Sun Myung Moon
Circa 1972
Excerpt
The Selected Speeches of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Volume 55
Unofficial Translation
Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han circa 1983
Religious people make other people happy by serving them. This is the way of goodness. Jesus had an awesome thought system. Jesus prayed to God for the Roman soldiers, the enemies who tried to kill him by piercing him with their spears. All things in creation were moved to tears by such a victorious Jesus from the depth of their beings; and they praised his eternal victory. This moment was the time of such praises. He was and is so wonderful.
Those who are thirty years old, please raise your hand! Jesus was young, with no children, not even married. He was a man who always was on the run. He owned no valuables. Whatever villages he visited, no one even offered him breakfast. The Bible says, "When he wanted to eat figs but the tree had no fruit. He cursed the fig tree and it withered away." Jesus lived a miserable life. The Bible described, "A fox has a hole, a bird has a nest, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." It is really sad. But that word does not fully describe his sorrow; Jesus was truly a miserable man. He had no friend. Nor, did he have his parents behind him. He had nothing except only indescribable loneliness. Do you know a famous haiku1 by Sihei Hayashi2? He expressed his feeling of loneliness (of not having his parents or family) in this haiku (and concludes saying), "Neither wants to die nor to live." But, I am not saying that Hayashi was a good man. He was far from that. But, something was different about Jesus.
Under such a miserable situation, Jesus went down the path of death. No one recognized him. No nation recognized him. Even his disciples did not realize who he was. Then, how did Jesus become the founding father of the worldwide democratic nations? It is because God was with him. Without God it would have, absolutely, never happened.
Therefore, the righteous people followed the same path, which would endure throughout history and, which would be praised by later generations. By passing on this thought to the next generations, they embraced more people in the world; and expanded to the world as history progressed. This is the historical fact. Spiritual thoughts and religions of the four major cultural spheres make up the background of all the cultures of the world today.
Going beyond racism and nationalism, you must love citizens of the world more than Japanese citizens! The Unification Thought teaches you to do so. That is why I am teaching you -- you must love the Unification Church. Then, you must love the world more than the Unification Church. You must love the world more than Rev. Moon. This is my teaching.
Notes:
1 Haiku – A type of Japanese poem that was popularized in the 17th century.
2 Sihei Hayashi (1738-1793) – He was a visionary who challenged the Tokugawa (Shogun) Government into opening its eyes to the world and for developing the naval power to protect the nation. He printed and distributed his booklet outlining his position to the public to persuade mass opinion. Subsequently, he was forced into house arrest until his death. During the seclusion, it is said that he wrote and shared the famous "Haiku" that True Father mentioned in this speech. He expressed his loneliness and his anti-government sentiment in his "last Haiku" before his death in isolation. It is roughly translated, "I don't have my parents, children, or wife here, I don't even have my printing block nor money but I don't want to die."