Sun Myung Moon
March 22, 1959
Today, we are yearning for the day of the last resurrection, the day of hope. That time of hope which everyone is yearning for is one that all humankind can delight in, yet it does not come easily. That hope can only be owned by those who conquer death. Only those who fought for God against Satan will take possession of it. Only those who suffered persecution together with God for the sake of heaven will take possession of that hope.
As we contemplate such a time approaching us, we must have ardent hearts to overcome our living circumstances and even the fear of death. If such ardor does not emanate from within you, you cannot draw that one day of hope into the realm of your daily life and go on living.
Therefore, those who are said to be living a true lifestyle will ask themselves, what will be the scenario of my death? Do not wait until you are eighty and about to die to ask yourselves the question, "In what fashion am I going to celebrate my last day?" When reaching the place of death, Jesus said, "It is finished," and "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Indeed, he is the only one who has been victorious throughout all the stages of his life.
You will meet with death one day. While looking back on your past at that moment, think about what kind of words you would wish to leave behind.
This path is one without even friends. It is the path without even beloved parents, siblings, a beloved spouse, or children. It is the path only you must go alone. It is the path you cannot revisit or return to; it is the path, once trodden, that you can never return to in all of eternity. With what kind of heart do you walk this path? At the moment you face death, if you should lack the hope with which you can overcome it, your end will come right then and there.
The many people who have upheld and established God's will were not the type to retreat before the path of death, but rather laughed scornfully at death, overcoming it valiantly. Such people have appeared and established the heavenly way.
All of you must embrace the hope with which you can overcome death when you are confronted by it. After you have traversed that path, you must be able to race joyfully to that original homeland for which you have longed with the hopeful thought of standing tall in front of Heaven. Only those who fervently desire God's ideal world can overcome death.
All the things of this world will pass away. Your beloved parents, spouses and everything that you love will all pass away, and you will eventually face death. Even so, only those possessed of the victorious hope that lets even death go past can stand before Heaven.
People living on earth today do not desire the path of suffering and sorrow. The passing of joyous occasions evokes nostalgia in them. Such is human nature.
This world we live in is mixed with sadness and joy. All the happiness we are experiencing will disappear with death and cannot remain beyond it.
Our heart seeks happiness, longs for better things, and yearns for the eternal world. If sorrow and joy disappear with death, then does our heart also finish with death? No. The fact that our hearts and minds move in that direction is proof that such a world actually exists.
People are spiritual beings and their lives are eternal. People who have loyally walked the way of death for heaven, embracing hope as they followed a path repulsive to many people, have done so because they felt something ordinary people could not feel and appreciated something ordinary people could not appreciate. It was for that reason that they could tread even the path of death.
Unless your longing becomes stronger than any adversity, hardship, sadness, or death that you may encounter in your actual life, you will become people who feel regretful before death and draw back from pain and sorrow. As Jesus surmounted the summit of death, entered the eternal world, and built the sphere of resurrection, we today are also destined to surmount the summit of death.
Then what type of people live with heavenly hope? They are those who can joyfully surmount the summit of death that grieves humanity. Such people are the ones who cherish Heaven's hopes. So, do not become people who covet and grieve after all the things of this world before death. Become those who can stand before heaven and be proud of the value of their death. God seeks such sons and daughters of hope.
If there were people who felt Heaven's joy in such a position, God could not but love them. If there were a throng of people that cried out to Heaven from such a position, Heaven could not but answer that cry.