God did not create us simply to realize the purpose of life as individuals. He also wanted us all to experience a deep love for our fellow human beings.
On a micro level, God’s ideal for us human beings is that we marry and create families with God as the center.
In relation to God, a man is therefore created to become God’s son, in relation to his wife a true husband, and in relation to his children a true father.
In her relationship with God, a woman is likewise created to be God’s daughter, in her relationship with her husband a true wife, and in her relationship with her children a true mother.
For God, the intended role of the family was to be a school in what is most precious to God – love. Within the family, we are therefore meant to experience the four fundamental forms of love – children’s love, sibling love, marital love and parental love.
Father and Mother Moon emphasizes the significance of marriage in many of their speeches. Here are some extracts,
“Why then do we get married? Very simply, we marry in order to resemble God. God exists as a being of dual characteristics. In God, the dual characteristics are completely harmonized as one. When God’s dual characteristics manifest in our world, they do so as man and woman. Accordingly, at the proper time, a man and a woman are like a seed. They unite to become one. Thus, husband and wife return to God. Together, we are a reflection of God’s original nature,
We need marriage because it is the way to develop true love. In marriage, we ripen as a seed of God. Our entire life is to center upon true love. We are supposed to be born in true love; we are designed to grow in true love, live centered on true love, and return to true love when we die.
The way of true love is living for the sake of others. This is the purpose of a holy marriage.” (Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life, a speech Father Moon gave 23rd Jan. 1998 in Seoul, quoted from Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, a speech collection, p 572)
“Let us offer our highest praise for the sanctity of marriage. Married life is the way for a man and a woman to love each other. Whom do we resemble when we become one through married life? Our goal is to resemble God.
It is only when a man and a woman become one through true love that they truly resemble God, who created them in His image. It is then, and only then, that God resides in them. […]
Another reason we marry is so that we can be trained to love the world and its people. The wedding ceremony vows speak of the substantiation of love and bestow the authority to procreate […]. So the purpose of marriage is to bring into oneness the realm of heart of one man, representing the men of the world, and one woman, representing the women of the world, so that they may perfect the love between man and woman.
When a couple has accomplished the perfection of love and the perfection of their hearts, we can say that they have accomplished the family ideal. If you die on this foundation, you will certainly enter the kingdom of heaven.
Why is marriage important? It is important because it is the path by which we seek true love, the path for creating life, and the path on which the lineages of a man and a woman are commingled. Through marriage, history is made, and on that foundation, nations are born and the ideal world can begin.
When we marry, it should be with the conviction that we do so not for ourselves, but for our partner. […] In our view of marriage, the ideal partner is not one who looks like a model; it is someone we can love with our whole heart, far more than if he or she were on the cover of a fashion magazine.” (True Love and True Marriage, a speech Father Moon gave 21st Aug.2004 in Seoul, quoted from Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, a speech collection, p 591-592)
