Sun Myung Moon
April 17, 1988
No matter how much evil we encounter in our social environment, we still have loving parents; how happy we are to be able to go to them and shed tears in their warm embrace! No amount of money could ever buy that feeling of embrace or comfort you receive from your father and mother while leaning your heavily burdened body, letting tears flow over their bosom and feeling their hands quietly caress you. It is in those times that you can have a heart of thankfulness, and feel joy that surpasses even that of an earthly commander who has just won a victory over the enemy forces.
That is why I am asking you to become filial sons and daughters. When you hurt yourself, your mother and father are always ready to listen to you, night or day. They are always ready to pat you on the shoulder and embrace you. They will give you a bandage of love or some medicine of love even if they haven't managed to prepare a bandage or some medicine. This is truly amazing. Such a place is filled with the fragrance of peace. You must know that there is no power that is greater than this.
Nothing can quench the hope that burns in the hearts of parents who live all their lives, bound by the cords of love, for the sake of their children, offering their sweat and blood with backs bent by age and faces ravaged by time. Within them resides a force enabling them to clear the obstacles they encounter with a strutting gait however insurmountable they maybe.
The path of a patriot is the same. The ancestors of our nation walked the path of patriotism imbued with a heart of deep love for their parents. Our cherished pride as their descendants who can inherit this love is to love as they did.
Accordingly, we should love our country as its citizens. We should not eat the bread of idleness to the detriment of our nation. You may do this until you grow up; that holds true while you are still immature and undergoing education, but not when you come of age. Are babies not also weaned off their mother's milk after some months? When they become toddlers, it is not a sin for them to swipe the food that their mother and father have put away and stuff it into their mouths. When they do that their parents are not going to yell at them, saying, "Hey, you little scoundrel! You're a thief. I'm going to teach you a lesson!" More likely, they will tap their child on the bottom and say, "You smart guy! How did you know it was there? You are sharper than I!" Such is the heart of a parent.