough to give him a mission or some responsibility. He may betray God or Father's trust, but Father will trust him to the end. Father trusts us because he wants us to trust him and become people he can trust. God trusts us not because He wants to be betrayed, but in the hope that we will become people He can trust.

Likewise we should have an attitude of trust. Faith and trust are the same. The mutual trust between God and man is the basis of trust among men. Because faith in God is the basis of trust man not only lost faith in God through the fall, but trust among men as well. The world became a world of mistrust. Where there is no trust there can be neither peace, cooperation nor unity. To keep a promise or to feel we should do so has become strange or abnormal in this fallen world. But true behavior is to keep a promise. This is a fallen world, full of mistrust. So how can we restore trust?

In order to be trustworthy, we must trust in God. This is the first step. If we can't trust God and True Parents, we can't trust anyone. God is absolute, so if we can't trust Him, how can we possibly trust others? We trust our parents and are all children of one parent, so we should be able to trust each other. We should establish such relationships with others that we can trust one another. God wants us to do this. If you are uneasy about trusting someone, something is wrong. We must establish such relationships that we can be secure and calm when we trust someone.

How can we establish such relationships of trust? Both parties must have a certain standard. In order to establish such relationships of mutual trust we must become men and women who possess the essence of God, i.e. His heart, love and wisdom, and we must know God's word.

Only on this foundation can we establish relationships of trust. Then we can trust each other for the first time. We cannot trust fallen people, however, because they don't possess these heavenly qualities. We are trying to learn these qualities all at once, not one by one. Children grow up in the same way, learning God's heart, His word and His wisdom simultaneously.

We know that it is our duty to practice what we have learned. Just thinking about it has no meaning. We must try to fulfill our responsibility, then we can achieve our goal. So in our life of faith it is important to act; God can't do everything Himself. Without fulfilling our responsibility we cannot become perfect men and God's providence cannot be realized. So we have to become men who do as God desires. God works, so in order to be men who resemble God we must work as well. Even though our portion of responsibility is small we must fulfill it ourselves, then we will be men who resemble God.

There is much more to say, but these points I have just mentioned are fundamental. In order to resemble God our parent we must fulfill these requirements, otherwise we cannot establish a true parent-child relationship. God wants to establish this relationship in this world. The important thing is whether we succeed in our life of faith or not. It's easy to say "We must become God's children," but we truly become God's children for the first time when we possess these qualities.

Originally it wouldn't have been so difficult to become God's children. It became difficult because the fallen world is the opposite of the original world. It is often more difficult to correct a mistake than to start over from the beginning. It's difficult to repair an old house; it takes much time and money. It's easier to build a new one from the ground up. Restoring fallen man is similar to renovating an old house. The foundations of the house are in the wrong place, so we have to move them. This is the work of restoration and salvation. It's difficult because we have to remove what was falsely constructed and rebuild it in the right way. This requires much effort. If we'd known everything from the start, it would have been much easier.

This is not because God wants us to suffer, but because of the fall: because our ancestors failed. Some members tend to blame God or True Parents for the difficult path we must endure after joining the church. This is absolutely wrong, God doesn't want us to suffer. No parent rejoices to see his children suffer. We must become children who understand God's suffering heart and console our loving parent who has to watch His children suffer. Such a child is a true child. We must reach that level; then we will have no more complaints. We complain because we don't know God's heart. God and True Parents want to fulfill the providence as soon as possible, even more than we do. But it's not easy. We should feel God and True Parent's suffering heart and become people who can persevere, comforting God and True Parents by saying "Don't worry, please be relieved." This is the true way of filial piety.

We must make effort to gain the conviction that our relationship with God cannot be severed by any power. If we pursue our life of faith in this way, we will surely be victorious children of God. As we continue on the path of God's will let us always be grateful that God gave us this opportunity to gain the things we need to find eternal happiness. Thank you.