3) The True Perspective of Marriage
From the viewpoint of the Principle of Creation or the ideal of creation, marriage should take ace at the level of perfection.
When Adam and Eve realized perfection, they were to come before God to be married. We call this level at which marriage can be held the perfection level. When you reach the perfection level, you have a value similar to becoming physically and spiritually united before God.
Through what is the unity of both the physical and spirit bodies brought about? It is through love.
If Adam and Eve had become mature and united through love, before even appearing before God they each would have realized naturally that they were each other's ideal spouse. If Adam and Eve had realized that they were each other's ideal spouse, then they would have stood at a level of horizontal love. At the point where this horizontal love begins, Adam and Eve will start to adore each other. Therefore, man and woman become perfected when love formed through a reciprocal base is realized on a plane, which then forms a right angle as it connects with God's perpendicular love.
Two people uniting together signifies the same thing as Adam and Eve, who are the dual substantial objects of God uniting together. This is also the same as God's original Sung Sang and original Hyung Sang, i.e., the plus and the minus, coming together.
Originally, if Adam and Eve, with their mind and body completely united, had become perfectly matured vertically, and if they had formed an objective realm by becoming a bride and bridegroom who could come in joy before God, and if they had realized a family of God's love through receiving God's Blessing, this would have been the perfection realm originally meant to be realized in the Garden of Eden. If Adam and Eve had been able to appear in that perfected realm, how would that place be characterized? It would be the place where the Blessing can be given.
The most precious grace of all is God's love. The next is to inherit God's right of creation. As God created Adam and Eve centered on love, it is the children who can inherit the right of creation. Why do you love your children? It is similar to inheriting God's work of creation in the horizontal substantial realm. Therefore, you can feel the happiness which God felt when He created Adam and Eve. Next, in order for God to enable us to have dominion over all things as He does, God gave us the right of dominion in the horizontal position. We call the world which can stand in the proper stage with this right, according to proper order, the ideal heaven. Therefore, you must know that the time of marriage is the time when you inherit God's love, power and the right of re-creation in the perfection realm.
Therefore, the marriage ceremony is the expression of love and at the same time is the ceremony to inherit the right of creation and dominion.
We see marriage as being like the cushion of the universe . . . like a cushion on which you sit. What is the best silk in the universe? Is it yang dan (a kind of expensive silk fabric)? Instead of starting your new married life with a blanket of yang dan and quilt, you should think of loving each other with a blanket of universal yang dan. You should think this way.
A woman is half of the universe. When a woman sticks to a man, 180 degrees and 180 degrees come together, and in order to form a realm equal in value to the universe they have to get married. Thinking of marriage this way, this concept from the Unification Church is so wonderful.
Then what are we to do? Do you like flowers without any fragrance? Flowers without fragrance are not interesting. Would you say, "If I were to become a flower, I would want to become a green flower"? Have you ever seen a green flower? Even when I went to a botanical garden, I could not find a green flower. A flower similar to a leaf does not bloom. By looking at just that, we can say that God exists. Leaves are all green, but have you ever seen a green flower? What is that? There is just one flower which is very close to green. It is the flower of the red pepper. But if you look closely, it is not completely green. It consists of red and other colors. Why is that? It must have that appearance in order to contribute to the harmony of heaven and earth and the law of creation. See! Our perspective of marriage is this wonderful. How wonderful is the perspective of marriage of our Unification Church!
Then does it also contain historical significance? What has God been doing until now while dreaming of this ideal family? God has been searching for this level of man and woman throughout history, but there were none. God could not find anyone who would think this way or even mention these things.
In order for your journey on the road of love to bear fruit, you must understand the situation of the participants -- God, my parents and myself. We all are born with a public purpose; therefore, in order for us to bear fruit, we must base ourselves on a public purpose. There is no other way to be restored to our original birthplace. This is the Unification perspective of marriage.
You must believe that marriage is not for your sake, but for your partner. It is wrong to desire to marry a handsome or beautiful person. If you have understood the basic principle that people are to live for the sake of others, you should know that you will get married for the sake of your spouse. No matter how ugly a person is, you should be determined to try to love him or her more than you love a beautiful person. This is the basic perspective of marriage. If you do not have an established concept that you can love your spouse more than anyone else and think of him or her as God and all humankind, you cannot be restored to the heavenly nation. As a man, if you cannot even love one woman, you will not be able to love God or humankind.
For whom are we to get married? We are to get married for the mutual benefit of all humankind. The husband is a man representing the whole world, and the wife is a woman representing the whole world. Then where is this to begin! It is to start from a place representing the whole world. Marriage is for God's will and is what all humankind publicly hopes for.
The free love rampant in today's world is a trap which Satan made to cause men to fall and to make them unable to come closer to God. Once you are trapped, you can only die or be dominated by Satan. Western people of today, especially in the United States, are unable to form a true family because of the prevalence of free love. The number of people who have failed in their family life is increasing, and the people who are unable to have a family are becoming dominant. I can definitely say with confidence that American society has become a hellish society where love has dried up and where distrust, anxiety and fear are dominant. You must know that you who are living in this age have the responsibility and duty to clean up this society and build one flowing with the love for which God hopes.
Marriage is not for your own sake. If you have a self-centered marriage, your whole family will be destroyed. To want to live a happy life by getting married self-centeredly is just a one-night dream. The problem is your future.
Unificationists of today should not stay still in this present situation, but should develop from now. You should bear offspring with the fortune of the nation and of the world. Marriage is what tries to find people who can create a new nation and new world. Until now, people of this world have said that they will marry for themselves; however, marriage in our Unification Church is a marriage for the sake of the nation and the world.
Why do we get married? We get married for the sake of the nation.
Why do we receive the Blessing? We received the Blessing in order to disseminate it to the whole world.
Korean law forbids marriages between people having the same last name and coming from the same ancestral background, and encourages marriages between people coming from different ancestral backgrounds. This is because Korean people are people who yearn for the unification of their country.
If you look at the old-style Korean marriage ceremony, you will notice that the bride and bridegroom bow down to each other. Do you know why they bow down to each other? It is to pledge to live for the sake of each other. If you do not live for the sake of the other, love will go away.
When a woman goes to live with her in-laws, one may think she is just going to a man because she was born as a woman; another may think she is going in order to save the country. The reason for a woman to get married is not only in order to share happiness together with a man. It is not just to meet one man or for the sake of a family or for the happiness of one woman. Great is the woman who marries for the sake of the nation, thinking she is representing all the women in Korea. Do you understand what I mean?
In the past, there was a woman named Masako who was the wife of King Young Chin. Masako came from Japan to Korea to get married. For what reason could she have come? Was it in order to love a Korean man? It was for the sake of the country. This kind of person is famous in history. This marriage was politically arranged in order to form a tie between Korea and Japan after liberation. This woman will remain in history as a sacrifice representing all Japanese women. Don't you think so? This woman's marriage is historical because the purpose of the marriage was large.
Then, who in all heaven and earth tried to get married with the biggest purpose? It was Jesus. When Jesus came as a bridegroom looking for a bride, he wanted to get married for the sake of the world. He was the only person with that purpose.