Sun Myung Moon
July 8, 1988
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Translated by Jin Goon Kim, Jin Man Kwak, Jin Yong Park, and Young Joon Kim
Loving Father, as I look back through history and reflect upon the 80's, I stand firmly on this earth as one man who has accomplished things that no one even dreamed of doing. I retrace the past to the year 1976, during which I created a stir that went beyond the village, district, and state level, finally shaking up the whole of America. Heavenly Father, remembering the past that was inevitable in Your dispensation, I am drenched in memories and I am full of deep happiness and gratitude.
People of the secular world cried out for our downfall with accursed words, as if they were singing a song of happiness. But now, before their eyes, the signs are appearing of an approaching fearful age in history when they are forced to hide themselves from what is coming on the horizon. Now, the epoch has come for Unification members in which they who were trampled upon throughout their toilsome history can emerge with the radiance and power of the morning sun that rises in this world of vast wilderness, a world where nothing of value exists. Father! In receiving this age, let many feel to the marrow of their bones how inadequate and unprepared they are. Let them awaken to this realization on their own, step by step, shedding tears of repentance before the entire universe and earth.
Since coming to America, I have already carried the burden for fifteen laborious years. With a pledge before heaven, I had begun the search for the age in which Your agonizing dispensation must be finally consummated. Now, that very age is unfolding before our eyes, pivoting on the year 1988.
Half the year has already passed and today is July 8th. This is the date that I promised to go back to Korea. However, due to circumstances, I cannot go back, and instead I came again to Gloucester, a base of fishing industry, a region opposite from the East, and a place where I endured so much persecution with so many tears.
I came here wishing in my mind that God's dispensation may come and unfold in the eastern part of this pitiful country -- the areas of Long Island and Cape Cod. I have had such a desire for a day of hope with bright beams of sunlight to reach across from the dawn in Asia and touch these shores. Please bless this coast with the relationship of heart with which You have loved the East.
But Father! Here we were cursed by many people and all kinds of incidents have taken place. We had to fight, even upon the ocean. On some days, the fishermen cut our anchor lines, broke our fishing rods, and threatened us with their guns pointed at us. Today, all these incidents pass by in my mind like a panorama. Father, I could have hated and resented them had I not known You and upheld Your love. I could have cursed them for the rest of my life, even unto my very last breath. Nevertheless, because I knew and understood You, this unworthy son endured with gratitude until now.
I knew that the destiny of the one who endures and gives thanks unto You does not lead to sadness. Thus, now that I have persevered for forty years and then, for three more years, the world has changed so much in this short time in ways that no one ever dreamed of. We knew clearly the dispensational will and understood that the time period of suffering was limited. I knew that when the time comes, one must represent the age and be prepared to meet it in order to receive the fortune of the time and the will of heaven. I knew the ironclad rule that only those who prepare ahead of time can participate in the preparation period to receive such fortune and heavenly will.
Therefore, all the foundations centering on the True Parents in America were established with pride back then, during times of persecution and suffering -- and this gave us happiness. As I reflect back today, I realize that what I desired and fought for, and the reality that I understood while I pursued the way of Your tradition, was the truth, and only that truth could bring substantial results under the cooperation of the universe. Reflecting back upon the result, I ask that You please continue to be with us and intervene, reminding us when our lives are lax and mild.
People from three nations and three generations are gathered here. In this order, centering upon the True Parents, the Cain-type blessed families and even the second generation are participating in this program. Japanese, Koreans, and Westerners are participating together. The first generation was persecuted because they followed Reverend Moon.
However, I know well that the second generation, these Koreans, are now in the position to be praised. This year, let their hearts accommodate You so that they may all stand pure and innocent before the will of the Principle that is being taught to them, and upon that pure foundation, be proud of themselves as they live for the sake of others. This is their destiny. Please let them become sons and daughters with beautiful hearts so that they can receive this, not as a fate to be avoided, but as an inescapable destiny. I earnestly wish that You may bestow ten thousand blessings to follow after them.
I knew that if I believed and endured the road of suffering, that kind of result -- Your blessing -- would come. Looking back at all that has happened, I now realize that when the sun was rising in the morning, it was bringing a day of sadness and a time for war, and the night that followed was also a time for war. However, like the coming of the spring season that follows after a course of suffering, history began after midnight and has been going through the predestined age seeking the dawn, and finally has come to the time when the bright rays of the morning sun are appearing.
Father responds to Korean Professors' questions at East Garden, July 14, 1988
Just as the fresh morning inevitably comes, the iceberg has melted and flowed away, and a garden of blossoming flowers now comes to the Unification Church. On the mountains, birds that reveal their shapes in happiness, form pairs and sing. While such beautiful scenes of nature are unfolding, animals also roam around the garden and each pair gives loving care to their descendants, following their own destined patterns in order to carry on their lineage. Looking at all these phenomena, it is truly pathetic that only man does not follow the principled way of destiny, which You have originally created.
Knowing this bitter reality, these children standing here must cry out before humanity for the sake of the Unification Church until their throats burst. Dragging their fatigued legs, they must be determined to move forward with burning hearts. Even if they are fainting and losing consciousness, they must grab onto others and even if they have to rely on a cane, they must be determined not to fall. Thinking about how many saints and heroes have died while crying out to proclaim the truth, these children must understand that those who like to enjoy themselves and think only of themselves will be assailed with curses and accusations in light of such historical precedents. Such a fearful fate surrounds us.
These second generation children must go through three years of a difficult road, and by enduring, may they stand in a place closer to heaven. I know that You are searching for those who will take this will to heart by themselves and become true men and women who pledge their loyalty before heaven. I understand that even if not many of them become such men and women, as long as one or two can fulfill it, Your desire and heart will be to try to forget all the past sadness and be hopeful through them.
As they understand this heart of Yours, please do not let them become unfilial and disloyal children who cause You to shed tears. Let them become filial children and loyal men and women whose burning hearts cannot be extinguished. I know that during a man's life, especially in youth, he must leave behind a sacred period when his burning heart is so hot that he cannot extinguish its fire. So he bites his tongue and his lips, shouts, cries, and sweats, and finally pledges from the depths of his goodness before God, shedding blood, sweat, and tears.
Father, please look at those who are here today and do not forget them. Those who can find value out of the place where there is nothing valuable will grow up to be capable of creating great accomplishments. Up to the present, You have destroyed and eliminated all that I had wanted the most. You drove me out into a realm of solitude where I struggled strenuously through painful sorrows and changes, with many untold stories that only You could know. I realize You put me through all of this because You wanted to give me as a gift the substantial form of Your deep love which You had hidden and could not give to anyone else in this world.
The road that we have been seeking and following is the way that You have guided us, which is the way of truth. The value of truth does not appear to us under easy circumstances; rather, it appears in the midst of darkness, a place where we are stepped upon, a place where we are buried. I know that from such places seeds are formed and new sprouts of life spring up.
However, even after going to such a place, the Korean people, the Americans, and the world did not understand me. But I knew, in spite of being repudiated and discarded, as long as I silently and internally determined that I would stand as a substantial body of the truth, I would move history itself. Father, please guide these blessed children to become proud and awe-inspiring men and women who, as newly rising sprouts, will use this corrupted environment as their fertilizer and assert themselves as the subjects over their environment. Please let them be brave and let each one inspire himself to move forward with conviction.
Almost 100 new people have come from Japan. Amidst the feelings that they experience in their hearts at their first meeting with their teacher, please let them realize, each on their own, what their true motives were in crossing the Pacific Ocean. I wonder how many of them are sons and daughters who can struggle intensely to inherit the passion that will burn in their hearts with fury, which their teacher has left for them. Please let them inherit the heart of their teacher; let them inherit and magnify the ambition of a man who roams over the great ocean, so that they can be raised up to be the leaders to whom You can entrust Japan.
Your young children of America are also here. Their races are different. Their historical and cultural backgrounds are different and they have many untold sad stories. I know that no one can defeat the history of the Unification Church, which has been woven with tears. I have always wanted to leave this truth as a proud accomplishment before You. However, I cannot help but think with shame about the difficulty and suffering that came before us. Nevertheless, only with these men and women can I leave behind a single heart of hope.
Father, please understand that they are the foundation that can establish the base for the starting point that must be sought after and completed. Therefore, please broaden the door to Your heart of unlimited grace and save them. You chose America as the representative country and gave her Your blessings for 200 years so that she could serve and save this sorrowful world. Therefore, I know how much You want to curse these people who have lost all of Your blessings.
Please forgive those who filled Your heart with unforgettable sorrow, pain, and resentment. Forgive them with Your great love and make them people filled with hope who can see the rays of a new sun coming in the future. Like a lost ship, about to sink amidst a raging typhoon but then which somehow finds the north star and restores its original course, please make them brave sons and daughters who also find their way. Father, please help them to emerge as a new group of leaders who can guide the Western nations.
Also, please lift Your hands and bless this tuna-fishing endeavor. Please let these children be challengers who inherit through their own efforts the way that True Parents have walked, stepping over the great ocean and overcoming it, pledging themselves to march forward. Especially during this time, the turning point in history, I earnestly pray for Your protection to surround them.
Father, catching tuna is not the issue. Rather, lead them to establish a firm internal foundation here, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Please lead them to strengthen their faith and determination, centering upon invisible, internal values.
All these words I pray through the name of the True Parents. Amen.