Last month, I visited England for my mother’s 90^th birthday. She rented an old manor house (a mini Downton Abbey) for all of us to be together with our respective families. It was a giant multigenerational sleepover and so much fun!

As I walked around the house and observed the servant pulls in each room that would have alerted a servant in the scullery of a need upstairs, I began to think about the wealthy people who had once inhabited the house.

What were their lives like? At one point, only a few privileged people could experience this luxury that I was now enjoying and which today is much more common-place.  I stayed in a room with a four poster bed. It was gorgeous. Just walking down the street from the mansion and into the old town you could see the tiny homes that the average person lived in. In fact, my own grandparents grew up in homes that had an outhouse for a toilet. The contrast was stark.

 Celebrating Our Inheritance

Later we visited a tower from where we could see an old castle. Today, what we consider to be an average or simple life would be the height of luxury just a few hundred years ago. If we contemplate what life was like a thousand or two thousand years ago, it’s easy to realize that we are living like Kings and Queens today in comparison. Although we are still struggling to make sure that everyone on the planet has access to a toilet and fresh, clean drinking water, the average American has a lot to be grateful for. There is still tremendous inequality that must be solved around the world, but in developed nations we have come a long way when it comes to our standard of living.

Just as we are striving to improve the quality of lives on an external level, the faith traditions of the world have been striving to advance the quality of our inner lives. People around the globe share a strong sense that we were made for more. Not just more things or a better, longer life but the right to a realm of heart whereby every person can experience a life that includes being able to freely love and be loved in return. After all, isn’t that what every human being yearns for.

Family is the School of Love

Rev. Moon always taught that the family is the school of love. He developed that phrase to remind us that the family is the place where we are meant to naturally learn about love, not as a theological concept but through human relationships. In one sense, religion became a poor second for God simply because the first parents, Adam and Eve, couldn’t inherit and pass on love as God intended.

We were made for more love

We were meant to grow a heart of love in our lifetime, starting with children’s love. In one sense that is what God has been fighting for during the past two hundred thousand years; the time that humankind has existed. That puts the idea of a long term goal into perspective! Regardless, God cannot achieve the goal alone, He needs His children.

In a sermon to mark Children’s Day in 1980 Rev Moon gave a poignant message:

“God cannot erect His kingdom alone; He needs a champion, an assistant to act as mediator. You are His children, called to this task. God regards you as the champions whom He has hand-picked to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. What an overwhelming task for Him!

The Unification Church is one family. If the head of a family thinks only about himself, the family becomes unhappy. The success and happiness of a family flow from the head of the family who cares for all the members. My deepest concern and care dwells with each one of you, and you in turn should love and care for each other as brothers and sisters.

My teaching to you is to love one another as much as you love God and True Parents. Then the dwelling of God will be among you, and Mother and I will accompany you. Because this day marks the beginning of that new era, I called this the historical Children’s Day.

Jesus practiced this way of life with his twelve apostles. In his most sacred act, washing the feet of his disciples, he demonstrated that he came not to be served, but to serve. His was the supreme expression of love. Jesus became the central figure linking twelve people…….”

Jesus as an Example

Jesus served his disciples and taught them as his children. I was struck by that this week while reading Matthew Chapter 5. It starts out with a simple sentence that I must have overlooked before:

“When Jesus saw the crowds (large crowds had been following him everywhere hoping to be healed) he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.”

Jesus was intimately teaching them and trying to educate them and raise their standard of heart. The passage hints that this wasn’t the big speech to thousands that perhaps I had always imagined having seen a certain painting at some point or other, but an intimate gathering with Jesus pouring out his heart, trying to help his disciples understand what it means to be a child of God. They sat around him trying to take in this radical new teaching. We too can be taught by Jesus.

Rev. Moon noted, “In the Sermon on the Mount, you can find a revealing phrase, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” The Bible did not say that only those who obey commands will enter heaven, but rather those who make peace.

And then Rev. Moon goes on to ask an important question, “How many people have you made harmony with? To love each other in effect means to love the whole world, because the Unification Church is a small world; what you do here has significance on a worldwide level.

Jesus also said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of you.” Your prayer is not powerful when you pray singly; only when you pray together. Brothers and sisters must truly unite so they can share life together. I want you to realize how strongly your behavior affects the person next to you; you cannot think of yourselves as isolated individuals. Within our movement, we must feel concern for each other; if someone is hurt or ill, forget your meal and go attend him. Concentrate on caring for your brothers and sisters and creating an atmosphere in which good and healthy relationships can grow.

Love each other as you love God

God is almighty, but even after thousands of years of toil, the world remains sinful. In order to realize His ideal, God has given us the mandate to love our brothers and sisters as much as we love Him. In other words, each of you should be God to your brothers and sisters, treating each other as you would treat God. If you live this tradition, God will embrace you as His true children. Many people have said that they love God, but they abused and even hated their own brothers and sisters. Now God wants us to love each other and together come to Him. Your level of heartistic achievement in the spirit world will be determined by such intensity of love.

My teaching to you is this: love the world as much as you love God and True Parents. God feels greater joy when He sees you loving each other more than you love Him. Don’t shy away from adverse conditions or from smelly or ugly people; they are the ones who need you. Willingly attend to the dirty places and make them fragrant. Don’t run away from problems, but face them and conquer them…. I am resolved to help you in the most fundamental spheres: life and true love…. So look at each person as a gateway to God, and resolve to melt his or her heart and win him or her.” Historical Children’s Day  10-28-1980, SMM

Discovering your divinity

In this series “You were made for more” and in recognition of Children’s Day we are being asked by our Heavenly Parent to discover our identity and value as his Divine sons and daughters. The question of understanding our value and divinity is explored in an intriguing and curiously named book “The Afterlife of Billy Fingers” by Annie Kagan. This too short read encourages us to perceive the world with new eyes and look for the Divine nature in all things, even in the seemingly ugly and smelly!

The book is the true story of a woman who doesn’t really believe in life after death but nonetheless is visited by her deceased brother who was the bad boy of the family. She realizes that despite her parent’s lifelong efforts to keep her separated from her brother, who was considered a negative influence, she is forever connected to him, even in death, because of love. And so begins her journey into things and places unseen.

Billy Fingers told his sister in a communication from the afterlife,

“God is undeniable – the light rays or thoughts of a supreme being surround you (in the spiritual world.) Looking through a physical body and through physical eyes limits the way you perceive the light. Your eyes can’t see the light directly, only the things it shines upon. The light itself remains invisible just like the soul does.”

Billy Fingers acknowledges to his sister that it’s hard to believe in what you can’t see. He explains the light in the Spiritual World makes visible what is invisible on earth; the Divine Nature of all things. He says the best cure for suffering is an enlightened experience whereby you can find the invisible within the visible.

What struck me was the notion that while sometimes life is hard; we have to look for the invisible within the visible because that is a game changer.

To show you what I mean, enjoy this short video:

Everything changes when you allow the love of God to shine on your life. It enables you to see fortune where you previously saw only suffering. In the presence of God’s love you can begin to see differently. You start to notice how God is working in your life and perceive His Divine nature in others and all things.  When that happens Children’s Day isn’t just another Holy Day – you become the substantialization of Children’s Day and everything that God hopes for in His children. Now there’s something to celebrate!

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving!