Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1990
True Father’s Seventieth Birthday Celebration
Olympic Fencing Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea
Photo date and location unknown
I thank you for gathering here today, in spite of your busy public and private schedules, to create such a grand occasion in celebration of my seventieth birthday. I am particularly grateful for your heart to celebrate the fact that my life has been centered on the Will of God.
Seventy years with God as my motivating power
Many distinguished speakers have praised my work generously. Today’s occasion would have little significance, however, if its sole purpose were to applaud my past accomplishments. The substance of our celebration ought to be determined by the degree to which my work up to now is reason to have hope in the future, the degree to which my work can brighten the future of humankind, and the degree to which it is related to the providence of God, who governs the entire cosmos.
Throughout my life, I have been running at full speed to pioneer a course never before traveled by anyone. It is already widely known that on an external level, I have been continuously buffeted by opposition arising from a lack of understanding. Within the realm of my heart, however, I have been in a constant state of tension, fighting every minute and every second to stay focused on how I can accomplish God’s desires during my lifetime. My life has been so intertwined with God that I can never speak of it without reference to Him. Because my life has been directly connected to the fate of the nation and the world, I have shared every aspect of it in a deep give-and-receive relationship with God. As I now recall how I shared with Him my deepest sorrow, my greatest pain, and my most exalted joy, I offer my deepest gratitude to God, with a heart that perhaps cannot be fully shared with anyone else. All the glory of this day I offer up to the living God, my Father.
It is true that the foundation I have laid around the world is an astonishing accomplishment. However, I take less pride in the external and visible aspects of this foundation than in the fact that no part of this foundation has been established centering on myself. Each part is geared more to the future than the present, more to the benefit of the whole than the individual, and more to the larger purpose than the narrower purpose. The value of this foundation lies in the fact that God was its motivating force, and that it was established under God’s protection even under the severest hardships and most turbulent vicissitudes.
A life dedicated to others
My seventy years have certainly not been an easy course. I had no friends in the world and no mentors. I traveled this course alone and survived many treacherous moments. Time and again I persevered even when death seemed certain. The only reason I did not lose courage under such circumstances was that I maintained a deep communication of heart with God. The content of the conversations that took place in that profound realm are beyond anyone’s knowledge. I can only say that God always softly whispered His advice to me, and that He was the motivation for my life. He was even more than that. He was life itself. He was the source of my life energy.
I never had the time to lend my ear to what others were saying about me. I never had the time to take my gaze off of God for so much as a second. I was never concerned about public opinion of me. I had no thoughts other than those of the earnest desires of God. With every cell in my being in unity with God, I lived with an almost fanatic determination for the purpose of bringing His ideal of creation into reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, what do you suppose is God’s earnest desire that I have dedicated my life to fulfill? Had it not been for the Fall, God would have been the invisible Heavenly True Parent and all people would have been His children. Each person would have become a true life form, receiving love and a lineage of goodness from God, the Parent of vertical true love, and Adam and Eve, the parents of horizontal true love. Also, by practicing true love, people would have been able to transmit the seed of life to their descendants.
The Fall occurred when the first human ancestors were unable to fulfill horizontal true love under the auspices of God’s vertical true love, allowing instead an invasion by the archangel, which led them to false horizontal love. Consequently, God lost the children He loved, and people were placed in a position where they had no alternative except to be born into the world as dysfunctional life forms, embodying a contradiction between their minds and bodies. Satan has used the condition of horizontal love as a curse to unjustly control people on all levels, from the individual to the world. God, on the other hand, in an effort to return all people to their original state, has been carrying out His salvation providence. In accordance with the Principle, He has been working toward the natural subjugation of Satan, and He has been working through the Messiah to engraft humankind into His lineage.
I know that God has been investing Himself fully into the providence of restoration, which is actually a course of re-creation. In doing so, He has been totally investing His true love, just as much as when He sacrificially engaged in the original act of creation. I have therefore followed His Will and have offered my entire life to putting into practice these basic principles of true love and living for the sake of others. I have led my life thoroughly in service to others within the Will of God, investing myself fully and continuously. The foundation I have now achieved is a result of these efforts.
Advances in modern technology have already led to tremendous changes on the planet Earth and are likely to bring about even greater changes in the future. As a result of these advances, we are faced with an acute emergency that requires us to pool our wisdom to find solutions. Contemporary civilization now stands at a major turning point.
To deal with this situation, we first need to transcend national, racial and religious boundaries, so that we can make cooperative efforts on a global scale. This is necessary because today’s problems, such as environmental pollution and overpopulation, are global in scale.
Second, today’s social ills, particularly the deterioration of ethical and moral standards and the deterioration of our humanity, including threats of racial and religious wars, all have their roots in human nature. Thus, solutions to these problems need to be approached from the perspective of bringing about a revolution of human consciousness and of renewing human nature. It is not a matter of simply making changes in social institutions and structures.
Practicing the teaching that the world is one family
Ladies and gentlemen, all the activities I founded around the world are models of movements that transcend national barriers, work to tear down the walls between races, and are interreligious in nature and global in scale. Unificationists around the world carry with them a new worldview that is the result of a revolution of consciousness, with God’s true love at its center. They are already living as one human family.
The only place in the United States where there is no racial friction or barriers among races is the Unification Church. Here, blacks and whites rise above their historical hatreds and struggles. Missionaries from Japan, the United States, and Germany went to their mission countries without knowing anything about their partners. Once in those countries, they dedicated themselves together for their mission work.
As you know, we have been investing our financial resources generously to convene annual conferences that foster unity within and between the major religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Eminent leaders of various religions have commended me highly for these efforts.
Also, we can point to situations such as that of a Korean man in a farm village who received, through the international Blessing ceremony, a Japanese bride who had graduated from a famous university in her country. His entire village held a feast to congratulate him.
Every gathering sponsored by the Unification Church, wherever and whenever it is held, is devoid of racial conflict or prejudice. The church members, regardless of which part of the world they are from, have undergone a transformation of character by following the philosophy I teach. They no longer live in a self-centered manner. Rather, now they live for the sake of others. They are exemplars of citizenship in the ideal world.
On a quantitative basis, the Unification movement is less than adequate. Nonetheless, what we have accomplished until today has profound significance in the history of the universe. Have not the teachings of many saints and sages in history sought to achieve such results? Are not many people of good conscience in today’s world trying to find guideposts that will enable them to lead lives of goodness? How many young people today are wandering in search of new possibilities and dreaming of a brighter future for the world? And how many young people like that have become discouraged in their search and have broken down in frustration?
I invite everyone to come and see for yourselves. Come and observe without prejudice. Examine for yourselves this foundation that is motivated not by human concerns, but is built with the intimate presence of Heaven’s Will. Design for yourselves a brighter tomorrow. Build for yourselves a wholesome system of values.
Observe the members of the Unification Church around the world. See how all of them, young and old, are filled with joy even as they each navigate their courses with total dedication. See how, in particular, the young people of the church maintain the highest ethical and moral standards even in the midst of a corrupt society, taking pride in what they do. I see the young people of the Unification Church as representing the hope of humanity and the hope of God.
I will follow the path of service all of my life
Let us think for a moment from a viewpoint that goes beyond narrow sectarian and religious interests. If the Korean people could undergo a transformation of character according to the philosophy I advocate and begin to live their lives dedicated to others, how would that affect the future of the nation? Would the unification of North and South Korea be a difficult task under such circumstances? And if all people of the world could accept this philosophy, would that not guarantee a peaceful and prosperous world? My philosophy of living for the greater purpose is not meant to bring about the development of the Unification Church for its own sake. God and the world do not exist for the sake of the church. It is the church that must live in service to God and the world. Even now, I continue to seek the way of service, and I intend to dedicate my entire life to this path.
Thank you again for your congratulations. I hope that today’s occasion will be much more than a celebration of my seventieth birthday. I hope it will be an opportunity for you to learn of the universal path of righteousness that requires us all to live for others. I pray that God’s blessing will be upon your work and your families.
Thank you very much.