Reverend Sun Myung Moon
March 11, 1973
First Directors' Conference
Master Speaks
Translated by Mrs. Won Pok Choi
We know that the world in which we are now living is not an ideal world. This is not the world of good result, but evil result. Therefore, we are not going to begin something from there -- but we are going to go back to somewhere. If we have a good result, we can say the causes have been good; if we find the causes have been good, we can safely say the beginning has been good. On our way to another place is the process or providence good? We must know that because that will define what the start was. Are we living in a happy or in an unhappy world? That will define whether or not our result will be good or bad. Are we honored in going this way or are we put to shame? Are we in shame on our way? If we find that there are many dishonest things on our way then we must define that in the beginning many things were wrong. Then what was shame and why are we ashamed? There are many kinds of sins. And with shame, too, there are many kinds. We are ashamed of something living in the sinful world. Then what kind of shame do we deserve?
In the present day you find so many criminals, and among them it is thought that the murderers are the most shameful ones, and the betrayers come next. Then what will come after that? Even worldly people think that adulterous sins centered on human love are shameful things. Rape, or physical love by violence, is sometimes thought to be worst of all. As in everything else, there is order in human love. So if adultery is committed among brothers and sisters, or among near relatives, or even among parents, that is the most shameful thing. That kind of love is thought to be worse than any other type of love. Even in the Satanic world people think this. Therefore, the question is, "What makes one the most unhappy or miserable?"
Our shamefulness comes from having committed sin. From what we were taught in the Divine Principle we know the nature of our human ancestors shame and sin. It was centered on the Archangel and Eve. Both of them, in a sense, killed man. And then Eve dragged Adam to the place of death. They committed sin through an illegal love relationship. And what was the love relationship between those two like? Everything should start from God. Then it goes to Adam, through Eve, and then to the Archangel. But things went in a reverse way: first the Archangel, then Eve, and then Adam.
From the standpoint of the Archangel, both Adam and Eve were in the position of his Master. That means that the Archangel raped Eve, the Master's wife. After that shame Eve wanted to justify her sin, and she tempted Adam by having Adam commit the same sin. All of them defied God. If you were in the place of God, what would you do? Can you forgive them at all? If that is possible we can say that God just does things at random -- there is no law there. We say God is absolute, but this is not in the sense that He can forgive them in a way which is evil. He is an absolute being only in the ways which are good. We must be at the absolute standard of good, by which we can compare anything and measure anything.
God's original intention in creating Adam and Eve, the Archangel, and the whole creation has been nullified. What must we do about that? But God cannot cut them off and tread down upon them. God was the Master and Creator of all those people and things; thus, the sin was committed within His family. So it was natural for God to grieve over what took place. He was in shame, too. In your own family, if you commit sins, or if your mother commits a sin, would your father be honored or put to shame? If you were in the place of the father, would you be more ashamed of the son's sexual crime or of murdering and things like that? Which would be better, if either could be better? If, in the sin of adultery, you are in the position of a man whose wife has been raped by someone, would you not be more angered by that thing than by a murder? Would that mean that adultery is more sinful? Yes, that is true. Then how grieved would God have been having that kind of daughter and that kind of a servant. If you were in the place-of God, what would you think? He was remorseful, grieved and angered. In light of all those things we can say that God is a grieving God, and an ashamed God. He is a God who has tasted the bitterness of sin. If your son or daughter is sinful, you feel that you are the sinner.
As I understand it, in the USA, people do not take adultery to be a serious sin. But in the Oriental countries, people still think adultery is the worst sin. In the words of the Bible it is the worst sin. Then who made God a grieving God? It was the Archangel, then Eve, and then Adam. If, when they realized that they had committed a sin, Adam and Eve had been so humble as to kneel down before God and plead forgiveness, then would their sin have been forgiven? What was their attitude? What sins can be forgiven and forgotten? The sin of an illegal love relationship cannot be forgiven. That is the bitterest thing. Even in the world, when someone kills your son and you forgive him, you become a generous and holy person. But when your wife is raped and you consider forgiving that man, that is ridiculed. Don't you think so? It would be far better for that man to die than to see that happen.
The relationship between Satan and God was something like that. If Satan, in hatred of Eve, had killed her -- in that case -- God could have created another Eve. But the sin was committed in a love relationship. In love, the first love is the best one and the good one, so it was unforgivable. Because of their sin in the illegal love relationship, their descendants have been under stained lineage. That is how the sinful history of mankind began.
If someone were to ask God, "How grieved and ashamed were you at the time of their fall?" He would have no words to answer. If you were in that position you would find no words to answer, and you could only shed tears in reply to the question. There can be no description in words. Man, in the beginning, left God in that grievous situation.
If you really know and realize that God is your Father, you would try to think of any way possible to console His heart, to do anything for Him. Wouldn't you? [YES!] Then in what way can you console His heart? Just by begging forgiveness, shedding tears and grieved sighs with Him in the same manner, or what? There is no forgiveness possible there. All the more, Adam and Eve committed sin from the position of the true children of God. They were direct children of God, and they were created sinless and pure. But are we pure and free from original sin?
Human sin doubled and became many falls. So we are in the position of begging forgiveness before God because we are more sinful than Adam and Eve. In the USA, as I see it, having a strong sense of freedom, the way you interpret the meaning of freedom, you say to yourselves, "I can do anything according to my own will, and what is wrong if I commit adultery or any sin?" That is the way in the democratic world. But have you ever stopped to think that you are not in the position of such a man? Have you ever thought of that? Have you been conscious of being sinners? If you are the descendants of the sons of traitors can you hold your face up like this? If you are the sons of murderers, can you lift your face high like this? If you realize that you are the sons of a man and woman who committed adultery would you be honored? If you truly realize your position can you cry out to the world, "Give me freedom! Return to me anything I please!" Can you really enjoy freedom and peace?
The answer is only too clear. You can never be like that. Before crying out for freedom you must go the reverse way. You cannot do anything freely. You must reverse what you have committed. Would that be true even in a worldly sense? All the more, Adam and Eve were traitors; historical murderers because they left their descendants lifeless. They were the first to commit adultery.
So we can say that our human ancestor was Satan, the devil. In a way we are co-workers in committing the sin. All the descendants came from stained lineage. You are the descendants of stained ancestors. Are you closer to yourself or closer to God? Are you closer to your own family or to God? [God.] Is that true? You try to be closer to God, but in fact you are not closer to God. In thought, in words maybe, you say you are closer to God, but it isn't this way. Have you ever felt you were so close to God as to be one with Him? You haven't been feeling the sense of love toward God like you would when you miss your family, your people in a foreign family. You have been thinking less of God than your own people. You have been farther from God than from your own people. When we say we are far from God, in other words, we can say we are near or close to Satan. That is natural, because we are born out of Satan's lineage. After the human fall it was a natural tendency for human beings to tend to be unlawful and to tend to fall into illegality. You cry out and say "Give me freedom!" -- but after you are given freedom, what are you going to do? The people of the world don't think of love. Many keep things in order after they are given freedom and love, but they are thinking of doing things after their own will. Wouldn't that be true? Even on university campuses we see people crying out for freedom. After they get their liberty, the virtuous think that what they are going to do is engage in love -- but they are violating the laws -- they like to do things of their own accord to suit their instincts. Is that really freedom to do as they please? In minding the order existing in human society, if that is defined as freedom, with that freedom we cannot build a wholesome society, but society will be broken down into pieces. Is that true?
Then what is the freedom we are looking for? The freedom that the people in our day are looking for is the freedom which can destroy and ruin them. We are already shameful people -- but after gaining that freedom, they are going to misuse it, putting us into an even more shameful position. God is afraid of giving the people freedom, and Satan is anxious to give the people freedom, anything which will increase their sinfulness. If I could invent a different kind of expression I would say the freedom we are crying for is maya, the drug for Satan. What is that freedom? Satanic. Opium. Would you say the same thing? Then would God like us to destroy that freedom or would He like to give that freedom to the people? If you were in the position of God would you let them go on the way they are now, or would you drag them back somehow? Would you like to be pulled back somewhere, or would you like to have Him lead you as it is?
The more you are loved by God, the more you will be dragged to Him. In that case, God would pull you so hard, almost apart at the joints, He wouldn't let you go, He would want to pull you even harder. in the Bible we read that if your right eye would sin, pluck it out; and if your hand would commit sin, you had better cut it off. With that said, how serious was Jesus or God? Wouldn't you rather be forgiven and not have to pluck out your eye? When you are pulled by God, are you in such a position as to try to get away from it all, or will you be obedient and let Him pull you? These things being spiritual, it is hard to define. But are you not in states of being pulled and going to God reluctantly? Would you try to get away from Him with all your mind, or would you go reluctantly, or would you go with all willingness?
Are you any different from what you were before you joined our movement? Before joining our movement you were paralyzed, without even feeling the state you were in. You didn't know even to cry, being dragged away, and you didn't realize that God was chasing you, and that you wanted to be dragged. You did not realize all these things. Were you living right, in the spiritual sense? Were you better? We were like that, but after joining the movement we have changed, and now we are anxious to go toward the goal God has set for us. Have you changed this much or that much? This is a greater revolution than any other revolution in human history. And you haven't been realizing that fact, even after you have joined our movement. You still don't realize this. Right at this moment, you must realize this clearly. We must restore the indemnity, our rights, and every virtue. I 'I someone would say to you, "Come to me; I will make a [senator] out of you. I will give you worldly things," would you rather go to him if he is going to make you a senator? After hearing me you say, "No," but do you really mean it? You must have the pride of the sons and daughters of God. You would like to take this, then, rather than worldly fame, like being a senator or having the praise of a king? No heroes in the past, no saints or holy men in the past, like Jesus, or Confucius, have excelled us.
We are going to be greater than they were, and we are going to be the victors of human history. We must right the wrongs that have been committed by our ancestors. We must put in order everything lost. We are going to be history-makers in that sense. But is there any way at all in which we can undo sin? If there is any such way, we are most happy people. If there is not, then we are most unhappy people. Now we know that our human ancestors were born in sin in the beginning, and all of our ancestors have been created more sinful, until we are the fruit of their sins. If there were any way to go back to the original position, would you do that? Right now we are not in the position to be proud of ourselves. Since we have been living in such sinfulness, we are in the position of having to beg for forgiveness before God. We must be willing to do anything for God, and for ourselves, so that we may be forgiven of sin. Would you not want that position? [YES!] Then what must you do? Are you ready to go through any difficulty? If you may have to be killed by God and resurrected again and go through more difficulty, and then be killed by God and resurrected again and go through more difficulty, would you be grateful and ready to pay your debt of sin in that way? Even though you may have to go through those things three times, ten times, a thousand times -- you must be ready to go through that.
If you are going to do that most reluctantly, God would see you have more debts to pay back, and you are going to be put into more and more difficulties. But if you are willing to go through more difficulties than God has for you, there will be a time when God will say: "Stop that. Now you know how sinful you are and I will forgive you." God will tell you, "Stop going through that misery, since I am going to forgive your ancestors, Adam and Eve. And it is the end to your sin and your sin will be forgiven." You will go beyond that boundary. When you want to go beyond that boundary and belong to the new world, would you look back and desire something in the old world? Then what would you do if you do things with the readiness of killing yourself, paying your whole like as sacrifice, and then you are resurrected? Would you be reluctant to pay with your whole like again? Then you have know what you are going to do.
Since our first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, caused God grief, shame, and bitterness, then, in the course of resurrection, we must be able to do anything in order to console God's heart. God's tears of grief have flowed down our ancestors' cheeks, reaching us. So tears have flowed down all through human history. Can you imagine how God would weep over Adam and Eve? How many tears would God have shed? Would He have shed tears just once, or would He have been in continual grief and sadness? The more He thought about His children being in sin, the more He would shed tears. When God looks at people committing sins over and over again, it is something like piercing Him with spears over and over again. We can see that human history is a sinful and grievous history. In going back, you would be most grieved. You must think, "I am the very person who caused God that grief."' And what would you do? If you truly realize that, you must be ready to go through any difficulty -- if you console God in that way. At the time of the fall, in the beginning, God had to shed bitter tears; but in the course of restoration we must be able to make God have happy, joyous tears. You must be able to think of yourself being ready to do anything in order to relieve God's heart and make it happy.
If, out of His will, you are beaten by others, would you get sympathy from your Father? If you are beaten and called names, then God would like to cling to you, and console you, wouldn't He? God's first desire is for you to dissolve His grief. "Please relieve my agony," is God's cry to you. God cannot do it by Himself. God was not the cause of human sin, so it must be done by man, who committed the sin. Can God undo the sin Himself? No. We must do that. The only way possible is to want to die for the cause of God. To want to die for the people of the world whom God wants to have back. That is why you are told in the Bible to sacrifice yourself for this greater cause, and in one place you are told to be ready to lose your life: "Those who want to lose it, gain it."
Up to the present, people have not known this fact, this history of man. Since we realize that, we must at least do something. The most important thing for us to do is to know God's heart. This is what makes our movement different from other religious movements. Then what must have been the agony of Adam, of Noah, of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus? Our Master is still going through the agony and difficulties. How can He be separated from those agonies and sins which are the agonies of God? The grief of the Unification Church members is not their own grief, but the grief of Adam, Noah -- and God's grief. God's grief is all these griefs totalized.
God's grief is not only on an individual level. You must be ready to relieve all griefs or resentments. If you can relieve God's grief, then you must be able to do that. Those people have failed, so you must pay back the totalized grief in order to pay back God's grief. Then you are the historical victors. You must be able to know the cause which made Adam's sin and made Noah and others failures. You must be able to undo the [past] , or to complete anything left undone. Even though you may have to pay double, triple or more indemnity, you must be able to do so. If you know these things, and if you really know the heart of God, can you ask Him to relieve you from your grief, begging Him to help you? Are you ready to do that? You cannot pray that kind of prayer before God.
We cannot expect God to help us; but we must be willing to help God relieve His grief. Unlike other Christians of the world, we must restore God's heart through prayer. Throughout the world, He is the most grieved one. He is praying for us. He is praying for sons and daughters to relieve His agony. Can you ever pray to such a God to give you a blessing, to give you help? Would you rather have a blessing from Him or would you rather have difficulty? Being away, you can go along the way of restoration, pace by pace, relieving so much of God's grief. As you go through difficult paths, you must always pray to God, "'As I test this important difficulty, I know this much more of your heart; and as I go through so much difficulty I know what difficulty you have gone through," and that way you can have courage and zeal. You must really realize that.
Since we know all these facts, you must be doing these things for the sake of God. If you read, you must realize that you are reading in order to relieve God's grief. When you sing, when you recite poetry, when you write literature, when you do anything, you must realize that you are doing that in order to make God happy. We are different from Adam and Eve. We are different from other people. We are even different from the great men of the past. You must become such a person that God will tell you, "Because of you I am relieved from my grief; because of you I restored a family, nation and the whole world; because of you I found my Joy, my son, my smile, my everything." You must be such a person to Him. God would want to talk, to confide things to you, and to you, God would want to inherit everything. Again, I must say that, if you can relieve God's agony, if you can make God a happy God, there is no more to be expected from you, and you can enjoy everything of virtue. Then you will have restored yourself, your family, your nation, and the whole world back to God. By our doing this, we can liberate God from grief. We are the liberators of God, and we must be able to have Him enjoy the whole restored world. You can do this yourself. By doing this we can remove sin.
If you were God, would you not, after having found such an individual, be anxious to have a family, clan and nation restored under him? Would you not be anxious to restore the whole world? After restoring the whole world, God will be relieved, and the central figure, the Messiah, will be relieved. God will want you to promise to enjoy life with the rest of mankind. You have the central figure, who has liberated God and the whole world; then God and the whole world will want to honor this person. If he, against God's will, failed to carry out his mission because of the luck of the conquest of the people, God will be more grieved. He is anxious to have this person succeed at all costs. If God had that kind of person among human saints, He would cooperate with him, and He would have all the people help him; and out of the whole population of the world, the minute you knew him, you would really help him. Wouldn't you?
If the people of the world recognize this person, they cannot fail Him again. The central figure is the Lord of the Second Advent. Through this personage both God and the people of the world are relieved from shame and grief. This person needs the cooperation of the people of the whole world and the cooperation of God. The Unification Church is the guide to such a goal.
What we have here is of such value that you wouldn't sell it for diamonds. Even if the whole earth was that diamond. In the position to have the thing of ultimate value, we must realize how great our honor is. Would you be sons of shame or sons of honor? Now you know clearly the way in which you can yourself relieve God and the people of shame. When you have gone to the spirit world, you cannot tell me that I haven't taught everything to you; and it is your responsibility to carry out what you have been told. But if I am willing to help you, from my part, what would you do? You will welcome help from God, of course, but you must think in your heart that you are going to inherit that blessing to your descendants, and to all the people of the world.
That is what creates many difficulties. I must help you to do this. Wouldn't you be equally busy in doing this? In that case, God is going to be a boss, while helping you. All will be realized, all will be done.
Those three must go at the same pace, at the same speed. Must we go competitively? Try to go ahead of us. Would you cry to compete with others in good competition? Then God will be glad to help you out, and He will know that our shame is His, and everybody else will be relieved by studying the Divine Principle. You must not be studying with your brain, your reason, alone, but you must learn God's heart from that. You must feel those things which you are studying. You must go through all those things, by putting yourself in the position of these central figures of God's choice; and feel the same grief God would have felt in their failures after the fall. To carry out their missions, Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jesus were in Cain's position. Even God is in that position, and all of those people must be restored by our carrying out this mission. You must be greater than Adam and any passed-away saints. You must relieve those people. You must be the first to set up a real tradition of God's ideal and we must be able to [keep] that tradition. We must be able to set up the tradition and the height of the mission ' more than the Jewish people did, and more than the Christian people have. We must relieve them. Then we can relieve God -- and the shame of all mankind.