Sun Myung Moon
May 8, 1960
Excerpt
Selected Speeches of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Volume 9
Unofficial Translation
Sun Myung Moon March 25, 2012
Do you know a place where God is nearest to you? That is the place of repentance. However, as you understand God more, you don't need to say to Him, "Please forgive me because I committed such and such sins." Once you repent the fact that you did not know God's Heart looking over you, everything will be forgiven.
If there is a greater sinner than a prodigal son who wastes all the money of his parents, this is a son who hurts and wounds his parents' loving hearts. There is no greater sin. If this son cries out while saying, "How can my sin that injured my father's heart be forgiven?", then the father will forgive him by saying, "Oh, my son and Oh, my son." If the fallen parents can do this, God will definitely forgive you.
In general people go to their church and pray, "Please forgive me for I repent for such a such a sin I committed." However, you rather pray like this, "I dishonored the principle of Heavenly ethic, trampled the sacred relationship between God and human being and violated the relationship between Human and all things of creation. I committed this grave sin that violated all relations of hearts. Please have your way for such a wretched man." By repenting this way, you may be accepted by Him, and subsequently becoming victorious to be recognized by Heavenly Father, everything will be resolved completely. Heaven definitely visits a person who repents in such way.
Then, what should you do in order to truly repent? First step is for you to set up right direction in your life and put utmost effort to achieve your goals, by repenting daily in your life of faith. God will always listen to the requests from such a person. In fact, since both you and God know what you must do now, ninety percent of your prayer should not asking God about things that you want to do. Rather, 90% of your prayer must be repentance. This is the same as the teaching of Jesus -- "Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand." Repentance has such important value if it is done correctly.
Your goals are already set very high. So you know the days when you cannot reach the goals. When you come to short of achieving them, you must repent on the day by saying, "God, I am sorry for not achieving the goals today. I really wanted to come closer to reaching the goals, but I fail to do it. Please forgive me. Then, I will determine to fulfill them tomorrow." This is your prayer method…
However, you may need to repent the next day. When you set high goals, you cannot reach them easily, thus, everyday is a day of repentance. But, it is beautiful thing to behold. Each day is a new day and a new beginning. In your journey of life, each and every day is a day of repentance. Such a way of living is so wonderful. This is far better than your proud feeling such as saying "I am a leader. So, I give orders to all people around me." Thus, life of repentance is much more wonderful.
God never be so proud to say, "Because I am the Almighty God, you people must obey what I say." Then, how can you so proud to say that you are great, as you are trying to comfort and console God whose heart is filled with sorrow? You have never reached such a position to be proud of yourselves. If you repent daily, even though you don't realize these points, you are growing. But, if you think you have very high standard and are an exemplary Moonie, it is clear that you are no longer growing. Do you want to go the path of repentance?
I want you to realize that even though you repent throughout your life, you have never liquated your debts. In the path of repentance, each day is a new start. This path is truly your own path of cross. On this path, you only ascend, never descend. Jesus went to mountain alone countless times in order to be away from others, to fast, and to pray with so many tears. Even for Jesus, each and every day was a new beginning of repentance. This is only certain way where you are guaranteed to grow and never stumble.