Sun Myung Moon
November 8, 1980
Photo date and location unknown
I know that so few people have ever traced Your footsteps through the flow of history. No one ever knew that, for You, when night came it was a night of sadness, when morning came it was a morning of sadness, when the shining rays of the bright sun reached Your heart they were a light of sadness, and when the full moon rose in the eastern sky at night, that round moon was the scar revealing the wounds in Your heart.
We are aware that countless people have remained at a standstill in the history of struggle and have tumbled into the valley of death. Many have disappeared without trace while crying out for justice at the crossroads of life and death, and have faded away into the back alleys of history, lamenting after failing to build the bridge to the world of Your heart.
It is an amazing fact that, from this place, like the valley of dry bones, the Unification Church today has thankfully taken hold of the historical connection to You after undergoing indescribable hardships to find the new way. Through this connection we have been able to resolve the origins of the bitter sorrow of the world throughout history, find the truth of Your heart, and build the bridge of heart from the bottommost pit of hell to the highest throne in heaven. We know that this hour is an hour of joy for You, and that this hour is also the basis of hope for all people.
Long ago, when I was still immature, You called me. Ever since, while I have run around as if I were crazy, arrows from my enemies have flown at me from all directions, mercilessly. Yet I have realized only now that those arrows hit You before they reached me, and You have been covered with wounds.
After returning to Korea this time, reflecting upon the sixty years of my life which have been filled with many bitter pains and sorrows, I feel grateful for the fact that I can be remembered as Your son. When I had occasion to shed tears, You made me shed tears for Your beloved sons and daughters, and when I had occasion to receive blows, You saved me through Your many children. I am grateful for Your grace.
Members of the Unification Church, spread around the world in 127 nations connected to Korea, Japan and America, are thinking of this place with reverence and waiting for the day of my return as their teacher, longing with tears for that hour to quickly come. I know that, not only in this free world but even behind the iron curtain, pitiful groups of Your children are hovering on the brink between life and death for the sake of Your Will, being trampled upon in their underground existence, unable to live for even one day with ease in their hearts.
Since You know that I cannot forget them when I am comfortable and I cannot help but remember them even when I am resting, I hope that You will remember them on my behalf and protect their environment, Father, so they will be able to go to the kingdom of heaven as they desire. That is, by resurrecting their enemies, they can leave behind names they can be proud of, and You can pin glorious nametags on them as Your sons and daughters. Sometimes they came to visit me but circumstances did not allow them to meet me; and even when they were able to meet me, they said that the next time they would meet me, it would not be on earth but in the spirit world. I saw them vividly as they were leaving.
I have made many appeals to You, suppressing my gasping heart. I am not dead yet and I still have energy left, so I hope You will not worry about the path I need to go. Instead, You will watch over their paths, both before and behind them, so that someday the day of glory will come in the communist world, and all peoples' shouts of liberation will spread, beginning from North Korea and overflowing across this entire planet. I pray that You will remember all those who have faded away as flowers of this long cherished hope of bringing about that day.
Father, thus far, people who have knelt down or stood in Your presence did not know that You are the one who is in the most pitiful situation. Yet, as Your son, I learned that You are the Father of such great sorrow, who cannot stop weeping even after having shed tears for tens of thousands of years. You know that I wanted to forget all the personal matters I could have complained about, and even my entire suffering path.
That being the case, I am grateful for Your grace in that, even when I could have perished, I did not perish; and even when I was ridiculed, I did not collapse but remained steadfast. Now that I have returned here to Korea, Father, please love Korea and protect these people as they walk this path in the future.
I know only too well that the holy quest of realizing the unification of South and North Korea still remains to be achieved in Korea, through the Unification Church. Father, please encourage this entire nation. I know that You are wishing for the day when not only the Korean Peninsula and Asia but the entire world will open wide the gates of blessing and will serve and attend You, our Father, and Heaven, with cheers of gratitude.
We, the Unificationists who have gathered here today, are clean and well dressed, and have come to offer full bows before You. Because we know that the call from Heaven, Your summons, is still with us, Father, we sincerely hope and pray that You will push and spur us along that path, even if we end up being pitiful and miserable people who will have to resolve, again and again, to go forward. I know that if we do so, we will not perish. So please allow these people to become young men and women who can endure that path.
Even if all our flesh rots on that path, and even if our faces become wrinkled along the way, our rotted flesh and wrinkled faces do not represent sorrow. We know that blessings will remain with our future descendants, and that the right of inheritance to the global culture, which will be able to sing of the shining happiness of youth, will remain among our descendants. Hence, I earnestly hope that You will guide us to become people who can show reverence and gratitude while walking that path.
We have now come to know clearly what it is to be reborn, through Children's Day, Father, and I sincerely and earnestly request and pray that the more we understand how hard You have been toiling, the more You will allow us to realize how insufficient we are. Let us push ourselves to dream of becoming sons and daughters with hope for tomorrow, pressing ourselves again and again to march forward so that we can influence our environment and become children whom You can bless as those who are worthy to be loved by You. Please bless us again and again so that we can be sons and daughters who are unashamed before the days to come, and before the world. I pray all this in the name of True Parents. Aju!