The marriage bond is divinely sanctioned; it carries with it the promise of God’s blessing. The joys of conjugal love are a gift of God. Through bearing the fruits of conjugal love—children—we participate as co-creators with God.
More than that, conjugal love can be a place to meet God and know God’s love in a most intimate and real way.
Father Moon teaches extensively on this topic: God created human beings to become complete through marriage. He offers much practical advice on how spouses can strengthen and renew their love.
Yet, the mutual affection between husband and wife is only the half of it; more fundamental is the vertical link between God’s love and human love that is created through the blessing of marriage.
The God of love created the human love between man and woman to mirror divine love. Hence it should be absolute, unchanging, and unique: spouses should be as faithful to each other as God is to each of us as individuals.
These days, when many people are questioning the value of marriage, people would do well to heed the voices of religion which lift up the place of marriage within the divine plan of life. Several scripture passages ground marriage in the original plan which God instituted in the Garden of Eden.
Here is Father Moon’s unique contribution: he explains how this original conjugal love was damaged by the Human Fall. As a result, conventional human love inevitably deviates from divine love, putting the ideal of marriage out of reach.
A central purpose of Father Moon’s mission is to restore conjugal love to its original blessed state through the Holy Blessing Ceremony, which he offers to all humankind.
Sun Myung Moon
Love and Affection between Husband and Wife
Sweet be the glances we exchange, our faces showing true concord. Enshrine me in your heart and let one spirit dwell within us. I wrap around you this robe, which came to me from Manu, so that you may be wholly mine and never seek another. Atharva Veda 7.36-37 (Hinduism)
Not those are true husband and wife that with each other [merely] consort: Truly wedded are those that in two frames, are as one light. Adi Granth, Var-Suhi-Ki, M.3, p. 788 (Sikhism)
Among His signs is that He created spouses for you among yourselves that you may console yourselves with them. He has planted affection and mercy between you. Qur’an 30.21
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned. Song of Solomon 8.6-7
O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the maidens love you. Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. 7 Song of Solomon 1.2-4
Behold the comely forms of Surya! Her border cloth and her headwear, and her garment triply parted, these the priest has sanctified. I take your hand for good fortune, that you may attain old age with me, your husband. The solar deities— Bhaga, Aryaman, Savitri, Purandhi— have given you to me to be mistress of my household. Pushan, arouse her, the most blissful one; through whom a new generation will spring to life. She, in the ardor of her love, will meet me, and I, ardently loving, will meet her… Live you two here, be not parted, enjoy the full length of life, sporting with your sons and grandsons, rejoicing in your own abode. May Prajapati bring forth children of us, may Aryaman unite us together till old age, Not inauspicious, enter your husband’s house, be gracious to our people and animals. Come, not with fierce looks, not harming your husband, good to animals, kind-hearted and glorious, a mother of heroes, loving the gods, pleasant, gracious to humans and to animals. Make her, thou bounteous Indra, a good mother of sons; grant her good fortune; give her ten sons and make her husband the eleventh. Be a queen to your father-in-law, a queen to your mother-in-law, a queen to your husband’s sisters, and a queen to your husband’s brothers.
May the universal Devas and Apas join our hearts together; so may Matarisvan, Dhatri, and Dveshtri unite us both.8 Rig Veda 10.85.35-47 (Hinduism)
Kwan-kwan go the ospreys, On the islet in the river. The modest, retiring, virtuous, young lady— For our prince a good mate is she. Here long, there short, is the duckweed, To the left, to the right, borne about by the current. The modest, retiring, virtuous, young lady— Waking and sleeping, he sought her. He sought her and found her not, And waking and sleeping he thought about her. Long he thought; oh! long and anxiously; On his side, on his back, he turned, and back again. Here long, there short, is the duckweed; On the left, on the right, we gather it. The modest, retiring, virtuous, young lady— With lutes, small and large, let us give her friendly welcome. Here long, there short, is the duckweed; On the left, on the right, we cook and present it. The modest, retiring, virtuous, young lady— With bells and drums let us show delight in her.9 Book of Songs, Ode 1 (Confucianism) Kaen-kwan went the axle ends of my carriage, As I thought of the young beauty, and went to fetch her. It was not that I was hungry or thirsty, But I longed for one of such virtuous fame to come and be with me. Although no good friends be with us, we will feast and be glad. Dense is that forest in the plain, And there sit the long-tailed pheasants. In her proper season that well-grown lady, With her admirable virtue, is come to instruct me. We will feast, and I will praise her: “I love you, and will never be weary of you.” Although I have no good spirits, We will drink, and perhaps be satisfied. Although I have no good viands, We will eat, and perhaps be satisfied. Although I have no virtue to impart to you, We will sing and dance. I ascend that lofty ridge, And split the branches of the oaks for firewood. I split the branches of the oaks for firewood Amid the luxuriance of their leaves. I see you whose match is seldom to be seen, And my whole heart is satisfied. Book of Songs, Ode 218 (Confucianism)
Sun Myung Moon
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Man and woman are God’s masterpieces. When they love each other centered on God, it is supreme, transcendental love, not worldly love. They feel that their love is the best of all loves; the most beautiful love, shining forever. Where can they experience and fulfill such love? Only in the family. (26:154, October 25, 1969)
A husband and wife love each other without conditions. Their love is unconditional. Their love is absolute, eternal love. (112:294, April 25, 1981)
When a husband and wife love each other, the man does not block his wife from entering deep into his heart. The woman likewise does not resist her husband. Even if impenetrable walls surround their hearts, love has no difficulty surmounting them. (49:52, October 3, 1971)
When you love your spouse, you feel your body’s desire to unite with your beloved. When husband and wife become one flesh in true love, they become inseparable. They can live in unity, loving each other forever. (187:47, January 6, 1989)
Why is marriage so important? It is the path to finding love. It is the path to knowing what love is. It teaches about life. Marriage joins the life of a woman and the life of a man. In time [through children], it joins the lineage of the man and the lineage of the woman. It thus begins a history, a nation, the world and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. (279:114-15, August 1, 1996)
What is the Kingdom of Heaven as a couple? It is the state of matrimony where a man and woman are totally united. It is not like a typical marriage where in the beginning you tell your spouse, “I love you,” but after a few years you say goodbye and divorce…
A heavenly couple is inseparable; they could lose their legs by exploding dynamite but still keep embracing with their upper bodies! That is possible only with true love. To achieve that kind of love, your mind and body must be completely united. Then you can attain the Kingdom of Heaven as a couple. (96:29, January 1, 1978)
The purpose of marriage is to synchronize the man’s heart and the woman’s heart to perfect their love. The wedding ceremony is a proclamation of the couple’s commitment and determination toward that goal.
If you start with the goal to perfect your love and heart through your married life, you are on the way to fulfilling the ideal of family. If you actually fulfill it, upon your death you will certainly go to heaven, because your lives will be heaven. (97:277, March 26, 1978)
A man’s wife represents his mother; she contains elements of his mother as well. At the same time, she contains elements of his elder sisters, younger sisters, and indeed all the women in the world. When he loves his wife, who contains all these elements, he is loving his mother, his elder sisters and younger sisters, and indeed all the women in the world.
Likewise, to woman, her husband represents and contains elements of her father, elder brothers, younger brothers and all the men in the world. In loving him, she loves her father, her brothers, and all the men in the world. This is the ideal of the family. (God’s Will and the World, September 21, 1978)
We marry for the sake of our partner. Therefore, the man should have the attitude that even if he finds some aspects of his wife unattractive, he will love her even more than if she were beautiful. This is the principled way of thinking. (97:321, April 1, 1978)
What is the solution for unity? It is the heart to love each other. Love can come from pity as well as from liking. Few couples love each other from the start.10 Love grows with time. A woman marries a man who is absolutely stubborn, and thinks the man is totally unlovable.
Then the woman takes pity on him for the many obstacles that he must confront because of the stubbornness. Then, when her pity turns to love, the man can find solace in her.
The woman might even find her husband’s stubbornness useful because she is not stubborn enough herself, and this way, turns his stubbornness to mutual advantage. So, love’s affection can bloom even from pity, and eventually lead to unity. (41:332-33, February 18, 1971)
Families that live in hardship are not necessarily unhappy. Sharing a single piece of bread, when the husband feeds his wife even though he does not eat, or the wife feeds her husband even though she goes hungry—how deep is the love in that family! (216:270, April 7, 1991)
A woman is better off taking a wild and rough man for a husband rather than one who is delicate and fine-featured. The husband-wife relationship brings together opposites. Therefore, a woman who takes a wild and tough man as her opposite partner will live happily.
The wife who receives the love of such a husband is a happy wife. You women should not forget this, and encourage your husbands to be rough and tough. It is the law of love that the strength of a man becomes like a gentle spring breeze in front of a woman.
Among men matters are determined by the strongest fist, but in front of a beloved woman that fist becomes as soft as cotton. Therefore, a woman should not be afraid of a man who is wild and rough. Rather she should think that the stronger a man is, the more worthy he is to receive her love. (Blessing and Ideal Family 4.1.6)
Do you wish to become a loving couple that shines like the moon and even like the sun? Try to dig out all the beautiful points in your spouse. It may take a lifetime of digging, and still you cannot fathom them all. Finally when you arrive in the spirit world, you can plumb love’s deepest core.
Therefore, wives, study your husbands. You may think he is one way, but then you should discover another side of him. Study him from every possible angle, and you can see the whole universe in him.
Then you can think he is more amazing than God! When you married him you saw him only through a small lens, from one direction, not from all directions. As long as you continue to regard him only from that narrow perspective, you cannot find ideal love.
Over the years of living together you need to study him from every direction. Do you have an unforgettable memory of your husband at his most charming? What is it? It is his body. So observe his entire body. After a fight, you glance at your husband and you will see his eyes blink.
They blink just as your eyes blink. Observe carefully his breathing, his eyes, nose, lips and emotions—all these parts of him are just like you. The man you love exists for you, so you can never let him go. If your heart never gets old, your love will never grow old either. Your life will never be boring and your lineage will endure forever. True love never grows old. It becomes more beautiful the older it gets.
With such a heart you will always see your husband as the best-looking man in the world, and he will look at you as the most beautiful woman in the world. It doesn’t matter that your wife looks unattractive; through the eyes of love, she is the most beautiful woman.
Regardless of her form on earth, in the spirit world she will appear young and pretty, transfigured by the light of love that is brighter than any earthly light. A woman who places great store in her beauty is dismayed to see it fade as she grows old, and when she passes on to the other world she takes on an ugly appearance.
On the other hand, a woman who shares a lifetime of love with her husband becomes beautiful in the other world. Her husband becomes the most handsome man. The light of love is the highest form of light. Because it is the highest, it has the power to beautify anything.
Therefore, think that the wife whom you love is the very light of heaven and earth. She is your love, your dream, your happiness, your freedom and your peace. Then when you go out of town, should you meet an alluring vixen you will not be tempted in the least.
That temptress would appear like rotten fish in your eyes. There is no other way to beauty than by the love and light of God. (297:168-70, November 19, 1998)
A husband and wife are like partners. Just as people have different faces, they have different destinies. If a man has bad fortune, but he marries a woman whose fortune is good, his fortune can change for the better.
Conversely, if a wife’s fortune is bad but her husband’s is good, her fortune can change for the better. Over time, the husband and wife balance their destinies, as if they are leveling a mountain and filling in a valley to make a plain.
After leveling the ground, the husband and wife can do many things together, such as plowing the fields and cultivating diverse crops and trees. (God’s Will and the World, September 22, 1978)
Heaven starts in the family. Unless you can find God in your spouse, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)
Sun Myung Moon
Marriage Makes a Man or a Woman Complete
He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man. Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
The unmarried person lives without joy, without blessing, without good. Talmud, Yebamot 62b (Judaism)
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.11 Genesis 2.18-24
In the beginning there was only the Self, one only… He found no joy; so even today, one who is all alone finds no joy. He yearned for a second. He became as large as a man and a woman locked in close embrace. This self he split into two; hence arose husband and wife. Therefore, as Yajnavalkya used to observe, “Oneself is like half of a split pea.” That is why this void is filled by woman. He was united with her, and thence were born human beings. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.17 and 1.4.3 (Hinduism)
The righteous cannot flourish save when they are male and female together, like Abraham and Sarai. Zohar 1.82a (Judaism)
He is only a perfect man who consists (of three persons united): his wife, himself and his offspring; thus says the Veda, and learned brahmins propound this maxim likewise, “The husband is declared to be one with his wife.” Laws of Manu 9.45 (Hinduism)
Sun Myung Moon
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
A man by himself or a woman by herself is only one half. They marry to become complete. The love that you should perfect in your marriage is not egoistic love based on the belief that you live to gratify yourself.
That kind of love is temporary and false. You should think that you are not born for your own sake but for the sake of your partner. Then you should give and forget, give and forget. True love begins from that point. (262:67-68, July 23, 1994)
Living for others is the basic rule of the existing world; all things are created for others, and nothing was created for itself. Hence, man was not born for man; he was born for woman.
Woman was not born for woman, but for man. Whether beautiful or ugly, every woman exists for the sake of a man.
All the characteristics and emotions of man and woman are designed for each other, not for themselves. When the partners in a marriage say to each other, “I was born for you, I will live for you, and I will die for you,” they are considered an ideal, happy couple. This is, indeed, correct from the perspective of the basic rule of the existing world. This is the starting point for true love. (135:234, December 11, 1985)
Young men and women aspire to become great individuals. They want to build a good family and become good parents. Yet at the same time, they feel that they are lacking something within themselves.
That is why, whether man or woman, they desire to have a good partner in their life. For the same reason, people wish to have children who are better than themselves.
How wonderful it would be if we could complement our weaknesses through our counterpart! All people, when they love each other, carry such a desire deep in their hearts. (26:147, October 25, 1969)
Woman has a feminine nature and man has a masculine nature; God made them as divided embodiments of Himself. How can they come together as one? Through love. Having formerly been divided, when they come together they will experience how strong the love is that God had been holding within Himself.
Otherwise, they would never know God’s love. You have love within you, but by yourself you cannot know it. You can experience it when you embrace your spouse. When you love your spouse, you feel all the love that was inside you from the beginning. (185:187, January 8, 1989)
A husband needs his wife more than any other person in the world. The wife needs her husband more than any other person in the world. A husband and wife should be each other’s walking stick, companions who are ever advising each other. (27:87, November 26, 1969)
Husbands, the woman standing before you is God’s daughter. Also, before she is your wife, she is humanity’s daughter. If you can love her as God’s beloved daughter and a woman whom all humanity loves, then you are qualified to be her husband. Men who do not respect their wives are not true husbands.
Do you have such regard for your wife? If not, you should change, even now. Wives, you should not think that your husband belongs only to you. First, he is a son of God; next, he represents all the men in the world. You should become a woman who can love this man more than all humanity can, and love him more than God loves him…
When a woman marries, she should be willing to become like her husband’s left foot, walking in step with him on their family’s path of love for God and all humanity. The husband is like the right foot and the wife is like the left foot.
You should not go through life crippled; therefore, you should marry. Your couple should not walk with a limp; both the right foot and the left foot should be healthy and strong. If it can walk straight, your couple is destined to live a harmonious married life. (88:318, October 3, 1976)
Many women think it is okay not to marry if they do not want to. Yet if a woman does not marry, her physical body will not be able to function as a woman, and she will eventually get sick.
A woman’s body is built with marriage as its normal life state. For a woman to live a single life and never marry a man is not normal, and to think that it is all right not to marry is not normal thinking. (238:71-72, November 19, 1992)
Sun Myung Moon
True conjugal love unites a man, a woman and God
When a man is at home, the foundation of his house is the wife, for it is on account of her that the Shekhinah (divine Presence) does not depart from the house. So our teachers have understood the verse, “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent” (Genesis 24.67), to mean that the Shekhinah came into Isaac’s house along with Rebecca. Esoterically speaking, the supernal Mother is together with the male only when the house is in readiness and at the time the male and female are conjoined. At such time blessings are showered forth by the supernal Mother upon them. Zohar 1.50a (Judaism)
Woman, O Gautama, is the sacrificial fire, her sexual organ is the fuel, the hairs the smoke, the vulva the flame, sexual intercourse the cinders, enjoyment the sparks. In this fire the gods offer semen as a libation. Out of this offering a new person is born. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.2.13 (Hinduism)
The Originator of the heavens and the earth; He has appointed for you of yourselves spouses, and pairs also of the cattle, by means of which He multiplies you. Qur’an 42.11
See now, when desire brings man and woman together, there issues from their union a son in whom both their forms are combined, because God has fashioned him in a mold partaking of both.
Therefore a man should sanctify himself at such time, in order that the form may be as perfect as possible. Zohar, Genesis 90b (Judaism)
When a man begins to consecrate himself before intercourse with his wife with a sacred intention, a holy spirit is aroused above him, composed of both male and female. And the Holy One, blessed be He, directs an emissary who is in charge of human embryos, and assigns to him this particular spirit, and indicates to it the place to which it should be entrusted. This is the meaning of, “The night said, a man-child has been conceived” (Job 3:3)… Then the spirit descends together with the image, the one in whose likeness the spirit existed above. With this image the man grows; with this image he moves through the world. Zohar 3.104b (Judaism)
By the first nuptial circumambulation, the Lord shows you His ordinance for the daily duties of wedded life. The scriptures are the Word of the Lord, learn righteousness through them, and the Lord will free you from sin… By the second nuptial circumambulation, you are to understand that the Lord has caused you to meet the true Guru; the fear in your hearts has departed; the filth of selfishness in your minds is washed away… By the third nuptial circumambulation there is longing for the Lord and detachment from the world… By the fourth nuptial circumambulation the mind reaches to knowledge of the Divine and God is inwardly grasped. Through the grace of the Guru we have attained with ease to the Lord; the sweetness of the Beloved pervades us, body and soul. Dear and pleasing is the Lord to us; night and day our minds are fixed on Him. By exalting the Lord we have attained the Lord: the fruit our hearts desired, for He has arranged these nuptials. The soul, the spouse, delights in the Beloved’s Name. The Lord God is united with His Holy Bride; the heart of the Bride flowers with His Name.14 Adi Granth, Raga Suhi, M. 4, p. 773-74: the Laavaan (Sikhism)
Sun Myung Moon
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
A man is born to find a woman, and a woman is born to find a man. We are created as man and woman to reach a higher level of God’s love through our union. As single people we cannot reach the fullness of God’s love—true love.
We may touch God’s love, but it will only be one-dimensional love. As single people we cannot experience God’s three-dimensional and spherical love. Therefore, a man and woman marry in order to reach that higher realm of love.
In God’s original world before the Fall, when a husband and wife united they would form a mighty center, creating a sphere. The stronger the horizontal bond between them, the more they would connect to the vertical power of love. Their minds and bodies would revel in it and totally become one. (109:275, November 2, 1980)
When husband and wife are one in heart, they should become one in body. When they are one in heart and body, then they become one with God. The husband and wife become one in the center of love’s shimmering light as God covers the place where the man and woman are joined. The light embraces them and transforms them by its mysterious power. It transports them to an inexplicable, wondrous state. (296:33, October 11, 1998)
God first created Adam as His incarnation. At the same time that Adam is God’s Son, he is also God Himself, wearing God’s body. Next, God created Eve as Adam’s partner in order to perfect horizontal love as the ideal love of husband and wife. At the same time that Eve is God’s daughter, she is also the bride who perfects God’s horizontal ideal of love in substantial form.
Where Adam and Eve reach perfection, marry with God’s blessing, and consummate their first love, this is precisely the place where God receives His bride in substantial form.
This is because God’s ideal absolute love descends vertically and participates in the ideal conjugal love flowing horizontally between Adam and Eve. The true love of God and the true love of human beings—one vertical and the other horizontal—join, reach perfection and bear fruit at a single point. (277:198- 99, April 16, 1996)
What is the purpose of marriage? It is to fulfill God’s ideal of creation. An individual by him or herself cannot fulfill it. It requires that we form a couple whose hearts are united with the heart of God, the Subject of all creation.
Thus, when He moves, we move, and when He is still, we are still. That is how the inner and outer become one. Unless we set the standard as a couple through which we can harmonize with God, we cannot fulfill His purpose of creation. (35:321, October 19, 1970)
Sun Myung Moon
Marriage Is a Sacred Partnership, Aligning Two Human Beings with the Divine Image
I am He, you are She; I am Song, you are Verse; I am Heaven, you are Earth. We two shall here together dwell, becoming parents of children. Atharva Veda 14.2.71 (Hinduism)
Representing heaven and earth, I have created husband and wife. This is the beginning of the world. Mikagura-uta (Tenrikyo)
From the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. Mark 10.6-9
Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who created humankind in His image, in the image of the likeness of His form, and has prepared for him from His very own person an eternal building. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Creator of man… May Thou make joyful these beloved companions, just as Thou gladdened Thy creatures in the Garden of Eden in primordial times. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who makes bridegroom and bride to rejoice. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who created mirth and joy, bridegroom and bride, gladness, jubilation, dancing and delight, love and brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Quickly, O Lord our God, may the sound of mirth and joy be heard in the streets of Judah and Jerusalem, the voice of bridegroom and bride, jubilant voices of bridegrooms from their canopies and youths from the feasts of song. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who makes the bridegroom rejoice with the bride.15 Talmud, Ketubot 8a (Judaism)
The gospel of Love… presents the unity of male and female as no longer two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures in one; and this compounded spiritual individuality reflects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being. In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no impediment to eternal bliss—to the perfectibility of God’s creation. Science and Health (Christian Science)
All the souls in the world, which are the fruit of the handiwork of the Almighty, are all mystically one, but when they descend to this world they are separated into male and female, though these are still conjoined. When they first issue forth, they issue as male and female together. Subsequently, when they descend to this world they separate, one to one side and the other to the other. Afterwards God mates them—God and no other, He alone knowing the mate proper to each. Happy is the man who is upright in his works and walks in the way of truth, so that his soul may find his original mate, for then he becomes indeed perfect. Zohar 1.85b (Judaism)
The sacred partnership of true marriage is constituted both by the will of God and the will of man. From God comes the very institution of marriage, the ends for which it was instituted, the laws that govern it, the blessings that flow from it; while man, through generous surrender of his own person made to another for the whole span of life, becomes, with the help and cooperation of God, the author of each particular marriage, with the duties and blessings annexed hereto from divine institution… That mutual familiar intercourse between the spouses themselves, if the blessing of conjugal faith is to shine with becoming splendor, must be distinguished by chastity so that husband and wife bear themselves in all things with the law of God and of nature, and endeavor always to follow the will of their most wise and holy Creator with the greatest reverence towards the work of God… The love of which We are speaking is not that based on the passing lust of the moment, nor does it consist in pleasing words only, but in the deep attachment of the heart which is expressed in action, since love is proved by deeds. This outward expression of love in the home demands not only mutual help but must go further; must have as its primary purpose that man and wife help each other day by day in forming and perfecting themselves in the interior life, so that through their partnership in life they may advance ever more and more in virtue, and above all that they may grow in true love towards God and their neighbor. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubi (Christianity)
In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood (meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage); and if he does not, he cannot obtain it. And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; and it shall be said unto them—Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection… which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.16 Doctrine and Covenants 131.1-3, 132.19 (Latter-day Saints)
Sun Myung Moon
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
We can solve the fundamental problems of family life by strengthening marriage. Although some religious people regard marriage as sinful, we proclaim it the holiest of states.
God instituted marriage as the only proper way for a man and a woman to love each other. Furthermore, when a man and a woman become one in marriage, whom do they come to resemble? They resemble God.
Indeed, it is only when a man and woman unite in matrimony that they can fully resemble God, who created us in His image male and female. Only then can God dwell with us. (70:76, February 8, 1974)
If you only love as a single person, and do not embark on the path of loving as a husband and wife, your life will end in ruin. Love among single people inevitably breaks apart. It is a lifestyle that damages society and even the world. (111:257, February 22, 1981)
Commonly people think that love is what a man and a woman enjoy together. Yet that kind of love has no root in the past or outlook toward the future; it is merely a phenomenon with no direction. It is selfish love.
Selfish love cannot be the source of peace, the basis of unity or the basis for freedom. How can there be peace, unity, or freedom where people love each other one day and separate the next?
There is no happiness there, only regret; no freedom there, only more obstacles; no unity there, only loneliness. That kind of love leads only to destruction. I want you to understand that Satan employs such love as a weapon to destroy the ideals of human life.
Using this kind of love as a weapon, Satan is robbing us of true freedom, true peace and true unity. From this perspective, the satanic expression of love is truly God’s adversary. It is a most dreadful sin, a most hated enemy. (104:141, April 29, 1979)
Why do we marry? It is to resemble God. God is the harmonious being of dual characteristics. Man and woman are the divided manifestations of God’s dual characteristics.
They have to unite as one body, becoming like a seed, to enter God’s original dwelling place. To yield good seed, you have to go the way of love. This means that you must be born in love, set love as your goal while growing, make love your aim in life, and walk the path of love. Then you will return to love. (138:99, January 19, 1986)
Why do you have to get married? It is because God exists with dual characteristics. A man and a woman each reflect one of these aspects of divinity. Therefore, they must come together and unite to manifest the fullness of God’s image.
That is why marriage is the essential condition for your complete growth in the ideal of human love. Marriage blends men and women into the semblance of the divine unity, so that human beings might fully become the image of God.
God created human beings and all things for the purpose of consummating His love. Where do you consummate that love? It is while you live on earth, in the relationship between husband and wife, in the family. That is why your wedding day is the most joyful day in your lives. (123:217, January 2, 1983)
We do not marry for ourselves, but for the sake of another. What do I mean in saying that marriage is for the other rather than for ourselves? Heaven and earth abide in a relationship between subject and object. By this principle, marriage between a man and a woman participates in the joining of heaven and earth.
With the man on the right side and the woman on the left side, their marriage symbolizes the fulfillment of all the horizontal relationships in the universe. Since the man as the subject partner is above, and the woman as the object partner is below, their marriage represents the fulfillment of the vertical relationship between God and human beings.
Therefore, marriage is not mainly for the man, nor mainly for the woman. It is rather to accord with heavenly law. This is also the reason why men and women were created differently; they were born to accord with heavenly law. (101:38-39, October 28, 1978)
When a man and a woman embrace in perfect love, they bring perfection to the universe. Were their love to shatter, it would shatter the order of the universe and bring chaos to the vertical world. (118:32, April 26, 1982)
Look at this world: The mineral kingdom has positive and negative ions, the plant kingdom has stamen and pistil, and the animal kingdom has male and female. Scientists have found that even germs are male and female.
God created all things so that they can become one at their particular level centering on love. Seeing this universe of pairs, we understand that they are that way so that all can be linked to the love of a man and a woman, who come together representing heaven and earth.
Thus all things celebrate the love of human beings. Just as we lay a foundation before building a house, God created the entire pair system as the foundation for human beings to love.
Doesn’t human love have many qualities in common with the love of animals? For instance, if a male and female are going along together and the female is attacked, the male will risk its life to defend the female.
When they have offspring, they will risk their lives to defend them. Human love is that way because the foundation on which it was created is that way. (222:123, October 28, 1991)
Marriage is the union of all virtues of heaven and earth. Encompassing vertical and horizontal, left and right, and front and back, it is the completion of the whole. Marriage is where we perfect the ideals of children, siblings, husband and wife, and parents.
For this reason, had Adam and Eve become a true husband and wife, they would have been the parents most beloved of God. They would have stood in the position of the second creators, inheriting everything that God experienced as the First Creator.
Through raising their children, they would have developed the heart of love as God’s representatives. After attaining that heart through direct experience, they would profoundly understand and empathize with their children as they in turn traversed the positions of children, siblings, husbands and wives, and parents.
Their marriage and conjugal love as husband and wife was to be the origin and starting point of God’s love, life and lineage in human beings. It was to be the starting point for fulfilling God’s ideal, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. God is the root of love, root of life, root of lineage, and the root of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven.
At the marriage of Adam and Eve, God would enter into their hearts and experience with them the love of their conjugal union. Then God would be the vertical True Parent, and Adam and Eve the horizontal True Parents.
Because each of us would be born with the blood and flesh of these two sets of parents, our minds would be aligned with the vertical and our bodies with the horizontal.
This would form the realm of the harmonious oneness of God and human beings in love. In that realm, people who perfect their love both in mind and body would become God’s sons and daughters.
We would enter into a parent-child relationship with God, become God’s princes and princesses, and inherit the entirety of His world. Then, when we perfect husband-wife unity centering on true love, we would form a family that lives in attendance to God.
Our family would be the base of peace and of God’s ideal. As man and woman, each being a half of the whole, we would come together to form one body; and as God’s partners, we would perfect the ideal of divine love. (254:106, February 1, 1994)
The first union of love between Adam and Eve was to have signified the perfection of God’s own love. It was to have been a continual feast of happiness where God, Adam and Eve, and all creatures in the universe would be intoxicated with joy and blessings.
Their marriage would most certainly have been the joyful ceremony to establish the originating point of God’s love, life, and lineage among human beings.
This was Adam and Eve’s original destiny. Yet instead they covered their lower parts, hid themselves among the trees, and trembled in fear, because they had formed an immoral relationship that set the origin for false love, false life, and false lineage contrary to the heavenly way. (288:127, November 26, 1997)
The issue here is that God’s true love and human beings’ love must start out from the same point and become one as subject and object partners. Otherwise, human love will have different directions and purposes than God’s true love.
It then becomes impossible to establish the absolute ideal world that both God and human beings desire. The purpose of God—to start God’s true love and human true love from the same point—was interrupted and blocked by the Fall.
False parents came into being as a result of Satan’s love, and human beings, as descendants of those false parents, inherited false love, false life, and false lineage. These false elements take them to hell. (275:55, October 31, 1995)
The International Holy Blessing Ceremony is the ceremony of resurrection that enables us to uproot and restore completely all that was defiled in our families because of the Fall, especially the false love, false life, and false lineage we received from the false parents…
Through the Blessing Ceremony, we receive the enormous grace of being engrafted with the seeds of true love, true life and true lineage, by which God and human beings can become one through love.
I sincerely hope that all humanity throughout the world will receive this enormous blessing, change to become heavenly families, and be registered in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. (275:59, October 31, 1995)
Sun Myung Moon