Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1965
Prayers: A Lifetime Of Conversation With Our Heavenly Father
At the same time that this morning is the first Sunday we greet in this new year of 1965, it is also the day on which we greet the 1,965th year since the incarnation of the Lord. Many people decided, according to what they thought, and have celebrated the birthday of the messiah, but they did not even know after the messiah came to this earth what kind of destined relationship and value were decided together with humankind, together with the world, and together with the universe, and remembering only his fame, they have celebrated the messiah's birthday.
But the small group of us which has gathered like this today cannot help but sympathize in our hearts with the situation of Jesus who had been sent 2,000 years ago through your mighty, sublime will and sacred administration, but who faced a miserable situation, and we cannot help but feel pain to depths of our bones that at that time the people of Israel did not fulfill their mission.
We know that that person who was born as your precious son, was a person sent in order to resolve your sorrow over having lost Adam, who turned his back on the ideal of creation of heaven and earth.
As for the messiah, Jesus, whom you sent in order to achieve the desire you had for a world of joy which you wanted to realize through him, the glory you wanted to receive through him, and the Will you wanted to realize through him, from the day he was born, he lived in a wretched environment.
Many people anticipated the messiah, but they did not know the one who really came as the messiah. When we think that the messiah alone had God's heart in his heart, and his living situation was such that he had to live with the hope of God and without others knowing him, he appeared as a humble person, was nailed to the cross through pitiful circumstances, shed tears and blood, and died, we cannot help but apologize at this time for our ancestors having been unworthy, and we cannot help but apologize for Judaism which had the responsibility but did not fulfill its mission completely and for Judaism's sin of having betrayed God.
Please let this become a time when we once again deeply seek in our hearts and think and repent for the history of sin which made successive generations of our ancestors shed blood, and for all the sins of the many people who have betrayed God.
Father! We must consider your loneliness, and we must sympathize with the situation of Jesus who was falsely charged, and we must become people who are able to realize the lonely, miserable situation of his disciples who have gone a course of blood until now Please do not let us forget that today our entire purpose for commemorating the birth of the messiah is in order to comfort as individuals, to comfort as families, as peoples, as nations, and furthermore, to comfort as a world, Jesus who died with sorrow in his heart.
Two thousand years of history have gone by. During that time, how many sorrowful situations have there been? We know that you have been sorrowful, Father; Jesus has been sorrowful; the Holy Spirit has been sorrowful; and the Christians have been sorrowful, too. And we know that the final day of the Last Days, that is to say, the Day of Judgment, which is to resolve that kind of sorrowful grief, is near.
The believers in these Last Days, who are in the position of having to greet once again the messiah who comes in order to resolve your grief which has piled up over and over again, Father, must not just long for the messiah without having minds capable of being obedient to the messiah who is coming and without preparation like the people of Israel who longed for the messiah; therefore, we earnestly hope that you will let each one of us be aware of these kinds of things.
We have prayed all these things in the holy name of the Lord. Amen.