Reverend Sun Myung Moon
February 18, 1983
World Mission Center, New York City
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
Everything that is created has a tendency to remember its own day of birth. How about this microphone? If I asked it, "Do you have a birthday?" and it could respond, it would say "Yes." How about Col. Pak? Yes, of course he would remember his birthday. This building, as well, had a birthday. Therefore, all things in the universe have their own birthdays.
I am wearing a new suit which Mother bought me as a birthday gift. You could even ask this suit if it had a birthday and it would respond, "Yes, I do." What would be this suit's birthday, the day it was first cut out and sewed, or that day when the tailor put on its final button? Or was the birthday of the suit the day when it finally left the factory to be sent to its destination? Actually, birth occurs whenever a new creation goes out of a certain "gate" into a new environment or new life; therefore, for the suit, its moment of birth would be that moment when it is boxed up and sent out the gates of the factory. What do you think about my reasoning?
When is a person's birthday? We say it is the day when we enter this world. What about the moment of conception? That could be a birthday, too, but we generally consider our birthday as the day when we left our mother's womb and entered the new world as a new life. We always commemorate that day when we made the dramatic transition from one stage to another.
Does America have a birthday? When do you celebrate it? Was it during the time of fighting between the Continental Army and the British, or when the Declaration of Independence was signed? It came into being as a legal entity, as a nation, on its national birthday.
What about God-does He have a birthday? Tell me, when is it? Someone said, "Every day is God's birthday." That is a very dramatic answer. Truly, that makes sense. God does not dwell within the boundaries of space and time; He is beyond our concepts. Therefore for God a thousand days is as one day; He is not limited by time or distance, so every day truly can be God's birthday. Do you think God has a daily cycle, or a yearly cycle of four seasons? Does God have a bedtime and a coffee break and so forth? Does God go through youth, adolescence, and old age?
If you asked God, "When is Your birthday?" there is no other way for Him to answer than, "Every day." "Every day" is transcendent of the concept of the 365 days of the year. We cannot say that God has already celebrated His birthday, or that He is contemplating celebrating His birthday. God might say, "I don't know who is celebrating my birthday Perhaps He must celebrate His birthday all by Himself, so He must bake His own cake, create His own candles, blow them out, then applaud Himself. Must He sing to Himself, "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday, dear God, happy birthday to me!"? No, that is very awkward and inappropriate. The only really correct way is for somebody else to sing, "Happy birthday to You." No, God has not been celebrating His birthday all by Himself, so He has not truly had a day of celebration yet.
If someone who is a creation of God had the highest ambition of all, he would want to be the one to initiate the first birthday celebration for God. Have you ever thought about being such a person? If you asked God, "Would you like to have somebody celebrate Your birthday?" what do you think God would answer? He would say yes. Furthermore, even better than just having one individual or one family celebrating His birthday, how much better it would be if one whole nation-even the entire world and all of mankind came together for that purpose. Wouldn't God like that? Certainly God would prefer a universal celebration, rather than just a private one. But how do you know this is true? There is a very simple answer-since each of us feels that way, God must have the same feeling. We are like God, so what we desire is usually what God desires. He wants His birthday to be celebrated on as large a scale as possible. That's true. The Bible says that man is created in God's image, so man's basic feelings must be the same as God's. Don't you agree?
Suppose your birthday had come and only a few people said "Happy birthday" to you. Wouldn't you like it if the whole world sang happy birthday to you? Certainly you would prefer that.
Today is Reverend Moon's birthday-one Oriental man with a dark complexion, not so handsome-yet all of you are assembled from every race and all parts of the world. Why did you come? I must apologize to Mother- her birthday is the same, yet it might seem that hers is just "on the side." What do you think God's feeling is to see all these people of five colors of skin coming together to celebrate Reverend Moon's birthday? Does He say, "Why are you doing that? I'm jealous." No, God is not jealous, but how do you know that? How do you know that God is taking delight in this celebration? It is simply because Reverend Moon wants each of you to become a child of God; God knows that Reverend Moon is His son. Therefore. the parent always feels joy on the day of his child's birth.
No one celebrates his son's or daughter's birthday more joyfully than the parents-they take total delight in it. God is doing the same thing today. There have been so many people who lived and died on this planet and none of them thought the way Reverend Moon does: "I want to celebrate my birthday for the purpose of celebrating God's birthday, rather than my own."
You know, God is quite greedy and ambitious! He is a person who wants to make everything His own. Only after making things His own does He want to share them, not before. Why is that? God has a very good reason to do so. When a husband gives a gift to his loving wife, he wants to give her the most precious gift, certainly not something which belongs to somebody else. In the same way, God wants to make everything His own and then He wants to share it with others. Therefore, God's greediness is a good thing!
How about you, are you a greedy person or not? Do you want to be the owner of everything? If you owned everything, what would you do with it? You would want to give it to the ones you love. Therefore, such kind of "greed" is not evil because its motivation is ultimately to be able to share what one gains. That means desire and ambition are not necessarily bad; it all depends upon the direction in which they go.
The person who wants to give everything to his loved ones will have the desire to accumulate many things. For example, if Col. Pak were greedily trying to gain the entire world for himself, God would notice that. As long as Col. Pak was motivated by a desire to share the world with his loved ones, God would not call him a greedy rascal. Instead, He would say, "My son, you are ambitious like me!"
In the human society, ambition is a God-given nature which has not been handled properly in the past. It should be directed toward the right purpose and then it is not a bad thing. People have been full of desire and ambition in the past; now we know how we can use those motivations for the sake of goodness.
We need loved ones, isn't that true? Who are those loved ones? Naturally, for a man the loved one is a woman and for a woman, it is a man. Does each person need only one loved one, then? Suppose your birthday came and only your wife was there to celebrate it with you. She might bake a cake for you and sing you a song, "Happy birthday to my husband!" Would you be satisfied with that, or would you prefer to also have a lot of people there, including children, grandparents, and neighbors singing happy birthday to you?
Certainly each person wants to have more than just one loved one. We want to have as many loved ones as possible. Does that mean one man should have many wives or one woman many husbands? Perhaps such a thing is all right here in America? Why not? The law is that one man should be married to only one woman, and vice versa. When a man and woman come together in marriage, they become one couple like an electrical circuit of plus and minus creating a spark. That circuit can support many different light bulbs; as long as they are connected to that circuit, those light bulbs will be lit up.
A complete circuit is created within a powerhouse. No matter how many connections are made to that power house, it doesn't change anything. Everything depends upon that sparking of the plus and minus charges. That is the source of all the lights.
Marriage is like the circuit in the powerhouse. The small connections are like the children. Only one circuit is needed, consisting of two lines going into the powerhouse. Only one plus and one minus is required to create the electricity. There may be a lot of different wires connected to the central circuit, going out in many different directions. Husband and wife are like the central trunk line and only one of these can exist within a powerhouse. There may be many connecting branch lines-smaller plus and minus wires which can come together and create more light. Naturally, we would want to have as many lights as possible; therefore we want to have as many children as possible, sons and daughters who will create more and more lights and sparks.
Mother and I have thirteen children now, but actually that is a small number. What if we could have one hundred children? How wonderful that would be! The more children there are, the more blessing is represented, like the basic trunk line giving off more and more lights. Compare two different situations. There is a family in which there are thirteen children, so when the parents have a birthday they all get together and prepare the celebration table and create a tremendous party. Or suppose there is a family with only one child who tries to set up a celebration for his parents. It would be a very difficult task and a lonely one, too. Wouldn't you like to have a full, prosperous celebration table made up by lots of children, rather than just a meager, lonely table?
Trying to bring up thirteen children is not an easy task for the parents. Can they just take it easy all the time, constantly going on vacation? Do you think they could keep their regularly scheduled sleeping hours? Can they just eat freely, enjoying a nice thick steak, or don't they have to share everything they have with those children? They would have to cut up their steak into thirteen different pieces. Therefore, the parents cannot sleep or eat too well. Their life is quite a tribulation!
Also, in order to support thirteen children, the parents must work very, very hard! As they work from morning to night, they have to divide their income in thirteen ways. Perhaps the father and mother will have nothing for themselves-they might have to go around naked! If half of the children are girls, they will grow up before long and will want to start going out and dressing up. Therefore, they will go to their mother's closet and look for something to wear. They might take everything in the closet and wear it. Perhaps the mother will be left with nothing but her skimpy underwear!
Then all the boys will come and borrow the wardrobe of their father. Pretty soon, all his clothes will be gone and he, too, will be left with nothing but his underpants, not even a T-shirt. That would leave the parents at home, sitting together with only their underwear on. Would that be a scene of great misery, or one of happiness? The parents would be happy.
When the daughters returned home and realized that their mother had been left with nothing but her underwear, they would feel so sorry and apologize to her. They would offer to give her back everything, and the daughters would want to stay at home sitting in their underwear. Then there would be a beautiful, loving embrace between the mother and the daughters. Would the daughters sit at home, feeling miserable, or would they feel happy? They would be very, very happy! Wouldn't you like to experience such a thing? You are very courageous! You will have to have thirteen children, then.
All of this drama and joy comes from the parental heart which wants to give everything precious it has to the loved ones. How noble is such a true, sacrificial love. It creates harmony and unity and gives an overwhelming joy and satisfaction to people which nothing else in the world could do.
When the celebration of the parents' birthday comes, like today, is it enough to just have the thirteen children prepare the party? Would it be a right attitude for the children to say, "Don't let anybody else come to the party! We want to be the only ones to celebrate your birthday with you."? No, it would not. If those children really love their parents, when the neighbors come to join the birthday celebration they would encourage them and even want the entire nation and world to join them. They would take great delight and satisfaction to see the whole world celebrating their parents' birthday. How dramatic it would be for those children as they stood way in the back of the room and watched all the rest of the people striving to participate in the celebration.
While the parents were enjoying the birthday party, they would see all different people from all over the world but perhaps they would not be able to see their own children. All of a sudden they would say, "Where are our children?" and they would see them standing way in the back, smiling from ear to ear. Then the father and mother would say, "Children, come forward," and they would bring them up to the front to celebrate the birthday as one family. Is that dramatic? Is that a good thing? Certainly, it is.
Instead of the parents simply taking delight in their own birthday, they would be much happier to see their children participating and also the people from the rest of the world. That would give the parents much more joy- seeing their children happy along with the rest of the people-than the actual birthday party. That is because the parental heart wants to give everything they have to their loved ones including the whole world, all of mankind. It is a heart that wants to return everything to others. The more people who come to their celebration, the more joy for the parents because it is their chance to give more.
Likewise when the birthday of a nation comes, such as July 4 for America, everybody wants to come together with the President to celebrate. All the Cabinet members should not want to go off on their own vacation somewhere, but should want to participate with the President in the celebration of the nation's birthday. The Secretary of State would want to bring all the foreign ambassadors and envoys to stand with the President, while he stood way in the back, enjoying watching all those people celebrating with the President. What a joy to see representatives of the whole world celebrating! That would be a beautiful thing to behold, if all the Cabinet members just stepped to the back and took delight to see the rest of the world's representatives celebrating with the President.
Suppose there was a day of the celebration of God's birthday. If Reverend Moon is truly the beloved son of God, I must do the same. I would want the entire world, representatives of all of mankind, to come together and take the closest position to God while I, as the son, stepped to the back and smiled from ear to ear watching all those people joyfully celebrating God's birthday.
God would soon realize that someone was missing and would say, "Where is my son, Reverend Moon?" Then He would see Reverend Moon standing way in the back, smiling from ear to ear and applauding everyone entering the room. He would say, "Reverend Moon, you come up here with Me!" Not only God, but also all the other people in the room would recognize that Reverend Moon should not be standing in the back but should be standing right beside God. Soon they would all push Reverend Moon up to the front.
At that point, God would give His entire inheritance of the universe to His son. Even though such a huge gift would be given, there would be no jealousy among the people there; they would even applaud it. Why is that? It is because they would be able to see that the man who truly loved God and mankind was being given that gift and they would feel indebted to him; they would feel that he deserved it. They would even ask God, "Please give him everything You have." How wonderful such a position, such a ceremony!
The celebration of God's birthday is indeed a welcome one; God is awaiting such a celebration. Of course, God would want to celebrate on the universal scale-that would include the individual, the family, the tribe, nation and world. All of mankind would want to come to celebrate God's birthday.
If you asked God, "Which is the more important- Your birthday celebration or Your nation's birthday celebration?" He would naturally answer, "My nation's." Which is more important-your individual birthday or your family birthday? If Reverend Moon truly loves and understands God's heart, he would put more effort into building God's Kingdom on earth, rather than God's birthday celebration, because that is what God wants to see first. Do you agree? Without question, God would want to see His Kingdom on earth above all else.
The most logical conclusion is that God would want to celebrate the birthday of His own Kingdom first, even before His own birthday. He wants someone to bring in His Kingdom on earth, above all else. Then He would want all the people of that Kingdom to gather together to celebrate His birthday. That is the sequence in which He would like to see things happen. That Kingdom would be able to return love and glory to God, just as it would be ruled by love. That would be the most dramatic, beautiful scene of glory and harmony.
Let me ask all you women, what do you like the most? Suppose you had just come here from the street as average American women and were asked what you liked the most? What about money? Doesn't that give you everything you want? It can buy you beautiful clothing, diamond jewelry and so forth.
It is natural and normal to want to acquire something for the sake of the satisfaction and reward of love. Compare two types of wives; one has a husband who is working himself to death trying to support his family. When her birthday comes, the wife's only thought is, "Why didn't my husband buy me a gift, instead of spending all his time at work?" The other kind of wife thinks, "I hope my husband doesn't bother to bring me something for my birthday. He already has so much to worry about and too many burdens on his shoulders. I know he loves me so that is good enough for me." Which is the more ideal kind of wife? Certainly, it is the second one.
How many of you are the second kind of wife? I know that many American wives have their own separate savings accounts. They take great delight when their accounts have more money than their husbands. Tell me honestly, do most women think in such a fashion or not? If the husband brought home his paycheck for which he had worked very hard and gave it freely to his wife, saying, "Darling, please put this in your account," which of the two is the true lover, the true master of the house? Certainly it would be the husband.
Now you know about the ideal kind of wife and husband. Ambition and desire are OK - Reverend Moon is the most ambitious one of all. But I am not ambitious for my own sake or for the sake of my own children, but for the sake of God's Kingdom to come on this earth. Also, I am ambitious to acquire all these things so that soon the day will come in that Kingdom when we can all celebrate God's birthday.
The true religious life is like the life of a hunting dog. The dog follows the master to the hunt and runs around all day long, out of breath, over the mountains and through the fields searching for pheasants and game. Once the dog routs the pheasants and they fly up toward the sky, the master shoots them and they fall back to the earth. That is actually the victory of the hunting dog. He can retrieve the fallen birds and carry them back proudly to the master and place them at his feet. Then he looks up at the master's eyes and takes great joy even though he is still breathless. The pheasant is the hunting dog's victory but he wants to offer that victory to his master. Then the master tells the dog, "You did it, too. Well done," and then he shares a portion of the catch with the dog.
You are like Heavenly hunting dogs running breathlessly all the time, through cities and towns. Sometimes dogs get thorns in their feet; that is like the persecution you receive, yet you still keep going. You are making a totally unselfish offering for one purpose: building God's Kingdom. What a wonderful, beautiful life that is!
Today we are gathered together to celebrate mine and Mother's birthday. Our topic is "Birth of a New Providence." We have not yet celebrated the birthday of God. In fact, we are the first group of people on earth who want to prepare for that day to become a reality. We are marching forward to that goal-a new group of people, a new breed. Since we know that God's will is for us to accomplish the Kingdom on earth before we celebrate His birthday-the new providence-we are moving toward that goal of Kingdom-building as His champions, giving ourselves unselfishly every day. What a wonderful challenge and privilege that is!
We are marching forward to that ultimate day of victory-achieving that birthday celebration for God. In order to do that, we must first build God's Kingdom here on earth. We are living for the most divine, noble goal. We shall continue to march on continuously and persistently until the day we achieve that goal. Today we must make a new resolution within our hearts to march toward the birth of the new providence. We want to make that day happen. Amen! Those of you who say, "I want to be one of those champions who are marching forward with you, Father," please raise your hands. God bless you!