Sun Myung Moon
March 19, 1978
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Sang Kil Han
All men want to be happy, and every day they live in pursuit of joy; nevertheless, one can never be happy alone. Happiness comes from a reciprocal relationship rather than from living all by oneself. No one can ever feel good if he is alone all the time. We all know that God is a good being, but can we say that God is good all by Himself? Can He be happy all by Himself? God is no exception; He needs to have someone as an object for His happiness just as we do.
When we say we are happy, we mean that somehow we are stimulated; there is no happiness which does not stimulate us. Men and women are no different in this respect. Whether a person is Oriental or Occidental, young or old, and regardless of what historical age he is living in, in this everyone is the same. When you can understand this in a larger perspective, you know that it is not good for Orientals to be happy all by themselves or for Occidentals to be happy all by themselves.
For all of us to be happy it is logical that there should be no wars and conflicts and antagonism between men. Certainly we can say that war is not good unless the fighting can be for the benefit of the whole. In war it is unlikely that one victor will completely annihilate the enemy. There are bound to be some men left alive on the opposing side and it is predictable that, until they dissipate the antagonism in their hearts, they will stick together and somehow try to get revenge. If the victorious country becomes weak, the people who lost the war will look for some opportunity to retaliate. The result is a vicious cycle in which the losing side from one war concentrates on becoming strong enough to dominate its former conquerors, and so on. In the long run, only one of the two will remain.
Today the democratic world and the communist world are both seeking global dominion, but which side is putting more effort into conquering the world? It's very simple to say that the stronger will win over the weaker, and in this case it means that the communist world must be victorious for it is making the greater effort. The world is facing a very dangerous age, and if there existed no God and no spirit world then the fate of the world would already be decided. If God did not exist then the only way to prevent this obvious outcome would be for something subversive to happen from within the communist world, but there is no possibility of that.
In every segment of history there have been Cain and Abel relations in each level of society, and it is not surprising to see the same thing happening now at the end of history. When it seems that nothing can prevent the communist world from reaching its total objective, an Abel group, which will begin very small, will gradually come to invade more and more of the communist realm.
The communist theory contends that there are always two elements in conflict with each other. If we apply this to the communists themselves, then once no other element outside their ideology exists in the world, what kind of conflict would result? Marxism predicts that history will go beyond the socialistic age and after that the communistic age will surely come, but we are forced to ask the communists what the objective of their struggle would be then.
Since dialectical materialism maintains that progress results only from struggle and that without struggle nothing will grow, we can ask what would happen when the whole world comes under communism. How would the communists go on living? Will they fight among themselves to maintain progress in their own world, or will they sit still and do nothing? Can there ever be a peaceful communist world? According to their own theory that cannot be. When everything reaches a climax and there is no more growth they will have to start fighting among themselves.
This is all hypothetical of course, but if communism were to gain total dominion would the spirit world just sit still and do nothing? In the world that the communists are building there is no such thing as religion, no acceptance of God by man. They are not only fighting against the capitalistic countries but also rebelling against God, proclaiming that God does not exist and that religion is only an undesirable state of mind. If these people prevail in the world then does that mean that God, who has worked throughout all of history to promote religion and teach people about Himself, will only sit still and do nothing?
Inevitably the communists will clash with those on God's side; even after the communists are victorious over capitalism they will continue to fight against God. Who will God work with at that time? Throughout history God has always worked with a chosen segment of humanity. Naturally God and the spirit world will take sides and work through another human element to oppose communism. God is working to secure a better future while the communists and Satan are fighting to annihilate the future
Religious people can live for the future, not just the present
One simple way to distinguish good people from bad is to notice that those on the satanic side do not care so much about their own future or that of others; they just want so-called enjoyment in the present. Good people, however, will sacrifice their own pleasure for the sake of the future. Certainly God will support this Abel-type group, and will visit their second generation and work through their descendants. Some communists have an idea that God does exist while others emphatically deny this and say that God never existed. Naturally God will tend to work through the first kind. Who will inherit God's working with them? Those who think about humanity, about goodness and the future and their next generation are the ones whom God will work with.
Religion is not so happily accepted by people. Although religion offers the only true way of life, most people have never cared much about it. This is true in the present time as much as it v as in the past. Furthermore, there have always been people who have opposed religion, yet nevertheless, religion has prospered and advanced. Religion is developed by people who feel that even though they may be opposed in the present things will improve in the future.
The relationship of man and spirit world is just like the mind-body relationship in an individual. People act with their minds and bodies in concert; to be more precise, when there is unity between mind and body, action results which follows the mind's direction. This is true of everyone, whether he is good or bad-a person always acts when his mind and body come into oneness. Activity on earth also takes place when spirit world and people on earth unite. God and spirit world are most attracted to goodness. We define goodness as that which is good and true throughout the past and present and even the future.
Men generally live according to their bodily demands, yet there are people who recognize that the body is evil in some way and that it often drags one in the wrong direction. Rather than just following physical impulse, they try to live the way the mind directs. When you divide mankind according to these two categories, the first group can be called the non-religious people and the second group called the religious people. There has always been much conflict between the two, but which side most commonly has attacked the other? Those who deny religion have always initiated conflict with those who believe, and as a result religious people have suffered much throughout history.
Because non-religious people believe there is no future, they don't care much about anything except the present. They usually die in despair for they have nothing to look forward to, but truly religious people always have hope when they die; that is a major difference between religious and non-religious people. The reason a person may voluntarily choose a way of death and martyrdom for his religion is because he seeks a better future life. He is sure that even though he may die alone for this cause, future generations will be with him.
Are you that way too? Everyday we go through much struggle, but we know that the Unification Church and the world will prosper in the future. We can continue because we have that hope. Even if this hope doesn't materialize while we are still on earth, we will be on God's side when we get to the spirit world. Truly religious people are willing to give up everything they have and place all importance and hope in that world of God.
Religious people usually worry only about heaven
Have truly devoted religious people ever ruled the world in the past? They were trying very hard and they might have had some success, but they have never completed the job. In the medieval ages Christians tried their best to realize what they thought was a godly world, but they didn't care much about non-Christians. They only pursued their own goal and that was wrong. We now know that they should have promoted Christianity for the betterment of the whole world, not just for their own sake.
Today we find ourselves persecuted by many kinds of people, especially by the communists. They know that I am more zealous and that I work harder than they do and they are worried. The Russian and North Korean communists all heard the news that I am making a movie about General McArthur, and they were upset enough to denounce our project to the world, calling me a "vicious anti-Communist.''
Not only the communists oppose me but all kinds of people who have established themselves in the worldly sense and who have some sort of name and territory. Simply because we are different from them they are worried about us. There is a third kind of people, however, with whom we are going to make the Unification Church.
Religions stress being more concerned about the future world and about heaven than about this world. The Unification Church, however, teaches that we cannot throw this world away but that we must embrace it as well. We have a different kind of religion. On the other hand, the communists insist that there is no such thing as a spirit world and that when someone dies here he no longer exists in any form. We say that indeed the spirit world is an eternal and everlasting world which exists just as realistically as this world does.
The communists think they will save the world, but their vision centers only around the present time. We want to save the world with a long idea of the future in mind; in fact, the future is more important to us than the present. In that way alone we are irreconcilably different from the communists, and even from other religious people. Because people usually hate something different from themselves, they readily oppose us. Established churches are on the decline, becoming almost indistinguishable in their activities from the lives of non-religious people. Now that the Unification Church has appeared, would God like to work with us instead?
You may think God would naturally prefer working with members of the Unification Church, but wouldn't He also want to contact all those who are opposing the Unification Church? God would like to recruit not only people whose beliefs are already close to His-for instance, anyone who opposes communism-but also the communists. God is interested in people in the democratic world who realize that the world needs something really new to transcend its present corruption. God is recruiting people from both sides for the Unification Church.
The communists are very severe and purge those who disagree with their activities. Conscientious people in the communist world don't like them at all, and sensitive people in the free world hate the indifference of people in their own nations toward such things. Those who don't think about the future so much, living only day by day, are like President Carter, who always takes a quiet position when the communists say something strong, and yet is not reluctant to speak strongly to smaller, weaker countries and accuse them of violating human rights.
We are worried about the future in this world
President Carter's way of doing things makes no sense, and because you abhor that kind of thing you are drawn to the Unification Church. I have no country or even a sizeable group of people to back me up, but I am determined to fight fearlessly against communism, even by myself if necessary. All by myself and with little visible support I proclaimed that America is going the wrong way and that I came as a doctor to heal this nation. Many Americans might have agreed with me, but still most of them don't like to hear such things from an outsider. It would be a different story if I were not aware of their hostility; then I would only be a foolish man. But I know better than anyone else that Americans resent what I told them.
God will never take the side of people who make trouble when they resent hearing the truth. On the contrary, God likes Unification Church thinking very much because He, too, is trying to harmonize even the communist world and the democratic world-an enormously difficult task. At one time, when all the advantages were on its side, the democratic world was pursuing this same goal, but has now given up. The communists have also tried very hard to accomplish this, but so far they too have failed. Now the Unification Church comes for the same purpose, and is becoming more and more successful; God likes this very much.
After all attempts to unite the world had failed, people became disheartened, lost hope and everything became corrupt. When a man tries with all his heart and soul to do something but fails, he usually lowers his standards in resignation and so it is in the democratic and communist worlds. But now a third group has appeared which is making much more effort than anyone else and God is giving His wholehearted support to make that group successful.
Who are you and why are you here? What do you do? Did all you young men come into the Unification Church looking for good brides? Does the Church feed you good food every day? In most other churches the congregation sits on comfortable chairs and listens to a short sermon, but you sit for hours on a cold concrete floor. Not only that, I don't even pat you on the back and encourage you to go just a little further. Usually I kick you around and scold you all the time! I never see you without criticizing Americans, particularly the white people. I know very well that you don't like that, but I do it on purpose. If you just say. "Oh, there he goes again," you will never pass. What would I gain by criticizing you or the President of this big nation? The only reason that I must say such things is for the betterment of the world and the rest of mankind.
In the eyes of the rest of the world perhaps I am more famous than President Carter. In a few years President Carter will be just another ordinary man, but my stature will increase. If I were to meet the President, do you think he would tell me how to lead the Unification Church or would I tell him how he ought to lead America? You have to understand how much the rest of America hates to hear that. I know this better than anyone else.
The next generation in the communist world will oppose their own parents' strong faith in communism and look for something else. That something else is the Unification Church, and the same will be true in the democratic world. Even though the democratic world is certainly better than the communist world, the corruption, indifference and insensitivity about God are not good. Some new world is needed and that new world is the Unification Church.
People are ready to try something new, and the young people are rejecting their own homes, becoming disgusted with society and even their nations. They tried going back to nature and becoming hippies to see if they could find what they were looking for. They even tried streaking but they got nothing out of it. Now they hear a message on the wind about how the Unification Church is something different and they are starting to say, "Let's take a look." Isn't that how many of you came to be here?
The ambition of each person is to live with God
The topic of my message today is "Where God Resides and His Course." The question is where God would want to stay. God would answer that He is the master of history and also the master of the present and the future. If the same voice would ask the son of God, "Who are you and what do you do?" then he would certainly answer, "I am the one who will inherit everything God has been doing in the past and the present. Therefore, I am also the master of history, the master of the present and of the future."
Nevertheless, the son of God would be opposed by the communistic and the democratic world and his life wouldn't look too inviting. He would probably have to flee from one place to another because of the opposition. Persecution will be the inevitable course. God is the only one who will reside with him and help him for there is no other avenue for God, no hope, no other workable way except this one.
Would God choose instead to follow and help the deacons and ministers of the established Christian churches? Those who would inherit the words of God as His children will be opposed by the communistic world and the democratic world as well, and will have to move from one place to another for safety. Would you find more of such people in the Unification Church or in the established churches?
How can you be so happy when other people oppose you so much that you can't do whatever you want, even though it is right? Everywhere I go people demonstrate against me. "There is nothing you can do about that," you might say; "that's the course of history." Those who oppose us call us Moonies but we call ourselves Sunnies and the spirit world will tell you that you are Kingies. You will confirm this when you to go spirit world.
Why do I want to establish a third kind of world, which is totally different from the other two already existing? Most people would insist that it's certainly not likely to work. If I wasn't aware of what the problems are then all my efforts would be meaningless, but I know exactly what difficulties lie ahead and still I am determined to continue. Am I only trying to destroy us all? If the only reason I am doing this is in order to survive on earth, then what will I do when I survive? I want to succeed, but do you see the possibility of that? You have to really think hard here.
If I were to convince you that there is no chance of success for the new world and you packed up and left, then I would remain here all by myself. If you didn't come to Belvedere then I would sleep until 7 or 8 o'clock, but since you arrive by 5 a.m. I cannot sleep late. Why do you come every Sunday morning? Your own parents believe that I enslave American young people out of greed, and if people are going to talk like that then I don't want you around. You can go away now. I am accused of brainwashing you, and if I only get all this criticism for my efforts, why should I bother talking to you like this all the time? The whole thing will be solved if you would go back home, so why don't you just leave?
If you return to your parents and they can't bring you up, yet when you come to the Church I turn you away, you are really in a pitiful situation. Where would you go instead? You are dissatisfied with the democratic world and you cannot go to the communist world because you know it's the worst possible place, so you came here, but even here I am trying to chase you out. You just have to hang on to God and stay here. You say, "Certainly God will not chase me away," and you stay. Now you at least have someone to lean on.
Why, in spite of all this opposition, do you believe in the Unification Church? If God exists, then you want to live with God for even one day. If you are a normal, ambitious woman born in the United States, you would probably like to be the wife of the president one day, right? But now you find out that Moonies are actually better than First Ladies, so no matter how harsh the circumstances you have a reason to remain. If someone promises you something beautiful, like living with God, in return for your work, you would do it. The same is true in a man's case. He would do anything to somehow become President of America.
More than anyone else we all know the significance of the number forty in the history of the dispensation. The term in office of the 39th President is a most crucial point in America's history because during this time America can easily be either crucially weakened or elevated once again and looked up to with hope and admiration in the eyes of the world.
Going back to our topic, what are Unification Church people here for? What are your ambitions? We would like to live with God if He exists, and at the same time work together with God. Through the course of history billions and billions of people have lived on earth and are now in spirit world. Without exception every one of them wanted to live with God if he could. You are just the same as all of those many billions of people, but has anyone ever been successful and lived with God? Are you any better than they? Specifically women, who are usually more troublesome, do you regard yourselves as better than all the women who lived on earth in the past? Actually you find yourselves in a much better situation than they did.
Look at a person like Billy Graham. Why does he make his life's work out of exhorting congregations and having crusades? It is very difficult. His only ambition is to live with God and work with God. In your opinion is Billy Graham living with God and working with God? What about you? Why do I work so hard and try to do such impossible things all the time? I have exactly the same motive: to be with God. Billy Graham is respected by many people and wherever he goes people ask him to speak, but I am persecuted and misunderstood even though I have the same motive and pursue it with more vigor. Even the people who follow Billy Graham will readily acknowledge that fact, but when you are asked by some people who oppose me many of you don't answer straight out that you are followers of Reverend Moon.
When God looks back through history as far as He can remember, the only one who lived along with Him was a man from a very small country who lived a very humble life -- Jesus. All Christians think of death as the necessary price of going to heaven, but Jesus died in the effort to make heaven out the world. There is a difference between the two. Do you want to go to heaven or make heaven out of the world? How about Billy Graham? In one respect you and Billy Graham are essentially the same, but there are also some very big differences. One has a big name on earth but only wants to go to heaven, whereas all of you are unknown and from humble circumstances, yet you are trying to make heaven out of the world. That's the difference.
God is omnipotent and there is nothing He cannot do. However, when this humble group with no credentials is pointed out to God as being the only one who wants to make heaven out of this world, just like He has always dreamed of doing throughout history, even this powerful God is cornered and has to recognize the Unification Church. When people go to spirit world God will ask them, "Did you believe in me so that you could come to heaven?" Each person will shout out "Yes!" But when God asks, "Did you believe in me so that you could make heaven out of this world?'' then everyone will be flattened like a deflated balloon. But way down in a valley a small voice will answer, "Yes," and God will be rather surprised. When He has that person come forward everyone will be amazed to see that he is a Moonie.
Do you think that those who put all their effort into making heaven out of the world are qualified to go to heaven in spirit world? Will God say, "You didn't concentrate on coming to heaven, so you can't be admitted"? Certainly God will send them to the very top of heaven. We may not be so certain of other things, but this is one thing we are sure of.
Virtually everyone wonders who I am and what I do. Sometimes just for the sake of looking conscientious public officials will choose one person to investigate and persist even if after months and years they find nothing wrong. This one man has turned the country upside down and caused extraordinary controversy! Has any one person in the history of mankind made that much controversy, especially any religious leader'' Why do I do this'' Simply because, like everyone else, I want to live with God and do God's work.
How can it be possible to live with God? Is love something that everyone can see with their eyes?
Who will believe you if you say you have seen love? A swindler can talk very nicely and leave a good impression too, so how can you believe anyone?
Where would God want to dwell?
Almost two hours have passed now, but do you want me to explain the proof of love to you? If someone taught a course on this subject, how much tuition would you be willing to pay? A million dollars'' Actually a million dollars is a very cheap price for learning such a lesson. If someone teaches you this for free then you should feel like a billionaire.
The Unification Church has the Divine Principle, and naturally people ask how we know it is true. Their question can be compared to trying to find out where God lives. If we ask God where He resides and God answers, "I live here," then that answer would only get a grade of 30%. If someone asks where God is and a voice answers, "I am here," and the person persists and asks, "Where is here?" and God replies, "Just here," then He gets a flunking grade again. If you ask Him where His love is and He says, 'Love is with me. 1 and love are one. Love lives where I am," that answer will get a 50% mark.
I struggled very hard to find an answer which could receive a passing mark, and I found that God is a living God, and in order for Him to live, there must be motion. God will dwell where there is the most activity of give and take. This answer gets a passing mark. We can imagine that God's will is moving with great speed, like light, and that eventually it looks like one point. That point is where God will reside, a point which is moving so fast that the universe stands still. When children play with a top they sometimes spin it slowly and then it wobbles, but when it is spinning quickly it stands straight up and looks almost stationary. It is lovely to see that top spinning so fast that it looks like it is standing still.
It is reasonable to think that God would prefer being right in the center where the action is the fastest and we conclude that God will reside there permanently. In God's world action cannot occur without give and take. We can imagine how dizzy God could be if He is in the middle of all this action, and we can imagine then that God must have all the necessary nature to withstand the fast action without getting dizzy. How is this possible? In the world of existence even the smallest thing has its positive and negative elements, Sung Sang and Hyung Sang living in give and take action. Since God must live in everything that is created, God Himself must have these two separate elements. God must have the same nature as the rest of His creation, for without having such characteristics, He would eventually be destroyed by trying to exist in such a world.
God can dwell wherever there is the right interaction of give and take, adding His dynamic interaction. Everything that is in motion has an internal heart, a nucleus, like an atom. Whenever we have activity, the purpose forms its nucleus, and everything is interconnected centering on this nucleus. This is the principle of action in the whole structure of the cosmos and world of development. It is our objective to bring all the creation into harmony around the one central nucleus of God.
God would reside in give and take action wherever an object is so perfect that their relationship would be everlastingly unchanging and stable. Let's reason this out. Why does an entity like man last a long, long time instead of existing temporarily and then disappearing? It is because man has inherited all the qualities of God, and therefore, he lasts eternally. The very nucleus of activity is where God resides, and with Him, His love.
How do you know where God lives and where His love lives? Are your mind and body in complete harmony now, so that you can detect God? You must be composed of subject and object like everything else in creation, but the problem is whether they are united. Every area -- eyes, ears, everything, including the emotions -- has problems to be solved. In this situation would God want to stay with you or escape from you? It is almost certain that God would like to escape from you.
God is really at a loss because He desires to stay with man, but instead He is driven to escape. Thus, God is trying to remake man so He can stay with him. Looking at religion we can truly know that God exists. Looking down at man, God sees that man's mind is not perfect or good and neither is his body.
To resemble God, your mind must be straight, like His
The problem in question is how to find the road along which we can think exactly as God thinks. Since God has a mind and an ideal, we can understand the road when we understand God's mind and ideal. Therefore, to accompany God we need to know what His purpose in creating this world was. In the Unification Church you can have the all-time clearest answer-God's intention was to accomplish the heavenly four position foundation. This is a very simple, yet perfect answer.
Was God indecisive, thinking one way and then changing His mind, or was it more likely that once His mind was set, His ideal remained unchanged? Has God's love and ideal for man changed since the fall? If God had changed, He would not be understandable by man. Even imperfect man likes the unchanging. God will never change, no matter what happens in the interim.
Let's think of God from a different perspective; would God prefer to look at something from a positive point of view or a negative point of view? Since God always anticipates something positive, what would God have thought to make out of His creation? He would have wanted it to live in harmony with His love, creating everything to instantly harmonize with His love wherever it was. Why do you like to hear a choir more than a solo singer? When harmony is realized it instantly becomes one with God and He will immediately be there in full force and stay there.
In everything, big or small, total or partial, this relationship is always there. When someone lovingly calls to you and you respond with the same tenderness and attention, the whole relationship will gradually develop and become happy. But if someone calls you and you do not respond or you respond in a different mood, how can harmony and happiness grow there?
When you are angry and fight with someone, your anger is a waste of energy. The law of the universe does not welcome such waste and will expel such an act because it does not harmonize with the whole. What happens to your vision if one eye sees but the other does not? Why did God create two eyes instead of elevating just one eye like a periscope above the head? Why did He put an ear on each side of your head instead of one big ear on the forehead? Why did He make two nostrils instead of one? Why did he make two hands instead of one with ten fingers? Why didn't He make one foot instead of two, which could take big hops like a kangaroo?
A man can be divided into two identical halves. Because God is like that He made man the same so He could interact with him. God created everything to resemble Himself, especially man. In order to fully resemble God, however, you have to have a straight mind like His, never changing or wobbling this way and that. Once you are launched like a rocket, you should land on the bull's eye of God's heart, only resting when you arrive there. When you land on the bull's eye, the whole universe will tremble at the impact and rejoice.
Is your mind straight and far-reaching? If not, how are you going to make it so? Are you going to make your mind straight before you get married or only afterward? Now you can understand that it's wrong to even think about getting married when your mind is not straight enough. I am going to make you into people with unchanging minds. First, I would like to make your minds straight; that's the cornerstone.
In the Orient we say that a person has a straight mind, meaning that he is righteous and honest. An honest man has a straight mind: If he judges something to be right then he pursues it unswervingly, never changing his mind. Once we decide to take action we should not change because we made the decision when the situation was clear.
Your mind should be straight only in order to form a parallel line with God. If you can do this then you can live with God. If God is straight like that but you are wobbling back and forth, how can you ever go forward together with God? Hasn't God changed over a long, long period of time? No, and it is your purpose and goal to live with God, work along with Him and resemble Him. For this reason you have to make your minds straight.
We have to know what God's mind is heading for. If it is true that He goes straight towards the heaven of love then so should we. There should be no difference, right? If God is going straight but He comes to a wall, would He go around the wall or keep going straight toward His objective? I, too, lack the quality of compromising, preferring to continue going straight. This is why many people wonder why I insist on going straight instead of going around, even when it can only result in much suffering. Why don't I keep silent instead of aggravating people so much? It's only because I have to go straight that I must say unpopular things.
Many people have gone sideways because otherwise life would become too difficult, but you must speak out even when people don't want to listen. Otherwise, their errors will go on and on uncorrected. I know that many times you have wanted to stop walking on the treadmill and leave the Church. After joining you may have thought for a time that you had finally found love, but now you realize that actually being here involves much more suffering than before, and now perhaps you are wanting to go back to your old sweetheart. Are you thinking that way even now?
That old relationship was the only form of love you knew, but why did you discontinue it instead of keeping it and adding something new? The reason you cut it off is that it was going in a different direction from God's love. Each person has to cut off all his old relationships and establish brand-new ties with those of God. That's what our life is all about. We try to make our minds straight because God's mind is going straight; we are taking after His pattern so that we can reach love with Him.
Because you don't want to lose God, you want to sacrifice for the whole
When your mind parallels God's then love is waiting to cross your path. One force is trying to give and another trying to receive, and when the combination becomes ideal, the exchange will go faster and faster and become even more successful. Then will we weep because we lost our old relationships, or because we are willing to give and receive the harmony and we feel compelled to give and enjoy? If you don't understand this now, you will understand when you get married.
Love is always going around, but it spins so fast that it's no longer visible. It becomes stationary and the features of each person involved in that love he come indistinguishable. This is why God is going straight toward love, and we are going straight too.
If we assume that the mind is very straight but the body wobbles around, then the body is like a poisonous snake; the Bible says that the generations of fallen men are like a brood of vipers. Because of the fall, what was supposed to be straight tends to zigzag. I see that in order to go straight you must be occupied with all different activities, like selling newspapers. But people don't want to do such things all the time. When I tell you to do something your mind is very willing but you have a struggle about actually doing it and sometimes you think that you have a better idea. In order to straighten out everything that is going zigzag, you have to pull it first one way and then another. If your desire is to go one way then you really ought to go the other.
Hell exists because people are going in all different directions, but what you must remember is that it is much easier to straighten things out on earth than in spirit world. If you shoot a bullet, a slight deviation in its course has greater effect the farther it goes, but if you adjust the gun just a little bit and then fire, it makes a big difference in hitting the target. Our bodies are just like the gun and we must shoot very straight because a small deviation here makes a big difference in spirit world. No matter how difficult it is or how many times we must try, we must get things straight while we are on earth.
Where does God reside? God resides in a straight mind which hits the bulls-eye of love and has harmonious give and take right in the center. God Himself goes straight towards love. Happiness is only temporary and small unless God resides within it. But what's so good about living with God? When you get to God you can breathe love, everything you eat is the food of love, and everything you hear is the music of love. There is nothing which is distasteful to touch in love. Even if a husband and wife are enemies and never want to look at each other again but go their different ways, once God sneaks in on them and resides with them, their love suddenly becomes so great that they cannot bear to be separated even for a second.
If you find a man or woman in whom God resides, you want to be with him always. No matter how beautiful a woman or handsome a man, if you don't find God in them they are actually very ugly. Without love there is no beauty. On the other hand, no matter how ugly others may be, when they have love they are more beautiful than any other, and even when they are unhappy you can experience more love with them than anywhere else.
Love cures all disease and makes all things possible. There is nothing impossible with love. That's why love is good and why everyone wants it. Those who are in misery and on the verge of dying will revive and become totally different when love touches them. Because of that, God likes love as much as man. If you want to live with God then your mind and body must become one instead of fighting each other. Yet becoming one is never enough; they must always become one in a way that is directed straight towards the love of God.
Is God a big or small being? Since He is big He likes the family more than the individual, and the society more than the family. He likes the nation, world and universe most of all. The nucleus of the whole universe is love. When an individual goes around like a spinning top, God is happy, but when God goes spinning onto the family level He is even happier, and when He reaches the national level He will start laughing. At the world and universal levels He will start dancing.
Are you the same because you care for the world more than the individual or family? When someone demands that you sacrifice yourself for your family, is it good or bad to answer, "I can't do that"? It is good to sacrifice yourself for your family because that is what God does. For the same reason it is good to sacrifice your family for the sake of society. We should want to do that, for by doing so we can be together with God and that society.
When God eventually becomes the center of society then you and your family can hold the same position as He. All Unification Church members should be successful on all levels, sacrificing the Unification Church and themselves for the sake of the nation. By refusing to sacrifice for the sake of the nation we may gain whatever we want but we will lose God because He has already moved ahead and is with the nation. When we lose God we cannot realize happiness and love anymore.
Since God is always going ahead, we have to catch up with Him. Even if it is nighttime or some impossible hour, we will have to continue going along with Him because otherwise we will lose Him and then love cannot be realized. Even after this nation is saved and is remade, for the sake of the rest of the world and mankind it will have to sacrifice itself in order to become one with God as the center of the universe.
Sacrifice must be made not only for the men living on earth but to liberate the millions and billions of spirit men. Finally, even if the entire world and the spirit world combined must be given up, we still must achieve the love of God so that God can be liberated. Then we will all be liberated.
A few weeks ago I asked some blessed wives to pack up their belongings and leave their children and husbands back home and come forward for a certain mission. Within 24 hours they had left their nursing babies and their husbands and come to New York. The husbands didn't question why their wives should leave their small babies for them to take care of. Instead they said, " Yes, you must go. Make haste so you won't be late." Is that good or bad? How can you say that that is good if the family is separated?
The only reason it can be good is that God's love can stay in that home when the family sacrifices for the nation. It's better that they do that because then they are together with God. Strictly speaking, we would be happier if we didn't do that, but since God's love is with us then we can be even happier.
Let your body surrender to your mind as soon as possible and follow a straight path like your mind does. Especially the women nearing the time of blessing must be conscientious in this way. Otherwise, they will ruin their husbands' lives.
When you marry, the possibility of death is always nearby. You have to always be alert and keep your mind and body straight so that even after you go to the eternal spirit world you and your husband can continue living with God for eternity, receiving His love together. All of you women would certainly like to have that kind of eternal relationship with your husbands, wouldn't you? American women now find themselves in a rather contused and miserable state, looking for that kind of love.
Your first love is very important and precious. The ideal is to meet your first love in a God-approved husband or wife. For the man or woman who possesses God's love, the ideal is to be married to his first love. On the spiritual level, the present system of dating is animalistic. This is why we must completely wipe from our memory all love which was not God-centered, all love which God was escaping from. The one thing God cannot tolerate is a love which is not centered around Him.
When a woman is about to marry she is at a crossroads. If she goes along one road she can destroy her husband, but if she takes the other path she can help him prosper, and not only him but his family and the society and nation, which are also hers. You stand at a very important dividing point when you get married and you have to set your purpose straight. By going the right way you are going straight towards God with a family and eventually a society and nation. This is why you are marrying to begin with. You have to clearly understand these things when you are on the verge of marrying someone.
As long as we participate in God's path, the fallen world has no power against us
This is why no individual can save himself or set his course straight by himself. Like the Bible says, we need a mediator to go between ourselves and God because of the fall. Naturally there will be a struggle, but by fighting and overcoming we can eventually reach God. Sacrifices are needed on the altar at such times, much like the example shown by Isaac. Even when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son, he did not fight against God but completely obeyed, as did his son. Likewise, our bodies, no matter how outraged they feel, have to submit completely to our minds in order to be victorious and be accepted into God's realm. That is why we find our bodies offered on the altar to God just as Isaac was.
At that time Isaac did not complain to his father, and our bodies should not complain to our minds. It is very difficult to do. Your minds understand that and don't mind, but your bodies are not obeying. That is when you say, "I cannot do everything. I cannot give up the person I loved many years ago. I will keep that one thing for myself." You have to realize that this struggle is your biggest enemy.
Fundraising is difficult to do, and you are sort of ashamed if you meet old classmates or relatives when you go newspaper selling. If you feel that, remember that it is only your body complaining to your mind. Your body has to submit to the mind, but once you win over that situation you won't have to go through that trial any more.
You haven't been through this stage yet, but many years ago I lived as a lowly beggar. When you live in such a state and you scratch your hands, a white streak is left where you scratched the dirt off. At that time I felt that my situation should be a sacrifice for the cause of God.
I think of everything in relation to the glory of God and the future. Even under the worst torture and on the verge of death in prison, I said that I must do this, that it is the most sacred thing a man can do. Before having dominion over the world you must first take control over your own body. If you eat something good or if you are caressed on the cheek or taken to a good movie then you are happy, aren't you? But your lives are the other way around; we don't eat good food and we sometimes even fast for many days. If you live in such a way that you don't hear nice words or feel a gentle touch or go to movies then you will be going straight. Finding God with a life such as this will take much less time than if you just do what you like.
If only I can reach the one highest goal I will never complain, even though my body may die and be discarded. If you, too, feel that way then you are winning your individual victory. Even though you may have to sacrifice your entire family, you have to go the way God goes. You must have more regard for the will of God than for the love of your wife or children, or even for their physical well-being. When you are told to leave your family to do God's will you should not fuss but step out with a loud yes and with no backward looks. God tells me to gather all the Unification Church members and let them bear all the burdens of the world, driving them out towards this one grand goal. It is a very difficult and unpleasant task, but I cannot tell Him no. No one can say anything except, "Yes, I will do that,' and we do that so we won't perish or be destroyed.
If there is one country God desires to establish to save the rest of the world then even though all Unification Church members might be sacrificed to do it, we would not hesitate but go straight through. For that matter, if all the people living on earth need to be sacrificed to save the much larger realm of spirit world. we must willingly do so. Our ultimate goal is to liberate God and realize His love, even if all mankind in spirit world and all mankind on earth have to be sacrificed.
God will sacrifice even Himself for love. That's our path as well, period. This is no man-made objective; since God has been going this way throughout history we have no other choice but to go the same way. Here we find individual opportunity to become one with God, paralleling His love. We join here and then have a family and go on with God's dispensation, and after embracing that family level we advance to the national level centered on the family unit, and so on.
Since we are always participating in God's path we can always ignore the realm of the fall; the fallen world then has no power against us. As long as man stays on this path there is nothing Satan can claim. Actually God has to work through many stages. If an individual is fighting to solve man's problems then God has to go along with him. Once man is fighting to go over the family-level hill God has to go along with man there. God has seven stages to fight through together with man as he moves toward the world of love-individual, family, clan, society, nation, world and cosmos.
First you have to go as an individual and after that bring your family to the tribal and national level. That's not the end of it, however. Even though America may solve its problems, it has to plunge headlong into the world's problems. When we stand before God we must be able to report to Him, " I have sacrificed myself and my family and my nation and now I am here, Father."
If you have not quite reached that goal then God would tell you. "You must go back where you left off, fulfill that level and then come back to me once more. You already know how difficult it is for every individual to go forward, but how can you possibly advance onto the family and national levels? This is what the Unification Church is all about. The solution is to set the condition of believing and obeying the one central individual while you are alive and then God will give you the same credit for accomplishing on the national level.
For 33 years I have been sacrificing myself to open this way. When all the Unification Church members unite with me they will inherit everything I have done. This is why, when you are told to undertake a certain responsibility, you should be willing to go, without objection or complaint, even to every corner of the world. When you go to spirit world, continue the work there. Then we will have done our share of responsibility. According to your degree of responsiveness I can bequeath everything to you in the name of love. Centering around love, I can give you the most precious things.
You follow me for the love of mankind and for the love of God, and this love is all we have. It is all we should care about. Even if we cared about other things, we couldn't have them without love. What is the qualification to inherit anything from the True Parents? It is to follow centering around love. Your love of God should be your motivation for thinking anything or performing any activity. You have to set your objectives clearly all the time, making whatever you do for the love of God.
Only because of love was I able to reach this level and I will reach an even greater level; therefore, I can bequeath true love to you. You can't explain exactly why, but you like me and like to follow and be connected to me. No matter how great the sin you have committed, when I say to you, "Don't worry about that," you feel that the whole thing is dismissed. That's because my words were spoken centered upon God's love. With this love you have the authority to give orders to all other people including the spirit world, and people everywhere will be only too happy to comply with you. This is true for anyone in the present, past, and even the future.
God is master of the past, present and future because He has true love
I said earlier that when we ask God, "What are you," God will say, "I am the master of the past, the master of the present, and the master of the future." How is it that God can be the master of all three? He is the master because He has true love. Because God is the subject of this love, anyone who also works and sacrifices for God's ultimate goal can eventually participate in God's love and receive the recognition of the entire cosmos. Whatever I did I did because of true love. With love, each step of life is the starting point and the center of heaven. Love will start from there and will spread from there to every point.
Heaven is where God's love resides. Now you know exactly where God's love resides. When the mind and body become completely one in love, working on the highest levels of the world, that's where God will reside.
Is God's course straight? He moves slowly forward, step by step, sacrificing Himself to indemnify each position completely. It is God's desire that the future generations of mankind should not suffer, so God goes straight, paying full indemnity at each step of His dispensation. You must know clearly that God is paying indemnity Himself by assuming the entire burden so that mankind can cross over each hill with less difficulty. It would be impossible for man to do everything alone, so God must assist. When mankind is going over the family level, God will assume the indemnity Himself; God will also help on the national level, enabling the nation to live in His love.
We are assembled here to follow exactly the same path that God Himself is going, to find God's love, reclaim it and give it out. God is doing exactly the same thing, wanting to give His love away to the world. Since knowing how God lives I have been trying to live the same way; when you know how God lives, you will live the same way as well. Then you can have the qualification to be a son or daughter of God and a master of the past, present and future.
Debating whether God exists is the pre-kindergarten stage. We know what God is and what He does and this is why we can do God's work. Without this knowledge the course that we have chosen would be too difficult. It is possible for us to do whatever God does. Why were we born? Not for God Himself but for the love of God. God gave birth to all creation and to man for the same objective: love.
We are born for the love of God and we are living for the love of God. Because of God's love I can live as an individual: because of (lord's love the family can exist, and together with God's love the society and nation can be formed. Every moment we are here we have to remember that together with God's love we are reaching toward the highest level. We live our lives centering on the nation that God loves and the family and each individual; "I" am living in the country of His love, and together we are the center of that country.
Since God and His love are the highest, will He say, "You have to obey me and do everything to serve me"? You all want to be raised higher and higher, don't you? Everyone thinks that way, and if you center on God's love everything is possible. When everyone lives up to the highest level of God's love, everyone finds himself equal and wants no more.
Without exception everyone can live as the child of God in His kingdom where no one will want for anything as long as he is on that same level of the ultimate love of God. God is the Father and all mankind are His children. The love between each person and God is all the same, and each person will find it quite abundant and be satisfied. Every person wants to live in an environment where no one is inferior or superior to the others. Is there any way there can be equality for all? This equality can be found only in the love of God.
Can you live in the love of God without paying indemnity on earth? If someone bothered you and pushed you out to do many different things in order to cleanse you so that God could come near you and engulf you in His love, would that person's actions be right or wrong? Even if this pressure made you unhappy would it be right? Have you been thinking so far that you are always being pushed so that God could be with you?
Now you know why we have to suffer? Without suffering it is almost impossible to set straight what is crooked. If I told you to forget all the hard work you have been doing and to just go to the theater or do whatever you liked, would you protest because you are not straight yet, or would you agree with me?
What matters is that we have to prepare ourselves to qualify for the realm of God's love. This is why I have endured much suffering and why I have no complaints. You cannot even imagine the difficulties I have had. Many times I would have liked to turn my back on this wicked world and not had anything more to do with it. But I could never do that because I knew that God's love was right there and that there was nowhere else to go. Is the problem becoming somewhat clearer to you now?
Do you know yourselves even better than God knows you? You don't like indemnity, but since you are aware of the situation then you should start to sample it. Do you know how to do this? If you are not a really good dancer now, try to imitate other people when you go to parties instead of standing there like a stick. Soon you will be able to dance, and you might even become a great dancer. If you cannot sing, then you should hum; soon you may learn to sing. There is bound to be a great feast ahead of us, and if we at least follow along no matter how tired our legs are, once we get there we will participate in the feast.
Would you just tag along with someone else or are you going to try to become the center? Those who now understand and want to act as a leader rather than a follower, raise your hands. I am thinking very seriously that each of you should become the center of your own home church. So far you have worked very hard and found one thing: even when we work hard the fruit of our witnessing is often dispersed and leaves little benefit in the center. We have done all kinds of pioneering work and witnessing on the streets, but somehow the people who come into the Church do not understand clearly and soon leave again. Then we get some more people and then they leave. The results do not remain here for good.
Home churches
Early last year, you were each given an area of 360 homes. If you really visited your area at least once a day then by this time you should know where everyone in the neighborhood lives and what kind of persons they are. If you go for ten days then all your effort remains there and doesn't go away somewhere else. If you visit there for one hundred days then one hundred days of effort remains there. It does not disappear, like the people you meet street witnessing.
When you visit your area, the old ladies there will watch you, and when you come back often they will want to know who you are. After many frequent visits they will say, "They are really persistent. They keep coming quite regularly. Actually they are more devoted than my own grandchildren." Many older people are now disillusioned and disheartened by their own offspring, but if you keep visiting you will attract their attention and you are certain to leave a lasting impression on them. The young people would say you are better than their own brothers and sisters, and the parents will say you are better than their own children.
As time wears on people are sure to have a deep, positive impression of you. The old folks will talk with each other about you and say, "These Moonies are wonderful people. We want to help them." They are bound to be curious and ask what you are doing this for, and when they know you are a Moonie they will ask you what Reverend Moon is like and what he does. But if you only go once or twice to your areas you won't arouse any interest.
I gave you each 360 homes in order to distribute God's love to you. As you distribute more love to the people then you in turn will become bigger and bigger. If you do not distribute love to the other people, however, then you will stay as gaunt as you are. If a tree wants to live then it must grow many branches and be healthy. If a tree grows no branches then it will simply wither away and die. I have never met one sensible person who asked me why I assigned him only 360 homes to distribute love to instead of three times as many.
Is it better to establish large indemnity conditions or only little ones? You didn't know about that until this morning, did you? If you are now going to do that as if you were crazy then that's very encouraging and God will be happy. I told you almost a year and a half ago to visit all your homes, and now I am assigning you to establish a church in those homes. You will soon learn exactly how to do it through your own personal experience in establishing a center. You may not know the Divine Principle well enough to lecture to other people so I had a video tape film made of the lectures. All you have to do is push a button and two or three hours of lectures will come through in clear, natural color.
Can you say, "Father, I have no one that I know in my area? If the average family in your area has three members then there are more than 1,000 people in your area and there is bound to be someone you know who likes what you are doing and who wants to work with you. When you go to your area you can tell the people that there is a movie of 1800 couples getting married in one ceremony and invite them to see it. Maybe the grandparents won't be so interested, but the young people of marrying age would certainly like to see what happens in such a ceremony. Now that you are a Unification Church member yourself you can judge what the people will be interested in seeing. When they like something and are excited, you can tell them that there is an even more interesting movie to see and soon they will come a second time.
The home churches may be small to begin with, but after awhile many folks in the area will drop in for awhile and visit and see the films. When you know many young people who play instruments they can get together and form a band, and whenever an older member of the family has a birthday they can all have an enjoyable hour entertaining them. Record all the birthday dates in a notebook and on those dates go there to play for them. If you keep track of all the birthdays of the members of the households in your area, you will be going to three birthdays a day!
As you get acquainted with them, they will be fascinated with you as a young person who is completely different from what they usually see. They will invite you to visit often, and even invite you to stay overnight. When they see you often during the year they will invariably know your value too. They heard about Moonies a long time ago, but now that you are visiting them in person all year round they will realize that you are jewels of young people. When you have a place with games like ping pony and a pool table, it will become the club for young people in the neighborhood. If the circumstances are fitting then you can go horseback riding, and when there is a wedding then people can celebrate there in a fantastic way.
There is great room for developing this home church idea. Are you interested? You have heard about indemnity but so far I have paid all the indemnity on your behalf. Why don't you just follow along and live the easy way of life now? Or now that I have paid so much, will you pay enough to lift mine away? Am I going to buy you the equipment for your home church or will you buy it yourselves? Then it will become your property and you can start your own church.
At a pre-arranged time everyone can come to listen to the videotape. You can go through the neighborhood ringing a bell or blowing a bugle and the neighborhood will know that you are playing a movie at the center; then they can come and listen. Once we are successful in home churches papers like the New York Times will have a hard time selling in that area.
We have many News World delivery trucks which are only used early in the morning for a few hours and then sit idle the rest of the day. We will use them to deliver all kinds of necessary high quality home items like food and consumer goods at incredibly low prices. Then people won't even have to go shopping and Macy's and other stores will have hard competition because we will sell many daily necessities at much cheaper prices than they.
Do you think I just dream about these things or do I plan and put all of them into practice, one thing at a time? Like I told you a year ago, when you are successful in this operation you will have enough income to support yourself and your church and your area of activity. This is exactly the kind of thing the communists want to do although they don't know how.
Children today are turning against their parents' beliefs but in each home the children will be interested. Even where some patients may be communist and reject you, their children will be interested. Like all of us, every American needs to be enlightened and learn what life is about. They should know why Jesus came and know the purpose of all religion. When they understand the truth then America will begin to live once again.
Now that we have been persecuted so much yet continued to work with total dedication, we are finally going to succeed in this country. People are bound to come to the Church and listen and understand the Divine Principle and become members. You have experienced how every person has ups and downs and how people drift away because they are confused or tired. So far in witnessing you might pour five or six months into one person and then when he leaves he is impossible to find. But when you have a home church you can go to his home and talk with him for a few minutes and he will come back.
Other people may not come to the Church right away but they will observe your work 365 days a year, even for three years. Then they will be convinced that you are here to stay and that what you do is absolutely right. None of your effort will be wasted. You are guaranteed that everything you invest will bear fruit in your area. Even if it is difficult at first, people will understand later. In the meantime God will reside in each home when you visit.
The Divine Principle videotape is very clear and by listening to it often you will become a great lecturer. Everyone who listens to it is amazed at what they did not know before. There is no question that you can bring a person to lecture every day. We will start this on June l. We still have two months to go and during that time please renew your enthusiasm. Go to your area and contact the people and plan where the best place for a home church will be. Once you become successful with one home in your area you can branch out and there can be as many home churches in your area as is practical.
There are 240 million American people who have never seen me and most of them automatically oppose us because of the impact of the media. But many of them will change their minds when they come into contact with regular people like you; after all, they are regular people also, not evil. Then no matter what the New York Times says, those who come into daily contact with you will not believe any evil stories. Once we have an impact on New York, knowledge of us will spread like wildfire around America. This is exactly why I told you that New York is our front line.
Whether you continue is the main thing. If you do then in one city on the first of June we will have 1,000 home churches. We must prepare to begin on June l, having the vision and the objective in mind. Now we are decided to do this. Let me see again who will do it. Let us pray.