Sun Myung Moon
September 30, 1979
Excerpt
God's Will and the World -- Let Us Know Ourselves
If a person is brought to trial and convicted of violating the constitutional law, would he feel good? Often a convicted defendant reacts strongly to the judgment of the court, demanding to know what is wrong with him when there is so much wrong with society. Normally a court will not reverse its decision just because the defendant objects. If even a human court won't do that, would the universal court be likely to reverse its decisions?
There is always room for mercy in a righteous legal system, but in order to be entitled to receive it, a person must show his sincere repentance. Repentance is the key word. This is why Jesus' pronouncement was, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." What should we repent for? Very simply, we must repent for all those actions which violated the rule that says we should live in sacrifice and service for others. This was Jesus' first teaching. The essence of Christianity is to seek repentance for the sin of greediness and selfishness. Sin can be defined as violation of the universal law of service to others.
Stealing a dress from even a big department store chain is wrong. That dress has value which comes from the person who prepared it. If it is stolen, its public value is nullified by the thief. That is the sin. Another person might realize that he tells lies all the time, but his conscience doesn't hurt him. The motivation for lying always involves hiding something to take advantage of others; otherwise, there would be no reason to lie.
Everything is embraced by this universal principle and every deed can be judged accordingly. Imagine a person who sees an ugly woman on the street and knocks her down, thinking that he can't stand to see her and that he is also doing a service to other Americans who wouldn't like to see her. If that is his motivation, then is his deed a sin? That individual might try to justify his deed but the universal law will not. Universal law would decree that no matter how ugly that woman might be, she is just as valuable as everyone else because she was made by the Creator. Therefore, no one has a right to knock her down.
Everything about this principle is epitomized in two key words: sacrifice and service. In our human courts today, is there any judge who would uphold a conviction that a person did not live his life in service and sacrifice to others? What law judges deeds of sacrificial service? Such deeds are not governed by the law of the nation but are upheld by public recognition. If a person gives sacrificial service to his nation, then his country will honor him with a medal and national acclaim.
Perhaps someone will complain that this universal law about service doesn't fit him and want to know why he can't be given a citation and still enjoy his self-serving life. Would the society which honored selfish and greedy people endure very long? If that way of life prevailed, then no unity and harmony would be possible. If the Creator enforced selfishness as the universal law, that law would apply not only to all humans but also to the whole material world. Then each tiny cell could claim that everything in the universe exists solely for him and that no other cell has any rights. That kind of attitude would bring nothing but division and destruction.
Universal law doesn't work like that, however. No one denies that the cells of the eye are important, but those cells exist for the benefit of the entire body. The purpose of the whole precedes the existence of the eye, so the eye must obey the universal law of the entire body. That eye should obey simply because the universe upholds this point of view and that is the way of life which will flourish.