True Loyalty and Filial Piety
Section 1. True Loyalty and Filial Piety Means Taking Initiative in Difficulty Those responsible people who are equal to the task of fulfilling the way of filial piety when they are in a difficult situation, rather than those who want to fulfill the way of filial piety in an easy situation, are the sons and daugh- ters that we can say are truly walking along the path of filial piety. From this perspective, because God worries over global problems, then, if there is a per- son who wants to take responsibility for global problems, it goes without say- ing that this person can be recognized by God before any other race or anyone
else in the world. We can therefore conclude that a filial son or daughter is a person who, representing others, wants to bear responsibility for the wretched situation of his or her parents. The way of putting aside the good things, if there’s something good, and always wanting to bear responsibility for the bad things, is the way a devoted child must go. (62-23, 1972.9.10)
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)
Do not become like your ancestors throughout history and go to the spirit world with regret, saying, “Oh dear, what have I done?” In order to finish everything in our lifetime, and not leave such a legacy to our descendants, we have the responsibility to unite and become one, and, in fulfilling these things, make the foundation of loyalty and filial piety on the national level. You should know that this is the way that the Unification Church must go at this present time. What a blessing it is to be in a position to become filial sons and daughters without being told what to do, to bear responsibility for taking revenge on the enemy Satan, and to indemnify everything yourselves without receiving God’s directions or command! I want to ask you, who know such things and care about your responsibility in this age and for this generation, to go forward to fight with a grateful heart for being in such a position, and from now on as you go forward, when you come across the question, “What shall I do?” do not give up until you can say, “I have become a patriot and a child of filial piety.” Do not collapse, but absolutely win the victory and move forward. (153-110, 1963.10.24)
Section 2. True Loyalty and Filial Piety Establish the Family and Perfect the Parents and the Nation 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)
In order to become heavenly royalty, you must first become filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. The training ground for this is the family. The ideal Kingdom of Heaven comes about when the perfected family expands. The family is always the center. The problem boils down to two people: a man and a woman. When an ideal man and an ideal woman come together as husband and wife, and form a family, then everything is completed. The ideal family expands to become a nation and world. Through serving in the family and respecting your parents, you become children of filial piety. In the same way, when you attend and live for the king of your nation, you become patriots, and if you live for all humankind, you become saints. So you should realize how much the dimension of a holy child differs from yours. In order for you to change, you must make revolutionary changes in yourselves and ascend through numerous levels. (293-211, 1998.5.26)
God does not just want filial sons and daughters. He wants a filial family. You must understand that He wanted a family of patriots. He wanted a family of saints. He wanted a family of divine sons and daughters. This is His anguish. Hasn’t everyone who died, and went to the spirit world, lived a single life until now? Although 3,600 years have passed since Moses went to the spirit world, it is said that he has always had a woman standing by him, attending him. When she asked him why he didn’t marry, his reply was that God had said to just wait a little more. Nobody can do as they please. (297-204, 1998.11.20)
If the son advises and teaches his parents to love their country so that they become patriots, and makes them a mother and father whom heaven remembers, is he a filial or unfilial son? So, rather than a son who says to his parents, “Mom, Dad, don’t go out! Just rest at home.” he should say, “Mom, Dad, what are you doing? Please, let’s try together to find even one more person who can be a patriot, who can work for the unification of North and South Korea, who can work to save North Korea.” Then he makes them shed tears, blood and sweat. Then what would you think if the people in the neighborhood were to praise this achievement? Would the parents say, “You scoundrel, you really made your mother and father’s life difficult, so at first we thought you were a bad boy. Yet we became successful and are praised by everyone. My! You really are a filial son.” Do you think the parents would say this, or would they say, “You are an unfilial son”? What do you think? (209-266, 1990.11.30)
If your mother and father are disloyal to God’s will, then you should counsel them. “Mother, Father, why are you acting in this way? The way of God’s will is such and such, and God’s will is like this, so why are you acting the way you are? You should be going out like this – what are you up to? What are you doing fighting every day?” You have to try to persuade them. This is the right thing to do. It’s a big problem if your mother and father go the wrong way. (100-153, 1978.10.9)
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)
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)
Section 3. True Loyalty and Filial Piety Is Being Obedient and Loving Others Filial sons and daughters must ful- fill 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 aboutface, 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)
Filial children are people who have loved their parents and brothers and sisters. The child who lives the most for others, and who loves the most, will become the heir of the family. So, you should all try to go that way. Today, the way of true love is the mainstream of all ideal action. True love is the mainstream. Everything outside of this is secondary. That is why it is good to tell people to become filial children. Today, people say there is a generation gap between the mother’s generation and the younger generation, but that is nonsense. Is there a generation gap between the love in the mother’s generation and that of the young generation? Should a woman live alone? Should a man live alone? That is ridiculous. Even though you’ve been together with someone for a year, you might say, “I wish you could stay for another day.” These words are really precious. If the husband and wife live to be a hundred, is there a wife who says, “Oh, I wish I could live for one hour longer?” Have you become that kind of wife? Have you become that kind of husband? Have you become that kind of brother or sister? Sometimes, families split up over a very small amount of money. If a brother says, “Brother, you are you, and I am me. I lent you a million won, so why don’t you pay me back? I don’t like love or anything else. Money is the most important thing!” Then he is losing all the blessing he was born with. Let us say he was born with the fortune to become a millionaire or a billionaire. If he had love, then all the blessings of the universe would have come and built a nest for him; but instead the universe will run away without pity, saying, “My! What a miser he is!” This is the reason people like filial children. (141-298, 1986.3.2)
In order to follow the path of loving the parents, there must be filial children. In order to go the way of loving the nation, there must be patriots. In order to go the way of loving the world, there must be people who are like saints. All of you have many sons and daughters, but who is the best of them all? The one who has the deepest bond of love with you is the filial child. Centering on the most devoted of filial children, parents decide the direction that they will go. (136-205, 1985.12.29)
Filial children are those who would love and embrace their parent as their own baby even if he or she became incontinent or worse. Such children will go to heaven. (116-86, 1981.12.20)
Among your sons and daughters, there is a filial child, an ordinary child and an unfilial child. There are three kinds of children. I conclude that if you want to become the most filial child, you must compete against God and not lose. So what must you do? You must become people who, more than the saints and sages or anyone else throughout history who has come and gone, have no doubt at all about God’s will. You must say to God, “Father, even if you were to say something unbelievable to me that could separate us, I would believe it. Even if you did something unbelievable, I would believe you. Even if you changed from being a loving parent into the most evil parent who whips me, I would respect you with a heart greater than that of a filial child.” God would expect this. (73-59, 1974.7.29)
A filial son cannot sleep, even if his parents are sleeping. After I slept, I led my life repenting as a sinner for having slept. Even after eating, I would feel sorry. In the end, how should we walk the path of filial piety? From this perspective, I am a crazy person. Did I take care of my parents? Did I take care of my wife, my children or my brothers and sisters? Did I take care of my relatives? Did I take care of my country? Actually, I never forgot my country. I was working for my country on a higher level… The tears I cried for Korea during the Japanese rule… they are tears that could compare with any patriot’s. (62-58, 1972.9.10)
If the parents realize that they must go this way, even though they might die, then they must bring their sons and daughters to God’s side. The reason why parents don’t fulfill their parental duty is because they do not know what it is. If they know what it is, then they must do it, even if it means standing as a sacrificial offering. Even if it is necessary to whip their children to bring them back to God, this can be thought of as good. So, if the parents act in the right way, there is no such thing as “no salvation for their child.” (15-202, 1965.10.9)