Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 2001
Midnight Prayer
Father's midnight prayer for the 34th True God's Day celebration, held at Chung Pyung Heaven and Earth Training Center.
Loving Heavenly Father, we have just entered the year 2001, ending the year 2000 and beginning the new millennium, heading to the year 3000. Father, the entire cosmos is watching us at this precise moment. Passing through the ages of indemnity and hardship of the first Israel, the second Israel and the third, and now with the conclusion of the year 2000, You have maintained Your will to build Your victorious kingdom on earth as well as in heaven. All things in the cosmos that are related with God's love want to find the way to fulfill Your long-cherished desire. You promised to send the Messiah, the True Parent, to the first Israel. They failed to serve him, and instead crucified him. Christianity, in place of the first Israel, which had failed, tried to build the world-level Israel as the center of all the nations and of the world.
Due to the victory of Christian nations during World War II, the second Israel, centering on the United States, made the condition of dividing heaven from earth, East from West, peoples from peoples, nations from nations, families from families and individuals from individuals. This division was preparation to fulfill Your promise to send the True Parents. It was the condition of separating the Cain side from the Abel side. We understand that the purpose of Jesus' thirty-three years of life was to fulfill Your will of liberation, with that victorious foundation penetrating Rome. Jesus had to establish a family foundation in unity with Zechariah's family and Joseph's family that could have been the starting point of building the Kingdom of Heaven and of liberation. But the first Israel failed to fulfill its mission as the messianic nation. As a result, Jesus could not escape the regrettable history of the cross. Over the two thousand years since then so much blood has been shed. No one on earth could liberate God's sorrowful heart. While God has been enduring painful situations over and over again, two thousand years have passed. Although history has been like that-with our having crucified our own parents, though we are God's children, and with God having had to endure the pain resulting from our betrayal and ignorance, up until the end of the year 2000 no one has truly understood God's heart.
In this world of death, Heavenly Father's will has always been to find the new fountain of liberation for humanity. While some people were waiting for the Lord to come down to the earth on a cloud, no one clearly understood that the Second Coming had to be born again as a person. God had to regain what He had lost through the conditions people made through acts of indemnity and restoration. However, neither Christianity nor any of the other religions have understood God's will; they have constantly been in conflict, fighting each other to the death, forgetting the unifying force behind them. After World War II, the Cain and Abel providence was substantiated. The physical and spiritual worlds were divided. Jesus in the spirit world took parental responsibility, spiritually.
True Parents, taking parental responsibility on earth, tried to establish world unity. With the perfection of the spirit world as the standard, True Parents built a victorious foundation on earth to make the condition to give substance to the actual perfection of the physical world. True Parentship was meant to have been established on the unified foundation of Catholicism and Protestantism after World War I. True Parents were meant to inherit the spiritual foundation of the Holy Spirit and Jesus. If that had been successfully accomplished, True Parents could have erected the victorious foundation on earth within seven years after World War II. That would have liberated not only God but also all of God's dominion on earth. Humankind would have finally been free from its sorrowful history. With True Parents' authority of liberation, the foundations for the liberation of individuals, families, tribes, and nations could have been realized. All of what was lost due to the false parents would have been restored through the True Parents.
We could have realized the era of perfection fifty years ago, but we had to pass through a sorrowful forty years centering on a sorrowful family in the wilderness. We greet the fortieth year as we end the year 2000, which was the year that True Father turned eighty. As Moses left Egypt at the risk of his life to build Israel and to liberate God's nation based on the ideal of cosmic liberation, we should determine to work to liberate families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and the cosmos and then to break down the walls in the spirit world based on the free realms of the eight stages. We should pave the road to make all the necessary conditions enabling us to actualize God's innermost desires.
True Parents came to a world of deep sorrow. They came to bring the blessing to the physical world and the spirit world, liberating the spirits in hell and in the spiritual realms lower than paradise. Both worlds should center upon one heart of God. Based on God's absolute love, absolute life and absolute lineage, in God's victorious realm, we could free the world.
Satan surrendered himself on March 21, 1999. We have hastened to clear up the spirit world by the last day of the year 2000. On the first day of the year 2001, the initial year of the thousand years leading to the year 3000, we greet the liberated world of the new millennium, having liberated the sorrows of the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament ages. No one knew how sorrowful God has been until we announced the liberated realm of heart of the fourth Adam. In the name of True Parents, under Your command, we have tried to fulfill the duty of children of filial piety, of loyal servants, of holy men and of saints, as undeserving as we are. We dare kneel before You, Heavenly Father. Following Your guidance, we begin the glorious year of the new millennium, opening up the new Completed Testament age with the glory of victory. Our responsibilities are to bring about God's liberation through the unity of the Parents of Heaven and Earth and the children. We are truly grateful for all Your work to realize Your absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal will in this world.
Father, Your children have gathered here. They are mostly blessed families. They should understand the implication of being blessed. They should understand how fearful a thing being blessed can be. Heavenly Father's desire, the ideal of creation to build the true family, was lost. It caused unimaginable agony for thousands of years; throughout all of human history You have had no one to whom you could communicate Your pain and loneliness.
As a young man, I came to understand Your situation. Since then, I have walked a path of investing everything I had, whether or not people around me recognized it. I am truly grateful that You have allowed us to greet the first day going towards the year 3000 having realized the standard of unification to liberate not only the physical world but also the spirit world, beyond national and religious boundaries. No one can deny that You have created the position of victorious supremacy based on unifying authority.
Twelve days from today, blessed families of the Unification community in the physical and spiritual worlds who have determined to liberate God so as to actualize the purpose of God's ideal of creation will hold a ceremony that can eventually break down all the walls in hell on earth. Please accept our sincere heart to realize the world of victorious liberation and independence, and please allow this new year to be a celebration of a new beginning, moving toward the year 3000. You have even made the clear cut-off line so that we can end the year 2000 on December 31st, a Sunday, and start the new millennium with the beginning of a new week, a Monday. This is the liberating dawn of a new millennium. We are truly, truly, truly grateful for Your grace in giving us the chance to greet this blessed time in which we can set forth Your authority, Your victorious glory and dignity.
Father, I realize the time has come for You to take care of the tasks remaining from the last millennium. Please forgive Your inadequate son who, shamefully, still has to ask for Your help to fulfill his own mission.... However, my love for You has never changed. It has been the same in the past, as it is in the present and will be in the future. I also pledge and swear that my filial heart of solemnly accepting my path to fulfill Your will has not changed. Please guide me as You will, to settle Your victorious supremacy on earth, the independence of Heavenly Father's land, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
I sincerely pray and pledge that all the blessed families will make the best possible conditions for the next ten years, transcending differences in nationality. Please accept our new determination. For two thousand years, Father's glory has been revealed in hell on earth, in the deepest, widest, and highest places, even in the spirit world.
We are making a new determination in the name of True Parents to have one unified realm of heart with True Parents as the center of all the families and the providence, so that You can dominate all the nations and the entire cosmos while presiding over the conditions we have made. We proclaim that we can go forward, go forward and go forward to establish the realm of liberation, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. May Your will be done. Amen, Amen, Amen.
Father's Words
What do you think our motto is going to be? The most important word in the Family Pledge appears in the eighth part of the pledge. What is it? It is "liberation". What it means is that we can build the liberated realm of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth and in heaven by establishing unity between God and people. Do you understand? The liberated Parents of Heaven and Earth and the children become one heart, one body. The subject nature [juche-song] of true love...You must live with true love's subject nature. What goes into this subject nature of true love? The perfection of the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal will. This is the motto. Parents and children together must build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in this millennium.
Not just God, or myself, but all the children of the liberated Parents of Heaven and Earth [are to realize] one heart, one body, true love's subject nature [juche-song]... This subject nature is the essential point. The subject nature of God's inner nature is to seek for absolute love, and to realize His will based on unique, unchanging and eternal love. Do you understand? I predict that the mainstream ideology and the ideal of creation will be given substance during this millennium. We should thus make a new determination that is different from that of yesterday.
The two thousand-year period up until yesterday was the period of global indemnity centered on the second Israel. Time has passed and a new dawn has come. In this new, Completed Testament era, the time of universalizing the ideal of the blessing has arrived. Therefore, our motto is not only for now but for eternity. You should understand that this is a task you will have to carry on even when you go to the next world. You should single-mindedly try to realize the will of the Parents of Heaven and Earth, united in heart and knowing the precious value of our families. Do you understand?
Perfection itself is quite simple. To gain dominion over the world is not that complicated a matter. All the families of the Parents of Heaven and Earth must shape the vision of a nation built on the true love ideology of eight stages, centering on God's ideal to restore the family, tribe, people and nation. It is the responsibility of the blessed families to perfect the ideology of the nation True Parents have in mind. Your prayers should be different from now on. Do you understand?
What is the victorious realm of True Parents? You cannot participate in the True Parents' victorious realm without going through the blessing. Why? Since you have made blood ties with True Parents, since you have made the connection that was lost, you are related to True Parents as if you are children to us. Do you understand? You broke the blood ties with Satan and inherited God's blood. If you have received the blessing of God's eternally unchanging true love and life connecting your lives to the substantial realm of unfallen Adam and Eve, you will be included in the first generation of the family of the true Adam and Eve. You can expand God's seeds in the realm of God's love and life. Due to the fall, the seed of God's lineage did not pass down to the third generation.
Your situation is like this: I am the first generation and you are the second. If you raise your sons and daughters improperly, they cannot rid themselves of the habits and lifestyle of the fallen lineage. You must understand this. I look at the members of our movement, and you are so stained by fallen habits.
Do you know how hard I worked to set up our schools? Your children must go to our schools. In spite of the fact that they should go to either Sun Moon University, the University of Bridgeport or the Unification Theological Seminary, they choose to go elsewhere for economic or external reasons.... You all love the well-known universities that have been Satan's stages. The well-known universities are merely Satan's base camps. Some of you are trying hard to get your children into schools so far away from the life of faith in which you are supposed to expand the foundation of original heart and strive to establish the foundation to create God's ideal and kingdom. There are too many of you ignoring the responsibility of building up the base for the ideal of God's Kingdom in an attempt to look for a good way of making a living.
Starting from today, you must change all that. Do you understand? Especially Koreans are stained with the fallen habit of thinking of excuses because of financial hardships. There is a saying in Korea that even a beggar has enough pride not to warm his body over the heat from someone else's fire. Even if you have to starve to death, you must not be shameful individuals and families before God. Do you understand? You have to determine to go bare on the coldest winter days if you have to. Please think about that. You absolutely need the Messiah.... It took six thousand years to restore the lost Adam. You would have no pathway if I hadn't created it. Without True Parents, there is no way to fulfill God's will and to perfect the path of the blessing. It is a complex matter. At the risk of my life, I let you pass over all the hills. There will be the most fearful judgement if you act as people who eat and drink at a king's feast immediately after emerging from a gambling den, without understanding the hardships behind the preparation of the feast, and without any gratitude for having been invited there. Even the food you eat at the feast will know that you do not deserve to eat it. The food will be your judgement. It will be worse than poison.
You must understand that those of you who live selfishly are contaminating the environment. You must understand that your families are not representing the mainstream idea of the Unification movement. Even if you have lived such a shameful life, so far, you have been able to keep your dignity to some degree when you pray. What is the victorious realm of True Parents? How do you inherit it? [Through the blessing.] It is not your achievement. Even if you had fasted and prayed for ten years or forty years, you could not have gained what you have. You are given the privilege of the blessing to change your blood lineage. How well have you understood its value? Have you understood one hundredth of God's hardship or of my own? Words are easy, aren't they? Since God lost his kingship He has no position, no authority, no people, no nation of His own, no land and no sovereignty. In order to return the sovereignty to God, you need to make conditions until God can establish His own sovereignty. I had to make the condition of perfecting the foundation to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth on the family, national and worldwide levels and then I could pass them on to you. The registration blessing? Even I feel ashamed before God to stand in the position where I am standing. Did I not mention that in my prayer just now? Do you understand this?
You will find out how inadequate you are through studying my words. You must know, since you have been doing Hoon Dok Hae for almost two years, how far you are from the mark. You have no idea how hard I had to work to come this far. My own children have no idea either. They live as they please.... Have I been taking care of my own children, whom you see here, or not? [You have not.]
Say it clearly. For whom have I been working? To save the children of the Cain side. God has done so. To save the world, He had to sacrifice His only begotten son and the Christians. I took sacrificing my own family naturally, without even thinking twice about it, investing everything I have in order to save you. I invested everything. What are the results? It was all done in vain; it was lost. There is no one who is qualified enough to register. Everything has ended in failure so far.
I have taken responsibility for it again. And since the matter is connected to the spirit world, I handed the responsibility over to Heung-jin gun, so he is responsible now in the spirit world. All I have to do on earth is to give the grace of blessing for Heung-jin gun to forgive all the sins in the spirit world.... You must understand that I am carrying the cross on the very front line.
As I was willing to sacrifice my own family to save the world, the lives of Heung-jin gun and the other four children in the spirit world were cut short: They were unable to live out their own destinies. Accidents took them away. Who drove them to death? You have to understand that the conditions you made drove them into the situations where they could be killed. Because of that, even if they went to the spirit world with less understanding of God's will than you have, they can directly be in the realm of liberation. True Parents have the responsibility to open doors for them, too. Do you understand? You have to understand that you have shamelessly burdened God and True Parents who are carrying the deepest sorrows of having to walk the path of indemnity for restoration. You have to understand how unqualified you are to register in front of Heung-jin gun. If you don't know this.... Do not make me angry.
There will be no forgiveness from now on. I will separate from my own children, too. They cannot just come into my house as they please.
You women, especially, must collect your minds. There are so many things to be done. As I liberate you, I still have to pray so hard, hiding by candle light in a back room. There is still so much to be done on the path of historical sorrow. You must not forget that you are still responsible to pioneer the road. You cannot follow me if you do not understand God's will. You cannot dare come. Such a time has arrived. The time of salvation through restoration has passed.
The age of direct dominion has now come for the first time since the fall of Adam and Eve. The age of direct dominion will come to my family, too. That is why, when I look at my own sons and daughters, as they all sit here right now, I have to look at them with compassion. If I look at them without compassion, I know what is going to happen to them. I know how difficult it will be for them in the spirit world. Being their father, I have to take responsibility. It is a very serious matter. I cannot position them better than those who have strong faith in the Unification movement.
Starting from today, you (True Children) have to make a new determination. You must not treat me as one of your friends. Do not think of me as a regular grandfather you see in the world. Do you understand? Do you understand what your father is saying? Omma! Do not worry about our children any more. Do not cry over them whatever happens, do you understand? The time has come that you must treat them as they deserve.
I am a frightening man. You cannot fool around with me here and there...What is wrong is wrong. What must be cleaned up must be cleaned up. When filthy water runs into the sea, all the dirty elements sink down to the bottom and the water clears. Do you understand? When the water runs to the sea, it seems to stay in one place as if it takes a rest for a week, but it is busy working to purify itself. Now that you have passed the year 2000 mark and are headed toward the year 3000 you cannot carry on with dirty elements in your lives.... You must repent. You must understand this.
You are doing Hoon Dok Hae to repent. This is not a children's game. I am the one who does Hoon Dok Hae the most sincerely. You must study my words at least ten times. I proclaim only the things I have actually secured. How little you have thought of my words and how carelessly you have observed my actions. You have done as you liked. Do you understand? I don't see you as some regional leaders or anything else. I just look at whether or not you can go straight to heaven. If you go wrong with that... The age of the providence for salvation will pass. Do you understand?
Since we entered the age of the realm of the fourth Adam, when we pray we should not say the words "True Parents' realm of victory." Since your families have inherited the serious position of True Parents who have struggled so hard to save the world, you must pray "in the name of so and so, a central blessed family." If you go wrong in your new position, your registration must be canceled. When you think what an amazing implication the registration blessing has, you cannot even pray without having done any actual work in your daily life. Do you understand? Those who understood raise your hands. Well since you say you do, I trust you. You must repent. Repent to your bones. What was the last teaching I gave you in the year 2000? We will offer ourselves with the heart of True Parents, in the position of servants, shedding sweat for the land, tears for humanity and blood for heaven as a living sacrifice. That is the conclusion. That is the total living offering.
To be that, not only your skin but also your flesh and bones and even the marrow should sweat, shed tears and bleed. With our blood, sweat and tears, we must liberate God. Our sins are heavy, we have to sacrifice everything we have-our skin, flesh and blood; we do not have the right to hold any resentment.
What you have are all afflictions for you: your land, your house, your money and your savings. In the last days, what you love the most becomes your gallows. Those who love you are your enemies and those whom you love are also your enemies. They all block your way.
People say not to go to the Unification Church. You were driven out from your homes. But you must go back to your homes and offer your families, tribes and nation before God. If you sacrifice everything you own before God, they do not just disappear. They will return to you as ten times or one hundred times bigger blessings in heaven. It is similar to needing good bait when fishing!
I do not spend a penny just for my children. I do not even need to say this. Do you understand? With the heart of true parents in the body of servants, sweat for the land, shed tears for what? [For humanity!] and blood for what? [For heaven!] If I have tears, they are not for me but for heaven. If I have sweat, it is not for me but for heaven. If I shed blood, as long as I live, that blood is not for me but for heaven. When I started my mission, my parents, my wife, my children and my teachers opposed me. How lonely I must have been, opposed by everyone I cared about. I have no friends or teachers. You must understand this. Do you think that True Mother really understands my path? Not really. That is why she has to absolutely obey me.
I have taken on all the responsibility so far. Do you understand? There is no way I can pay the debt that I owe God even if my bones and bone marrow shed sweat, tears and blood. You are robbers. You have lived so selfishly. I cannot bring you to heaven before I cut you open to operate on you to put things in their rightful places. You are rags. You are infested with maggots. So I have to clean those rags and make them into the carpets that can be put in the palace of Heaven's Kingdom. That is what I have to do. You must strain your nerves. Starting from the year 2001, times have changed.
Do not report to me who has died or who is doing what. I cannot just come without there being any conditions established. When we have our own nation, there will be very strict laws. There will be ten times stricter laws than the strictest laws in the world now. You have to pass through that in your lifetime on earth. Since you have such a path ahead of you, you really have to collect your minds. From now, do not just believe in me. Do not even pray for me. The age of prayer has passed. Do you understand? Prayers were answered in the time of the Second Coming. Since the Second Coming has guided you to the liberated realm, prayers are not necessary. Today's tasks are to make unity with the Parents of Heaven and Earth and to realize the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal will, the essential nature of true love. We must cooperate. If you do not wholesomely unite, you cannot even pray or report. We will expunge the word "prayer". You cannot come to a place like this if you do not have something good to report.
Until now, there are people who have sucked the blood of the members by using their positions as regional leaders and so on without any achievements of their own-no witnessing results of their own-and who spend public money as they please. When there are meetings, they are so glad to come, forgetting what they actually have to do. There are too many who have lived for free in the movement. If you have no achievements, you should not come to my meetings. If you do not have anything to report, do not come. Do you understand? Do not even greet me. I will not receive your greetings any more. What good is it? I have given you everything I can give you. Since I entirely understand God's will, I do not even pray. I have never really prayed for the past twenty-four years. Why should I pray when I understand everything? What should I ask for when I am given everything? Mother must have thought of me as strange.
In the new age, centering on prayer, I have worked to liberate God's direct-dominion authority by breaking down all that blocks the way. I have overcome them all. But you have not yet done so. Do you understand? For the ocean providence I used to fish from five in the morning until dark. These days, the fishing era is over, so I fish only for a couple of hours. And others also follow me and fish just for a couple of hours when they are supposed to do more. You rascals!
Since you are registered, you are tribal messiahs. If you are a Kim, you are the messiah to the Kim tribes. You must not be indebted. I do not like to owe anyone....
Chung Hwan Kwak, you are traveling around the world being welcomed everywhere you go on behalf of me. You are playing the top role. Who ever gave you a crown? You never dreamed of this, did you? You did it because I told you to. You did it because you had no other way. But now that things are starting to work, you are going around with a big smile on your face. Are you going around with a big smile or with tears? [Rev. Kwak: I have walked around with a big smile.] When you walk around with a big smile, have you thought of me? [Yes.] But I am still going around with tears, even now. I told you to be independent. I will have to cut down one third and then half of the fund. You have developed a bad habit. If you give free help to anyone, they can never make it on their own. They will want more. Hyun-jin must understand this point. You can push these second-generation people and give them one tenth or one hundredth of what they need. Even if they bleed, they still have to be grateful. What you have been accustomed to, especially your habitual way of thinking, will be crushed and thrown into utter chaos. Do you think you can do whatever you want to do? If it is okay to do whatever you want to do, don't you think I would have taken such a road a long time ago? I was slandered and persecuted throughout this world. I have been chased here and there in the United States for the past thirty years. You must know this. You must understand what I am saying and be able to really discipline yourselves. That is why I push you and chastise you. I am telling you: If you don't like the way I do things, just pack your bags and leave.
Do you women here understand? You are all seminary graduates. Do you seminary graduates want to rise in this world? I am trying to save you from getting caught in Satan's traps. Hyun-jin, do you understand? You must understand this clearly. I have to get angry at you, push you and step on you. That can be the condition through which I can forgive you. Do you understand? If you accept such harsh insults gladly, the door will be open for you. If you do not accept them gladly, you will be blocked. The spirit world will take many so-called distinguished people from now. Think about the Pacific zone. I might have you all go there. I might assign those who are in important leadership positions to be servants in the Pacific. Koreans, too, of course. If you don't like it, just leave. It is that simple. I do not ask you to do things to become indebted to you. I know that I can pay you back more than a thousand times, that is why I am asking things of you.
Now, raise your hands. Open your mouth and laugh "ha, ha, ha" and clear up everything. You should be able to digest everything with joy in your heart. The time will come when you can report to me joyfully. The time to pray "in the name of so and so who has inherited True Parents' realm of victory through the blessing" has passed. Do you understand? Now you say, "I report to you in the name of so and so, a central blessed family." They should no longer be prayers, but reports.
You must have your own good achievements when you report. You cannot just ask for things like a beggar. You have to be able to give proud reports. You cannot pray without any achievements. Do you understand? Those who understand may put down your hands. Now you are laughing. You have been kicked and scared. But have you still laughed? With joy or with sadness? [With joy.] Yes. Yes. Good for you. Good for you. There are some forty characters in the motto. Shall I make two lines? If I make two lines, it will be messy. Let me write here...
Father then wrote the motto for the year in one long line of characters.
[Originally published in Today's World, October 2000]