Sun Myung Moon
June 21, 2002
Father's speech at the large gathering of some twenty thousand members and guests on June 21st has been re-edited for Today's World to achieve greater clarity and reveal deeper meaning. Father drew some passages from speeches he had given extemporaneously in earlier years. The event was attended by a group of representative FFWPU leaders from different nations, and was broadcast live on the web.
Buses came from all over Korea, and the Jamshil indoor stadium (the venue for the 6000-couple Blessing, 1982) was full to the brim.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters of my beloved fatherland who are attending this meaningful "Rally for the Unity and Completed Settlement of the Parents of Heaven and Earth," and the seventy million people around the world who are watching this historic convention: I offer my sincere gratitude to all.
We have finally entered a truly historic and providential era of great proclamation. For six thousand years, heaven and earth have yearned for the ideal world of peace, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven; this is the time when the heavenly fortune for its building is upon us.
Heaven has allowed the growth of religions in relation to certain ages and regional cultures as the providence has unfolded in history. Within these religious realms, mankind has worked with unceasing effort to realize a world of peace. In the end, however, everything will be resolved through fully understanding the content of God's providence and His heart.
Today, people talk about a world of peace, about one united world, yet the real question is whether we can create harmony and realize peace within ourselves. Suppose God exists and knows this reality, and there is very a good person with firm resolve: We would inevitably conclude that there is someone who has determined himself to carry out that task of unification.
You often hear that you must love, serve and sacrifice for one another. To do so is good. To love means to give. It means that love goes from oneself to another person. It doesn't mean looking to receive love from another or asking for love.
In an environment where people serve one another a basis for peace emerges. Flames of revival blaze when people sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others, and flowers bloom and spread their fragrance when love is shared. Just as a negatively charged magnet will always move towards a positively charged one, we can come to know God through the power of our conscience.
The nearer we approach God, following our conscience, the more we feel peace, happiness and fulfillment within our heart. If we follow God's love, which is the womb of peace, our whole body will receive stimulation and we will become people who vibrate with emotion.
Even those who have not lived good lives, when they have lived out their lives they should end them gloriously and with confidence. Even if such a person has no power he should kneel and pray desperately all night even if he hurts to his bones, and fulfill all his responsibilities within the time remaining in his life.
The grave of an old man who had prayed for the salvation of the world -- even if that had come at the cost of his own life -- and who had prayed for the protection of his native soil, and to see a foundation of happiness for humankind, will never become overgrown with weeds.
Even though that old man may have had many wrinkles on his face, those wrinkles would have symbolized the conditions for peace. And though he may have had a haggard posture when he walked, his path would have become a shining beacon of hope. Therefore, when we compare our lives to his, we will know that the desperate path of destiny is waiting for us. That path is clearing out the congestion of resentment that came about through our living only for ourselves by becoming friends of evil and expanding the foothold of evil. That path is increasing the foundation of goodness in our lives. We must not rest, but hurry along this path.
In my lifetime, I have faced the cross of imprisonment six times, and have been vilified in other lands, in front of all races, as a cult leader. I have faced intense opposition. On the path of devotion to God that I am walking, along with people of all races, knowing that this way is the traditional, central philosophy; I kneel down in deep respect in front of heaven. If there is a way to follow such a path I believe I can go anywhere. I have always lived my life in such a fashion. Keep in mind that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the saints can rejoice only when we become the elite troops of Heaven and gain success. Then a time of peace can arise.
Conflict within the individual turned into conflict within families, conflict within families into conflict within clans, conflict within clans into conflict within society, conflict within society into conflict within the nation, and conflict within the nation into global conflict. There will also be conflict between the spirit world and the earthly world. Only when the battle between God and the countless evil spirits of the satanic world is over will an era of peace come to our universe.
You must understand that God is working through such a process, according to heavenly principles. The age of cosmic peace will arise only when, after clashing with Satan, God resolves all problems. Until the moment the core of God's sorrowful heart is healed, we will never find peace and the ideology of Heaven will never come to fruition in this world.
If a true individual who can liberate the sorrow of Heavenly Father and this world comes and brings an ideology capable of establishing a peaceful nation in heaven and on earth, that individual will have to pass through every conceivable difficulty. He will experience desperation arising from sorrow over everything, from personal tribulations to the tribulations of humankind. He will have to delve into the sorrowful and desperate heart of Heaven in order to find a way to resolve it. Otherwise, humankind will not be able to push aside its sorrowful and miserable history and establish a world of peace and happiness, a garden of freedom inviolable by sorrow.
If you become a representative of the ideology of the universal Kingdom of Heaven, expanding the movement of God's true love, true blood lineage and truth, then a peaceful world will emerge. For the purpose of creating such a world of peace, our natural parents are not our only parents, our brothers and sisters are not our only brothers and sisters and the children we give birth to are not our only children. If you can become a person of character who regards all people as your parents, siblings or children, then when you look upon the many who are suffering in this world of death, you will be unable to think of them without shedding tears. When you look at those who are of the age of your brother or sister, or who are youthful, you will feel a strong sense of responsibility to save them, and with tears you will make every effort to do so. If you truly become such a person, like God, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be built around you on this earth.
God's strategy is to accept the first blow from Satan. Then He does things for Satan and loves him in order to win him over. Instead of taking from the satanic world by the use of force, God is the first to love, to be hit and to sacrifice, even to the point of death, in order to regain ground from the satanic world. You must understand that, without using this strategy, God cannot establish the pattern for world peace in the cosmos.
With your family in tow, you must go forward for the sake of the nation and the world. Spanning the ages of the individual, family, clan, tribe, society and nation, you have to fulfill the role of showing the world's peoples and nations the right direction, based upon real experience. Having fulfilled this, you must be able to serve God from a mutually inseparable position. Only then will the spirit world and the physical world become a unified realm of peace. Only those who can attain the position of eternal leaders of the age when the heavenly kingdom is established will be awarded the glorious official commendation of the heavenly realm.
A person who fights and bleeds profusely in the harsh process of building a new kingdom of peace, a heaven of freedom, will not perish. The blood he sheds is not the blood of death but becomes the power of life. What he builds in this manner is the place we have to go to, stay in, and bequeath to others during our lives.
You should be longing for the day when you are marching toward the Heaven of freedom and peace, when God is happy. On that day, you will pray, "O God! Everything you wanted to be proud of, centered on Your ideal of creation, has come to fruition. I have fulfilled the wish of your innermost heart -- that You can be eternally proud of humankind." And God will be able to say, "Yes you have!"
Who is the owner of Korea? He is the one who loves and values that nation more than anyone else. Therefore, if you cherish and love Korea more than anyone else, you will become the master of her people, even if you do not want to be in that position. Only then will the age of peace that God desires arrive.
We have to liberate God by dissolving His resentment. Great would be the young person who, having the conviction to attend God as the dignified absolute being, allowing God to govern all nations as a free and peaceful heaven, with free authority, takes responsibility for removing all of the obstacles in the way of God's ruling all nations freely. The world will take a new direction in the future because of this young man. If you vow to be like him, no matter how ragged you may look, you will not appear ugly. Infinite hope dwells there. That person will become the foundation for God's hope and happiness.
As we are in the position of grain that needs to be harvested -- or has been harvested -- at all costs we must become people who can together digest everything we experience and feel so that happiness results.
Isn't it true that a heaven of peace will come about in this world as we expand this foundation to the nation and world, as long as our minds do not deviate from a state of unity? If we can expand this foundation to the North, South, East and West these parts will not be in conflict but they will be solidified into one. Where must the restored heaven begin? It has to begin from prison. Have you ever been in prison, and tried singing a song of gratitude, as Jesus did, with an independent heart of peace, a heart reflecting the original standard recovered in the position of a subject partner? That is the question.
When the Apostles went through that same woeful ordeal in the past, didn't God give them the authority to open prison doors and be free to move, so that their situation could be transformed into a heavenly one? God wants all of you to become people in whom He can have hope and expectation greater than He did for the Apostles.
In the Last Days, there will be no way to survive unless we build in a direction opposite of that of the present time. Humankind must go in a new direction at all costs -- the direction toward unification. Since the world's Last Days have come through the sacrificing of others, peace will surely never come to the world if we carry on in the same way. How can we prevail over the course of the cross?
When you hold your wife, you should not just think of yourself, but of your country. When you are holding on to your country you must think of the world. If you have the world in your hands, you must think of heaven and earth. If we go through these steps without hesitation, the way of the cross, where all our enemies are waiting, will vanish. Reaching a level highway, liberation will bring freedom and the kingdom of peace in heaven and on earth-the ideal world desired by God-will be realized.
In this world even, we have to create new God-centered patterns. Should the parents' role of loving children not become the principle of today's morality? How do we gauge the standard of the ideal, original way, which God designed and the Unification Church teaches? It is grounded in parental, conjugal and filial ties and the principle of the four-position foundation. As we dream of world peace and unification, this fundamental question remains. If it is not resolved, a world of unity cannot come. Please realize that growing out of the pattern of the individual man and woman, a world of unity and peace will emerge where the family pattern is established. Even if you, your family and your nation become a sacrifice, if there is an ideological system that can launch a new set of values capable of benefiting the nation and the world, then a new gate to the future will undoubtedly open before our very eyes through that ideological structure. There is a law that if one rises, another must fall, and if one falls, another must rise. Therefore, as this world is a world of evil and sin, there will come a time when a victorious heaven can be established through a way that can deliver the world from sin.
We are to love our enemies. This is the secret method of breaking Satan's walls, which surround us. A realm of equality has never existed in the satanic world. The strategy through which to create a realm of equality is that of sacrificing for others, loving others and wishing blessings upon them. Then, when those of the satanic world hit you, by winning them over and giving them the same blessings as everyone else, a complete realm of equality can emerge.
As we have set the stage on which the right of the enemy to a final showdown has been dissolved, we can now establish a peaceful founding ideology for a nation. An ideal model of world peace and unity will start from here. To shorten the way to heaven, the Messiah, or a specific people, or specific individuals, had to take responsibility through self-sacrifice. Many saints have given up their lives for this cause. The rise and fall of many nations is to fill in the valleys. Through such rising and falling, equality, as there is now, could be created. The world established the equality we see today in this manner. Equality means peace. [Editor's note: Father seems to be elaborating on the paragraph above -- through prosperous nations sacrificing for those not so prosperous, equality is achieved.]
Originally, Adam and Eve, after perfecting themselves centering on God's love and becoming one, could have come to stand in a God-centered structure of relationships. In the Unification Church, this structure is called the four-position foundation. Because we lost the means to complete the four-position foundation, no matter what historical age we passed through, there was no way to create peace, utopia or an ideal world.
An ideal land cannot arise through the denial of or breaking away from principles. Christianity has developed over two thousand years, even in an environment of unspeakable persecution during the Roman Empire. Why has Christianity, which even absorbed Rome, declined as it has during the last few decades in liberal, modern-day America? This is a puzzle. Judaism taught belief in God and all Jews loved God, but Hitler massacred six million Jews. This is a deep mystery. The answer to these is that religions did not go the way they originally should have. In the Last Days, if the central people cannot align with God's original true love, they cannot help but be broken apart as Satan's offerings.
So, to reorganize the world, where should we focus? There are so many historians and intellectuals who pronounce on this point nowadays, but we need someone who can lead the world. How should such a person guide us? What should he teach? There are plenty of people qualified to teach us how to live focused on economic or political power. It is not money or an adequate political system that is missing in today's world. The problem is that there is no true love order that can match God's ideal. If the truth is found that can allow the order of original true love to develop on a worldwide foundation, from there the origins of peace, and an ideal place where our original minds can rest for the first time, will start to emerge.
The beginning and the end of true love must be the same. All that is needed is a true person who can connect God's heart of true love to heaven and earth. Peace also comes from a heart of true love. With a truly joyful mind, the cosmos becomes our friend. If we have this true heart, then when we encounter the cosmos, its vast expanse will have total freedom within our minds.
In what manner will the ideal world come to mankind? The world is doomed to perish if the proper use of our true love organs is not made clear. We will never discover a world of peace. Look at Rome and America. The degeneration of the United States is not due to a lack of money. Until now they have not been able to recognize who the owner of the true love organ is, and how it originated-how it was created. They have not known these things because of Satan. To clarify this and to clear up all the chaos caused by the vicious and treacherous Satan on the cosmic level, I came, flag in hand, and went forth in the name of True Parents.
As the wintry wind blows from the colder regions into the temperate regions, the trees stand bare, stripped of their foliage and fruit. In winter, all fruit falls from the trees, but no matter how harsh the wind's blast, it cannot suppress the seeds that bear life. As these very seeds that demonstrate such hardiness and strength germinate, a new spring garden of peace for humankind will be found. As the spring garden of liberation and hope is found, and when these seeds of new life are sown in heaven and on earth in this new age of humankind, let us move into the temperate zone of liberation, where there is no winter. This aligns perfectly with the teachings of the Unification Church.
To improve ourselves, we have to go the way of hardship. Which do you think would be easier to do: unite North and South Korea or bring unity within oneself? Externally, the unification of North and South Korea can be easily achieved. But we are unable to unify ourselves internally. Whatever degree of world peace we may have achieved, we have nonetheless failed to achieve peace within ourselves.
If the direction the world takes can be internally and externally unified -- linking the past, the present and the future -- there is hope for unification at anytime and in any place. If we look at the past and present, everything ultimately heads toward a single goal. That single goal is unification and peace. One peace, not two. But when will we be able to bring about unity within ourselves? Is it possible to manage a unified world without first even being able to unify ourselves? Logically speaking, it is not possible.
If we seek to identify the most fundamental problem, the issue of unification is a serious one. It is a problem the universe has had through all of its history. If a nation perishes, it is not such problem. There were no nations in Adam's world; managing just his own family would have sufficed. It would have been enough if the family had remained intact. Finally, the tale turns on the unity of the conscience with the physical body and the unity of the family. From a global perspective, the issue is whether couples become one, whether a man and woman unite. If that is achieved, the world will become a place of peace. The world's problems would not seem difficult if we were to apply true love toward solving them. This is achievable only if you unify your mind and body, if parents and children unite, and if there is unity within a couple and among children.
As this is an evil and belligerent world, everything is in a state of struggle. This is because the mind struggles with the body. The battle of the sexes has become an accepted norm. Where in the world is the foundation for peace? It is not in Korea, Japan, America, the world or heaven; it is within oneself. If we do not bring peace between the mind and body, which are at war, there will never be world peace.
How, then, will the world of peace come about? What is the essential condition? We must discover the root of unification. If we cannot locate this, we will forever cut ourselves off from a world of unity.
Although we want our households to be united, when we look to ourselves we cannot even find unity between our mind and body. There is a struggle between body and mind, isn't there? There is no happiness, peace or hope when a couple struggles. The closer we get to the Last Days, couples break into four different aspects as the minds and bodies of both people are separate. A couple divides into four parts, there being two minds and two bodies; and there is conflict among all of them.
The Unificationist faith equips you with a logical, organized system that no religion or ideology can imitate. It teaches you to live for others with internal unity as a person motivated by God's true love. It can become the basis of world peace, the basis of peace for individuals, couples, families, tribes, races, nations, the world and, ultimately, the cosmos. The ideal of True Parents is that people unite with God in true love, thus creating a peaceful, happy and hopeful world unifying heaven and earth. No one who opposes this ideology can remain. Everyone will therefore have to welcome this ideology.
What will become of the world in the future? Regardless of sex or age, all people living in the world today are longing for global unity. That global unity is not a world of war, but a world of peace and freedom without national separation, racial strife and barriers arising through cultural differences. The people of the world are yearning for a nation of peace and freedom corresponding to a unified cultural sphere of true love.
A world of peace is a world of unity. There is only one way -- not two -- to aim for a world of peace. The world of hope and peace for which men and women, young and old, are craving is a world of unity. Even within single nations, we see various organizations, each having its unique philosophy, methods and objectives. Surveying the political landscape of Korea, we can see that the ruling party, the opposition party and the various other parties seek to run the nation in their own way. So how many different directions do we have here? This is where problems arise.
Since the dawn of history, a great number of people have worked for world peace. But the number of those capable of leading humankind with hope into the sublime, unified world of tomorrow is gradually dwindling. What must be decided, by going beyond all studies, research, structural systems of society and conventional practices, is where a unified world of peace begins. The starting point must be the True God. The True God created man in the beginning. Through a process, the True God wanted to realize His ideal, as He was the creator of man. A world of peace cannot be realized unless the way to that goal, the ideal of the True God, can be found again. The reason for this is that a world of peace is a unified world. If there are two directions, one of man and one of God, a unified world of peace cannot be found. Therefore, in conclusion, there must be one unified direction.
If we do not go beyond the humanistic world toward a true God-centered world, we cannot discover the way to the unified world of peace. In the realm of mind and body, setting up a standard of peace is the most essential thing in life.
The mind is battling against the body. In relation to this problem, where is the standard of peace? Not in the world, the nation or religion. To be a religious leader, you must be able to create absolute mind and body unity to establish the standard of peace within yourselves. The purpose of all education, all training and all humanitarian thought is the realization of oneness between mind and body.
You can believe in any religious teaching, you may be a wonderful religious leader or a great saint reigning over the world, but you will not be able to achieve unity of mind and body on the same level as the eternal God in this fallen realm.
The problem is that without establishing and settling the root of peace through true love in the individual sphere of heart, and unless the root of peace is created within oneself, an ideal religion, Heaven, and so on, are nothing but a dream. To solve this problem centering on God, the origin of unification must be found in the unified realm of the True God's children. God's mind and body don't struggle.
Then why do the human mind and body struggle? The Father, the King of Peace, and son must unify in order to unify the mind and body. The origin of peace begins from the relationship of father and son united in God's true love, true life and true lineage. True love, true life and true lineage must be unified where father and son become one.
We, being from the lineage of fallen man, certainly need to know the original God and the ideal environment of the realm of Heaven. Through sincerely working to become one with God Himself and with the ideal Heaven, one can find the way to become like our Heavenly Father. This is the beginning of world peace and of the joy of the father and son who become one in peace from the individual level to that of heaven.
Therefore the True Parents, who are Christ at the Second Advent, will illuminate everything in heaven and unify the world on the earth. Through this, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven will be realized.
Centered on the saints and sages that have gone to spirit world, all of humanity wants this to come about. Through the True Parents teaching about the realm of unity through true love, true life and true lineage, a unified heaven and earth can come into being.
Beloved people of our fatherland, and seventy million people observing this conference from all over the world! You are truly blessed people. You are welcoming the age in which the True Parents of humankind, who are Christ at the Second Advent, have come, the age when the Korean peninsula will be unified with true love and truth instead of by guns and swords, the age when all religions will be unified under True Parents' teachings and the historic and providential age when the saints and our ancestors can descend from the spirit world and communicate with us directly.
I'd like to introduce the messages of Jesus Christ and the saints in the spirit world, urging all humanity to go beyond the barriers of race, ideology and nationality and build a world of peace. Please study this content in its entirety through the books that will be distributed.
I hope you will live happily and peacefully with the Parents of Heaven and Earth in the eternal heaven, both on the earth and in the spirit world, where everyone is in one big family of true love.
May God's boundless blessings fill your family, nation and the world. Thank you.
[Originally published in Today's World, May /June 2002]