Something To Consider On True Parents' Day
We All Want True Parents.
We all need the unconditional love of parents. We know that the role of a parent holds great importance in shaping our lives. Parental love is undying. A 90-year old mother will still fuss over her 70-year old son as her baby, and even though we may pride ourselves on our independence, we all long for the comfort and guidance of parental figures. We simply wouldn’t exist without them.
But the reality we live in today is different from all that we may wish for in a family. Many of us experience some form of breakdown in the family. So much so, that it has become the norm. Through these challenges we are forced to look out for ourselves and may even lose hope in ever healing our family. As if to protect ourselves from further pain, we might even try to diminish the importance of family or the ideal of parental love in the first place. Shouldn’t we ask then, what is the true meaning of parents? What was the original heart of God and what kind of tradition of parenting did God envision?
Parent’s Love is God’s love that Yearns for a Family
Ultimately, parents reflect God’s love. That’s how we are first introduced to God’s love, a true love.
Reverend Moon explains that even God is longing for true love, “When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually rejoicing in each other’s company. True love, the love that is God’s essence, is Heaven’s only governing power. Accordingly, God also exists for true love.”
Because God’s heart possesses both masculine and feminine qualities, the best expression of that heart is revealed through the parental love of a father and mother. The expression of their love for each other and their unconditional love for us as their children is a love that we would never want to leave.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon describes the ideal of love in the family beautifully, “By having their own children, couples can build a true family in which God fully lives and in which God’s true love is completely practiced and expressed in four different forms: conjugal love, parental love, children’s love, and siblings’ love. It goes without saying that all four expressions of love—as long as they are true love—have one thing in common: you will love each other in a way that continually gives without measure. When all members of a true family unite with one another in this way, they become one in heart despite their discrete individualities. To experience this provides the best education on how to relate to various people outside of the family. Hence a true family is an indispensable school of true love for the creation of a true world, in which the true love of God has absolute dominion.”
Becoming True Parents
The concept of True Parents sounds wonderful, but what about those of us who have not been able to fully experience this type of love? How do we fill the shoes of the parents God intended for us to be? How can we bring God to our children if we are still struggling from a lack of love in ourselves? Even in the so-called healthy families of today, we see that it’s hard to always be good parents, good siblings and good sons and daughters. Why do we argue and grow impatient? Why do we act upon selfishness or make the same bad choices our parents made despite vowing not to? The reality is that no one is entirely free from these struggles. So then, what is it that has us bound to these cycles of dysfunction?
These problems are deeply rooted in the way we think and behave, and they trace back to our earliest ancestors, “who should have become True Parents by becoming one with God’s love; but instead,” explains Reverend Moon, “all humankind is born in sorrow, suffers in sorrow and struggles to recapture the original world. Because of that, perfection has always eluded humans.”
Bringing this realization back to our families today, and seeking to uproot the original causes of this conflict, Reverend and Mrs. Moon have made it their lifetime mission to stand with each other, and hold the hands of humanity to set a foundation for True Parents as a new beginning where all of us can reach for an ideal family rooted to the original purpose of our lives. That is why we refer to Reverend and Mrs. Moon “True Parents”. They have stood for this ideal, even going beyond the concern for their own personal family to pioneer a world where all children can be reborn in God’s love and to create a place where peace is truly possible, a world where all of us can become True Parents.
True Parent’s Day
Every year, Unificationists celebrate True Parents’ Day. Throughout history, no one on earth has celebrated this day, which stands out from many other celebrations in the world because this one, in particular, is a day for God as our ultimate parent to experience joy with His and Her children. This day represents the day of God’s joy when, after creating all things, we were given the blessing to love the world with God’s parental love as True Parents.
This celebration is also a reminder to put true love into practice as True Parents have all of their lives. Many of us struggle to keep to a few New Year’s resolutions, but imagine trying to tackle not only your own problems, but the world’s. When we reflect on how many fundamental problems we face around the world today, can you imagine how immense the challenges are to be sensitive to God’s heart about all things? Can you imagine feeling responsible to help bring about a world of peace in as many areas of the world as possible? It is no wonder then, that Father and Mother Moon have inspired millions around the world, even going beyond the boundaries of any one religion to inspire a world of peace. Take a look at the timeline of Father Moon’s life course, and Mother Moon’s life course, and consider what kind of love and determination it would take to fill their shoes just for a day.