Reverend Sun Myung Moon
March 25, 1982
World Mission Center
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
As you know, today is the 23rd Parents' Day. You have experienced many new things since joining the Unification Church. and one of those is Parents' Day. For those of you who are unmarried, Parents' Day may seem like just another day, but for parents and grandparents this day can be very meaningful.
It is not for secular reasons that we set aside such a day as Parents' Day; it is centered upon God. Only from God's point of view in providential history is this day significant. Celebration means to return glory. There are many parents in today's world; many families and nations and even the world could set up their own celebration days, but for the history of God there are not many days that Heaven can celebrate.
Imagine a celebration in which God and all mankind can take part. There has been virtually no day in which all of God's children could return joy and glory to Him. There has been no such day simply because the first human ancestors brought the tragedy and sadness of the fall to the earth. The creation was made for the glory of God, to praise the name of the Creator, but that original purpose has never been fulfilled.
There have been many secular celebrations where people sing and celebrate, but many of these gatherings have only pierced God's heart, not brought Him joy. God shed more tears at seeing these celebrations and felt even more urgently the task of bringing the world back to its original state. Whenever a new baby is born to a couple that is not centered on God, God sees another soul to be restored, one more problem that has been added to His burden. When young men and women who are not centered on God get married, God sees more couples who have to be restored. The restoration of just Adam and Eve was a great problem, but now that they have become families, tribes, nations and a whole world, God's problems have been greatly compounded.
Traditionally, when a new tribe or nation is born, great celebration takes place, but from God's point of view it is only one more problem in restoration. God sees fallen human history being multiplied in this fashion, knowing that at the end evil must be judged and restored. God cannot accept this world as it is.
From God's point of view, then, what must be the last days? The last days are the time when the things God abhors most have become the things that people love the most. When God and man have exactly opposing viewpoints, that time must be the last days.
Springtime is the sowing season. Summer is the growing time, and autumn is the time of harvest. when new fruit and seeds are formed. Human history also moves through seasons. It was sown as a wrong seed, planted through illicit love. In that wrong beginning there was hatred. jealousy. conspiracy and corruption. All those things which are foreign to God were contained in that seed of human history. so the order and discipline of love were totally confused. Since the seed was sown sinfully. the fruit will also be sinful; the time when that fruit is borne is the last days. America is ahead of any other nation in bearing the fruit of that fallen love.
America today is hardly an object of joy to God, but instead is a target of God's wrath. This nation is plunging into self-destruction and tragedy. The ideal of God is the creation of one God-centered man and woman, who can unite and form the God-centered family, tribe, nation and world. America has separated from that ideal, however, and the reality today is that love relationships have no order or standard. The most precious thing-love-is the most mixed up and perverted thing. You can see mixed-up relationships every day in the lives of people around you. There is no way that such a society could have a means of meeting with God.
What is grieving the creation that God made? The creation is seeking the original ideal home, wanting to live and prosper there. If you ask anyone on the street whether he has parents with perfect love, he will say no. He cannot say he has original brothers and sisters who have perfect love either. Nor does he have the original relatives of perfection, or an original world of perfect love.
This is the tragic reality which is giving misery to the Heart of God every day. Mankind does not even know what condition they are in, while Satan rejoices at God's suffering, taunting Him, "You will not succeed, even though you say you are the almighty Creator. You are a failure; I have won!"
Satan has many weapons, such as drugs and free sex, to immobilize and kill young people. Whatever God likes, the devil hates. Billions of people have become Satan's instruments, and they commit all kinds of crimes. This situation is what we call the last days. At this time we have to let people know clearly where they are. The moment for fire and brimstone is here, so in the last moment how can we save mankind?
God is a God of love. not of wrath and judgment, so at this final moment He must have some solution to prevent catastrophe. God must be thinking of how to create some model or microcosm of a world with true parents, true brothers and sisters, and a true society of perfect love which the world can copy in order to be saved. God wants the whole world to see that model. The fallen world is exactly the opposite, so when that model world comes, the fallen world will want to destroy it.
How can we recognize that model which shows the original path for the family, nation and world? That particular model must come in the form of a religious movement. We will reap the fruit from the same tree where God sowed the seeds of His central tradition. Therefore, the model movement of the last days must have certain traditions which have come from all the other religions, but especially Judaism and Christianity.
No matter what Satan says, God wants to say that you are His honorable, great, and beloved sons and daughters. When God can say that you are honorable, He means that you have shown you are a person who will not be shaken by any temptation or suffering. When God says that you are great, He means that you give Him great hope because you have confronted the satanic world and won the battle. I want to become the first honorable and great and courageous son of God. That has always been my determination.
Evil never automatically retreats: it must be defeated. Therefore you must confront evil and defeat it in order to eliminate it. The Unification Church today is truly on the final front line. The battle today is the universal showdown between heaven and earth, between good and evil, out of which the new mankind can be given birth.
As soon as I initiated this movement, every religion and government came to oppose me. Every conceivable element of society came against me, plus both ideologies of democracy and communism. From Satan's point of view, I am the ultimate evil. People of all religions and all countries are firing arrows at me. Arrows can fly silently and pierce your heart when you aren't aware of them. I have been the target of silent arrows coming from all over the world, at all times of the day and night. Have I avoided these dirty tactics? No, I have deliberately walked where more arrows can find me.
If I am totally exposed, who will defend me? The only reason I could survive is that God defended me. God mobilized the universe to protect me, and that is the only reason I am still alive. Wherever I move, God's attention follows and the entire spirit world is attentive. God cannot afford to see this ideology of True Parents fail; it is God who declared an emergency. I want you to understand that centered upon True Parents the entire spirit world has declared an emergency.
Money is not our primary goal in fund raising; getting numbers of people is not our basic goal in witnessing, either. We do home church and fund raising in order to welcome God, to prepare a place where He can dwell. Our crusade is meant to lay out a red carpet for God. There has been no place for God to dwell in this world. So far I have gathered money and people on every continent in order to welcome God.
Why should we dedicate our movement to this goal? God wants us to prepare a dwelling place for Him on earth; we have to do that on every continent. What a great job we have been called to do, and how proud we are of doing it!
What is the reason we keep going? Why are we treated like criminals? Why do you have to sell flowers and peanuts on the street? The future of God and mankind is resting on our shoulders. Our work may look trivial, but the purpose behind it is Divine. I want you to be proud. One misstep by us will be an incredible disappointment to the millions of people who have died for God's sake. We can only win.
I was young like you at one time. I was dynamic, and I could have enjoyed my life. Instead I chose to become a outcast, to be the leader of the Unification Church for the sake of God. I knew God's will and His heart, and I could not take any other way but this one.
Communism is rampant in the world and no one has dared to confront it; but we have fearlessly declared war on that ideology. I want you to understand that no matter how corrupted the world is, conscience still lives in people, and in time it will explode like an atomic bomb. Once they taste true love, we have hope for the true restoration of the world.
You are such beautiful young people, but ever since you began following me you have encountered only one difficulty after another. Sometimes you are in anguish and don't know what to do, and sometimes you feel you just cannot continue doing this any more. Every one of you has gone back and forth, up and down. But at the same time the entire world is trembling. How steady are you?
I want to give you some instruction on this Parents' Day. Those who feel that they love me but that this life is just too difficult for them, please stand up. You can go out the door now and come back later after everything is done. I am telling you now that I don't want anyone here who will not be a positive element in this movement. I need the kind of people who will join me and become like rocks, who want to bring comfort and victory to God and salvation to mankind. We are well underway, and our success is very near.
You should think that you will live at least until the day you can inherit the true tradition of the Heavenly Kingdom and achieve God's ideal. Until you consummate the ideal on the family level, tribal level, national and world level, you should feel you cannot give up. Unto my death I shall continue moving forward. How about you? The most important thing about this celebration today will be if you can recommit yourselves to the goal of becoming one with the True Parents and establishing the true family, society, nation and world. That commitment has one thousand times more value than any celebration.
It is the nature of young women to want to wear make-up and be beautiful. If people see you with a plain face and humble clothes they might automatically recognize that you are a Moonie. Every time you hear that accusation, from God's point of view you are winning a medal. Your many medals will be so heavy that you cannot walk very well! Every cell of my body has been accused for being a Moonie, so each of my cells has received a gold medal.
The world doesn't understand why I have the power to attract so many young people, for I look like any, ordinary man. Even in the secular world everyone still has an original mind, which is like a magnet to pull each person to God's side. That is the most natural attraction of true love between you and True Parents. Do you want me to chase you out so you can get gold medals, or encourage you to live an easy life? You are greedy for medals! What beautiful people you are!
You must realize the true meaning of this day and of the True Parents, plus the true meaning of your life. You are here for the salvation of America. Millions of people are dying spiritually every day; if you can't feel this while you are out in the world then you are dead inside. You need to really give yourself for the salvation of this society; that must be your dedication today. How much more should you do for the salvation of your own country than other members are doing for the communist nations, enemies of this country?
Do you think America has a future if it continues on its present course? This giant country is spiritually paralyzed. You must become the blood and muscle and nervous system of this nation so that it can move again. You should want to give every drop of your blood for this nation, even if your time of joyful youth passes away. Some members are speculating about when the next Blessing will come, but what kind of Blessing do you want when this nation and world are crumbling? You will really have a blessing when you save the nation and world.
The right frame of mind to have is a fervent desire to save this nation and world and God. The Blessing is not for your own sake but for your posterity. We shall fulfill that also, but today what blessing do you want when the world is dying? Revolutionize your way of thinking at this moment. Love your country as much as you love your fiancé. As much as you love the True Parents, love your nation and the world. That is the most honorable teaching. This is the core of my teaching to you. Anyone who urges you to live like that must be a true leader.
Today we are celebrating True Parents' Day. Our determination is to center upon the True Parents and to give our lives so that all mankind shall see a day of hope and can rejoice with God and True Parents. That's how I have lived my entire life, sacrificing my family for the nation, sacrificing the nation for the world' and the world for the cosmos.
When I arrived in this country in 1971, I came with the determination to lay out a red carpet for God here. During my first visit here in 1965, I drove to every state in the nation in forty days to dedicate holy grounds. The driver took time to doze, but I loved this country so much that every second of the day was precious and I could hardly sleep at all.
I knew that America is a microcosm of the entire world, so by loving this country I wanted to love the entire world. I never thought in terms of America or Korea; I only noticed who were the God-loving people. If Your mission now is difficult, how much more difficult was my mission? To reach the ideal I had to go through persecution and tribulation; that has been my path. I knew that, because I was going forward with that motivation, America would have to be turned upside down. I am showing who is the true patriot, who is loving this country and people the most.
Throughout America's history, God has been blessing this nation. That blessing should be consummated centering on God and for that job I came to America. My first mission has been to defend this nation from satanic attack by communism. From a righteous point of view, I have given more to this country than anyone.
Because I know historical principles so well, I do not want to go anywhere without laying a firm foundation in America. I want to win the battle here first in order to prevent historical tragedy. I know exactly the path a man of God must walk, and that's why I am going this way. All our four holidays are symbolic of the restoration history of God. On every level we have to vindicate God on earth.
I am sending you out to bear your own fruit in home church. The worst wars in history began with tribal wars; so unless we indemnify tribal war, we cannot indemnify national war Therefore' you are doing this in home church. By setting up your Cain-type home church and later your Abel type home church, you can bring them together; then the ideal shall become reality. This applies to black, white and yellow alike. Of Noah's three sons, two could not fulfill me dispensation. Shem represented the yellow race, Ham the black race, and Japheth the Occidentals. Shem and Ham could not fulfill their dispensational roles at the time, so Japheth took their place. This was only because of his dispensational position, not because of his individual qualities.
White people should love black people, and both should love yellow people. All races must love each other; otherwise' racial war is inevitable, and white people would suffer the most as a result. I am determined to prevent racial war. Communism is behind the scenes pushing for global racial conflict. but we are trying to unite the races. This is why our work is going strong in South America and Africa. Who will do that unless we do it? Other Christian churches? Other religions? Many churches today are too self-centered to actively promote racial harmony. I have undertaken this most difficult job. When I first came to America, I prophesied what would happen to this nation and all of it has come true.
When people accuse you for being a Moonie, you can tell them that you are giving your tears and sweat for God and mankind, and demand to know if that is a crime. I am telling you today to have patience and persevere by thinking of God and mankind. When Jesus was on earth, he trod exactly the same path; this is the tradition all of us have inherited. When you reach out to mankind in desolate places, you can have power by remembering how I endured when America persecuted me. When black people persecute you white members, you can have power to endure. When white people persecute you black members. you will be able to continue.
When American members go to other countries and do exactly what I have done here, you will be persecuted and misunderstood. But you will have power to persevere by remembering that when people persecuted me I loved America to the end. You can demonstrate the same way of life. That is the true way of salvation.
Today I conclude by saying that after enjoying this celebration we must recommit ourselves to the Divine call in which God delights, in which True Parents delight, and in which the nation and all mankind can delight. Are you ready to go this way? Will I get to the goal first, or will you? I want you to be the winners; that will give the greatest hope to this country. If you are more sacrificial you will win, indeed.
God bless you.