Life Grounded in Faith

Topic: Belief & Faith

Compare faith and observable reality. Faith looks intangible and unreal, but it is in fact eternal and substantial. The reality of this world is vivid and evident to our senses, but it cannot be trusted; it is ephemeral and inconstant. Life grounded in faith in God has the quality of constancy.

Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon (born January 6, 1920, in Jeongju, in what is now North Korea – died September 3, 2012, in Gapyeong, South Korea) was a Korean religious leader, entrepreneur, and founder of the Unification movement. Raised in a rural Confucian-Christian household during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Moon’s early life was shaped by hardship, devotion, and a strong sense of spiritual calling. As a teenager, he experienced a profound vision in which he believed Jesus commissioned him to complete the work of restoring humanity to unity with God. This revelation became the foundation of his lifelong ministry, devoted to the ideal of universal peace and the healing of the relationship between the divine and human families.

In 1954, after enduring persecution and periods of imprisonment under both Japanese and communist authorities, Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Seoul. His teachings—later presented systematically in the Exposition of the Divine Principle—offered a reinterpretation of Christian theology emphasizing God’s parental love, human responsibility, and the sanctity of marriage and family. Central to his vision was the belief that love is the creative force of the universe and that humanity’s purpose is to build a world reflecting the oneness of God’s heart. Through international missions, interfaith dialogue, and mass wedding ceremonies symbolizing global reconciliation, Moon sought to transcend divisions of race, religion, and nationality.

Beyond his religious work, Moon established numerous organizations in education, media, culture, and humanitarian service, aiming to foster dialogue, moral renewal, and peace. He and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, were regarded by followers as the “True Parents,” embodying the ideal of restored unity between men and women, heaven and earth. While his movement inspired both devoted commitment and significant controversy, Moon’s influence on global religion, culture, and peace initiatives remains substantial. His life reflected an unwavering pursuit of the vision of one human family under God—a vision he advanced with conviction, discipline, and enduring faith in the transformative power of divine love.

(1920-2012) Heavenly Parent's Holy Community

Wilson, Andrew, editor. World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 774 [Sun Myung Moon, 66:49, March 18, 1973].

Sun Myung Moon

Theme: Belief and Faith

Commentary about Sun Myung Moon’s Quote [Short Commentary]

In the first part of this quote, Sun Myung Moon contrasts the nature of faith and observable reality. While faith might seem intangible and unreal because it isn’t something we can see, touch, or measure in a scientific sense, Moon suggests that it is eternal and substantial. He implies that faith, although not physically perceptible, provides a sense of stability, constancy, and assurance that transcends the physical world. It represents the spiritual realm, which according to many religious doctrines, is believed to be eternal. Faith, therefore, gives access to a timeless and profound dimension that cannot be accessed through our senses.

Commentary about Sun Myung Moon’s Quote [Longer Commentary]

In the second part, Moon offers a counterpoint to this by describing the observable reality as vivid and evident but untrustworthy because it is ephemeral and inconstant. He draws attention to the transient and ever-changing nature of the physical world. What we see, hear, touch, and perceive through our senses might seem real and substantial, but it is subject to change, decay, and dissolution. The sensory reality is inherently temporary and therefore, in Moon’s perspective, less substantial and reliable than faith.

The concluding part of the quote brings together these two contrasting perspectives by asserting that a life grounded in faith in God has the quality of constancy. This is to say, a life driven by faith, as opposed to sensory reality, offers a level of stability and permanence. Moon suggests that grounding one’s life in faith provides a firm foundation, a spiritual anchor that holds steady amidst the flux of the physical world. It is this eternal aspect of faith that lends it its substance and reality, making it more substantial and enduring than the temporary realities we perceive with our senses. The quote, in essence, urges individuals to perceive beyond the material, to tap into the spiritual and eternal realm via faith, providing a greater sense of steadiness and permanence in an otherwise ephemeral world.

Life Grounded in Faith

Related Quotes