The Return to Tears

Sun Myung Moon
October 16, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator-Bo Hi Pak

American young people probably do not know much about tears. Because America is basically an affluent country you never get really hungry or really cold, and under those circumstances real suffering is far removed from the American way of life. I want to ask those of you who never cried to raise your hands. You all say you know the taste of tears, so let us analyze for whom those tears were shed. For yourselves so far. How many of you have experienced shedding tears for others? Only after joining the Unification Church, right? Basically there are two kinds of tears, the tears you shed for yourselves and the tears you shed for others.

With whom did the history of tears begin? I'm sure that the first man and woman to shed tears were Adam and Eve and certainly God shed tears because of the fall of man. Adam and Eve cried for themselves as a result of the fall, but for whom did God shed tears? God is Father of mankind and after seeing the degradation of His children at the fall of man God shed tears not for Himself but in sorrow for Adam and Eve and their anguish. The tears shed by Adam and Eve were for their own misery but God shed the tears of goodness and the tears of mercy for the sake of His children.

Those tears themselves are tragic. Man's history began in tears, with sorrow and tragedy, and for God also history was first marked by tears. Those tears meant tragedy for both man and God. Man really deserved to shed tears for his sin, but God did not deserve to shed tears. This history of tears originated with the ancestors of mankind and has expanded down through the generations to all mankind today.

Human history is a repetition of the suffering of tears, emerging again and again in suffering and struggle and broken-heartedness. Mankind has been oppressed as individuals, families, tribes and nations with the one suffering because of the other. No one has conquered the history of tears. We have to grieve for the world and suffer in sorrow for the consequences of history on all the different levels; then we may hope to return to the origin of goodness. The fall of man actually began with only two individuals, but because they were the ancestors of mankind their actions shaped the history of the world. Their transgressions brought the entire world down to tears.

Man has fallen down to the bottom and in order to raise ourselves up everyone must advance step by step and eventually go beyond the realm of tears. This is our mandate. The entire history of man's tears and sorrow was all for the sake of himself. Man has been grieving over his own misery but in order to go beyond the realm of that suffering we have to change and reverse the purpose of tears. We still grieve but for a different purpose. We need a reorientation in this world of tears to the other kind of tears that God shed when He wept in grief for the sake of others.

First a man must shed tears for man, and then he must discover the realm of God's tears

Where can man truly find happiness then? The ultimate happiness comes when he can conquer not only the tears of man but of God as well. We must restore the world to the realm where God no longer needs to shed tears. The history of tears began because of the fall of man. When we conquer the realm of man's degradation then we can certainly find the realm where God and man no longer need to shed tears. This is precisely the point we are approaching today. It is our destiny as men to go over the two hills of tears. We must cross over these two hills in order to be totally happy. Those who are trying to pursue the road of truth must shed tears over the misery of humanity and taste the suffering of man. A thinking man could only be grieved by the problems of man' the suffering and dying of men and all the misery that permeates our society.

Many young people think about what the real purpose of life is and they agonize over how and where they should direct their young energy. That is the beginning of the road along which you will conquer tears. Those people who never even think about those things-the meaning and purpose of life and death-do not even belong to the species of man. Thinking people wonder about their own lives and also about the society' nation and world and they grapple with the problem of bringing a solution to those who are suffering and in misery. Man has to think in that direction.

Grief over the suffering and sorrow of man alone will not bring any lasting solution. Man has to go further, down to the bottom and origin of tears. We have to go beyond human tears and realize the tears of God. Tears that are shed for one's own sake or the sake of one's nation, for the human level alone, cannot ultimately contribute to the over-all solution of bringing back the ideal world here on earth. No matter what, all of that is still within the realm of selfishness, being merely the continuation of the tears that were shed by Adam and Eve for themselves.

Everyone must discover the new realm of tears that God has shed and deeply experience the taste of those tears; otherwise we will never solve human problems. This means learning how to shed tears beyond self-centered suffering and misery. First we must discover God and discover God's tears and become people who shed tears to alleviate the suffering of God.

I want you to know that those people in history known as saints and holy men were people who learned about the tears of God. By centering upon the grief and sorrow of God they have been looking at mankind from God's point of view and shedding the same kind of tears that God shed. That is a religious way of life and by shedding the same kind of tears that God shed you become a co-worker of God's. What kind of religion stands as a co-worker on the side of God? The religion that not only teaches man to shed tears for humanity but to shed tears for God will undoubtedly receive God's blessing and become the central religion of humanity. There is absolutely no question about it.

The chief question is for whom you weep. If a village realizes that a person is crying for the sake of the village then the entire village has to bow down to him. That act is noble because it is not for the person's sake but for the sake of the village. If there is someone who sheds tears for the sake of the nation then the entire nation is benefited and the citizens should bow down and respect that person.

The son of filial piety is one who shed tears not for himself, but for the sake of his parents. Without exception the loyal subject is the one who sheds tears for his own king and queen. Patriots are those who shed tears for the sake of their own country and countrymen. A saint or holy man is a different kind of person altogether. The patriot is concerned for the nation but a saint directs all his energy and tears for the sake of God and all of humanity. Under that condition alone can we say that a person has lived a saintly life.

Looking at the great saints in history, is there one who truly shed tears in order to bring God and humanity together, even at the moment of his death? Certainly we find one in the person of Jesus Christ. At the moment of his own death on the cross he was worrying about his own adversaries, the Roman soldiers who pierced him with their spears. He shed his tears and sweat for the sake of his own enemies. Because Jesus cried for his worst adversary he was actually crying for the sake of all types of people. By shedding his tears for the sake of his worst enemy Jesus not only won the hearts of all good men, but will also win the respect of the worst kind of sinful man in history.

Jesus considered his own well-being last of all, praying at the end that God accept his soul, for he had done his very best. Jesus directed his whole life toward shouldering all of God's suffering here on earth and as his life ended on the cross he could say that he had done it. You can see how different were the selfish tears of Adam and Eve and the unselfish tears Jesus shed. Both were falling down to their deaths as they shed tears, Adam and Eve being the victims of their sin, and Jesus being crucified on the cross. As they approached their spiritual death Adam and Eve shed tears for themselves but Jesus shed tears for the sake of humanity and for God and for his own enemies.

Christianity has forgotten that its role is to share the tears of God

Christianity was supposed to inherit the tradition of Jesus Christ and share the tears of God, but in the course of 2,000 years of history that role has been forgotten. How can we distinguish the true Christianity from the false one? Christian churches which are wrapped up in their own sorrow or difficulties are churches of no life, but those which are shedding tears for the sake of God and humanity and their own enemies are the churches with life. For the first four centuries Christians endured the utmost persecution and certainly they must have wept very much. The problem is whether they cried for themselves alone.

Let's examine Christian faith and prayer in the past. How much have Christians in the past cried for more than themselves or their own church or nation? At most they may have thought about their own country when it was in difficulty. Certainly God has answered that level of prayer a long time ago. Christian prayers in history have not been wide enough; their scope has only reached the level of their church or denomination and at most their nation. How many Christian people have been praying for the sake of all humanity, or for the heart of God and the cosmic dispensation?

Christian thinking has never extended that far because of the limit of biblical teaching. The Bible says that at the end of the world God will manifest His power of judgment and all evil people will be burned in fire, with only the righteous and God-fearing people being lifted up in the air to see the millennium. That's the concept Christians live with so how could they pray for all of humanity? When you really know God you know that such a scene could never happen. That is not the true meaning of judgment.

History is looking forward to another epoch, the coming of the Lord of the Second Advent. That marks the time when mankind for the first time will learn to shed tears for all humanity, even including the spirit world. Because of the limitations of its teachings, conventional Christianity could not produce a man who could truly give himself for the sake of humanity here on earth and in heaven. A new breed must emerge to take responsibility for the entire cosmic dispensation, not only here on earth but also in heaven. The Unification Church is born for that mission.

The Unification Church has a declaration for the world: We must go beyond tears for our own selfish interests to the tears for humanity and plunge into the tears of God so that we can conquer and eliminate them. We must shed all of God's tears so that He has no more left. That is the Unification Church's task. That's the realm that Adam and Eve never even imagined existed.

No matter how many tears were shed for the sake of humanity, those tears are meaningless unless you really know the love of God. Ultimately speaking, we are going to be shedding tears for the very heart and love of God. We must declare ourselves to be victorious not only individually in rectifying the sorrow of God and becoming a source of joy to Him, but also on the level of family, society, nation and world. Our ultimate goal is to remedy the pain in God's heart, and starting from this base to become the center of the family, the tribe, a nation, the world and the cosmos. That's the way we should live as individuals. No one has a guarantee that they will live on earth for very long. You may start out to do that but you can never know whether you will pass through every step that needs to be conquered.

When should you shed tears for God? Don't wait until you reach the family level but start right now. We are teaching that from the very beginning of your commitment to this movement you must shed tears for the heart of God. You must put yourself in the position of God, with your eyes being God's eyes and your tears God's tears. You must look after humanity as God would look after His own children.

All men represent Adam and all women represent Eve. There are five colors of men and women; when you look at them as God looks at them and weep and suffer for them, you are putting yourself absolutely in the position of God. In that case can you be prejudiced about race and think that God loves only a certain race of people?

We must be color-blind in the Unification Church and not distinguish between races because God is color-blind. You are learning God's point of view, seeing the world as God does. As we look at the world we grieve over the suffering situation of humanity and cry out for them as God has been doing. The amount of God's own feeling you experience will determine the depth of God's love that can reach you. How much you become a portion of God shall determine the quantity of God's love that you can experience.

At night God looks over the city of New York, grieving at the misery there. The people do not even realize that God exists, that their own Father exists. Almighty God is waiting to help but they don't even realize they are all the children of God. How lonely God must be! How much God's heart must be grieving. Can you imagine how lonely and aching God's heart is, looking at so many of His children enslaved in the communist world?

The course of repentance

A true religion teaches the necessity of repentance but how many of you know how to repent so far? Repentance must be an act of tears, not for yourself, but for humanity and for the aching heart of God. Have you experienced that kind of repentance? A repentant heart can say, ' 'Now I realize what a poor and miserable son I have been. I have pierced Your heart over and over, never even realizing that You existed' my Father. I have broken Your heart and now I come to You and need Your forgiveness." This is the first repentance.

How do you know that your repentance can be accepted by God? You can see proof in your own resurrection. When your heart has grown in such a way that you totally put yourself on the side of God and in looking at the world shed tears, you know that your tears are no longer for your selfish purpose. Then you know your heart is with God.

Regardless where the heart of God moves, no power under the sun can deter it. It moves straight forward, all the way to the end. As the father, God is ceaselessly going after His own children but He will never tire. When you put yourself totally on the side of God you are like a parent trying to save your dying children. How can you as a parent get tired or bored? You cannot help but go straight after hue inanity, until every soul here on earth is saved. If you feel as their parent, there is no way you can get tired. Our road may be getting tougher and tougher and our tears may come more frequently, but does that mean that we are retreating or giving up the mission? No, that will spur us on even further.

First of all, have you ever cried out before heaven and earth, "God, I have been a sinner, I have been the worst kind of criminal in Your sight. Please forgive me"? Have you shed such tears yet? Have you said to God' "I have no more personal ambition. I only ask for Your mercy upon me"? Have you ever totally given yourself to do God's will, feeling that if you receive God's mercy there is nothing you cannot do? This is the first step, the freshman course.

In many cases people look for a convenient God who will smilingly accept everything they are already attached to. Such people want God to come in a very narrow gate. How about you, right now, in your own heart? Have you ever thought about yourself as the worst kind of sinner, who would give up anything to receive God's mercy and forgiveness? Have you experienced that? By sincerely feeling that repentance, you can liquidate your entire fallen past and disengage yourself from the consequences of the fall.

From your individual tears and misery you can make a gigantic leap from one world to the other, from the human level of tears to the level of God's tears. You can do this because you can disengage yourself from the iniquity of the past, freeing yourself from all the attachments behind you.

That point is critically important. You have been crying your own tears, but at this point of repentance you can meet the tears of God and be embraced by the merciful, loving God. You are then experiencing the grief and agony of Adam and Eve, but at the same time you are experiencing the suffering heart of God. The two start at one point. You must pass through that experience. Unless you pass through that realm, you will never understand the love of God, no matter what.

Words alone are empty. What you need is to shed so many tears that your eyes swell shut and you cannot bear to open them in the sunlight. We need men who are able to shed the tears of God. Nothing can happen with dry eyes. It is in tears that most of the re-creation process takes place. In that atmosphere alone can the re-making of a new man, society, nation, world and new universe take place. That's why the declaration is made in the Bible, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." By repentance you can come nearer to the kingdom and to union with God.

Without your tears, your sweat and blood have nothing to do with God

This is the way of life of the Unification Church. Nothing bothers us if we put ourselves in an unconditional position. 1n that we are different from ordinary, secular people who center the world around themselves.

I want you to know that without tears, no matter how much sweat you shed, it has nothing to do with God's work. No matter how much blood you shed, without tears it has nothing to do with God. Tears are the link between you and God. Tears must come together with your sweat and blood because otherwise you are not walking the road of restoration. We must return to tears.

You have cried for yourself but in doing that you bring yourself down to the sinful world. In crying over your own ambitions and desires you are actually declaring to the world, "I am an ally of Satan." Unselfish crying for the sake of God is a sacred and divine thing.

In order to shed tears for God you must first find the right environment. If you stay in a very comfortable place and try to cry for God, tears will never come to your eyes. Instead, you must go after the situation where you can be stimulated to shed tears for God.

What is that battleground? That is where you wage war against Satan and Satan comes against you. In other words, that is where you make yourself a champion of God and fight the battle against Satan. There are all kinds of places where you will inevitably be affected so that you can taste the tears of God. You have to go out to the world and disturb everyone. Take their children to the side of God; take their wealth and power to the side of God.

How can you do this? The fallen process began with words, but words which were lies. Satan took everything away from God, not with weapons and violence, but with words. By the same token you will give the word and love of God to bring back to God the things Satan took away. False love and lies brought about the fall and therefore the truth and true love of God will bring the satanic things back to God. It's very logical restoration. The entire world is starving for truth and true love. If you really become a heavenly messenger and disseminate the truth and the love of God, then people will be gathered to you like small metal pieces pulled by a magnet. That is exactly what I have done. I came to America and have been plundering the young people from the satanic world to God's world. God has the power to pull everybody eventually. I am determined to shake up the world so the world is disturbed.

We shed tears for God and humanity and other people get upset with us over their children and their belongings. Actually this is a confrontation of two kinds of tears. We have to cross this bridge of tears. When you go to witness to the people and try to bring spiritual children you must shed tears for them; unless you are tearfully loving them and thinking of them you will lose them. You must be so moved as to speak about the truth with tears and convey the love of God with tears. When you meet the people in that fashion God will be with you. There is no other way.

If your heart is like that then no matter how deeply the world may bury you it cannot possess you. You just have to set your goal high and advance step by step through each level. Your companion on the journey will be tears and your job is to sow the seeds of love. You are longing for the true husband, wife, children, the true society and nation and in the meantime you will pave the way with tears. No foreign power can infiltrate this realm. You must volunteer for the most miserable place because there you have more chance to cry out for God. When you are in misery and holding on to God then you are very close to the realm of tears.

This is our salvation. You can search after misery and welcome it. You overcome it by holding onto God and shedding tears as God did Himself, looking at misery from God's point of view. When you overcome those tears then you have indeed expanded God's territory. It is the cosmic rule that whenever a true religion emerges it is always accompanied by persecution. Persecution is not a difficulty to be run away from but a blessing to plunge into. Persecution is a blessing because it will bring you to the realm of tears.

You have an empty container to fill with indemnity and when it overflows Satan will have no more power to touch you or our movement. That will be a real day of hope. That very day is at hand, with the entire nation pouring out a tidal wave of unreasonable slander and persecution. Those powers are now dissipating, however, and the time is ready for us to counter-attack. A new mood has been created. A one hour television special about the Washington Monument victory is being shown around the country. This is the first wave of our counter-attack. The truthful, in-depth testimony by a prominent scholar like Dr. Sontag will totally disarm our worst critics, and if they have one ounce of conscience they have to feel sorry for what has been done by our opponents.

The entire press corps and publishers all over the country will read this book out of curiosity. Their motivation will be to find something to quibble about, but the important thing is that this book will expose how untruthfully our movement has been written and spoken about. The time will come soon when the American people will know how I lived my life, how many tears and how much sweat I shed for the sake of this nation and the sake of the world and they will have to gratefully acknowledge what I have done. We have been patient and long-suffering, yet in turn we have never wanted revenge. We have never learned how to get revenge, but God will see that justice is done.

Every kind of persecution gives us the priceless opportunity to shed tears for the purpose of God. The day that God sheds no more tears is the day that we will no longer shed tears or mankind shed tears. We can completely conquer sorrow. Who shall truly cry out for God and truly agonize for humanity? We are chosen to be champions of tears and sorrow for the sake of God and humanity.

How much have you shed tears in a serious moment?

This morning remember your lives in the past. What kind of past did you live as a member of the Unification Church? When you are selling the News World your tears must fall upon your papers. The New York Times is a very influential paper and if it became a tool of God it would hasten the accomplishment of His mission. Unfortunately, that paper is not God's paper. We have a little paper, the News World' and this is where God is placing His hope. When you think of how meager our paper is at this stage, don't you feel some tears of sympathy for God? Do you think, "I really want to make this a gigantic, powerful paper so that You can truly use it as Your tool. I am still young and I can definitely make the News World a success in the shortest possible time. God, give me the opportunity."

Once we move the city of New York you know that we can certainly move the United States and the entire world. This is a key city. I declared that New York is the front line of our movement and I brought the best member here from around the world for that reason. What are you doing? Are you really going after the mission with tears?

Again, this is the day of your own repentance. The will of God and the dispensation is waiting out there. How can you worry about being hungry or about your clothes or tiredness in the sight of God and in the sight of the dispensation? If you really want to be in the mainstream of the Unification Church then you must go beyond all that and come to the point of tears. When you turn your tears into the tears of God then you will see miracles happen.

How many times have those of you working in offices shed tears on your own paperwork? All the leadership in our movement should be praying special night-long prayers in tears. You are most likely not going to lift your faces to look at God because there is some shame in your hearts. Are you just waiting for some great things to happen to the Unification Church without shedding tears? You can't expect blessing to come to you without even shedding tears.

It is a serious matter. Regardless of the past we must return to tears. How much have you shed tears in a serious moment? You are basically followers but you have someone leading you in the right direction. You have an example to follow but I have no one to lead me. In this vast universe I am the one who has to steer the ship. It is a miracle that we have come this far and I am deeply grateful that it has been without having a major setback.

I may have shed many tears and endured much suffering but I know one thing: God has shed more tears and endured more suffering than we can ever even imagine. When you know that God is toiling and shedding tears, can you freely say that this life is too difficult and too tiring for you to continue? Some of you are so tired that you take a nap for just a few minutes but when you wake up you must feel ashamed and say to God, "It wasn't my intention but I ended up spending a few hours for a nap. I'm sorry to do this in front of You, Father.,, Sometimes you must spend a little money for yourself but even then do you wish you didn't need to spend it on yourself? Our path is definitely not an easy one.

I must spend money for my own children but it is not without reservation. When I spend money for them I think of them not as my own but as Unification Church members. Why should I live like that? Nobody would bother me for spending my own money and living my own way of life and loving my own children, but every time I spend money on my family or rest at night I feel apologetic before God. I live like that because God is like that.

The requirement for defeating communism

My personal mission in the dispensation was completed by 1976 and I was triumphant in it. On the personal level I have fully accomplished my mission. However, from this time on the greatest task is still ahead: dealing with the power of communism. It is impossible to communicate with communists so no message and no amount of reasoning will work. In the free world we meet and talk with each other and because of religion we can live together, but in the communist world there is no religion and no religious message will influence the government.

What shall we do then? We have to tearfully pray and pay indemnity for them so that they can emerge out of the yoke of communism themselves, finding their own way to get rid of their shackles. That's the only way. In addition, if we in the free world can build an ideal society on a religious foundation here on earth, we can show them that our way of life is far greater than anything their ideology predicts. You'll see that the more we succeed in the free world the more there will be internal problems among the communists themselves. Internal revolution will break up their ranks and the spirit of God will be at work. More and more economic catastrophe will persist in the communist world and even famine will occur.

As Unification Church members we must shed tears for the sake of the communist world, tears that can represent the entire free world. We will pave their way spiritually. As long as there is communication in the free world it is only a matter of time until people come to the truth of God. There is no other alternative. Communism is the only barrier to world unification because no communication is possible.

I am speaking to the seminarians now. You are already destined to walk this path. You in particular must feel that you are indebted to every member of the Unification Church. You have an extra burden and in order to be recognized you truly have no right to complain, but only to show your merit in your deeds. Your conscience should not allow any other way. Making excuses for yourself doesn't work in our movement. For your own benefit I would like to be extra hard on you, pushing you out to prove yourselves.

Another group of people who must take great responsibility are the early members of the Unification Church. When you come to Belvedere you must reflect on the path you are walking. Are you thinking mostly about yourself, your food and clothing or your own position? When you do things for your own purpose and to pursue your own goal then you are deeply in trouble. Your ancestors are watching you from spirit world and your descendants also are going to judge you. They will see the law of God and evaluate you in light of that. They will see where you stand and how imperfect and impure you are. I urge you leaders of our movement to shed tears first. Those who do not know the taste of tears will never become true leaders of our movement. You must pray hidden prayers and experience lonely meditation. There is corruption and destruction coming on all levels, both spiritually and physically. Right now you are preparing yourselves to work for the sake of humanity so how can you take it easy? When you look at the American school system and realize how the students are living, the promiscuous attitudes they have, how can you young people sleep comfortably and stand by idly? You must feel that you will be like spiritual bombs exploding on campus to eradicate all that.

Have you ever seen any professors cheerfully embracing the young people, trying to lead them in the right direction? Are any of the students truly loving the school and the professors , concerned about the well-being of the people and really praying for them? There are no students like this. How many government officials are really concerned for their own country regardless of what department they are in? How many of them are tearfully trying to serve their nation? The salvation of America will come when tears are shed on all levels' particularly in the government. When people feel unselfish about this nation and the world, America's salvation is near. However, no one is moving in that direction. The vast majority is totally nonchalant and unconcerned about the situation. They only care about their own salaries and well-being.

America has everything in abundance except tears. In that this nation is poor. God is searching after the people who have wet eyes but when He knocks on America's doors and finds no one like that God certainly has no choice except to turn around and leave America. God has only one hope: the Unification Church, you members. Because God's eyes are brimming over with tears, His only hope lies in anyone who can embrace Him with that same tearful heart.

You members have the public mission and you are becoming God's objects, responding to His tears with your own tears. In that way we can mold the movement of salvation for America and the world. That's the only way God can respond and work with mankind. The real members of the Unification Church are the members with tears. The true leaders of the Unification Church are those with tears. The fall of man came because of self-centered tears and in restoration we must shed selfless tears, public tears. When we shed tears for the public purpose, for God's purpose we accumulate the genuine assets of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The tearful life starts from the individual and then tears and more tears will break through one barrier after another until the worldwide level is reached.

So far you have not been thinking in that fashion but this morning you are learning the value of tears. Please show me who of you are determined to walk this path in a tearful way, responding to God's tears and shedding public tears for His purpose.

The fastest advancement on the path of restoration

What is the fastest way to advance along the path of restoration? Put yourself in the position of Adam and Noah and shed tears for them and for the other central figures in history. Put yourself in the position of Jesus and cry for his sake. By doing this you link together the individual level, the tribal, national and worldwide levels.

Go one step further and put yourself in God's position during the time of Noah and understand how He suffered waiting through the 120 years it took Noah to get ready, only to see that particular dispensation fail at the most critical moment. Then put yourself in the position of God looking down at Abraham wandering like a gypsy and meeting all kinds of persecution. How tense and anguished God was while He waited! Then go through the time of Moses and the suffering of the Israelites and later the time of Jesus. Put yourself in every level representing God and try to share His aching heart. Don't you think God shed tears at each of those events?

By doing this you will be an individual upon which the entire providential history shall rest. Today we are witnessing the consummation of human history in which all the central people have suffered. You must realize that actually Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus suffered for you to see this day.

God shed tears at the time of Noah, particularly when Noah failed his mission, and God shed tears when Abraham made the mistake in his offering. God shed tears for Moses and again at the time of Jesus. Since God shed tears at every historical event, when you put yourself in God's situation you can certainly shed tears for these people. When you link yourself with God you can cry out for them. All this probably seems very far removed from your own lives, but that is exactly why you need a champion going in front of you. The Unification Church is following my tradition because I have lived through the entire past in this way.

Someone has to pioneer the restitution of all the historic mistakes and I have been doing that starting at the individual level. Everything has been connected and all the entanglements straightened out. I want you to know that someone has shed tears for you. By putting myself totally in the position of Adam, Noah or Abraham I searched to find the mistakes they made and come up with the solution. I stood in the position of all of these historic people and cried out for their sorrow. I have shed two kinds of tears throughout my life, one being the vertical tears of discovering the truth and putting myself in the positions of history. The discovery process was accompanied by so many tears. At the same time I had to link those discoveries with actual indemnity in my deeds. That can be said to be horizontal tears.

I have been linking history together with the present on the horizontal level and restoring it by paying the debts of the past. There is a spiritual struggle and a spiritual discovery and on each level I would expand the territory of the individual, family, tribe, nation and the world. This vertical effort represented the spirit world. This is the real restoration now, the physical restoration on the horizontal level.

The vertical level of discovery in tears expands to the horizontal level through an individual, tribe, nation and world. The appearance of the Lord of the Second Advent is the final manifestation on the horizontal level of the vertical level of the dispensation. It sounds easy or simple but it certainly is not. I want you to at least know one thing: the Unification Church has the truth that has cleared up all the entanglements of the past. The misery of the past has all been sorted out. The diagnosis has been given and the treatment and prescription has been written, not just by logic but with the linkage of heart.

The foundation of logic and truth is there but the strongest binding force is the linkage of heart. One spiritualist wanted to know the truth about me so he prayed to God to really know who I am. When God answered, it was not with an explanation but with an overflowing of tears. That was His answer. I have shed universal tears for mankind. That's who I am. Most individuals are not capable or equipped to discover these things. You can use the knowledge I have acquired and shed tears for the sake of God and for my mission. Then you can inherit my accomplishments and have them become your accomplishments.

Confront your mission and do your absolute best

There are some older members who know how to take advantage of me but they don't shed tears for me. They think they are wise but they are very foolish because they will not remain with me forever. Some of the blessed couples in Korea know how to take advantage of me and exploit me but they do not shed tears for me. In order to really save them I will put them to one more test once our mission is all accomplished. I will push them into the worst possible position and let them come out of it. They must repent for taking advantage of the Unification Church. When I see our leaders dressing in the best clothes or driving the most up-to-date cars I study them closely, asking whether they deserve to have those things.

Because I have reconciled and paid the debts of history you shall inherit all my accomplishments by uniting in tears with me. If you really live your love for me and for the sake of God and humanity then in turn you can certainly be loved that much by God. I shall never get behind anyone in fulfilling God's will but be in the front line position, no matter what. No matter how many people get tired and retreat, I myself will never retreat. I am always giving more and more directions. If you fulfill one particular mission then I will give you more and more responsibility. Some people limit their sense of responsibility to just the area of their mission but that is wrong. The person in a high position should always be trying to do for others and for the entire past.

I have given many instructions but none of those plans has been carried out. Instead of tackling the mission wholeheartedly you are just beating around the bush. You must confront the mission and not try to evade it. Do your absolute best and if you still cannot fulfill it then don't worry; God will take it over and link it to a higher level. Those people who are trying to evade the mission and go the easy way are very foolish.

When you come on Sunday morning to meet with me everyone is on an equal level externally, but it is not so internally and spiritually. There are all kinds of different levels existing among you. I am desperately trying to accomplish God's mission here on earth but instead of being a part of that effort most of you are just standing by like observers. If that is the case, you will never become the owner of the gold mine you have stumbled across. Those who will actually become the hosts and hostesses will be those who come after you if you remain by-standers. Even though they may come later, if they really plunge into the mainstream of the mission they will get to the goal before you. The people who just wait for good things to happen will never make progress, whereas those who wholeheartedly commit themselves even though they may come later can certainly reach the goal.

Many, many early members just boast about being early members but in reality they are just blocking the way of the members who came later. To do that is to be the worst enemy of God. If you are not capable of accomplishing very much then you must humble yourself and shed tears for God. When a capable newcomer comes who really pursues the mainstream of God's will, you as early members must at least praise him and be humble to him, realizing how much God needs him.

You all know very well what kind of men you are. Don't try to cover up and hide yourselves but get out of the shadows; on the other hand, don't come to the Unification Church just to be somebody. When a leadership position must be filled, don't try to build your image up as a leader in the hope of being chosen. If your heart is not ready, you are certainly not a leader.

I do not speak too much to individuals about their shortcomings but I have a sharp eye and a sensitivity for these things. The early members should be the first group of people to repent and shed tears this morning. Why should it be like this? Simply because that is the only way we can remain in the love and grace of God. There is nothing else to be feared under the sun, not lack of money or lack of power or anything else. You need fear only one thing: the love of God leaving you. We want to remain in the grace of God. The return to tears is the only Principled way you can remain in God's love.

I am exactly the same. I am afraid of nothing, not poverty or hunger or any kind of persecution, except the possibility that the love of God might leave me. That is my one fear. I must cling to it until the completion of my earthly life. Nothing else will work except the straightforward fulfillment of the truth and the following of God's law.

This morning let's make a new beginning. If you haven't done well in this respect, then resolve to follow the tearful path. From today on let's make a different day and really desperately go that route, searching after God-centered tears. Who are the host and hostess of the World Mission Center in God's eyes? All kinds of people are dwelling inside, but the person who sheds tears for the sake of New York City, for the sake of God and humanity, the person who sheds tears in his own room, for his own mission, this person is the true host or hostess.

No matter how much you shed tears in secret it won't seem to be recognized, but it will become a life-stream that will not end, flowing from generation to generation. The children born to those people will be the heirs of the Kingdom of God. When you become an area of low pressure, then automatically an area of high pressure will be drawn to you. With tears you are making yourself into a low pressure system here on earth which the high pressure of God will naturally come to visit. When you meet, a hurricane will be created.

You must sometimes feel that in all of heaven and earth you are the only faithful one remaining, the only one whom God can depend upon. Then you can reassure God that you will be with Him all the way and ask Him to let you take up responsibility for the nation, this world and this cosmos. God will accept your offer. You can make a tearful declaration before heaven and earth, pledging, "I am all alone on earth so You and I are true partners, Heavenly Father. As You have been persistent in restoring the individual, family, nation, world and cosmos, I shall be just the same here on earth. As long as You will never give up, I will not give up! You must experience this heightened moment sometime, bursting into tears which are not for you but for the loneliness of God. If you never give up but persistently continue all the way to the end of your life here on earth, you will absolutely be sealed as the sons and daughters of God. God is looking for tearful sons and daughters. The true companions of God are the people with tears. Tears and tears must meet. You can pray to God' "Please send me to the valley of tears so I can conquer them!

Are you a person for whom God can shed tears?

Today is a day of resolution to live the life of tears. You have already raised your hands and pledged that to me. You know very well what level you are on and you don't need an explanation. Since you also know the truth and what direction to go, can you allow yourself to be destroyed? You are public property; in the sight of God you are no longer a private person. If you don't let yourself serve the public purpose then you are destroying yourself and you cannot let that happen.

If you become tearful over others then many others will become tearful over you. It is most important that not only other people shed tears for you, but that eventually God shed tears for you. This is the real challenge while we remain here on earth, how much our deeds and thoughts can make God cry. How can you do that? The only simple way is to be responsible for the job that even God finds difficult to fulfill. If you take it upon your shoulders and try your utmost then God's heart shall be moved, and in that case who shall ultimately become the hosts and hostesses of this world? The people who are victorious in tears shall become the hosts and hostesses. If that is not the case, the teachings that I have given are all lies.

Does what I am saying feel like truth? Whoever sheds tears for you is your truest friend. The true members of your family are the ones who can cry out for you and shed tears for your pain. If you want to be in God's family, you must be able to shed tears for God, don't you think? God will cherish the person who can really cry for Him and give his heart for Him. This person will become a close member of God's family.

Who shall be the closest friend of Jesus Christ? Whoever grabs the mission of Jesus and really cries out in sympathy with his position. By the same token, who is my closest friend in the Unification Church? The person who sheds more tears for me will indeed be my closest friend. Therefore, whoever sheds more tears for the sake of God and the True Parents will become the true owner of the Unification Church. The Unification Church is destined to penetrate the free world, the communist world and go beyond and I am the one leading the Unification Church on the rugged path. You could say that I am a very pitiful person, but God is above me, leading me. How much more difficult and miserable God's position is! I still have to take time to rest but God even has no time to sleep.

I can think of something else for a while, but God doesn't have the freedom to do that. There is only one thing in His mind 24 hours a day. You are following a God and a leader who are both miserable and if you look for relaxation and lots of fun in the Unification Church, you are mistaken. We are determined to do what no other organization or other group of people could duplicate. We have to go the path of tears as our way of life. Have you already made up your minds to go that route?

All of your suffering can be linked to God's suffering

How many of you are going door-to-door, shedding tears for your people? Have you ever thought that God cannot come to those doorsteps physically and needs you to represent Him? You must feel that you are knocking on the door as a representative of God, gathering your heart and love and everything together, trying to penetrate that door and win the hearts of the people inside. You can feel that heart of God, who has come to this door after many thousands of years preparation. God has reached that door through you but only after many thousands of years of ordeal. He didn't just come overnight.

When you open the door and the person looks at you, you may feel tears falling down your face, stopping your words. Have you ever visited your homes with that heart? Many of you may feel that you don't want to do this but you must go with tears' truth, love. You must knock on each door equipped with these three things. No matter how evil the person inside the house may be, Satan cannot claim those tears or your truth or your true heart of love. As long as Satan is incapable of doing that you will be a victor. Let those 360 homes be like your own children's homes. Go out there and stay up all night talking and look at the rising morning sun together with them. You must have the conviction in your heart that you are God's representative to them. You needn't think of visiting only during the daytime but also at midnight. If you go out there and wait to meet a certain person, staying up all night and cheerfully praying under those circumstances, then as long as you are there America will never perish.

Have you physically visited all 360 of your homes? Everyone should be able to say yes. When God ordered the Hebrews to leave Egypt by a certain hour one night, messengers were sent to tell all the people. If the messengers missed any home those people would not be able to leave on time, but who would be held responsible? The messenger. Throughout posterity, that messenger who failed to tell a particular person to leave at such a moment would be accountable for his fate.

You are in a New Age Exodus. It is possible for you to bring the people in 360 homes out of suffering but if you fail to tell these people to come out of their yoke of misery and into salvation then you as a messenger are responsible. When your legs get sore and you are really tired, you have more chance to shed tears in thinking of God's own legs hurting for many thousands of years. All of your suffering can be linked to God's own suffering. That's why suffering is precious.

Those 360 homes will almost be your resting place. They will be like your reservoir of tears. I want you to know absolutely that New York is the front line. You are like a savior to your 360 families. I am asking you to represent me and go door to door since I cannot go myself to each of those people. You have so much to talk about and so much to tell them. The media has spread all kinds of misunderstandings about me, particularly in New York City, so you have much to straighten out. You are not the only ones assigned to your particular area; God has assigned spiritual assistance there also. You have spiritual counterparts working together with you. Without fulfilling your responsibility, how can you come back and lie down and sleep at night? America is lying dead and the world is going downhill. You young people of America who have learned the truth, how can you be so complacent? How can you say that you are members of the Unification Church and that you are the sons and daughters of God? God is not resting. You must repent today.

When your head gets tired, accuse your own head, "You have been working for Satan for so long and now for the first time you are exerting yourself for the sake of God!" That's the determination to have. Go out today with the same feeling with which Jesus Christ prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. It was a most serious, heart-rending prayer that Jesus offered. From today on you are going to pray in the same seriousness for your 360 homes. You may falter at some point but because of your prayer those 360 homes will have a chance to see salvation.

If I were in your position and hadn't fulfilled my responsibility to those 360 homes I couldn't possibly lift up my face or eat and sleep. Have you done well or poorly? How can you lift up your face in the sight of God? Don't you feel these words as reality? Why should you feel repentant? By living like that you are becoming the possessors of the love of God which is big enough to share with 360 homes and more. You are becoming the hosts of the love of God and that shall bring resurrection to your 360 homes. People accuse you but that's all right. Let them persecute you. Persecution is your blessing in a way.

Somehow the Divine Principle message came to you first and you felt that you were a new person with new life. There are so many better qualified' capable people out there who are waiting to have that message touch them. All you have to do is meet them with the truth. Without doing it, how can you say you want to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven? When you go to college you have to pass examinations before getting your diploma and the same thing is true in the Unification Church. New York is the front line and unless we can fulfill right here, whom do you think will do it? The entire world is upon your shoulders. The words you hear on Sunday mornings at Belvedere will be a curse instead of a blessing if you don't live them.

This is not a joke at all. Did we make the Divine Principle tapes because we have lots of money? No, we had to borrow the money and we did it under great strain. In order to succeed right here I mobilized all the energy of the Unification Church elsewhere. In doing that I hoped for only one thing: that you should become exemplary and I could show you to the world and say' "Look what New York did."

You must use the blessings you have been given

You American people know the truth and have been given the opportunity and materials to do the job but you haven't used your blessings. If God had poured this much effort into Africa the whole continent might have been turned around by now. All kinds of miracles can happen right now if you lay the foundation. If you had laid the foundation of tears, the people in your 360 homes would be embracing you and saying that they hadn't understood before what you were doing. If your responsibility had been fulfilled then the adversaries of our Church and the negative parents would have already started to learn the truth about what we are doing. Will you do the job or not? Even if you must give up eating and sleeping? Which is more precious for your life? You must make up for the failures of the past by keeping this high standard in the future.

Once again you have heard that we must do it with tears. I have trusted you but now you are shaking my confidence. Get up early in the morning to pray because you are the messiah to 360 homes. You must pray for those people and have mercy upon them in tears. You can become a close friend to them and if they have a problem they can come to you for help. Then New York shall become our home and be dominated by the truth and love of God and He can work a tremendous dispensation through this system. New York is the worst type of evil city but that is why we made the front line right here. If we can overcome this city and turn it around the impact will be gigantic. Your shoes may wear out and your clothes be worn and soaked with sweat; your eyes will be swollen with tears as you travel about but if you are to save this city you must be single-minded and not think about anything else. Before you eat and before you sleep, think about the mission. The News World will be a very important medium for you to contact the people. That's why I asked you to sell the paper.

We will make a new beginning this morning. At least you know exactly what you are to do. How can you say it doesn't work without even trying? The Unification Church itself will receive God's judgment and punishment if New York perishes. We must tearfully go forward to fulfill the mission. God has been shedding tears and now you are participating in this glorious task of God and the True Parents. Become a co-worker with us. This is your greatest blessing. You can come up with all kinds of excuses, that you need a little bit more money or a car, but don't say it. Actually God is helping us; because Manhattan is such a concentrated city, having a huge population, traveling from one place to another is very simple.

Who of you can say, "In the next three months I am going to do the things I have never done before. I will set a new record"? Once you do that, I know that New York City shall be conquered by God's love. Do you think that can be done? If you can do it, and you know you can do it, how excited you can be to save America and save the world.

In these three months you will set the pattern for the next three years, until 1980. By then the entire world should come under the dominion of God. The destiny of the world is upon our shoulders. If we do this the world shall be revived. If we fail then the world will crumble. From God's standpoint in the dispensation, this is the front line. All the leaders should be running ahead in the forefront. If doing this means you have a problem with your family, then could you give up that family? That family will not receive any benefit by hampering you in this mission. Totally free yourself from those hindrances. The life of New York is determined by your own actions.

You can see that Eighth Avenue is the avenue of prostitution in New York City. We should do more than they do, working day and night for the sake of God. I would like to have all the Unification Church women clean up the area. Men exploit those women and victimize them. You may even learn karate or tae kwon do and even knock those men out. There a lot of things to do. Ultimately we would like to have the cooperation of New Yorkers. You know my true intention and desire. This is so serious that you should forget eating and sleeping to attend to the mission. That is my criterion.

We are going to sow the love of God with tears and by doing that New York and America will prosper and survive. Who is going to take up the responsibility? God alone? Myself alone? You are in a way sorrowful' miserable people because you are following a sorrowful, miserable God and a sorrowful, miserable teacher. You are in good company, however.

The consequences of your failure will be catastrophic because the destiny of the world hinges upon it. I want you to know that in history no one has seen such a movement. Years ago we talked about a new age but when we launch an offensive there shall be a response to it. Today is a new day; repentance and a new record are coming. Those who pledge once again that this is the beginning of a new three years, raise your hands please.

My plans for the worldwide IOWC

If we have enough core members in 1978 I will organize a global IOWC of 10,000 members. In order to transport them all we will need 30 jumbo jets. If landing each plane takes 10 minutes it would still take about five hours to accommodate all our jets , and just our coming to land will be a sensational event When the 700 member IOWC global team was in Korea we were able to bring 1.2 million people to the rally at Yoido Island. Think of how many millions of people could be awakened by 15 times those 700 members! Each country will compete to have the IOWC come to their own country because of the great benefit they will bring. When we move on the international IOWC level I really want to see each one of us going as an ambassador of God.

The young people of the world will want to join and be ambassadors of God. There will be worldwide clamor to join the IOWC. Applications will come from all the different continents and we will have to select the cream of the crop, organizing a brilliant performing arts program. When our movement is known to the world as a Peace Corps in the truest sense, it will be America's pride. If 10,000 American citizens went together to Germany the United States Ambassador there would have to take an interest. The German Foreign Minister and the U.S. Ambassador would want to discuss on the national level how to best help our IOWC, right?

Having an impact in one nation will open up many doors around the world, and the time will come soon when nations will compete for a visit by our IOWC. Your IOWC I.D. card will become very prestigious. I would also like to have uniforms designed and have IOWC members known by the uniforms they wear. We will be known to the world truly as defenders of peace.

I can see that this will start to happen from June 1979 on. You must revolutionize your thinking. All the airlines of the world will be competing among themselves to become our special chartered airline. The world will have to be interested in knowing about Reverend Moon and the Unification Church because we will be too big to overlook. Only one group will be really troubled: the communists. Already they know something is happening and they don't know how to stop it. We will even volunteer to go to a communist country and if they don't want us to preach the gospel, that's all right. We have many other things we can do; we can help a humanitarian cause or solve a scientific problem or be cultural emissaries. If they still reject us then they will be very unpopular in world opinion. I am a Korean citizen here on earth, but you are Americans and with an American passport one is able to go easily to many countries throughout the world. You could fly even to Moscow and nobody would stop you.

This is what the Unification Church will be in just four years. Think about it. You are being persecuted on the streets of New York and while this period is necessary we want to get beyond it. Shall we do it? We can mobilize people outside the Unification Church to form an IOWC but they will need to take a test; perhaps they can choose whether it will be about English, history and so forth, but the Divine Principle will be a required topic. They will devote themselves to studying every page of the Divine Principle because they will see that the Unification Church is the means for jumping into worldwide activities. If they see some hope and vision then they will be glad to help. We have our own companies, cultural groups and seminary and once people see that we are succeeding they will want to become a part of it all. Thinking people will recognize that doing this work is the quickest way to worldwide leadership. Do you have regrets about being a member of the Unification Church? The seminary graduates in particular may feel that they wasted two years. No matter what you do outside and no matter how brilliant you are, you cannot compete with God. You must see that you will all become successful upon this foundation.

It may be easy for you to imagine all this now, but 10 or 20 years ago many people followed me without seeing any result. They just trusted me absolutely. Shall we give our every effort to achieve this goal? If you are really smart you will be excited about this, so much that even at night you are wide awake thinking about it. Some people have endured even 30 years in prison for their faith, but I am asking you to give yourself up for three years just out of your desire. Is it worth doing? Will you handsome men give up three years? How about the ugly men, can you do it too? If you think you are ugly then you should throw yourself even more into the front line work as revenge for your handicap.

What will we gain by doing so? America will live. God will live. I will be liberated too. When the whole world is totally free my concern will be how to make you the happiest bunch of people. We have to liberate Mother too. Mother is trying to keep up with me but it's very difficult. Yet still she has one secret to make me surrender and slow down. When I want her to go even further she says, "You don't understand women who have given birth to 10 children. Do you really know how difficult it is to give birth to even one child?,, Then I say, "Yes, I have never given birth to even one child. You must be right, I surrender."

I want to preserve America's blessing

We are not talking about a dream or empty words; our vision is a realistic one and it is within our reach. I came as one individual and shook up this country and even New York is too small for you if your determination is as big as mine. Today is October 16. October is the month of liberation; on October 14 I was liberated from prison and October 4 is a day of heavenly liberation. We have a historic task weighing upon our shoulders.

So far you mostly notice the people who work less than you do, but don't concentrate on them. Look at the fast runners in our movement and figure out how to run one step faster. That's a cure-all for your own problems. Don't worry about who will be your husband or wife. If you are really doing your best then the best possible mate is waiting for you. By doing this one thing all other things shall be solved.

Why do I want you to run forward and accomplish this task? Because I want to be able to say that the American people did it so that God can preserve the same blessing America has had for the last 200 years. I would like to see the American people so zealous and strong with inspiration and actual accomplishment that they will tell the European and Japanese members of our Church that they can return to help their own countries. That's the way America will save face in the sight of God and the world. If America doesn't do it then I will assemble the world membership to do it, but I would most like to have it done by Americans. We will see what happens in 1978.

The restoration of the world is there waiting to be finished. It is not that difficult now and it can be done. I would like to have everything accomplished by the time you become 30 or 40. It depends upon your own efforts. When you first started your door-to-door campaign you felt, "Why should we do this? I don't think it will do any good,,, but now you realize more and more how important that campaign is. Our purpose is to educate the leadership of America, raising up God-centered people to become national leaders. Even if you wake up suddenly in the night you know where you are and what you should do. Have you ever had the experience of suddenly waking up at 3:00 a.m. and automatically springing up to go out to do your mission? If you become that kind of person then the entire spirit world will come with you. When people in the spirit world are mobilized they will worry about what you eat and wear. Your ancestors will come and alert certain people in advance that a young person will come to their house and that they should prepare a nice hot lunch or breakfast for him.

I have experienced this myself many times and if you live the same way I did, that same experience will happen to you. If that only happens to me then there is no hope for the restoration of the whole world, but that same principle works through you. That's why even if I die you can continue on because the same principle will work in your life. If you work just like I do then spirit world has to come down.

Those who are not members of the Unification Church do not know what we mean by this. This is not a threat or a menace, but is actually the truth. Your earthly life is very short but when you live your life like that here on earth then when you go to the spirit world there will be a red carpet rolled out and a royal welcome waiting for you. The shrewdest businessman could never find any better deal than this one. So far you have only seen a small vision for yourself through your own eyes, but when you see through God's eyes you take in the entire universe.

The Unification Church has a wonderful gospel and opportunity for black people who historically have been oppressed by white people. Since God does not see color this is your opportunity to lead America. No question about it. The oppressed people actually have a better chance to be accepted in the sight of God because they are always in a better environment to see God and cry God's tears. The person who normally does not cry for a foreign country only sheds tears once his country is lost. That is not necessarily bad, but if you can cry not only for your own country but for God, then you are automatically linked to Him.

If America abandons Korea, Korea's situation will not necessarily be hopeless. There is another kind of force that will come around to support the country of Korea. The free Asian peoples know they have to support Korea to ensure their own survival. Actually the destiny of the entire free world hinges upon that nation. Anyone who is sincerely concerned about a communist takeover must logically rally to the side of South Korea. God strategically positioned Korea and that country is very close to His heart. When anyone is really utilized as a tool for a higher purpose he is blessed because he is in a position to exercise a great deal of influence. The important thing is: make yourself a needed tool of God.

If you realize that if the Unification Church fails the world has no hope, that if the Unification Church fails God has no hope and you shed tears with that heart, then you will be brought right to the heart of God. We actually live the truth instead of just talking about it. Once we actualize the truth our victory will be worldwide. The more difficult the dimension and scale of your task, the more love and glory of God you can deserve.

Don't think that someone who is running and working very hard is foolish. Think instead, "That person is depriving me of greater blessing. I cannot let all the blessing go to that person. I should run faster." The wisest person runs for 24 hours a day without resting because that way no one can compete with or conquer him. Therefore, I have adopted the policy that I will run on a 24 hour basis. I am not dumb. In pursuing God's love I am asking for the most precious thing in the world, and by going after me you will reach the same goal. Do you know what attracts people to me? I make myself very attractive by crying more, working harder and going after suffering more than anyone. I am not handsome yet people like you are drawn to me. Washington Monument is a very good example. The American people never believed that I would ever succeed, but once they saw that I meant business and that people came and actually listened to me, they changed their attitude.

I want you to be miserable for the sake of God. When you cry out all the time you may look pitiful and everyone may say you are a poor, foolish Moonie, but they won't realize that 10 years from now you will become a hero in their country. Do you see that this is the case? Is it wrong? Are you going to make the 10,000 man IOWC possible? Let us promise that to God.

I want you to know that glory will come in a tearful way and in tears you will meet God. You will truly be united with God and He will never leave you. His love will stay with you forever. Today let us return to tears. Please repeat after me, "Let us return to tears. In tears we see the love of God." God bless you. Let us pray.

Core of Unification

Sun Myung Moon
October 9, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

When you analyze the basic principles of God's method for restoration, you can see that the Unification Church is absolutely necessary for God's dispensation. If there were no philosophy of unification we would have to conclude that there is no God. The Unification Church emerged to fulfill that goal of unification and we are proof that God exists. God wants to manifest His love through our movement. How can we manifest the love of God? What is the central point where that love can be manifested? Is it the world or a nation like America or Korea? True parents are a fulfillment on one level, but where should the most fundamental center of God's love be?

Certainly God would dwell with an individual who has no contradiction between his mind and body, but what is the possibility that the mind and body can become one, and when and where will that happen? If man had not fallen then no contradiction would exist; man must return to that state of sinlessness before the fall and liquidate all the contradictions within himself.

If the mind and body can welcome each other and try to move toward each other then they can be in harmony, but if they move in opposite directions then they cannot have unity. Imagine the body trying to go in the same direction as the mind and even overtake it. That would be the most desirable situation.

If God is all powerful, why doesn't He make the body go ahead of the mind? I have experienced the harshest life in a prison labor camp and I found that actually the greatest suffering is not found in prison but in the conflict between mind and body. Sinful man always regrets the consequences of his body struggling against his mind.

I ultimately came to the conclusion that my enemy is not the world or even the communists but my own body. Your worst enemy is your body. Do you believe it? I established one very firm principle for myself, that I must conquer myself before having dominion over anything else. Each of you is also committed to a ruthless battle of subjugating your own body. Your job is to have your body surrender to your mind and then bring it in the same direction. That is why a religious life is the pursuit of conquering your body.

If you have not conquered your own body then you haven't reached the standard yet. Religion teaches the importance of a life of penance; when your body wants to rest then you should wake up and pray. Your body wants to eat delicious meals but religion teaches the value of fasting. What the body wants the mind rejects.

What is gained by living that way? By giving up your body you can receive the entire universe, so it's a very good deal in a way. By giving up a little bit of your flesh you can gain the entire universe. This is absolutely true.

Why is it that you cannot feel the love of God all the time? Your body is the barrier preventing the love of God from reaching you. God's love is shining forth but your body is blocking it, so by sacrificing your body and liquidating the barrier the shining love of God can freely reach you. Once this happens nothing will be in your way and the total unity between God and man and mind and body can become a living reality. Once you can receive God's love, God will certainly dwell with you. God needs true love and cannot leave it once He has found it. Do you really understand this now?

What you ultimately need the most is the love of God. Do you know how beautiful and how powerful the love of God is? In this world men and women have romances and say they could die for love of each other, but suppose they were to fall in love with God first. That's the key. I searched and found how that love of God can be reached. I not only found the answer but have experienced how the love of God can reach man. With the love of God the mind and body can unite in total oneness.

The love of God needs an object in order to be manifest and man is that object. When will this become reality? Religions have been teaching that the end of the world will occur when one central figure comes, or in Christian terms the Lord of the Second Advent. The love of God will be seen where the Messiah and his bride meet for the heavenly wedding ceremony. Is that place a horrible scene of judgment or a scene of cosmic spring and the fulfillment of love? God works logically and through your own mind you know that the first heavenly family will bring the cosmic spring.

How much do you need a Messiah?

Who is the Messiah? In what capacity is he coming? It is incredibly difficult to conquer the barrier and bring your separated mind and body into oneness so the Messiah comes as a model or example of how to go directly to God. He is not only a prototype of a true individual, but also of how to form a heavenly family. Eventually the Messiah will establish a tribe, nation and world, which can be approved by heaven.

The Messiah sets the standard of perfection from the individual all the way up to the cosmic levels. In addition, the Messiah lifts himself above satanic accusation. As he starts his journey from the very bottom of hell straight up to God, Satan cannot accuse or destroy him.

The Messiah lays the highway from the highest possible heaven all the way down to the bottom of hell so that anyone who finds the highway can go directly to that goal. It is impossible for anyone else to lay that highway from the bottom of hell all the way up to the love of God. It could take you millions of years and still you would not get there.

The Messiah comes with shoulders so broad that the entire world can hang onto him and go the entire journey. If a trivial little fly hangs onto the tail of a galloping white horse, when the horse reaches the kingdom that little fly reaches the kingdom at the same time. God devised that method because He knows that everyone needs some help. No one is capable of coming to God all by themselves so throughout history God promised to send the ultimate one who will come to lead mankind into salvation. This is all within logic and reason. Is it convincing to you? Do you need a Messiah? What about everyone else in the world?

How much do you need a Messiah? As much as you need your own wife or husband? As much as your family, parents or country? This world is waiting for the ultimate one who can boldly announce, ''You must love me most of all.,, Only one man has ever done that and his name is Jesus Christ. Without having the authority to proclaim those words Jesus could not have been the Messiah.

Jesus also claimed to be the only begotten son of God, meaning that he was the recipient of the first love of God and the only one who could disseminate it to the world. Did Jesus have the qualification to be the Messiah if he were the only begotten son of God? In addition to all this Jesus called himself the bridegroom and mankind his bride. As the true son of God, Jesus intended to meet his bride and create the first heavenly family on earth.

The Messiah will first reconcile the body and mind

The kingdom is seen first in the family' not in the nation or the world. The family is the building block and it starts with a husband and wife. Our strong point is that we teach the ideal of the heavenly four positions: God, man and woman and heavenly children. This is the completion of God's ideal' the completion of the circuit for the expression of His love. By organizing this heavenly four units we create our relationship with the love of God. The heavenly four positions are the completion of the ideal of creation, meaning that there the perfection of love can be consummated. Once that is formed the expansion of the heavenly kingdom is only a matter of time. All that has to be done is to duplicate and expand these four positions.

When the Lord of the Second Advent comes what will he do? What is the mission and responsibility of the second Messiah? Jesus Christ came to realize that ideal but it was not physically consume mated in his own time. Will that mission be left undone a second time? Is it the Messiah's mission to give food to the hungry? No, it is to reconcile your body and mind and ignite you with the fire of God's love. That's the job of the Messiah. If he can ignite the love of God in your heart so that your body and mind can become one then he has done his job. If he cannot do that then building the Kingdom of Heaven is impossible. The Messiah will reconcile the body and mind and liquidate all the contradictory elements by subjugating the body. After the mind and body are united you can follow his pattern and create a family' tribe' nation and world and ultimately the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. If that is indeed possible' the world will see salvation. If God is really God and if His love is really burning then that must all take place here on earth.

What else does God really need from man? God has lots of love within Himself so why should He need more? Is He greedy? I am a man so I have love in my heart and in my body, but can I say that I don't need any more love, that I have enough love to be happy? It is a profound truth that love will never become real love until it finds an object.

If we are like that then what about God? Does that principle work the same with God as with us? No matter how almighty God might be' His prodigious love will never be activated until He finds an object for give and take. An object ignites love. Who can be the object of God's love? A monkey? Is anything else besides man qualified or entitled to be an object of God? Since God is universal should He love just a trivial chunk of flesh, or is He longing to deal with the universal kind of mind? Is the mind or body God's real object?

Your mind is so big that you can even trap God inside. Your mind always feels that it can swallow the entire world, right? We each have the qualification to be an object of God because we each have a mind so big that God can certainly deal with it. When God loves you will He exclaim at how dirty you are after living in the satanic world and then push you aside? Or will God fervently embrace you and burn away your iniquities in trying to give you total love? Is God's love conditional and partial or total and unreserved?

When the total love of God reaches you, your every cell will be filled and you won't want anything further. You will feel totally intoxicated in that state and want its goodness to never end. That is the real world in which we are to live and all of you are supposed to become hosts of that love. Don't you want to sample that world now? I came to lead you into that world, but how do you know that I am not a swindler? Perhaps I am deluding you with this beautiful idea, trying to enslave you for my own purposes.

How do you know this is not so? Your answer could be simply that it doesn't really matter whether I am a swindler because no better solution has been offered. I am like the plus pole and I am trying to ignite this cold and sleepy world as a minus. Plus and minus should instantly spark when they are connected, but this world has become so numb that all conductivity has been lost. It is taking a lot of effort on my part to wake you up so that the spark will jump between us.

If what I am saying is the truth then there is no other way you can be. What we are demonstrating here is a tremendous power that has never been seen in history. In being here you are really denying your body and in a way denying your family. You don't care what your family says or what society says; you have just given yourself up but without this great energy and power flowing between us you would not do it. You would not do it unless there was a great hope burning in your hearts. Isn't that true?

A peculiar situation is emerging, with parents trying to kidnap their own children. Never in history has this happened. Sometimes parents feel that they were successful because they brought their children home, but those children are not really with their parents because their minds are not there. As soon as they can they come right back here. Think of the spiritual power and energy which could inspire that.

Once you experience the spring, you cannot long for the winter. Because the cosmic spring is dawning and the central point of it is the Unification Church, you cannot help but want to be part of it. The greatest event of all is happening right here in this place. Do you want to commit yourself to be part of it? Why? The love of God is our ultimate goal, the love which is powerful enough to encompass the past, present and future. Everything you can think of comes within the love of God. When you can possess God's love you can possess the entire universe.

How can we be so certain that God is good?

We can partake of the world with our five senses, and this is true in the spirit world as well. We are pursuing the world of goodness, trying to see good things, hear good things, and say good things. We are trying to leave the world of evil behind and completely live in the world of goodness. It is very true that the external world is divided into two worlds and we can witness one world of goodness and one world of evil side by side. That same phenomenon exists internally in the division between mind and body.

If man was originally created in this state of conflict then God must be an imperfect and evil God. People who are only looking at the reality of the world can easily come to the conclusion that no such thing as God exists, but if there is no God of goodness then the beautiful things we have been talking about are all meaningless.

Considering man's imperfect and sinful state today, it is only academic to discuss how he can advance to the state of perfection and absolute goodness because it is virtually impossible. No such thing could come about. If there is no God then talking about the ideal world of love and unification is meaningless. There is no substance to it if there is no God. Even knowing this, however, our minds are ceaselessly pursuing the higher state of perfection, beauty and the ideal.

We cannot deny that our minds are searching after eternal value or eternal and permanent existence. The discussions of philosophers and religious people throughout history have focused upon the best method of fulfilling man's innate desire for perfection.

Many philosophers started out studying perfection, trying to anticipate what the ideal world would be like. As a result, philosophers like Hegel came up with the dialectical theory. Basically this theory outlines how everything advances to a higher state through conflict and struggle with something else. That is fiction. It is impossible for two opposing sides to unite together and create the ideal. It is logically impossible to achieve the ideal state by the method of struggle and confrontation.

Even if we must create a substitute, man-made God, we definitely cannot find any kind of solution for this world without a God of goodness. Again, for expediency, let's say we come up with a man-made God. If the God that we create is not a true one then certainly it will be impossible to reach the ultimate destination of perfection. We can finally conclude that there must be God because without Him nothing makes sense. If there is a real, true God then we can devise the right solution.

Now you know why philosophers have desperately searched to understand this one God. Religious people have also been searching after God, making all kinds of sacrifices for the purpose of finding Him, but they too have come to a point where they cannot be sure. Everything is hazy at the moment.

Let us think in another direction. Is it only man who needs God or does God need man also? If God does not need man then we should give up our search because we will never meet that God. Only through the mutual efforts of God and man can we hope to meet God. If God couldn't care less about man then there is no hope, but in reality God also needs man. This is another important truth.

The situation of both God and man is tragic because their common purpose has not been fulfilled

What kind of God is He, and why does He approach man? We definitely need God and God definitely needs man so there must be a common goal or purpose where we can meet; otherwise there would be no union. The question of God's existence is one thing, but more important is knowing the purpose of the relationship between God and man. We use money and knowledge and experience to survive and improve our situation, but do you think God needs those things from man? No. There must be some common purpose for which God needs man and man needs God, but somehow this common purpose has not been fulfilled. That is why mankind's situation and God's situation are both tragic.

We cannot deny that there is a conflict between man's body and mind which reveals that there must be something wrong in men's hearts. Where can a remedy be found? What is that common goal between God and man through which we can solve this question? Originally there must have been a common dwelling place for man and God but somehow man has separated himself from it and lost his connection with God in the process.

Concluding that there is a perfect God and realizing the imperfect state of man today we must come to one logical conclusion: Man is the one who is out of order, not God. Man deviated from his original state and is thus prevented from reaching perfection.

This is how we can reconcile the perfection of God with the imperfection of man. This knowledge of the fall of man is very precious because not only can we realize the existence and perfection of God, but at the same time we can explain the imperfection and contradiction of man. The struggles you experience because of contradictions within yourselves are a result of the fall , yet at the same time God lives in a different state, the perfected state. We can logically justify the existence of perfected God and sinful man by knowing about the fall of man. It was from that point that two worlds came into being instead of one.

With this concept of the fall we can readily understand how there could be both a world of goodness and a world of evil struggling with each other. The world of goodness is governed by God and the world of evil is the result of the fall. We cannot accept the premise of atheists that there is no God due to the imperfection of man. We know the Principle. After knowing this we can recognize how the God of perfection has been making efforts throughout history to restore the corrupted world into goodness. Religion is one evidence of the effort of God.

What is the purpose of religion? Simply speaking, religion strives to bring this world closer to God; it is God's tool to communicate with this imperfect world and raise up good men. What is goodness? Anything that attempts to bring God and man into unity is good. Is hard work goodness or is eloquent speech, fasting or sleeping on nails goodness? People are very much in the dark about the definition of goodness.

Good springs from love. At the bottom line of every religion love can be seen as the source because it is the common purpose shared by God and man. Love is the ultimate goal of God's search for men of goodness. Man is searching after God for the same reason. Religion has been striving for unity between God and man by stressing the common purpose of love.

Why should sacrifice be the highest form of love's fulfillment?

Christianity has been preaching the love of God for many years and the other prominent religions in history also have their foundations in love. For example, Buddhism preaches a life of mercy and benevolence, which is actually love. Any legitimate religion has to be based on love.

All religions emphasize self-denial and sacrifice in order to achieve that love. Without exception sacrifice is necessary for you to form an intimate relationship with God. Why should sacrifice be the highest form of love's fulfillment? There are many, many answers but let us analyze this ourselves.

You have a mind and body, and of the two which one is less evil? The body is a real rascal and doesn't have any sense of self-giving or humility. We have to ruthlessly subjugate our bodies because in weakening the body there is a greater opportunity for the mind and body to become one. Then the body can listen to the mind.

Meekness, humility and sacrifice are the virtues emphasized by religion and by applying them the body will be forced to unite with the mind. Who is actually pursuing such a goal through religion, man or God? God has been leading mankind toward that way of life, but God's effort will be in vain unless man responds to it. A mutual effort is necessary if we are to reach the ultimate goal.

Why do we all need religion in our lives? Without going through the path of religion there is no way to reconcile the mind and body, no hope that some day you will even get close to God. The contradictions in man cannot be resolved without the process of religion. We can say that religion is an absolute necessity for man, not an ornament to pick up on a whim. Religion will be needed until the contradiction within man is completely liquidated and he is united with God in their original common purpose. Then the purpose of religion will be consummated and it will no longer be needed.

All of this brings us to the logical conclusion that religion will not be needed by man for eternity, but will be consummated by the emergence of man in perfection. It is logical that on our journey we start out from the very bottom of the fallen state. The journey will lead us into the ultimate goal of total and perfected union with God.

Do you think man's best thinking and best efforts could devise the way to finally build the ideal world? That is absolutely impossible. Man's only alternative today is atheistic communism, which claims the ideal world can be built without God. Because communism has only material things as its objective it has no foundation and will be blown around like a leaf in a storm. That ideology places value only in the material world, but do you think that our bodies are more perfected than our minds? The body is limited by circumstances but the mind does not have limitations. We conclude that this world can find hope only through a search after God in religion, in the faith that some day the union of men and God can be accomplished. As one man I have probably given the most of myself in the search for the answer to this question, the one who suffered most in order to win a probable solution. This is a total concept.

Actually what you and I need most is not God Himself but God's love. If there is a God then it is inevitable that a new religious movement will come forth which will transcend national and racial barriers, uniting all people together to pursue one common goal: unity with God's love. Clearly such a religious movement is necessary. The love of God embraces all races equally. God doesn't express love according to whether you are white, black or yellow. If God's ideal and love were limited to only one or two races then He would truly be an imperfect God. The ultimate religion must transcend national and racial barriers so from this standpoint let's analyze existing religions.

Religions are God's tools and they should be universal

True salvation springs from union with the love of God, which manifests everywhere in a fair and justified manner. Which race you belong to makes no difference at all. It cannot be said that the love of God works only in the Western hemisphere; it shines throughout the earth. Any religion which proclaims the segregation of the races is a false religion. A new religion is needed which embraces all men equally. For instance, Jews and Christians should not feel that they are the only people who deserve the love of God. They must feel instead that they are merely servants who must bring the love of God to all humanity.

Do you think God wants the whole world to be Jewish, or should Judaism be simply a tool of God? Do you think that God could limit Himself to the stuffy world of today's Christianity, or should Christianity become a tool of God? The love of God is supreme and encompasses the highest possible level. Everything is part of it and everything is surrounded by it. The love of God can encompass all human existence.

Religions are only meant to be tools of God and therefore they should be universal and intermingling. Any religion which rejects such principles cannot be called a true religion. Measured by this standard, are all today, s conventional Christians perfected? In their interpretation of the Bible only Christians will be lifted up in the air to meet the Lord when he comes on the day of judgment. Basically they are unconcerned about the rest of the world and believe that everyone else will go to hell. Is that attitude right? If what they believe is the case then God is really a cruel God with an imperfect ideal.

A religion which can clarify God's intentions is absolutely necessary. A revolutionary concept must come to Christianity and enable it to meet the criteria of perfection that God originally intended. That religion is the Unification Church.

What is the Unification Church supposed to do? First of all, make one world and elevate it into a world of God. Encouraging self-centered individualism is Satan's final strategy to demolish this world and this nation and we must destroy this satanic concept. What am I trying to contribute to you? You have never really tasted the true love of parents or of husband and wife and brothers and sisters. I am trying to ignite in you spiritually the ecstatic joy of God's love so that it will not be just a concept to you but be a presence in your daily life.

One phenomenon sets the Unification Church apart. Our members often meet me in dreams or visions and in all kinds of spiritual circumstances. The power of spiritual experience already exists and embraces each one of you every day. Those of you who have such experiences, raise your hands. In the mundane world those things may seem abnormal and certainly they have never been seen in any other religion in the past. Physically I am very far from our missionaries all over the world but I am just as close to them as I am to you. This is a most vivid testimony to the significance of our movement.

I want you to know that tremendous sacrifice has been paid in order to come to this level today. Many nations have collapsed and many millions of people have died for this. Since it comes to you without too much effort you don't realize its value and you think that this is common everywhere. It certainly is not.

We are a religion of experience and feeling because God is not a conceptual God to us. He is the master of our daily lives. As soon as you come into this atmosphere you immediately become a recipient of new spiritual power and presence, but for people outside our Church it is an unfamiliar and perplexing thing to grasp.

Are you really thankful to God?

We must be thankful to God every day. Even if the world came against you and your life was abruptly ended, would you still be grateful to God? You can think of Satan as God's tool in a way, a means of finding out whether your gratitude is real or not. I will never tell you to just be thankful to God and let me take care of Satan for you. Instead I will push you out into the corrupt and evil world. If you are really thankful then my mandate to you is to go liberate the world and come back. You will pass the test by remaining loyal, steadfast and thankful under any circumstances or experience. If you can do that then Satan has no power over you and eventually he must issue you a certificate saying that indeed you are a child of God. As an archangel, Satan must be the one to testify to God whether or not you are God's child. You have to be superior to Satan to receive that testimony.

It is inevitable that all good religions in history receive persecution. Persecution is almost an indispensable ingredient in growing spiritually. Would you say I have received persecution or not? All of America has gotten up in arms over me. All that opposition is like a wave washing over me, with all kinds of beautiful titles being given to me, like ''brainwasher", or "demagogue" and even ''Hitler.,, My response is just to smile at all of this because after everything is settled, who will be the winner? I am the winner because the truth is our powerful ally. In the San Francisco legal case the lower courts issued conservatorships and the papers all wrote about the brainwashing charges. Then after the higher court examined the entire situation they said that the Unification Church hadn't done anything wrong and that we had rights which were protected by the United States Constitution. The press did not report this decision too widely but the people who oppose us really received a setback. They will not be foolish enough to try this tactic against us again.

This is the right time for us to really show America who I am and what the Unification Church is all about; we are sending the one-hour ''Reverend Moon in America,, program to television stations in all fifty states and even throughout South America. Now the book written by Dr. Sontag has come out which will tell the world what we are honestly trying to do. When the truth comes out America should have the courage to apologize to me.

Our antagonists will know in their hearts that they were wrong and eventually they will have to respect me for the way in which I dealt with the negativity; I never sought revenge but simply smiled and let God take care of it. That's how we will win because we are not fighting on their level. Since you too have that knowledge and commitment I willingly push ahead without any hesitation. Having this dignity and strength, there is nothing under the sun we cannot do.

Do you want to know the secret for meeting God in your daily life?

In order to reach the love of God in your daily life the most essential thing is knowing how to conquer your body. This was my foremost task in searching for the truth. The body has three fundamental desires. First, the body gets hungry and looks for food. How could I conquer that desire of my body? I had to establish that I love God more than my body loves food when it gets hungry. By doing that yourself you can set a superior standard and demonstrate how your love of God is stronger than your body's love of food. Jesus also conquered that particular desire and went through a forty-day fast. Many prophets and saints in history emphasized fasting in their life of faith.

Hunger is the worst kind of suffering and if you can forget your desperate hunger in your search after God you have made a very precious statement. Who among you has done a seven-day fast? There are quite a few of you. Think back on your own experience; when the seventh day arrived were you watching the clock for the moment you could eat again, or did you think, ''God, I have tasted hunger now, but I love You more than I love food. I want to go after You instead of going after food.,, Have you prayed in such a way at that moment? Have you been longing for God more than for food? That is the real test and that is the way you should think when you fast. Until I was thirty there was no day that I was not hungry because I deliberately went without food in order to test myself. At that time I was so hungry that if someone was eating nearby my mouth hung open and saliva drooled out even without my being aware of it. When it gets hungry enough, the body just automatically reacts that way. You can't say you have overcome your body until you have conquered desperate hunger by the power of your love of God.

The second fundamental urge is for sleep. Can you demonstrate that your love of God is stronger than your body's desire for sleep? The second test is passed when in thinking of God He is so real and relevant that your intense love of God conquers your urgent desire to sleep. Throughout history all the people who seriously searched for God led ascetic lives and always had to fight their desire to sleep. They would do all kinds of things' even stabbing themselves and cutting their own flesh just to keep awake. Have you ever heard about this? For seven years I never slept more than two hours a day. This morning I arrived at 5 a.m. after traveling all night. My whole life has been training for living like that.

You need the love of God don't you? You have to win His love and show that your love is more intense than anything else. When you are sleepy, your passionate love of God should be stronger than your craving for sleep. You have experienced feeling ready to collapse from exhaustion, but your love of God must enable you to conquer such moments. It is most difficult to go beyond the level of hunger and sleepiness for the love of God. Jesus had to conquer all those bodily desires. The Bible said that he fasted for forty days and furthermore, we can well imagine that his life was a struggle both day and night. Jesus asked his closest disciples to stay awake and watch with him while he prayed desperately in the Garden of Gethsemane, but what happened to the disciples? They fell asleep. They could not win over sleep and Jesus told them that though their minds were willing their flesh was weak.

This is not some hazy spiritual concept. You must overcome precisely these things in your life. I would not speak this way to you unless I had tested out everything in my own life.

The third desire you must conquer is the urge for physical love. The worst kind of temptation for religious people always comes in the form of sex. When men pray, Satan creeps into their minds in the form of a beautiful woman. Men and women have instinctive sexual desire, but your intense love for God should be stronger than that desire for carnal love. In this respect American young people have a great deal to overcome. The permissiveness in America has left the moral life of Americans looking like a dirty rag.

Now you understand why the major religions throughout history have always emphasized the value of celibacy. Your body is your worst enemy and it has three formidable weapons: the desire for food, the desire for sleep and the desire for physical love. I have fought the same battle that you are engaged in but you have no idea how many tears I have shed to win over these temptations.

Since no one could overcome the ordeals I have endured, I found an alternative way

You know we all need the love of God, but how will you pay back your own debts in these three areas? If you spent dozens of years being tortured in prison you still could not repay God. When you were hearing about the beauty and sweetness of God's love all of you were happy and gay' but in hearing these things you have hit a stone wall. How will you break through? No one else can pay your debts. For many years I searched for some alternative way for mankind to reach the ultimate goal without having to go through the ordeals I have endured. No one is capable of passing such impossible tests.

Without a doubt the lives you lived before joining the Unification Church were self-centered. Before you knew about God you were the central point of your lives, right? The quickest way to become qualified citizens of the Kingdom of God is to revolutionize yourselves totally, changing your concept of your purpose of life from selfish happiness to the happiness of God and humanity.

We can turn humanity's concept of existing here on earth completely upside down. Do you deeply feel that you were not born for yourself but for the sake of God and humanity? If you do not eat food for your own contentment but for the sake of God and humanity then it can be justified. You should think of sleeping as preparation for you to do even more for God's work the next day. Taking rest with that attitude cannot be called a sin because it is for the sake of God and humanity. Can you say that your desire to love God and humanity is as great as your desire to have love personally? This is the way your life can be turned totally upside down. Previously you did things to have fun and to become someone of distinction.

When you revolutionize your purpose of life then nothing is for yourself any more. If you have enough food for a good meal then you can think that you will do twice as much as you can when you are hungry. When you have new vitality after resting for a few hours at night then you can say, ''God, let me go out and work.,, Instead of pursuing the old physical gratifications you can use your energy for the sake of God and humanity. That's the way we live.

That is the only alternative I could find. Otherwise you have no qualification to eat and sleep and love. When you are very hungry and find a good meal but your concept still focuses on God and humanity, your eating is not a sin. That's the way man was to have lived if there had been no fall. Eating is not a sin in that case, right? Now you know the heavenly alternative and you know how you can be justified in eating, sleeping and loving.

In the world as it is now each person stands in the center as an individual, surrounded by his family, nation, world and the cosmos. Each person has to break through every barrier which limits himself. This world is the realm of the fall and you must come out of it in order to make another world, not with yourself in the center but with God in the center, surrounded by His own children.

What actually happens in this process? After you conquer yourself you meet another barrier and must form a God-centered family in order to break through. Then you will meet another barrier on the national level and after breaking through on that level you must build another world. As much as you are able to break through in the satanic world is what you are actually building of your own new world. This world is the consequence of the fall so we have to separate ourselves from the ways of this world and create a new world, becoming new people in a new way of life.

You must have been thinking about these things but have you ever solemnly decided that you were going to break through and liberate yourself from this world and its ways? This is exactly what I had to do. My situation is no different. I decided to conquer myself and my surroundings. I had to win on the family level and also in my society and nation of Korea. Now I have reached the barrier of the world and cosmos. The Washington Monument Rally was the spectacular culmination of what I have done spiritually on the worldwide level. That is the way I have progressed through this way of life.

The degree to which you can invest your utmost is the degree you can receive God's love

Our movement has emerged on the worldwide stage. There is always resistance each time we try to break through to a new level because Satan absolutely does not want to see the heavenly world come into being. Of course he wants to prevent that from happening because it means the destruction of his influence and personal dominion. Satan's world has to come against you so naturally there will be persecution. Even though you are only an individual working on the individual level of restoration, the entire nation and the world will come against you. Nevertheless we must overcome this situation. When the entire world comes against us it gives us a better opportunity to win over the world at one stroke. The harsher the rejection and persecution on the worldwide level the faster our day will come.

Even as a member of the Unification Church you will not actually have to go through exactly what I went through. You don't have to start from the very bottom. By joining my crusade in its final stage, by overcoming the final barrier together with me you have already won the entire world. You don't have to go through the whole process. That is your advantage.

Your 5% is to go the road of persecution and you must welcome it. You will be persecuted by all kinds of people on all kinds of levels. You must face and conquer all of peoples, scornful attitudes, but your struggle with persecution is never in vain. We are citizens of a different world. Until you are given the blessing you should have no concept of personal ownership, thinking that you own this or that. Until you reach this state you are even wearing your clothes for the sake of mankind, clothes which belong to mankind and which you have borrowed. After the blessing God will bestow upon you the right of stewardship. You have the wrong idea if you think of having some special savings account for your own enjoyment. Your fund raising is not for the purpose of paying bills for the Church, but for the purpose of restoring your own dominion over creation. You can't think that you personally deserve some of the money you earn. Compared to the rest of the people you are going to eat less, sleep less and work harder. If you want to give yourself totally then you understand the right attitude.

Are you losing by doing this? No, what you are actually doing is investing yourself to the utmost so that you can receive the love of God to an equal degree. You are gaining something far greater than anyone else can ever imagine and because of that you can be grateful and persevere, no matter what degree of suffering you encounter. Every member must take part in fund raising and witnessing. Unless you walk up the first and second floors you simply cannot go to the third floor. Without going this course you are not entitled to the blessing.

We know this through the Divine Principle

Because of the fall of man we lost the love of God, love of man and all the things of creation. Man himself became the tool of Satan. That is all the result of the fall of man. We will restore all these one by one. First all things of creation must be restored to God. Then fallen man must become godly man. Finally the love of God can be consummated and man can receive the love of God in blessing. Unless you willingly go this route you can only be seen as a thief who is trying to sneak into the kingdom. You have to submit your ID card as you come into the palace. You cannot sneak over the fence. The road of restoration is the real indemnity. You must go this route and then the love of God will meet you at the stage of perfection.

Do you have confidence that you can be blessed? Have your mind and body become one, totally free from satanic accusation? Are you entitled to have a godly woman as your wife? Whether you are a man or a woman, no one is entitled to say he has done everything and paid everything back. No one is able to say they are perfect and worthy of the blessing. I want you to be humble. God will have mercy upon you when you realize your true situation and then in His love put you together in heavenly matrimony. Only then do you have the right to accept the blessing.

I know how the love of God feels and I want you to experience it too

All throughout history people were in darkness with no one to guide the way, but now everything has been made clear. This is a magnificent blessing in itself. Now we not only see clearly the broad daylight, we can live it every day and make our way step by step to this goal. I want you to realize how precious it is that you are sitting right here. Do you feel that?

Do you ever get frustrated and wonder how long you may be selling newspapers, every morning, rain or shine? You may think you have been reduced to being a paper boy in the Unification Church. Many boys make a living delivering papers. You are not doing it for your own survival, however, but for the sake of God and humanity. We should be working harder with the newspapers than anyone who is selling for themselves. Are you working on that level? Have you become desperate for the fulfillment of the mission? You may have a hole in your shoe and wear ragged clothes and you may be drenched with sweat, but even under those circumstances you should be thanking God. Both Satan and God can respect that kind of man.

No word of complaint can be spoken. To come plain is the fastest way to bring yourself down into hell; Satan's most effective tool is seen in complaints. I have many reasons to complain if I choose to do so. This morning I could have complained to God that He was unreasonable to ask me to speak to you after I traveled all night without resting, but God would insist' ''You go and speak to them. They would love to see you.'' Under those circumstances should I feel justified in speaking only thirty minutes, and only come under those conditions? Complaint has never even entered my mind because I am too busy fulfilling my mission. No matter how long you live this is a short life. I have so much to finish in my short life and every second counts. No one else can do my job and I cannot waste any time.

You are committed to a formidable responsibility. Do you think this all sounds like a big lie, or is it really the truth? Then shall we live it or not? I chose the same route as you say you want to follow and I have come to that goal. Was I destroyed or am I succeeding? Now I have come to the point where I don't have to worry about my own needs because I know God is concerned about me. God provides food and looks after me. I have seen such things happen.

I know precisely how the love of God feels and I want you to experience it too. Don't fear death; it is nothing. I gave up my life a long time ago and for the sake of this mission I am ready to go anywhere at any time. I have no attachment to this world. The only reason I want to live a long time is because of my mission. Sometimes I think of what would happen to the work of God and to our movement if I suddenly disappeared, but that is my only real worry.

I want to leave just one tradition when everything is over, that I pursued the love of God and was a man of the love of God. When you go to spins world that love is the only asset you will have. That's the only thing you can take with you to the spins world. When you possess the love of God you can do all things, and on behalf of God you can be given ownership of all things. Only in the love of God could it be justified.

If you can't get to the goal on your own then Satan will accuse

I have laid the highway and even created the automobile to drive to the goal, but it is up to you to get the fuel and drive there. You must fulfill your own responsibility because I can't do everything. Once you get started can you drive just anywhere? You have to follow the highway I have set up, but you do have the freedom to go as fast as you like.

Do you need my supervision or will you do it on your own? If I have to supervise and inspect you then Satan will accuse you of not getting to the goal by yourself. When I was going through my mission I told God to not even supervise me but let me go on my own. You are witnessing and selling the paper without my supervision but can you really do it? I won't supervise but I will wait and see the results.

If you really know the truth then I'm really not needed here in America. I want to get a walking stick and a big trunk and go all over the world. Do you think I need a little vacation and a chance to enjoy nature? Would you permit me to do that? Now I have done my job and you know precisely what you need to do.

The love of God is yours, not mine, but you must win that love from God. You must mature on your own. Once you receive the blessing and become husband and wife would you want me to supervise you? You don't need me to help you do your mission either. Until you find that ultimate love you do need me, however, and once you have found that love you are on your own. Then you will pull yourself.

Until you come to that level the secret for you to meet me very intimately is to pursue your mission with a fervent longing for God and the True Parents. When you shed tears for your mission the entire spirit world will surround you and I will appear to you spiritually. You can take advantage of that principle of the universe. If you are longing for me so much that you forget to eat or sleep then our encounter will go beyond any kind of physical sensation. The spirit world will be opened up and you will find yourself there with me.

Adam and Eve were supposed to be the parents of all mankind but that position was lost; once the position of True Parents is restored it should embrace everybody. Therefore, in spirit world everyone logically should become one family under that one title. True Parents should become very intimate to everyone of you yet it doesn't make any difference how many miles apart we are. You have the secret way to be close to me and I can be with you all the time once our hearts are united.

There can be real unity between you and me when my heart can become your heart. If you want to find out if this is true, just try it out. How can you find such heart? When you are suffering and given persecution and when you are treated most miserably. When your heart is really suffering then you will know the very heart of my own suffering. That's the way our hearts can be linked and that's the way you can instantly elevate yourself to a higher level spiritually.

Do you think someone can be close to me if they go everywhere with me every day? No, the person who is closest to the True Parents is the one who sheds tears for his mission, passionately involving himself every day, regardless of how scornfully he is treated by the world. That person is closest to me in the real sense. You have to go to the bottom of the world to set the condition of victory there and then come back with the record of victory. You youth of America should not violate the heavenly law. Your precious youth should remain pure and clean and always be one of dedication.

Today's message is Core of Unification. Where is the core of unification? It is found in the love of God. You must be proven victorious in the satanic world by setting the condition of uniting mind and body. Then you will go up to the other stages of family, tribe, nation and world. When you are victorious on all levels you can come to the final and complete union with God and you will find your ultimate home of peace, joy, satisfaction and tranquillity.

It is not easy to be victorious in love but shall we do it? Even though you may not have achieved that goal you know that the possibility of achieving it exists. You each may think of me in different ways but your heart toward the True Parents is the same. Go ahead and rub against each other; your friction will generate the heat, which will melt all of you into oneness.

Suffering is a privilege when you are searching after the love of God. You must never think you suffer for my sake; it is all for yourself. How can you complain if you are working for yourself? If you want to complain you must complain about yourself. If you do more than the Unification Church and more than me then you might have the right to complain about a few things. I found out a long time ago that nothing can be gained by complaining so I have never complained, even when God was very cruel to me. I have always been thankful because if God was cruel it was actually a manifestation of His love. God tested me in an extraordinary way, wanting me to pass the test so He could give a special, extraordinary love.

This is the same reason that I push you out to hard work and suffering. You must win over hardship in order to become a recipient of the ultimate love of God. No one can complain about you because you will be entitled to that love.

Sometimes you may feel that your situation ten years ago and ten years from now won't be any different, but I want you to know that even though physically speaking you may remain on the same level, spiritually speaking you will be living in an entirely new world. That's our pride and heritage. Whether it is raining or storming outside doesn't make any difference. You just cannot let yourself relax. You never know when you will die and before you die you must know the love of God. No one can guarantee that you will live a long life. Therefore, you must even live as though today were your final day. When you take a final examination in school what would you do the night before? You would concentrate all night long. You should be even more desperate than that for the heavenly purpose.

You cannot misuse this opportunity. ... Can you commit yourselves to doing it? Thank you. unmistakable truth and we must take it seriously. Let us pray.

The Ones Who Can Receive God's Love

Sun Myung Moon
October 1, 1977
Pasadena, California
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

Los Angeles is a very lovely city, a wonderland for living, with many things here to attract the attention of young people in particular. California's intriguing qualities draw people from all over the country and many young people who come to California join the Unification Church.

Why is California so attractive? You could say the reason is mostly historical, since California has always been a meeting ground between the cultures of the East and West, but the simplest answer is the wonderful weather here. The open spaces and a clear blue sky match the spirit of young people. The state of California radiates a beautifully free and optimistic feeling, with the sun out and smiling back at you all the time. Young people have enthusiasm and hopeful vision, and would like to become as the sun beaming on all the world. They want to freely interact with the whole world.

A thunder storm is a vivid demonstration of the power of heaven, seeming to reveal an angry god. Lightning and thunder have a fearful, threatening quality that makes the world tremble. No one looks forward to it, but on the other hand, everyone welcomes the sun each morning. The sun shining in the blue and endless sky symbolizes hope, giving out warmth and light. Young people are poetically minded, thinking in dramatic and romantic ways, and when they see the sun in the blue sky shining on a green world their inspiration is stimulated. The singing of birds and the harmony of animals and nature all inspire the feeling that they are involved with the entire universe, echoing its heartbeat.

I didn't come to lecture about literature or poetry this morning, but I can't help it today. I love the weather and the sun. Usually older people are so entangled with worldly affairs that they don't have time to appreciate the sun and the sky, but I am like you young people, with a mind of admiration and appreciation for nature.

Usually when people hear my name they associate it with government investigations and think I must be miserable after becoming so controversial. On the contrary, I am the happiest person, enjoying nature and beauty, warmth and love and light. I can understand why young people come to visit here and I love to visit California just like you do. You want to look up at the sky and embrace the beauty of nature, singing out your renewed sense of hope and vision. That's the way I see myself and this must be the reason why so many young people around the world come to follow me.

Some of you may think I love California only because I don't live here; you may be bored to death with blue skies and dry weather and think you like the rainy weather and seasons up north. If that is the case, you don't know all my different sides.

I would like to dwell on this thought a little more before I start my main topic. I spent many, many hours at sea this summer. When I went to sea I saw nothing but blue all around-the blue sea, the blue sky and the dark blue of land on the horizon. I speculated about why everything is so blue and who it all resembles. I wondered whether the sea was blue because it was looking at the sky, or the sky was trying to be blue like the sea. Which one carne first?

I came to the conclusion that because the sky is blue, everything dwelling on the earth wants to be like the sky. The sky, or heaven, is the subject and everything else wants to take after it. When I say this, some Western young ladies should smile broadly because their eyes are blue too, but I don't see any of you smiling. Your lack of response must mean your poetic or romantic capacity is near zero!

Anyone with blue eyes can think, "My eyes are blue because the sky is blue; the dwelling place of God is blue." Everything seems very poetic when you think that your eyes are all blue, but solid eyes would be monotonous. At the center of your eyes are black dots that break up the monotony. How awful it would be to have an eyeball that was nothing but blue with no center. Because that black dot lends depth and mystery, blue eyes never become tiresome to look at.

I have analyzed the eyes of white people very much. After looking at you once I would never be stimulated to look at you again, but the black dot in the center gives you such mysterious depth and profound feeling that I never get bored. It's just like the sun which contrasts with the blue sky. The sun shines on all things, giving light, and your eye is the center which can perceive and analyze and understand your surroundings.

Why am I speaking like this today? Every time you come to a conference you hear basically the same things and afterwards you go back and forget them all, but now at least you'll remember this new thing-the meaning behind having blue eyes.

Now I have spoken with you for a short time and the ice is already broken. We have harmonized our hearts and have become one. That shows the beauty and goodness of the word, but at the same time it is fearfully powerful. After years of meeting people I can spot the newcomers when I look around because they are completely stiff and frozen! I gave you a relaxing message at the beginning because when you are at ease you can experience a flow of emotion; you can go up and be inspired and go down and be determined. When you are stiff, nothing can take place! Envision how the ocean waves always move up and down, up and down, and how a big log in the water can be a disturbing factor by interfering with their free flowing motion. In the same way, the free flow of emotion will disappear when you are nervous. Just be natural.

If your roots are deep then you will be invincible

Let's go to the main subject now. Some of you have come here with questions on your minds that you really want answered, but please put them aside and get ready to listen.

Do you like sweetness or bitterness? Most people would prefer sweetness, but if you experience only sweet things then you easily become bored, forgetting and never understanding the sweetness. The person who understands bitterness can truly appreciate sweetness. The truth has both extremes, which harmonize together to compose meaning.

American young people are not receptive to much besides good things, preferring only to go up and pursue sweetness. They have no balance and don't understand where they are. Americans forget to be grateful for a full stomach and they take food for granted. Most of you have become totally insensitive to the beauty of having a place to dwell and you never even appreciate having parents. American young people have become nomads who are numb to beauty, numb to sweetness. You need the discipline of suffering.

If God really loves this nation of America then He must prepare some way to balance your lives. The Unification Church, therefore, has been given a mandate by God to train American young people to appreciate beauty and sweetness by bringing them back to suffering and hard work, back to the taste of labor and sweat. By doing so they can become people of depth and appreciation, people who can understand experiences from one extreme to another.

Many people come to America trying to find the ideal world but instead they find that everything here is floating because there are no roots. Nothing is settled and unchanging. When a big tree becomes taller and taller it needs deeper and deeper roots underground. When I carne to America I thought that if I could help Americans understand the necessity of roots which grow deeply into the soil, then I could give them the power to help the world.

Many of my critics think that I have some really good ideas and they accept the ideology of the Unification Church, but at the same time they think that I enslave you young people. They see that I am pushing you in a direction completely opposite to your previous way of life, compelling you to dig your roots deep into the ground. The important thing is not to break, but to drive your roots deep into the ground and firmly secure yourself. If your roots are deep in the soil then you will be invincible. I myself live this life and I will be second to none in pursuing the highest ideals. My goals are the highest and I pursue the highest state of goodness, yet at the same time I am not floating around in the air; I am realistically rooted in the ground, working and sweating to help society. This is my way of life.

If you are sending your roots down in rocky soil, are you going to have shallow roots with many small branches or are you going to penetrate down deep, like a drill? How much have I suffered in my life? If I revealed the extent of my suffering, every one of you would break down in tears. If you heard the full testimony of my life you could not stay still. But do I seem tired out or helpless, or am I fresh with love and humor and fighting spirit?

I am the one who has really suffered. The nation of Korea tried to crush me but my deep root was not cut. Later Japan tried, and now America is trying, but this will not bother me. Even the President of the United States left office after just I 1/2 years of opposition. The world has been trying to uproot me and the Unification Church, but it has failed and now is realizing that this root is giving out leaves and flowers and life. Soon they will find hope in us. Even while America opposed me I have been putting down roots in American society.

The whole world is trying to force you into changing, but instead of being crushed, send your roots down deeper and deeper. As long as you survive to come back strong then nothing can curtail you. Americans have vehemently opposed me and tried to get me out of the country, but what they have done instead is to make me very famous. No one can deny that I have had impact on American society. The more people try to push me away, the stronger I will become and the more they will be amazed.

I have been driving during my whole trip around the continental United States but next time I will need a new mode of transportation. Maybe I will buy helicopters and airplanes. Undoubtedly the media will accuse me of using you to buy airplanes for myself but the important thing is the purpose behind it. If there is a genuine need and purpose then it doesn't matter what the public says.

The 747s can carry 360 people. If I were going to Europe and 20 people were going with me I would tell the public that anyone who wanted to could fly with me to Europe free. What do you think would happen? There would be a long, long waiting list. What would we do for seven hours on the flight over? There would be a good meal and then we would have good entertainment. Sunburst and the New Hope Singers would perform, one of our films would be shown and a Divine Principle lecture given! The waiting list to accompany us would be so long that if we took everyone it would take ten years to get them all to Europe.

What I need is a big plane so that more people can come and I will be the pilot myself. Think of what tough competition that would be for the other airlines. Certainly no one else can afford to fly people to Europe for free. The airlines will demonstrate against me, but what about the people who want to go? Do you think this is a good idea? I have decided that we really need to buy a jumbo jet.

You must be able to harmonize your ideas, bitter experiences and the suffering ahead

I will drive you into the earth like stakes. You may hit rock farther down but still I must drive you in. Will you complain? No? Then the meeting is over now. Let me go. If you are so determined to do everything, then what else would I need to tell you? My power comes from the fact that no matter what I start to do, I just hang on tenaciously until the end. Nothing can stop me, not even the curses and persecution of the whole world. I want to take the worst and the best. Having only the in-between is not good enough for me. If I hang on long enough I will be victorious.

The task that I face from now on is a rugged one. Are you willing to follow such a leader? To be candid, let me say that following me is not easy. You must be born for your mission because otherwise it's too difficult. You should pack up quickly and leave if you're not ready to go all the way because the person who will be merely halfhearted and mediocre is better off not even starting. Why do you persist in following me? Your own parents are trying to crush me and if you weren't here they would stop. Do you still want to come? Will you totally give yourself up for three years? What if you don't even get the chance to be married?

I want to ask a question of the newcomers here who have never seen me before. Have you made up your minds that you are determined to follow with all your heart and soul, no matter what happens? We are going to lead history and to do that we must be capable of enduring any kind of hardship. I am tough and flexible and strong and I can withstand anything; even though I often seem to be at the breaking point I never break. Sometimes people think they have pushed me to the brink but then when they let go I bounce back. On one side I am very human and warm, but then sometimes you see me get a little angry. You haven't really seen me angry yet, though. When I really stand up to fight then nothing can stop me. I am a born fighter, period.

I want you to be like me and become real fighters. Would you women like being married to men like me? Could you be wives who would support and follow husbands like that? It is not easy to give encouragement and support to such a man. Mother is very tired after traveling several thousand miles in a car. This morning she asked to stay in the room to say a little prayer for me while I came down to speak, but I told her to come down because everyone would want to see her.

If you really want to have an ideal husband you must be able to carry burdens and suffering yourself. First become a person of high caliber yourself, because otherwise you are not worthy to marry a man of high caliber.

Do you think that everything is guaranteed now and that our way will be easier from now on? Now more than ever we need strong determination to give our whole selves and voluntarily take any amount of suffering. There is suffering ahead of such degree that it cannot be described in words but only understood heart to heart. You must go in and out of that level of suffering many times in order to be perfected. Don't be naive and think only about your ideals. You must be able to harmonize your ideals with the bitter experiences and the incredible suffering that lie ahead. In this way you will become a true man or woman.

People are drawn to see the awesome power of Niagara Falls more than they are to see the smoothly flowing Amazon or Mississippi Rivers. Niagara Falls is much smaller but people are fascinated by the incredible activity of the water there. God is just the same. He is like a tourist looking down at the earth, seeing many rivers of men which resemble the Amazon or Mississippi, but being drawn to the person who is like Niagara Falls. I don't want to be like a smooth river. In order to attract God I want my activity and power and gusto to be even greater than Niagara Falls.

A normal river doesn't have a Niagara Falls. Should the Unification Church be like other churches? The fact that we are not is the greatness of our Church and the greatness of our challenge. Things happen to us that never happen to other churches, with your own parents even trying to kidnap you and persecution coming on all sides. Do you still want to go ahead under those circumstances? If you do then you will create something even greater than Niagara Falls in the sight of God. In living that way of life you are writing the greatest poem and creating the greatest masterpiece of art. We are becoming the creators of great things.

Expensive trees are the ones which have developed unusual shapes or symmetry in the course of their rugged lives. The human race can be evaluated according to the same principle. For example, the Korean people have gone through all kinds of suffering and struggle throughout their history and in the sight of God they have something to be appreciated. My own life has been a focal point of such suffering. I am not controversial only in Korea, however; we are seeing the same pattern emerge in Japan and America. People who closely analyze our Church think that it is fragile and insist that it cannot last more than six months, yet we will not only endure but continually prosper. The source of our strength is the secret beauty that gives the Unification Church true value.

If you never lose sight of your ultimate goal when you are falsely slandered and criticized then that will become your ultimate value. When you do not lose sight of your own king then you are a loyal subject, and when you do not lose sight of God then you are a saint. Outside of such devotion there is no real value and nothing really precious existing in the world. Having such a heart gives us the most precious value we can possess.

Did you ever think that you are the bone of this country?

If you were asked if you would rather be flesh or bone, what would you answer? Maybe some of the women would want to be flesh in order to be seen and appreciated. A bone is ugly looking and very tough and if it is struck it makes a sound, but thinking people who appreciate value would want to be bone, not flesh. Bone forms the framework, the structure. Bone is like the principle out of which everything starts. Without a frame nothing else can stand.

What actually makes a man handsome? Bone is subject and flesh is object, yet no one thinks of that essential bone. When people say you are handsome they are noticing your face and body. No one says that your bones are very handsome. American culture centers on the physical things instead of pursuing the foundation or framework of things. The bones of American culture are rotting; its bones of love and morals, of social behavior and ethics are crumbling into dust. However, the "good life" of fleshly gratification will not last long. It is like morning dew and will vanish tomorrow.

We recently experienced a 24-hour blackout in New York City and the jungle-like turmoil that resulted clearly demonstrated that America is dangerously close to crumbling. Who is going to save New York? No amount of flesh can save New York. Only bone is adequate and we are intent on becoming the bones of society. I am going to create one bone after another and link them to every facet of society, After we have put new bones in American society we are going to create a whole new America.

Are you becoming solid bone? The life of a bone is very different from the life of the flesh and you must know very clearly what the difference is. You could live a luxurious life on earth for less than a hundred years and be a dictator who can command anything to be done, but in the end your flesh will decay and what will remain? Nothing. In educating people about dais, the Unification Church is fulfilling a most critical role.

Some of you have been in the Unification Church for many years. Did you ever think that you are the bone of this country, a bone which nothing will tarnish or bend? Have you ever thought that you would be the Rocky Mountains of this country which would stand firm? Have you state leaders ever thought that you are the solid bone of your state'? If a bone becomes soft and rots then everything else will die. Your bones must be tough yet flexible so that they cannot be broken. You must not allow yourself to be broken.

I did not come to compliment the American culture or to make money. No, I came to train some people to be extensions of the heavenly movement, to put the missing bones into Western culture. The situation of Christianity today is something like a new baby, which after nine months in its mother's womb is trying to be born, but which is having difficulty in the delivery. It is supposed to come forth as a newborn baby, but who is going to safely deliver it? I have come to make that delivery possible in America. This movement shall take the role of delivering the princes of the New Age in America.

You have truth, but do you have conviction?

There is one word that is very critical in our movement: the truth. Everything is true and everything is real. That is why we have True Parents, true sons, true daughters. How do we become different from others? We don't just react emotionally; when something happens we analyze and appreciate it.

What I have been teaching you this morning shall remain at the center of your heart, even if you come to think it's too difficult to follow and you pack up and leave. No one can erase this teaching from your heart because it is true. If you leave the Unification Church and go out to live your own life then still you will teach your children what I have taught you this morning. Even though you may not mention the name of the Unification Church, no one can remove this teaching from you because it is like the bone.

I have left my footprint in America's culture and no one can remove it. Modem religious history will be changed by it. My body can be destroyed but I shall live on in your hearts in the form of this teaching and no one can take me away. Do I teach you this way because I want you to follow me? I have told you it is not easy to have roots that can never be pulled up. Are you ready to follow anyway? If you are a tree you must be the root. If you are a man you must be the bone. You must become an essential part of the human being.

America is a proud country and is trying to prove all over the world that it is the greatest country on earth, but where are its roots? In free sex and the hippie movement? It will all be destroyed by the first hurricane that blows because those things are ephemeral. Thinking people must see that there is no root here in America.

God has a purpose for this nation but this country is floating now. It is imperative that we send down a strong root into the good earth. That's the philosophy behind all the work I am doing. Modem people are just floating and have decided to go wherever the wind blows. There is no strong sense of justice and righteousness in this country.

I have been working for thirty years and during that time many people met me but passed by. All kinds of people may come and go but this one person will never change his course. Every day I keep going. Many people have thought that following me meant losing because I would surely be defeated, but what has happened in the meantime? All those who opposed me in the past in one way or another have become miserable, but I have survived all kinds of storms, I will become even more well-known than now. Looking at me today everyone must concede that I am a successful man and there is no question about the fact that I am having an impact on history. Do you want to become that kind of man and woman? Do you want to become like the bone, or like a tree with deep roots? Who here has determined to become a root so deep that you are inseparably entwined with my roots?

For the sake of human history this movement is indispensable but the task we face is a difficult one. I must make you into fighters. You should not be people who are resigned to being here or who reluctantly, passively approach your responsibilities. I must transform you into people who just can't help but live this way of life. You must be born champions, born revolutionaries.

After the crucifixion of Jesus, Christians suffered for 400 years, demonstrating their devotion even at the cost of their lives, and ultimately Christianity became the bone of the Roman Empire. The remarkable thing is that though they had great power, their understanding of truth was shallow. If those Christians with all their determination had had the enlightenment of our truth, they could have conquered the whole world.

Let us ask ourselves a question. Today the basic truth of heaven and earth has been revealed. If the Unification Church has determination that surpasses the determination of Christians 2,000 years ago plus having the ultimate truth, then can we become the bone of the world? That is the movement I have ignited. Each one of you must be tough, equipped with both truth and conviction. While I was fishing in Boston my pattern was to get up at 3:30 a.m. and be out at sea by 4:00, not because I wanted to make lots of money in tuna fishing but to show this revolutionary zeal. Americans really hate getting up early in the morning, particularly to go out to sea. I want to conquer something Americans don't want to do. The sea is the best place to train men and women to be tough.

When the first class graduated from the Unification Theological Seminary the students thought of themselves as the intellectual elite of the Unification Church, but I told them that they didn't need any more lofty ideas, that instead they needed to conquer reality, to conquer the deep valleys and dirty ditches. If they can do that, they will be the kind of leaders we need. That is my purpose in sending them out for six months on the MFT.

I'm sure most of them were flabbergasted at being given such a menial assignment. Those who cannot be successful on the MFT will not be given special missions. Each of them must emerge from the valley and demonstrate Ws capability. I want the Seminary students to conquer the extreme of the high pinnacle where the sweet wind blows as well as the deep valley.

I am a man for all seasons. I can be the best farmer, or go to a fishing village and be the best fisherman, or at a factory be the best worker. There is nothing I cannot do and there is nothing I hesitate to do. I am at home in any surroundings and will always come out being the best at anything. I want to be a triumphant person in the struggle of living a God-centered way of life and I want you to strive to be triumphant in that way of life also.

I want you to think of everything in reverse. I see that everyone else's nose faces downward, but I think of my nose as being upside down and my eyes as seeing backwards. I even train myself in the reverse process of things happening. I want to be a person who receives abuse instead of praise, not for doing evil things but for doing good things. I have trained myself to endure hunger and go without sleep I even forget to eat sometimes. Who said you must sleep eight hours a night? One hour is good enough sometimes, and if you don't have to sleep that one hour then that is even better. Who said it is abnormal to go three nights without rest and then just sleep a little the third night?

My body has been tortured to an incredible degree, more than anyone else can imagine. I am almost sixty but people twenty and thirty years old have given up trying to keep up with me. I feel that they avoid being with me sometimes because they are exhausted, but what's the difference between us? We all have the same kind of physical body. When Mother and I were driving from the East to the West coast Mother was very concerned about my health and would say, "Father, you need a little rest, even in the car. I brought a pillow, so would you lie down and take a little nap?" At such moments I thought about how our trip was an historical event and I didn't want to leave the record that I just slept while driving. So I threw the pillow aside and told Mother, "No, I want to took after you."

I always feel like I'm a marksman on the front line, always aiming at the enemy. I am always intent and take a great interest in everything.

Do you women here feel that you could keep up with me? I asked Ye Jin whether she would like someone like me who pushed her all the time, or an easygoing husband who would let her sleep and enjoy life a little more. She answered she wanted a husband like me because there would be more excitement to life. I don't have even one minute of private time because my life is public, but this time I gave instructions that no one should try to keep track of where Mother and I were going. Are you confident that you can be like me? Remember, our struggle is an eternal one. The foundation that you lay today will have eternal value, so it is worthwhile pursuing. I want to make sure whether you really want to follow me or not. If at the moment you are dying you can think that you will never give up, then regardless of what people say about you, you are the greatest.

So far we have had a pretty good talk, so shall we stop here? What more do you need to hear? You will become the bone of America and the world. What else do you need? You should answer that since you will become the bone you need the flesh, right?

I want you to reap a wealth of experience so you can harmonize the world

MFT members, have you been grumbling at me in your hearts or have you been thankful for your mission? Have you been taking an easy course and always goofing off? If I were fund raising I would never settle for reaching a certain minimum goal every day but think about how to get higher and higher goals. I want to work until my arms and legs give up. I don't want to take the time to sleep lying down but instead sleep and walk at the same time. That's the kind of life I enjoy. Sometimes at night I go to the bedroom to sleep for a few hours but I only get halfway there, and in the morning I wake up and find I have been sitting in a chair for those few hours. On some days my legs ache and throb with pain, but I just lean against the wall to take a little rest.

When I have exhausted my physical body, my mind is peaceful and my conscience is clear and I feel the deep love of God flowing through me. Sometimes I just half lie down on the bed, but when I'm half-asleep I feel someone come and lift me up onto the bed, even though no one is there. I don't want to talk about this kind of thing too much because you will think I am superstitious, but I know that there is always spiritual power around to support me and encourage me. One day I was very fatigued and my legs were very sore but as I was walking my legs suddenly felt feather light. That kind of power is always available for you too.

Since you are going to go to spirit world eventually, do you want to come to the part of spirit world where I will be? I will lay the highway and provide the car for you, but you must do two things: you must learn how to drive the car and provide the gas. Since I cannot do everything, at least that part is your responsibility. You must learn how to drive the entire length and breadth of society without an accident or collision. Everyone is looking at you because you are Unification Church drivers. They must recognize that you really know how to navigate your way through all parts of society. You never know when a collision will occur if you doze, either spiritually or physically.

I want you to know that in MFT training the money you gather is not the major goal. You are training yourselves to be the people who can be self-sufficient, who can create the gas for your car, so to speak. Once you are trained on the MFT then you have basic training for supporting yourselves and after that you will have witnessing training and learn how to win people. I am looking forward to meeting the ideal people that you will become. When you really fulfill your mission on the MFT and in witnessing, then not only can you be blessed and have a home and a family but you will become the champions who will save the world. If you want to become a citizen of the world then you must raise people of at least ten other nationalities in your own home, making it one family.

I want to make the world one world and your families will be a focal point of that unification. Because the family will play the major role in bringing together all kinds of nationalities, you should be able to create harmony in your home. You have to be self-sufficient so that you can help other children and educate them in your own home. If the husband goes on some other mission then the wife can carry on that work and if the wife must be gone then the husband can carry on. The Unification home shall always be autonomous. I want you to become the kind of men and women who can maintain your own homes.

Now when you are young you will visit a great variety of homes and have the precious experience of learning about human beings and human affairs. By associating with many different types of families you can experience many different things which you will then call your own. If you are with a beggar you will be able to relate to him because you have learned what it is to be a beggar. You will treat rich people in certain ways because you understand them. You will understand the working people and the uneducated people because you have associated with them. By going through every kind of experience you can become a harmonizer, bringing people together from every part of life.

Only someone with a wealth of experience can harmonize the nations, the poor and the rich, the learned and the uneducated. I have experienced all these things so I see into your hearts. I was the number one worker in the communist prison camp. I have worked as a miner and even experienced being a beggar. Why should I do all that? Not to fill my own stomach or receive some kind of glory but to offer my whole life for the sake of God and humanity. My unselfish purpose has been clear from the very beginning.

The world may come against me and even put me in jail but I am only worried about God and the salvation of humanity. Even under the adverse conditions inside the North Korean prison, working with an impossible kind of people, I never gave up. How much more should I do when I can move freely about, when all the necessary materials are available? How could I rest even a minute?

What is the suffering here in America?

Whatever I do I will be second to none. I even have experience in all kinds of sports and I know how to harmonize sports people because I know their world and their psychology. That's why I was already in action the minute I landed in this unfamiliar country of America. I didn't start cautiously or pause to learn about this country before taking action. America is called a melting pot and it is said that anyone who stays here five years will be absorbed by America. However, I have not seen America to be a genuine melting pot but instead a nation that is decaying. How could I become a part of that?

I must make it God's melting pot instead, and once I grab that mission I will never leave it until I am finished. Thinking Americans predict that if America continues like it is that it will not survive very long. Have you heard your own people predict the decline of America? America was once a respected name all over the world but today Americans are looked at with suspicion in other countries. If this continues, then in ten years Americans will be ashamed to be Americans when they travel overseas. People will want to spit at them. We want to be people who are welcomed wherever we go. Even in the African jungle people should say, "Are you Unification Church members? Welcome! Come with me." Only if we set up that kind of tradition will America survive.

I know you fundraisers are going through persecution every day but do not ever think that you must endure just because God needs money. There is a much more important purpose behind what you are doing, which is for you to become a man or woman who is so tempered and polished that you can become a catalyst of world unity, a person who can be self-sufficient in any life.

When I was teaching in Korea twenty years ago I was pushing the members, telling them to go out and suffer, to fast and work hard. The Korean way of life has always been one of suffering and our members were already tired, but I pushed them even more until they were totally exhausted. Now twenty years later they come to me and say they are grateful for my pushing them so hard in those days.

The worst suffering can be described as having no shelter, no warmth and no food, but what is the suffering here in America? No one suffers from hunger here or has to worry about where to live or what to wear. This is really heaven as far as physical needs are concerned. You live in the kind of country in which you can actually survive for fifteen days on one day's earnings. If you earn the minimum wage and work for ten hours then you have $30 in one day. With $30 worth of groceries you can survive for one month. One hamburger can sustain you for one day with no problem. It's hard to truly suffer in this country.

You don't understand that in other countries people are starving. America has many restaurants and tons of food are thrown out every day. You can go to such places and find food to survive on with no problem. Don't think lightly of hunger; it is the worst kind of suffering.

How much do you appreciate your clothing? Without adequate clothes a person is miserable but in this land of abundance you have never suffered for lack of clothing, have you? The worst kind of situation you have faced is not having the right kind of clothes for some special event like a wedding. There is no shortage of housing either; often a large house has only one lonely couple living in it. If you were to help them a little bit they would love you and be more than happy to have you stay with them. Many grandfathers in the city are so lonely that when you talk to them for thirty minutes they will ask you to stay with them for a few days. There are literally thousands of people who yearn for someone to stay with them.

Life in Korea is entirely different. If you have no house then there is absolutely no place to rest, even in a farmer's barn. What is so difficult about life in America? Many years ago in Korea when members went out pioneering, the Korean economy was so poor that one day of hard work would not buy one day's food for them. Here bread is nothing special, but over there they could not afford bread to eat so they would crumble what they had into water and drink it. They were always hungry and the young people were so undernourished that their legs would sometimes buckle as they were walking.

In those days our missionaries were assigned to work in certain cities, and in order to survive they would walk miles outside the city to work and then come back to teach in the evenings. They never had one night's sleep free from hunger at that time. Many people were taught the Divine Principle back then who never knew how their teacher was suffering. After six months or one year they learned what kind of suffering those people had gone through and they embraced them in tears. From that time on people who were being taught would sometimes bring their lunch to the missionary and themselves go hungry all day at school or work. Our pioneer would eat that lunch for the sake of his mission, thinking, "I am eating this in order to go on. I've got to accomplish."

Eventually the schoolmates of those young members noticed that they didn't bring a nice lunch to school any more. In order to not have this reported to their parents, those students would walk around outside at lunch time in order to be inconspicuous, but the news got back to the parents anyway. People would ask, "What happened to your son or daughter since they joined the Unification Church? Why don't you give them lunch any more?" Can you imagine how shocked the parents were? They asked their children, "What happened to the lunch I gave you?" and the students would have to confess that they gave it to our missionary so that he wouldn't starve. The parents would not believe their children and became angry at our missionary, accusing him of stealing from their sons and daughters and calling him a bloodsucker.

There are too many such stories to tell you all of them. Sometimes communities would organize to evict the missionaries and stop them from working. Sometimes our members were severely beaten. Our missionaries were called wolves and accused of coming to steal the lambs, the children of the town. At the same time there was another level of persecution coming from Christians who spread all kinds of dirty rumors and slander about the Unification Church.

I was leading those suffering missionaries and my heart was aching every day. I told God, "I have only one hope. I want to go on for ten years and then You will be vindicated." I was determined that we would make the money to buy our own food and I gave all my energy to creating our factory, devoting myself to it 24 hours a day, giving instructions and ideas. In this way I laid the foundation ten years ago while our members were suffering.

America is really a sanctuary for missionary work. There is persecution here, but how many of our members have been beaten to the point that they have to go to the hospital? The Korean Christian churches created an image of me as a bloodsucker and told parents they must defend their children from me. Then those parents tried to create incredible barriers so that their children wouldn't join the Unification Church.

Knowing that this situation existed in Korea, the Japanese members determined that it must be vindicated by their blood and sweat in Japan. Japan is totally different from Korea but they wanted to suffer as much as the Koreans and work as hard as they could, feeling serious about not being indebted to me and to the Korean members. Our Japanese members worked very hard and earned much money, the money that I spend in America for you and for this country. I bring hardly anything to Korea but instead use it all for America. I am looking forward to the day when you will be ignited, the day you will seriously say to me, "Father, we Americans will never fall behind the Japanese or Koreans. You wait and see; we shall never let you down."

You should know, however, that even if you make a great deal of money here in America I will never use it back in Korea and Japan. I will spend it for the sake of the world. Just as the Japanese determined that they would never be behind the Koreans in suffering and then gained a tremendous result, I look forward to having you say, "America will never be behind Japan or Korea. America shall be the champion of champions."

My consuming concern is for unity among the races

I would like to see the black members saving their lunch money to help support the white leaders and I would like to see the white members leaving their lunch for their black leader and being scolded for helping a black man. If that kind of historical situation occurred in American schools, America would be revolutionized overnight. Unfortunately, that kind of situation is practically impossible in this wealthy country.

I am thinking about how to form a spiritual link between black and white so that they cannot be separated by anything. Should the link be as teacher and student or as brother and sister? That problem has been a consuming concern for me, that black and white can truly live as one family, eat as one family and dwell as one family, with no selfish motive.

Have you ever thought about saving a bit of money every day to feed me with in case I don't have the right things to eat, and even if I do have enough food, to want the privilege of feeding me anyway? Have you ever thought about buying me clothes or getting a house to welcome me one night? There is only one way you can create that spiritual link and that is to devote yourself to total unity with your leader and to work 24 hours a day without any complaint. By doing this all other things shall be forgiven. In that case our spiritual link will not be broken.

The important thing is whether you leaders in particular have the kind of conviction to work 24 hours a day, being absolutely crazy about God's work morning, noon and evening. Are you that dedicated, that single-minded? If you become that kind of leader then you will raise up that kind of follower. Even though I have spoken at some length on this, your faces are blank and you don't really understand. Why do you follow? Do you have a poignant, painful realization about the situation down to your bones? We must create that kind of profound spiritual link among us.

I have come to one conclusion: In an atmosphere of persecution you will do your absolute, unselfish best and then you will win unselfish followers and become one with them. It is the only way you can create that important spiritual link. You must feel that you are born for this mission and that you will leave this tradition behind. I went through the five provinces of Korea many times, but I have poured out more soul-searching energy into this country of America. I have traveled this path many times, visiting each state with a heavenly heart.

When I first came in 1965 I had no nights of rest because I spent them in the car. I am still willing to go at that pace, but out of concern for Mother I must slow down a little bit, though I still maintain a hectic schedule. I must be sympathetic with Mother because she has had ten children and her energy has been drained. Her body has been absolutely given to God. Sometimes people think Mother must be made of iron but that's not so. In the Korean custom the wife usually massages her husband, but he never massages his wife. That kind of thing is unheard of in Korea, but sometimes I must ignore that custom and massage Mother's legs because she is so tired she just can't go on.

Suffering creates the strongest spiritual link among us

Our war is fought everywhere, even in the home. How can we overcome the present difficulties and achieve the next goal? Suffering creates the strongest spiritual link among us and without it we have no deep emotion at being together. If we have been pushed down together and have been hungry together and tried to take care of each other, then a deep heart-to-heart relationship can be formed, regardless of whether we are Korean or Japanese or American. The way you can find a heartistic relationship with the True Parents is to accept suffering. There is no other way. Because you follow the True Parents you have been persecuted and kidnapped and deprogrammed, going the same course your leaders have already gone. That faith will forge an unbreakable link between leaders and members and the True Parents.

When you go through incredible suffering you can pray, "God, You have been suffering more than anyone else. Our True Parents have gone ahead of us to pave the way and they have faced many times more suffering than anything I face, so let me go on. I shall be triumphant and bring glory to You." If your heart is that willing to give your total self for the sake of God, the True Parents and humanity, then even before you cry out your ancestors and the spirit world will cry out on your behalf. You will become an indispensable person for the spirit world. There is no other way to find a heartistic link with God and with each other.

What can bind together the spectrum of the world's races here in America? Certainly knowledge and organization are inadequate for that. Money cannot help and words are cheap. Only one thing can unite you-heart. Unless you feel this sense of unity to the bone, nothing will work. Your stomach, your dwelling place and your sleep are most critical, but you rise above them by loving your town, your mission and this way of life more than you love to eat or sleep.

How can God set up His world of heart here in America? Think of it. You are used to sleeping eight hours every day and having three meals; you can get anything you need to wear and you can go out and get cheap love anywhere, even for $5. How can God set up the blueprint for His kingdom here in America without instituting some drastic changes?

You leaders must not become complacent. You dank that if you have a few members, that they can go out and do the witnessing and fund raising and come home and do the cleaning and cooking at the center. If you give orders in that way, you will bring to yourself the worst kind of curse you can receive as a leader! A leader should be crying out at night with more tears than anyone else.

I am determined to buy up land and houses for your future security, but not now. Eventually I will have all the best schools and homes for you, but until you show that I can call you my children I will not do those things. I will not speak to you until you are qualified to listen, and until then my words will be judgment to you. The people who were with me on the New Hope wished many times that they could sleep a little more and get some better food. Out on the boat they would sneak out to take a little nap, but I want to demonstrate to you the kind of person who is always in the forefront. I am never standing on the sidelines. That standard is exactly what I am asking of you today.

I am only one man but none of you love this country more than I do. In that respect I am asking you to compete with me. All the buildings I have bought and put to use, like Barrytown, the Manhattan Center, the World Mission Center, are for the American people. I will take nothing away for Korea. My life would be much easier if we didn't need to buy such buildings.

Anyone who takes my words seriously cannot help but become a leader in society

You young men and women must truly realize what I am saying and stand up from today on. You must love America and you cannot complain. I am praying for you when you do not know it. The New York winters are cold and windy but I many times go out in such weather to cry out, hiding my tears from Mother. I sometimes feel pity for you because if you hadn't met me you wouldn't have to suffer this much. If you were only suffering for my sake then I would be the worst kind of criminal, the worst devil under the sun, but my conscience is absolutely clear that this is the right thing. No matter how much you suffer, it is more than necessary for the sake of this country, your own people, your own relatives and eventually God and humanity.

If you precisely follow my instructions, then I predict that in ten years we will be so superior in economy and manpower, in prestige and every possible way that we shall easily surpass our opponents. A man who takes my words seriously cannot help but become a leader in society. The women will lead women's groups and you men will lead your town or society. You cannot help but become number one because nothing is superior to this teaching. Society will have to admire you because your way of life is unselfish and your attitude is humble and your character is correct. How could anyone deny you if you are dedicated and hardworking?

Your MFT work is not just to pay bills. You are leaving an important tradition behind for everyone who works hard and serves God and humanity. Don't ever think that you are working for the sake of the Church; the Church is only providing you with training. Those who will ultimately benefit will be humanity and God and that is why I came to work in America. Without reservation I am pouring out every ounce of energy into the mission, using all the money and knowledge I can muster in this showdown in America. I even want to borrow money and become a debtor for the sake of God and humanity. If I died one day and left billions of dollars in debts behind, when people discovered the truth about why I borrowed that money everyone would want to pay off the debts and do still more.

What kind of leaders are you going to be? If you are going to be with me then you are also going to be liable for my bankruptcy if it comes to that. Would you run away? Or would you say, "Father, never mind. Let me take care of it. My shoulders are big enough to bear this burden. " If we take up the burden together then we can satisfy our creditors. With whatever money we have we will buy land and build many universities. Our real future lies in our posterity, our own children. We want them to become true God-centered champions, and in order to train them well we need schools and universities.

Mr. Kamiyama is now responsible for the finances of our Church. All kinds of bills come to him and people complain about how he handles money, but he barely gets rid of one debt when a bigger one comes along. Sometimes he is discouraged and seems to lose heart, but then I tell him that he and I are just guests in this country, that we are going to help the American people to stand on their own feet and to pick up the world. After all, we are not the masters of this country. Let the American people do that. We can leave them the tradition by giving our sweat, our blood and all our energy for the sake of this country. Some day the American people will understand, and even though they do not appreciate anything now, history will understand.

You have been crying, but for whom did you shed tears?

You have the same nose, two eyes and strong body that I do. You must not be defeated by my standard but do more than I do. I know you are treated in all kinds of abnormal ways, being spit at and cursed, but take this as a privilege. Think of it as a joy and honor that you are beaten, not for your own sake, but for God and His sake.

Your goal is not me but God. You must become a champion who will move the heart of God and also touch the hearts of mankind. Let me cry out for you because of your deeds. Let the members who have heard about you cry out for you. Then the rest of mankind will indeed cry for you.

The link of tears should transcend the level of God so that your tears can mix with His. It is then that the world will be moved. I know it is true that when God's tears are shed for you then you are really a godly man. I am a man of tears. I have shed many tears in the past and I know there are more to shed in the future for the sake of mankind. I am looking for the place where I can shed my tears. I want you to know that if God is moved by your deeds then His blessing and assistance will be with you.

In prison I never taught one word of Divine Principle but I did things that moved the heart of God and then the spirit world came down on my behalf, preaching the Divine Principle and bringing disciples to me. The people who don't know this kind of history from their own experience and who don't know the deep meaning of this path I have gone are not ready to be known as Unification Church members.

If someone asked me what I would say to my children on my deathbed I would answer, "This is my will, that you children take over my mission for God and humanity. You must know the taste of tears and work with tears. I haven't accomplished it all. This is my will."

Don't complain or talk about trivial things because there are much more worthwhile things to do. Has God ever made an excuse for Himself?. God never wants to make an excuse; He merely wants to consummate the work of restoration and let the world see it.

I trust you MFT members and want you to do well. When you are persecuted and mistreated I want you to feel that you are mistreated on behalf of God and Jesus and the True Parents, and that you should bear the beating for your own children in the future. It is a glorious challenge. You can take delight when people curse you for being a Moonie and you can thank God for the opportunity to experience what He has experienced. There is a profound, mysterious kind of joy you can feel which establishes you as a true member.

I want you to know that there is no way you can come close to me or be a true leader of the Unification Church without going this path of tears and suffering. You have been crying, but for whom did you shed tears? For whom has your tongue spoken? Have you pitied yourself or had some anger you could not contain? Your tears should be for God and humanity and your tongue should be speaking for God and humanity. Then you are truly Unification Church members.

For whom has your body been living? You have been living for yourself but now you must give your body for something else. There is a way now for God and mankind to live and you should invest your body for that purpose. When you shout it out from a position of struggle, God will answer. Then mankind will respond to you because you have had common experiences; you also are good and bad and you have had success and failure. The destiny of mankind and God is hinged upon whether God and mankind can respond to you.

This is the third seven-year course. We have now completed almost seventeen out of twenty-one years. Continue until we enter the twentieth year and you will see how much you can withstand of the threats and frustration which should not even have been yours. These are God's frustrations. You must withstand God's frustrations and anger and always try to vindicate God, not yourself. I have had to withstand beatings and character assassination for thirty years and I want you to be patient also.

When my eyes see something awful I tell them to forget it. When my ears hear something ungodly I tell them to forget it. Try not to see or hear those things. You have a heart full of pain but be patient. For the sake of God and humanity you can do it and finally the day will come when you will vindicate God and humanity. We can do far better than to sit and wait for God's comfort to come down; because we are in a position to consummate our mission, we are going to comfort God. Unless you live this way you really have no right to even pray. If you just pray with your mouth you are a hypocrite, but when you have some deed to show you will have matching words to say. This is the path the Unification Church must take because this is the only shortcut to the heart of God. There is no other way to become close to Him, no magic way to go this route.

The life you are living now is my workshop for you

A husband and wife should be united heartistically and then they can unite in a common struggle, becoming one body. The Church is not trying to exploit you but is training you through your hard work. What you are doing now in training is what you will be doing for the world for the rest of your life. The life you are living now is my workshop for you, training you to transform the world. After this training you can turn around and do the same thing for the world. 'Ibis is a privilege because by doing so you are participating in the work and tradition of the True Parents, and above all the work and tradition of God. You are literally inheriting His Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

We want to be victorious in love because that is the ultimate victory, nothing else. You may not conquer a nation or conquer the world by force but when you become a victor of love you can conquer and unite the world. Everything else becomes small. Eventually everything will come under this one love.

Jesus was crucified on the cross and externally speaking he was a failure; however, he dramatically demonstrated his love for humanity by forgiving and loving his own enemies. That deed made him a victor of love. Love conquers all and nothing can displace or overthrow it. Once you occupy this highest pinnacle of love no one can topple you. If you love me then we do not necessarily need to be together physically; when you pursue the same goal and follow the same way of life and tradition then you are actually living together with me. We discuss, live and push forward together in the same way of life.

When you have a hard day and return to the center in the evening you might say, "God, I had a rough day but I won. I never gave up and I never did a shameful thing. I love You and I want You to be proud of me." Many times you murmur to yourself, don't you? When you are driving and talking to yourself you are actually talking to God and when you become more and more involved in this, the living God will actually answer you and say, "My son, I heard you. I understand and am glad that you won the battle. You are indeed my son." You will actually hear His voice. The key to this relationship is how much of your heartistic energy you pour out to God. There are no technicalities. You know the credo of the Unification Church, to shed tears for earth, sweat for man and blood for heaven. Those are not empty words but living words.

When the hot weather comes most people try to get away somewhere to be cool, like the seashore, but you Unification Church members simply sweat even more when the hot weather comes. Under those circumstances would you think about how miserable you are, or would you thank God that you sweated for Him that day? One person might curse the heat but the other would thank God.

Your spiritual growth will eventually become a straight line, just as the existence of God is like a straight line. Often God comes and goes-you experience God and then He disappears and then comes again later-but that indicates that you too must become like a straight line. I am merely one Oriental man, but there is something mysterious about me that makes you want to see me again. When you see me you are awed by some kind of power and at the same time you feel a loving warmth. Sometimes I come to you in dreams to give you guidance. What kind of man am I?

Tears often come when you think of me and in the next moment you realize you are entirely open to the spirit world. All the important spiritual areas have been blocked because of the fall of man, but when the blockage is removed you can purify yourself in heavenly love. There must be a movement creating such exciting and explosive energy that every individual in the universe can break through that spiritual blockage. The spiritual world and the physical world are actually one, so that the power needed to break down the barriers is really simple; it all depends on one thing: how much more you love God than you love worldly things. How pure and genuine is your love? Ultimately we must become victorious in love, where there is no boundary.

Who sees me frequently in their dreams? Sometimes you may find yourself crying when you are missing me. If you are out fund raising and all of a sudden you are struck with such love for me that you start crying and missing me, then a few steps ahead of you I will be standing there, even carrying the same kind of fund raising product you have and going ahead of you fund raising. This is happening all over, particularly in Japan. There are many mysterious spiritual things happening to our Japanese members, especially to those selling the marble vases door-to-door. All kinds of spiritual assistance are coming to them and other members themselves are completely flabbergasted at how much money they are earning. The secret is that God comes down and helps them.

Many times their underwear is so ragged that they would not want it to be seen by their friends, but they have no regrets about it. Day after day they have been shedding the genuine tears I have been speaking of this morning, God's tears. The agony of mankind is real to them and the tears of God are real to them. Of course they are given money to buy underwear and so forth, but they are thinking about how they can spend this money for the sake of God. Instead of spending it for themselves they want to give it back as an additional contribution. These little things move God. God is infinite but He takes delight in those little things and that's the way I live too. I want every bit of my life to be that dramatic. Many times in the past God literally cried out for the True Parents because of this attitude.

I have many hidden secrets known only to God. God knows how easily I break down in tears but I don't want to act that way in public. I really want to live a deed before I talk about it and then I can teach this way of life with authority. I'm not just a philosopher. There is nowhere else under the sun that you can find someone who is like me. There is no one who can replace me or replace Mother. This position is absolutely precious and irreplaceable and unique. In order to accomplish this position and relationship, a great foundation has been laid at tremendous sacrifice. Many nations have crumbled and many billions of people have suffered to lay the foundation without seeing its glory, You are like the flowers which have seen the ultimate day of blooming, but there are many people who fertilized the seeds who have never seen the flowers' glory, people who were the trunk, soil and water to lay the foundation: You must always remember and appreciate this.

I want you to take the initiative out of your own desire

For whom do you work on the MFT? The clearest answer is that you do it for yourselves in order to become people who love God and humanity. Without that you can never have a relationship with the True Parents. No matter how much we say we love God, as long as we do not fulfill our responsibilities towards God and humanity, we have nothing to do with God and humanity. All the work you do is ultimately to make you the kind of person who loves God and humanity so you can have a relationship with True Parents. Each moment on the MFT is absolutely priceless. How can you be tired and to whom can you complain if your labor is for your own benefit?

I want you to become subject and take the initiative out of your own desire, with no one forcing you to do anything. If you want to push yourself and discipline yourself and really give 100% for God and humanity, you will become God's pride. I never want to feel that you are just following my instructions but rather that you have really perfected yourself in the image of God on your initiative. You may not know your value, but the Unification Church members will know how perfected and precious you are.

I'm sure many of you complained in your hearts before coming to this meeting, wondering why certain things have to be done or figuring out shortcuts for doing things you don't like. Have you thought in that way before? Those who say they have never complained aren't telling the truth. I myself have sometimes complained to God but then God gave me a real spanking! Then I knew that complaining doesn't work and it's better not to do it! If you have never complained then you are better than I am.

Internal discipline is such that you can force yourself to do something even when you don't want to. Particularly in the beginning of your spiritual growth that is necessary. Sometimes I am super stubborn and don't want to listen to anyone. God knew that if He sent me out in that condition that I would run into lots of trouble, not just getting fines for speeding, but something serious. God trained me every day giving me all kinds of discipline, and after He finished, the whole direction of my life was different. In this way God has opened up new opportunities, giving me instructions Himself and telling me what to do. I have conquered myself and become God's pride. This is the way a son of God should behave.

What kind of person will you become? There are two ways to go. All of us will go to the spirit world, but if you can live the way I have been describing then God Himself will prepare a dwelling place to welcome you. Otherwise you can live a dirty and untruthful life on earth and end up in a trashcan in heaven. There are two ways to live, and it is obvious which destiny you would rather have.

I want to give you two pieces of advice. First, under any circumstances do not complain. Second, do not give up. How about you Seminarians, do you complain? Your faces look a little bit tired. You studied for two years and you thought that you were graduating from the Unification Church. I want you to know that instead you are just entering it. What you need is not just thoughts about heaven but the working heaven, the deeds of heaven. Christianity has only been thinking about heaven so it has declined, but we are making a new Christianity which shall be different.

I have been thinking very much about how we can clean up a city like Las Vegas. Maybe we could set up a gigantic casino with all the gambling machines and games and then set fire to them and bum it all up in one night. That would be dramatic! Then I would explain why we have to do this, why gambling is no good and why so many things in Las Vegas are wrong. People would certainly listen. If I were an ordinary man who was in business to get rich then I could make billions of dollars in Las Vegas and buy up the city.

Another place I want to clean up is New York. There is a tremendous amount of prostitution, not only in New York but also in Japan and Korea, and I have been thinking very much about that dark side of society. Religious leaders must look at reality and try to find solutions instead of avoiding the problems. One of my main motivations for buying the New Yorker was that it was located at 34th St. and 8th Avenue, right in the middle of the prostitution district. We don't need an empty heaven, but a realistic one.

What is the value of our time together here?

I really regret that I cannot train you state leaders directly, in totally different circumstances than in your states. Particularly the first graduates of the Seminary have great responsibility. Did you keep a diary when you were fund raising after graduation? You could have written a beautiful book. The ideal heaven is up there but reality is right down here, the top and the bottom of heaven. You can write a beautiful masterpiece about how to bring it together.

There are all kinds of human lives and all different levels of living. I must be able to link each of them with heaven and take them all there. It is your responsibility to learn how to lead those who refuse to go into heaven. It is easy to lead those who are willing to go to heaven; the people who want to join the Unification Church are no problem, but fuming the adversaries of the Unification Church around and convincing them of the truth is your duty.

What you feel about your state is more important than what you know about it. Do you want all the people in your state to listen to you obediently, or are you unconcerned even if the opposition fires machine guns at you? If they don't "shoot" at you then you ,'shoot" at them. When I carne to America no one ,'shot" at me so I "shot" at America.

Even without speaking I am opening up tremendous new horizons in the hearts of the American people, changing their understanding of the Oriental culture and people. Indirectly I am contributing toward welding the two cultures together. Orientals have always been a minority in this country, being unrecognized and unknown, but since my arrival America's entire concept of Koreans has changed.

Like Americans, there are all kinds of Koreans, tough ones, unbeatable ones and controversial ones. Look at me. I am a mystery to the American people who don't understand how I can influence their sons and daughters, inspiring them to change their lives and do extraordinary things. But let me ask you, do I threaten to shoot you if you don't obey? All I do is talk to you. I don't even want to talk too much but you asked me to talk so I must. You are the cause for this long speech!

While we talk we develop some rapport, a meeting of heart. Conviction, power, truth, righteousness and light are shining upon us; the darkness is disappearing and you are automatically becoming new people without even knowing it. You have met an incredible person, one who not only gives inspiration but who also appears in your dreams and visions. Your hearts are pulled towards me and when you unite with my direction your conscience is clear, but when you disunite you suffer in your heart.

Are you some kind of prisoner? Are you held captive by invisible bars and chains? No, you are embroiled in one event that has never happened in the past and will never happen again in the future. This work will continue on for thousands of years, but you are the only ones who can be with me as a living person and hear directly what I have to say. Future generations will understand about me through spiritual revelations, but you have both physical and spiritual experiences with me. That is your honor and your pride.

When you know me and I embrace you spiritually then that spiritual oneness intermingles with the physical world. No one in the past and no one in the coming generations will have this experience. only you. This experience could never be bought even with billions of dollars; it is that precious. You are unaware of its value now, but when you go to spirit world you will see our movement and its origins, and you will know what a priceless treasure it is to have lived at this time, face to face with me.

Are you happy or unhappy people? I don't see any realistic happiness yet. Let me illustrate. Suppose you have a wonderful husband and you love him with all your heart but suddenly he dies; then you become totally despondent and your deepest desire is for him to be revived. If all of a sudden you find your husband walking toward you to embrace you, you are filled with the greatest ecstasy and excitement. What I am trying to describe is the same thing that is happening to you here. Your happiness today shall be greater than that, if you really understand the value of this moment. Unfortunately, its value cannot be described and I don't blame you for not understanding because you know so little about spirit world and the origins and future of this movement.

All you worry about is your own part of the world and your own individual mission of fund raising or witnessing. Your worries center around making good public relations or being good salesmen, but I tell you that once you really realize the true value of sitting right here facing me, nothing in the world will matter to you.

If you are full of contradictions, it is a joke to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven

The key to the Kingdom of Heaven is right here on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the hazy realm that Christians describe but a real kingdom of love and perfection. Do you want to hear about it? I wanted to cover several subjects but I have hardly covered any ground at all yet. You are sitting and listening but my legs are getting sore standing up all the time.

You know me, you know the direction and you know the goal. The new members here have discovered that I am just a man, not a superman. I have humor and I am a genuine person, but at the same time I am other things. You can understand the external, visible Reverend Moon, but what about the internal, invisible me? Do you want to know him too? Do you think you would like Reverend Moon better at this stage in life or as a young man? Actually we are tailing about external differences. There are two types of Reverend Moon externally, but internally speaking there is no difference.

If you ask a grandmother if her mind is as old as her physical appearance, with gray hair and wrinkled skin, what would her answer be? She would smile because the question is amusing and the answer is obvious. She will never hesitate to say, "No, young man; even though I'm seventy years old my mind is just as young as yours." Could that be the case? It certainly is. In the physical world there is difference in age but in the world of mind there is no age. There is only the prime of life.

What would you want other people to notice about you, your physical appearance or your mind and appearance together? Especially the young people who are looking forward to marriage should be serious about this question. What are you looking for in a husband or wife, just physical appearance or the invisible character as well? What kind of love would you like to receive? What kind of person could you love? Would you prefer a husband or wife who can give only physical love or would you want one who would give you his internal self also? What kind of love is more genuine? How about yourselves? Are you living only on the physical level or the internal level as well?

The religious world has been pursuing the internal man, but since it couldn't find the ultimate answers it has been declining. The Western world has been following after the external or physical man and has been declining. What remains? Increasingly men are asking, "What is the essence of man? What is the essence of the nation? What is the meaning of existence?" All these questions are being pursued more and more intensely but no answers are emerging.

When you observe one man he is full of contradictions between his mind and body, right? Those of you who have no contradictions between your mind and body, raise your hands. Is there anyone? You know the truth. If individuals of contradiction marry and have children then that contradiction is multiplied. Hegel theorized that the universe started in contradiction and he developed dialectical materialism to describe it, but only a fictitious God would create man in this condition. Such a God should be cursed for making man in this way. No one in history has toiled more with this question than I have. Unless contradiction is resolved there is no use talking about world peace or a brotherhood of man because there are no means of obtaining them. When your body and mind unite into one temple of God then you can dwell in a happy society, nation and world, but if you are full of contradictions within yourself then trying to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven is a big joke. Actually the nation and world are not the subject; you are the subject. You are more significant than the society and the nation, and the most precious thing for you is subjugating yourself.

This explains why you cannot solve your parents' problems; only they can solve them. Your problems must be solved by you; no one else can solve them for you. You can be an object and lend support to someone who is struggling, but you cannot take the subjective position over their problem. Even if the rest of the world has become the Kingdom of Heaven, is this kind of heaven any good for you, or anyone, if the heart and mind are suffering?

I toiled more than anyone to find the solution of man's internal contradiction

You find two people fighting within yourself and the difficulty is to unite them into one. If God is all-powerful and can solve this question, why hasn't He done it already? Since He hasn't, He either is incapable of doing it, or doesn't exist. Have you thought about that? This has been a fundamental question for mankind. The great religious leaders like Buddha, Socrates, Mohammed and Confucius all encountered the same questions, but where is the obvious answer? All mankind has been waiting for the answer and even God Himself has been waiting for the answer, but it has not been found before now. How can the answer be found?

If all love starts from contradiction, how can you find anything genuine? If we are drilling a hole in a wall you need a sharp drill with a sharp center, but history is like a drill with two points. With such a drill you can make all kinds of nicks in the wall but you can't make a hole. If God could have solved this quandary He would have done it a long time ago, but it is a man who must do the job. I determined that I would find the answer and explain how the contradiction could be resolved.

I am only a resultant being so I must know my origin. Do you have some awareness of how you spent the nine months in your mother's womb? After you were born you gradually became aware of having a mother and father who gave you birth, but did you actually become aware of where you came from? We have to deal with our ultimate origin.

I am here myself and that is reality, but is God a reality? There is no guarantee. I am dealing with all kinds of contradictions outside, but there is no guarantee that I can ever find God. Communists and atheists are insisting that there is no God. To find the origin, I started by making a hypothesis: "If there is a God, He should be like this. If there is no God then the world should be like this." The world should be a world of peace, stability and tranquillity, but if two people are fighting constantly then there can be no world of peace. How can you have a peaceful home if the husband and wife are constantly fighting? In our hearts we desire to see one united world of peace and harmony. That is surely man's most far-reaching desire and ambition, and it hasn't changed at all throughout history.

If man's original desire did not change, what did change? Our bodies always betray us, moving in all different directions because they are not stable. The person who vacillates and goes off in too many directions at one time, or who frequently alters his basic position, is more evil than the person who is stable. History reflects man's constant effort to harmonize the two contradicting forces. There is a constant and unchanging will to bring this about.

The universe is far more precise than a computer, moving according to law. No heavenly body can deviate from the laws of nature. What would happen if the sun and earth moved at random? There would be incredible chaos and catastrophe in that case, but in reality the planets have stayed on course every minute for millions of years. They will not deviate from cosmic law. How could the universe be that precise? The communists and other atheists explain it as being a natural phenomenon, but there is a loophole in their argument. Can randomness create the precision of law and nature? Can a random mind project regularity? Even the slightest deviation in a rocket's plotted course to the moon can create a catastrophe.

Our solar system alone has many satellites but this solar system is just one of many systems. There are billions of systems like ours moving in the universe, so can you say that it just happened without someone's planning it? There are billions of cells in the human body, all of them differentiated. They are all specific for one function or another but they are harmonized together to make one man; they all have the same purpose.

Could man make chunks of gold appear at his command? Even if be prayed for years and years or produced sophisticated machinery, man could not create gold. Helpless man is trying to evaluate the universe but it is impossible. Man is incapable of judging the universal law and the universal system, because man is merely a small part of it and not capable of knowing everything.

Why do you have eyelashes and eyebrows and what would you do without them? Did your eyes just happen to appear as they are? Did they know ahead of time what conditions in the atmosphere they would encounter, and prepare to be protected by blinking eyelids? Did your eyes make themselves, knowing ahead of time about drying winds and dust and hot weather so that they could provide for eyebrows and blinking? Of course not.

The eyes didn't know ahead of time, but the important thing is that someone did know! Someone knew and planned and provided for the eyes to encounter dry weather and dust. Is the eye the result of some random action or whim? Who planned ahead? When we pursue this more deeply we come to the question of whether matter or spirit came first. If you ask a communist whether the eye knew ahead of time that it should be equipped with eyelids, he will have no answer. He cannot deny the logic that a universal intelligence must have existed before the eye. Before the eye could be created the concept was already in someone's mind, someone who knew the necessity for eyes and knew exactly which design would be best.

I do not possess universal intelligence because I am a result. I didn't know where I came from and it was not my will that brought me here to earth. There must be a great wisdom which preceded any existence here on earth. We call him God. Ask the communists about how to revolutionize eyes and how to change the law so that eyes are upside down or so that one is in front and one in the rear. Can you revolutionize how your nose perceives smells or how your mouth detects taste? What the communists are trying to revolutionize is the economic system, but the economy is not one of man's higher-level activities. The communists proclaim that a person's occupation is what determines his personality and his value, but should something that insignificant be man's master?

There will never be peace until man knows his origin

Unless we can find the one ultimate source of the universe there is no way that man can find peace on earth. If there is no real God then even if we conjure up a fake or conceptual deity we will have no solution. Is God real or not-this is a fundamental question. You must align yourself with a particular solution, but in any case, you are part of the problem. If there is a God then you are the cause of the world's problem and if there is no God you are still the cause of the problem. However, the solution is different depending on how you answer the question of God's existence. The communists propose one extreme solution and either they are correct and there is no God, or there is a God. The two situations cannot coexist.

If God does exist then the next question is why He is so helpless as to leave the world in this condition. It could be that a relevant, working relationship with man was severed and since then the living God has not been able to re-establish it. God could be an honest and true God who wants to make a relationship with a true man, but since there has been no true man it has been impossible for there to be a true relationship. Our logical conclusion is that God exists and He is a God of true love, but He has not yet found a deserving object of His love upon this earth. Since He cannot have a relationship with an evil man, He is seeking some solution for the future. This has been His situation throughout history.

If there is a God, He must be true, pure and perfect. If that God created man, but man came to be dominated by conflict both internally and externally, then there is a contradiction, for perfect God would not produce that kind of man. Only one explanation could account for this situation-simply that man is the one who is out of order. God has been waiting for the day when mankind will elevate themselves into being His genuine objects. Then God will be free to establish a real working relationship with man. All of human history has been the process of striving toward that goal.

There are two solutions that can be proposed; First, an individual might think, "I know that I am a deviated man and I am striving to somehow win the ideal world." Or he might think, "Because I am out of order I need to perfect myself first and then seek the original relationship with God." God will intervene in the second situation. If you think of yourselves as being legitimate and perfect then this world is full of contradiction, but when you look at yourselves as radios that are out of order and need to be repaired then a logical conclusion emerges; "Yes, I must change because my present self is not the original one. I must revolutionize myself to fit the original concept of God and then not only can I be restored, but the relationship between God and man can be restored, and the relationship between man and the universe can be restored." For this purpose the religious world has come into being and all throughout history it has grappled with the task of restoring man.

If there is a true God, His solution for the problem of history must be the road of restoration. God looks at this world as one which is out of order and needs to be mended. God must plan for man to be restored back to his original state, making possible His original relationship to man. By accomplishing this the society, nation and world will be mended. Religion has been creating a cultural sphere which is moving toward God's ultimate goal for the universe. It was small in scope in the beginning, but through history it has enlarged to the level of tribe, nation and world.

The modern world is divided into four basic cultural spheres-the Oriental or Confucian cultural sphere, the Buddhist cultural sphere, the Islamic sphere of Asia Minor and the Judeo-Christian sphere of the Western world. If there is a God, He must be striving towards one world. He has one love which will govern the entire world and one culture which He would like to see throughout the world. God doesn't want to see America clinging to its one way of living, separate from other countries. God wants one concept of love to make a cultural sphere which will permeate one nation and then spread to all nations of the world.

Knowledge of the fall offers man his greatest hope

How would God achieve this? With money or some business venture? By power or knowledge? You all talk about love but what is your concept of love? You all know the love of a divided mind and body going in all different directions but what is the origin of that kind of love? Where does love dwell? Does love start in your physical body and then flow into your mind, or does it start from your mind and flow into your physical body? Most people think physical love comes first, but what kind of trashy love is that? The communists say they can revolutionize even your mind and love, saying that love is just a physical sensation to be gratified and your mind a product of economic environment.

Should love be changeable? When love is based on physical sensation a person can go after all kinds of love, just like animals, and by having relationships with many people he feels more stimulation. A husband and wife usually fight over lack of love or miscommunication of love, but are they fighting because of their bodies' or their minds' miscommunication of love? Normally the wife protests to the husband that he is just loving her body but not really giving his real heart to her. She insists she doesn't want to be treated like an animal and reminds him that he pledged to love her with all his heart and soul and mind instead. One partner may say something but his mind can actually be somewhere else. A couple will fight when they see something fake about their love which reveals that their minds and bodies are separated. Nobody loves a changing love.

Where is the origin of love? Does love come from a changing source or an unchanging source? Can you find physical love that is unchanging, eternal and unique? Everyone is looking for the kind of love that originates in an unchanging source. The mind will never get old and infirm, but always stay as fresh as in a person's prime once he makes up his mind that he wants to always pursue unchanging love. We usually ask someone who is being untruthful if their conscience doesn't bother them because we know that the mind is supposed to have unchanging qualities.

There are body-oriented men and mind-oriented men and they are not necessarily friends. If one goes first and the other follows, then at least we have hope that the other will catch up some day, but this is never the case. The mind always pulls in one direction and the body in another. If God made man this way then He is man's worst enemy, but we have shown that instead some man-related event imposed this situation. It is not of God's own doing at all. When an unprincipled power pulls the body in one direction then you are its prey or victim. These things can be explained in one sentence: this is the result of the fall of man.

Knowledge of the fall offers the greatest hope to fallen man because with this understanding we can find the road of restoration. Not only that, God's existence and the contradiction of man's existence can now be understood. Mankind must know that man was broken by the fall and must be repaired. God's mandate is for man to become whole again and return to Him.

Why can't God deal with man as he is? The Bible says to forgive your enemies seventy times seven, and if that is the virtue of a loving God then why can't He come down here and embrace fallen man? Why can't He intervene?

The real battle is being fought in you, not in the nation or world

We must understand the essence of the fall of man. Another power named Satan was involved in the fall of man. Consequently, there is a good god which is God and there is an evil "god" which is Satan. That does not mean that originally there were two gods, two origins of the universe. How can man ever find harmony within himself unless some reconciliation is made between the two gods? God is not God unless He can deal with this evil "god" and the evil fallen body of man. If God cannot bring man's evil body to the side of good then Satan will bring man's good mind to the side of evil. God must be capable of liquidating this evil world that has come under the subjugation of Satan.

What is the domain and base of the evil god? Satan's working base is not America or your family but your physical body, while God's working base is your mind. Expanding this pattern onto the world scale, there are two worlds: the God-denying world and the God-accepting world. The two must be divided and a final solution found. Desiring to create the world which represents Him and His ideology, God is inspiring religious leaders and champions and letting them expand their influence all over the satanic world on the social, national and worldwide levels. The external appearance of that world at this time in restoration is known as the democratic society, or free world, and the representative of that free world is America. The other world is the communist world, which claims that there is no God and also claims that the end justifies any means. Communists don't care how many people they kill but only want to control the world. In the process they treat men like animals because for them human life has no value.

In the democratic world we enjoy freedom to grow spiritually, but the communist world only grants the freedom to glorify the communist state. Freedom does not mean giving license to your body to do anything. Freedom means liberty within the law of God; God is giving us the freedom to actualize goodness. Instead, America today considers freedom the right to pursue individual gratification, particularly when it has to do with the body. True freedom, however, gives man the right to live for the dispensation and purpose of God. Misuse of freedom brings destruction to the eternal nation and world and is not part of the true freedom of God. Freedom should result in constructiveness and be an asset to the Kingdom of God. The concept of equality is also important and means that everyone is equally valuable in the sight of God and for the purpose and will of God. In that respect we are all equal. This is not blind equality where you can claim you are equal to everyone and have a right to do anything anyone else does.

We have been talking about the free world and communist world, but don't concern yourselves too much with them. The thing to worry about is yourself as a base for Satan or God. The real battle is fought in you and you will determine its outcome. Would everyone be happy if the communists took over the world? The very people who claim to be communist also experience struggle between their minds and bodies, the same contradiction you fight against every day. You are the problem area.

If you want to become a godly man, then in subjugating your physical body with your mind you should not want to become only a citizen of one nation but a world citizen or universal citizen. Did God create national boundaries? They are obstacles created by man, not by God. God is thinking of how to eliminate boundaries without seeing wars erupt all over the world. What would be God's most effective tool-power and threats? Definitely love is God's way, but why couldn't God have done it a long time ago? This question presents a very grave problem. God seems very foolish to have allowed all kinds of problems to emerge without intervening. Love is not a new word, but God sees very clearly that until He can find one man who is truly victorious in His sight and who can be a living example of His love, He has no base upon which to work on earth. God is looking for one man, not one nation.

When God gives His love, does He want to give it with just His body at one time and His mind at another, or all together? In the sight of God we must become an acceptable base by being united in mind and body as one central point, No power or money exists which can unite mind and body into one; the only possible way is through the love of God Himself. The power of the Almighty God should be pure and perfected enough that it can cleanse all iniquity and unite mind and body into one. Perfect unity should be caused by the perfect love of God. It's logical that if you are to become a reflection of God you must empty yourself and become a new man, causing your mind and body to resemble God's mind and body. Then God will come down to you and dwell in you in love.

What kind of love does God need, and if God has everything, why does He even need our love? Although God is the origin of love, His love cannot be activated until a circuit is formed and to do that there must be an object to which energy can flow. Without an object God's love and energy will remain dormant. Do you men have love? How about you women, do you have love? Does your love manifest when you are all alone as an individual? It is a universal truth that love is activated when there is a circuit formed by having an object. No matter how almighty God is, unless He can find an object of give and take, He is lonely and very poor. Those who want to live a bachelor life for eternity, raise your hands, If there is such a person, he has some problem. God would be really angry at you if you ever suggested that with His loving heart He should forget about all His headaches with fallen man and remain a bachelor.

Through your hard work your body is being conditioned to lead a heavenly life

Man has two desires: He wants to love and he wants to receive love. Many times women, especially American women, think about how to be loved but they forget about giving love when they get married. If a person just wants to receive love then he is the worst kind of robber. God's love is the only unchanging and unique love, and without having that kind of love as a cure we will never have any hope for humanity.

You must empty yourselves completely and receive the love of God; then you have hope for your mind and body to become one. When they are united in the love of God there is nothing that can separate them. Even in the fallen world men and women sometimes think they love each other so much that they would rather die than be separated, but how much would they be intoxicated by the love of God? The love of God can totally consume you because it is incredibly pure, genuine and unchanging.

There is no solution in the human world that can cure the division between the mind and body of fallen man. The only solution is the love of God and if it comes into you, you must totally open yourself up. Let the love of God dwell in the temple of your body and let it become master of your mind and heart. That is the only possible hope for this fallen world. The body always opposes the will of God but your mind does not need so much nurturing or education. It knows what is best while the body always blocks the will of God. The fall of man created this entanglement of love and now the mind and body go in two different directions. Because it was illicit love that brought the fall of man, man has since emphasized body-oriented love and resisted the coming of heavenly love.

Throughout history God's constant effort has been to suppress the influence of the body. This emphasis is the principal teaching of religion, with religious life always stressing denial of the bodily desires. God's mandate is that your body should obey your mind and if the body wants something else, don't listen to it. This teaching has been God's tool and is always the beginning point of good religious teaching. You cannot fulfill the period of restoration instantly but must nurture your mind with the word and power of God, making it God's ally in your body. In time the body will be conditioned into obeying the mind. Through your hard work you are conditioning your body into accepting a certain way of life.

Satan broke the law of the love of God and when he did that he destroyed virtually everything in the universe. If God were to forgive Satan, He must then destroy everything else because then there would be no hope for restoration left in the universe. That's why God cannot forgive Satan. Jesus taught that you must forgive your enemy seventy times seven and more. That means you should love the pitiful person who is victimized by Satan, but not that you should forgive Satan who caused the sin. If God had forgiven Satan then there would be nothing left to restore because God would be compromising His own love. That would threaten the very existence of God Himself.

When you look at Satan you must know that he is the enemy of the love of God because he did the unforgivable: he broke the law of the love of God. When the end of this fallen world comes close, Satan will go on a rampage out of desperation. That is why there is so much free sex and abnormal satanic love in today's society. It has even become common for married couples to exchange partners for a night and think it's fun!

Satan has always been trying to absolutely control the world, but when the complete revelation of God's truth is given and the Messiah comes, then Satan knows he has no hope of success. Then he will shout defiantly, "I can't have the world but I'll never let you get it either." Satan is using the communists as a tool to undermine this nation internally; they demand acceptance of the lowest kind of social behavior because they know that it's the way they can eventually make this nation crumble so they can easily take it over.

The Unification Church will stand up, expose and thwart this activity and liberate the world. We will expose to the world what Satan has been doing and who he is. Satan has been winning for 6,000 years but at this time I am pushing Satan into a corner and telling him to stop! The love of God is the only way we can bring a solution to the world. We have the total truth revealed by God, and Satan is on the defensive now. If you can win the love of God then nothing else matters; you may lose your country, the world, even your own life, but even so you are winning a greater life. Once you possess the love of God, nothing else matters.

This movement is pursuing two goals: We are searching for the way to make God real and also searching to find the God-like man who can act on behalf of God here on earth. Once we become the embodiment of God's truth we cannot go in any direction except God's, and once we find the solution then this world will begin to shake.

The Principle describes the past and present, explaining not just one topic, but all of history from man's origin to the present time, including a vision for the future. When you engage the love of God you become a universal man because God does not belong to one country or race. Unity of all races, nations and the world becomes possible in the love of God because it transcends all those levels.

Our ambition is the greatest of all, being not only to win God but to penetrate the love of God and possess it completely. Then we have won the world. Man's value becomes limitless and without price when he is united with God. You are to make yourselves into people who are the embodiment of God, who are no longer bound by human weakness. God will become a real subject to you and govern your daily life, and even though you dwell on earth you will then live in two worlds because the spirit world will be so close to you.

Anyone dwelling in God's love is like a magnet, pulling others to him

This principle is a real one. My life has been dedicated to verifying this truth over and over by living it in all situations. When we all manifest it, God will be visible to everyone. Once you become a prisoner of God's love you want to become one with the person who is the center of that love on earth. Such a person is like a magnet which has pulling power over anything nearby.

God is one magnetic pole in heaven and I am another magnetic pole here on earth and together we have formed an electric field. Everyone in that magnetic field can be activated. You may feel as though you are being pulled towards me, but then when we are one you will realize that you have become a magnet also. Then you can pull many others, so great is the supreme power of love. You are not drawn to me personally, but to the love of God which is being transmitted through me. That love belongs to God and not to any individual.

God never created a power greater than love, and when you are truly intoxicated in the love of God then all the mundane needs like eating and sleeping and worldly love become secondary. You can transcend their influence once you are caught by the love of God. At that point your longing and love for me will become so strong that you cannot forget me for a moment, even in the midst of any activity. It is then that the world of impure love will no longer be of interest to you and a big door will open wide to a pure, genuine, spiritual love. That should be real to you in experience, but also clear to you by logic.

The problem is whether the Unification Church is actually living this way. Do you really love me that much? Am I more important to you than eating and sleeping? When you experience this, that love will become real right here in the Unification Church, and even more amazing, anyone around you will feel the same magnetic power and be pulled to you. They will want to love and respect you and do anything to support you.

God has been longing for 6,000 years to see the day when that would come about. Actually the number 6,000 is just symbolic; God has been longing and waiting for millions of years for that day of fulfillment. That day is happening now in this junction of your lives and mine. You believe this is the truth but because of your lukewarm attitude you do not live it. Later when you go to spirit world you will see the most realistic and incredible truth unfolding before you and you will feel ashamed.

How much do these pounds of flesh mean to you? A wise man will invest his body to attain external value at this key time in history. That is why Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is in the midst of you, that no one should seek the Kingdom of Heaven anywhere else. The Kingdom of God is composed of the love of God, which is very logical. Jesus said, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me and you are in me and I am in you." All of this makes sense once this principle becomes real to you. Your day of perfection comes when you are inseparably linked to the powerful, explosive love of God.

Throughout the thousands of years since your first ancestors were on earth the physical body has been serving Satan, but when you revolutionize your body as a base for God instead, those thousands of years of stains will be wiped out. Something that dramatic is possible and will throw Satan into despair and bring the day of glory and vindication for you and for God. Can you declare your day of victory? Have you ever thought about the love of God and do you feel that you are becoming the embodiment of His love? I know you have tried and that you are beginning to sense it, but the day will come when it will be real and you will feel ecstatic joy. If you taste that love even once then you won't want to go anywhere else. If you are lying down at that moment then you'll say, "God, don't disturb me. I want to lie in this position for eternity." I won't explain these experiences too much for your minds won't grasp it.

I have examined these things from the historical point of view, the religious point of view and the dispensational point of view, and from every angle I have come to the same conclusion. The most important verification of it is my own tears. I have cried out for Heavenly Father's heart for many years, shedding tears which are testimony that this is the truth. Alone I discovered this precious jewel that no one could possibly buy with money. Since I am the one who discovered it, I am the front-line soldier who must show the way so that no one else will be mistaken.

I am crazy and impatient to lay the highway so that everyone else might arrive at the same conclusion. I have been walking the path from the individual level, to the family, tribal, national and worldwide levels. I came to the pinnacle at the Washington Monument Rally, the symbolic victory representing the universal level of God's victory.

When spiritual people ask God who I am, God's voice reveals to them that they must know clearly that I have done greater things than they. God has done much more than I have, working for millions of years, but I have fulfilled His providence on the physical level in several decades. Logically you understand how religion has been the tool of God. I want you to know that what I have explained is very scientific, confirmed by theory and logic.

Since confirming the truth, I can come to America and proclaim that I can unite the world. Without such a background no one could boldly announce such a thing, but you have met the very man who can make such a declaration. I started out with nothing, without one handle to grasp in this vast universe. I didn't know where to start because there was no teacher, no comforter, no friend. Now I have many friends in you, but I was the one who re-created you.

Are Americans indebted to me or not? Those parents who kidnap their own children will later repent and regret how foolish they were. It seems unreal now, but in the future their lineage will have a black mark if they cause their children to leave this movement.

What kind of person do you want to become, a possessor of God's love or of a Ph.D. from Harvard? Is it more precious to be President or a child of God? It is quite clear to you now, but coming to that conclusion was not so easy for me. You have no idea how I prayed for hours and hours, and how even now I sit on the floor in prayer every night. I am a serious man. Unless I had the real answer to all the world's questions I could not tackle this mission. No other religious leader had the answers that I now know.

Even if what I say is a lie, you could never lose by following this way of life. Suppose I had created a whole new theory for uniting the world that God never thought about; God would come down and bargain to buy it from me.

What method will bring you to the love of God?

Now we come to a matter of more reflection. You want to be taught the method which will bring you to the love of God, but you are all greedy to get such a precious thing without paying for it. How much tuition would you be willing to pay? All the people in the spirit world and the physical world put together couldn't pay for it. Many people think that I came to America for selfish reasons, but I laugh at that because possessing America is far too small a goal. My goal is much bigger: I wanted to know how to have the love of God, and I found the answer to be very simple. Do you want to know what it is?

Let's start by saying that there are three undeniable urges in man. If you are hungry enough you will do anything to get food. When you are tired you have the urge to sleep, and when you have the urge to make love it can be overwhelming. If these three elements are denied man there cannot be any happiness.

Who here has fasted seven days? On the seventh day you may count the minutes until you can eat, but that final moment will determine whether you pass or fail your entire fast. If you run to the kitchen and grab your food then you have failed, but if you can think of God at that moment and say, "Heavenly Father, I love You more than food. I can sustain far greater hunger than this for You" then you have succeeded. If you can fulfill your responsibility with a hungry stomach then you are an even more precious child to God. If you even forget about mealtime you are more precious. Women are generally weaker in this area than men. You must be victorious in overcoming hunger. Your love for God must make you strong enough to overcome the love of food.

You must be able to endure lack of sleep for love of God. Sometimes I am busy at night and just forget the time to sleep. For seven years in the early days in Korea I didn't have any bed to lie on and be comfortable in so I just lay on a table and slept a couple of hours. You can go out walking at night and say, "God, I'm here. While the world is sleeping I came out to meet You." Even now I love nature because it reminds me of the past when I went out in nature asking God to meet me.

Can you overcome the urge for physical love out of love of God? In the old days in Korea, many women chased after me but I was victorious. How could I withstand the temptation presented by having many women following me? Only through the power of the love of God. You will also face these temptations.

My first wife wanted to divorce me because she thought that I didn't love her and was only intoxicated with God. She just couldn't stand it and protested and protested, trying to win my attention, but it wasn't possible. She always said she could never find another husband like me and always complained that I should pay attention to being with her for just thirty minutes. Knowing the Principle, I really tested myself to show God and humanity that the power of God is so strong that nothing could hamper it. Could you interrupt loving your mate out of love for God? The ultimate test is whether you love God more than anyone else.

Even if you made a hole in yourself with a drill it would not equal the pain of liberating yourself and loving God most of all. How much are you fulfilling the qualifications to be a son or daughter of God? You must feel ashamed when you cannot win over all the temptations in perfection. What would you say when you pray? "God, help me. I want You to love me"? Ask yourself if you are really ready to receive the love of God. Have you made yourself qualified? An imperfect person should say, "For my sake, for Your sake, don't come too close to me. I'm not worthy. Let me make myself ready for You first." Why can't you become sons and daughters of God more easily? Do you want to eat anything you like and sleep all the hours you feel like? Do you want to live the way you like and still claim to be God's son? God has told me, "You are my loving son," and you certainly want to hear the same thing from God.

Do not try to get God's blessing of marriage too quickly. Blessing is fearful in a way. I am sure some of you are wondering why you haven't been blessed yet, but instead you should think that you are not ready to receive a member who is really loving God, and that you can't lift up your face before God. When you know the standard then you know how unworthy you are and you can honestly think that this person is too good for you. That person is God's representative and you in turn should be able to love him as God's representative.

The Americans who have had free sex come to me and think that they are ready to be blessed. How can they think that? I compared their lives to my own standard and then I reasoned that everyone has a past to be forgiven and decided that they could be accepted with repentance. The important thing is your attitude and you should use every second of the day to elevate yourself to the higher goal. In many cases I don't see that urgency in American Church members. Complacency and apathy are a big problem. In any case I am not the one who will judge you; the Principle will judge you instead of me.

You state leaders are important to our Church but you don't know me too well. It is a serious situation. It is providential that we have met but how can we succeed together? "True Parents" is an awesome word but you say it without thinking. Sometimes I don't like to hear it spoken because it is too cheaply said.

Instead of complaining, put meaning into your difficulty

There is indemnity for you to pay and you must do your 5% by taking your hunger or sleepiness as a condition of indemnity. Put meaning into these things instead of complaining; show that your love of God is greater than all of your desires. By doing that you can fulfill your 5% very quickly. I have become victorious in overcoming hunger. I have become victorious in overcoming lack of sleep and I have become victorious in overcoming the urge for love.

Up to now you have been eating for your own comfort and satisfaction and you have slept for yourself and made love for yourself. Instead of fasting all year in restitution, you must revolutionize the concept of eating and sleeping and loving. When you have your meal in front of you, think that you are going to consume the meal as God's representative. Let God eat the meal instead of yourself. For the sake of God and humanity you need that meal and as God's representative you will take the meal for your body. After you eat go out and use it for God's work instead of your own entertainment. God gave you a full stomach and now you can go and work for humanity. That's how your concept should become different.

Don't sleep for yourself. Sleep for God and humanity so you can be a better fighter tomorrow. The physical body does indeed have some limitations but don't stop there. Go to your maximum and when you reach your limitation don't stop. Cross that limitation and then come back and rest. Then your concept will become different.

It is the same in making love. As a blessed couple your love is for the sake of all humanity and for the sake of posterity. You are doing a favor for God in creating your family, but husbands must look at their wives as the symbolic total of all women of the world and of all future women of the world. By loving your wife you can love all the women of the world. Remember the greater love that you can pursue-love of God, of the Church, of the True Parents. You can transcend your personal love and become an offering for the greater purpose of love. Always be ready to go beyond yourself.

How could you not expect persecution and suffering for following such a high goal? Being a man of God, you are not persecuted as one man but as a son of God, as the representative of God. By receiving persecution and suffering, you are paying indemnity for all those in the past who suffered here on earth. Had you ever thought that you were doing them that favor? God is giving you the chance to win over all facets of human relationships-political, religious, physical, economic, sexual-and clear them in the spirit world. Actually you are setting a condition to liberate yourself in all those areas and then no one can accuse you because there will be nothing left for Satan to manipulate.

No one can do your 5% except yourself and you must search after it and liquidate it. When you make yourself God's representative then everything you do becomes God's act. When you pick up peanuts or gum for fund raising, it is God's act. God has given you a mandate to fund raise and even though you may look like a beggar you are actually God's ambassador. If you fund raise under much persecution then you will feel lonely, but if you win the result with the conviction that you are God's ambassador then it is even more precious. People may not like to give you money but you have a right to receive it because it will be used to restore the ungodly world. Everything depends on how your mind works. That creates value.

Life on the MFT is valuable indemnity. There you meet all kinds of people, circumstances and suffering and the only way you can sustain yourself is by making yourself an ambassador of God. It is excellent training. Perhaps you have been in the Unification Church for three years but still you are humbly dressed and externally you have gained nothing. You might even look more pale and humbly dressed than you did three years ago but now you have some precious luggage, a package of indemnity. If you did anything wrong while you were sincerely trying to do God's will then that becomes my responsibility, not yours.

If you have a big package of indemnity then you can go to God and pay indemnity for your family, your race, your country and even the spirit world, all out of your own spiritual bank account. It parallels the love you can give in the spirit world. My thinking is different from yours; I am looking for the next problem because I want more criticism and controversy so I can fill a bag of indemnity big enough to liberate everyone, including the spirit world.

Is going on the MFT a blessing or curse? On the MFT you can meet God. When you go out to the streets with a sincere and earnest heart then God will speak to you. Do you think that you are a wise guy to avoid hard work? No, you are foolish, wasting your energy and time. Whether people recognize your work or not, jump into it and bite into the mainstream of the movement. The Bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, and now you know why the Unification Church must go this way.

Money manipulates everything in this world, but our money is entirely different because it has nothing to do with our own power. I am winning money for God's purpose and spending it for humanity, not for myself. You have to go beyond loving your own race and nationality and make yourself a person who loves God. Then you are a world citizen, a universal man.

At first you were frightened, but now you are confident to do the job

Ours is a dream-like task but we are seriously tackling it as reality. After being on the MFT you will go witnessing, sweating and shedding tears for the restoration of man. Later you will sweat and labor for the construction of your family and home. MFT duty or witnessing is a light burden compared to harmonizing one heavenly home here on earth. Perfecting your love in your home is not easy! When you are husband and wife, you may quarrel about trivial things and then you will look back on your days on the MFT and witnessing, remembering how you were really patient to win one person. When you think of that then you know that winning your husband or wife is more difficult.

At the outset of human history Satan plundered the heavenly creation and Adam and Eve, and ultimately took away the love between God and man. Now we are restoring all things by restoring love and creating heavenly homes. I know very well that we have to pay the historical debt and I know how difficult it is. When you set the condition of absolute obedience then whether your result is good or poor doesn't make any difference. You can grab me and say, "At least I did one thing; I obeyed you unconditionally," Then I have no excuse and God has no excuse. If you love me then how could I send you away?

Originally God wanted man to become physically and spiritually mature at the same time, having one man and woman create the heavenly Garden of Eden. When man and woman, mind and body, East and West become one and are ignited by the love of God, then the true Garden of Eden will exist. Can you imagine the time when all indemnity is paid and you are lifted up by the fire of love? You would blast off and zoom all the way through the cosmos.

This world is trying to evaluate the depth of such knowledge and truth but it can't be captured by only watching me or by using special lenses or a microscope. When I went to sea, people in nearby boats were studying me with binoculars but all they saw was an ordinary Oriental man sitting there. The depth of someone's heart cannot be seen. You can hide a beautiful love in your own heart and no one can see it. Each one of you should have a powerhouse inside that is not visible to the human eye. When you become a powerhouse of the love of God you can communicate with the spirit world and with God Himself.

In the beginning when I would push you out you were almost frightened, but now the truth has filtered down to the depths of your heart and you feel that this job needs to be done, and you also feel confident that you can do it. I am not just blindly pushing you. I never ask anything that I have not already experienced, so don't think I am just a cruel man. Once you know the truth then you can joyfully respond and push yourself out. You will become a self-disciplined man.

Shall we continue to search after the love of God? If the rest of the world were competing to do more for the love of God, what kind of world would we have? If America is restored, then its young people will ask where they can go to suffer and put on the shoes of a servant in order to help the people. You have learned that already so you want to practice it here in America, and if all American young people were mobilized in that fashion, then with the love of God the world could be conquered as though it were a small peanut.

Usually I do not speak this openly. Do you know why I am in such a jubilant mood? I drove westward for several thousand miles and now I feel as though I have arrived home in Korea.

When I see immature, uncommitted people I feel almost sorry for them. Will you determine to live up to my expectation? This is your country, so you should want to restore it more than I do. Would you like to do it in place of me? Your yes is not a committed yes. Since we were searching for the love of God and we found it. That's all I have to say. Is there anything further? You have the highest goal and you know it clearly now. Don't worry about whether God comes down to help you in your state. You can tell God to go help the weaker people in another state. You can tell me to go take a trip and really appreciate America or to take a year or two and visit other continents instead of coming to visit you. Can you do it? I don't even need to worry about ten or twenty years from now? I heard your answer. Let us pray.

We who Know the Heart of God

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1977
Excerpt
The Heart Of Reunion
Belvedere, New York

Sun Myung Moon at Hoon Dok Hae, June 6, 2011

Sun Myung Moon at Hoon Dok Hae, June 6, 2011

To accomplish this gigantic historical task, you must discover the extraordinary power of love, love that does not become the circumstantial victim of society. Supreme love transcends every national, racial and cultural barrier.

People have always talked about love but human love alone will never accomplish the task of universal unity. Therefore, the Unification Church rallies around one love, the love and heart of God. We are the first group in history to talk about the heart of God. If it is really true that we know the heart of God then we are like the sun rising in the morning and no one can ever stop us. Furthermore, the brightness of that morning sun shall brighten the entire world. There will be one center of heart here on earth, linking all mankind to the heart of God, spreading all over the world and constantly pulsing through the action of give and take, unable to stay in just one place.

Your whole purpose for reaching the center is to meet the heart of God. That experience is so overwhelming and exciting that you cannot disappear there forever, but must emerge again to embrace your family, society, nation and world. As you touch each of those areas you will always leave a bit of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is the joy in the heart of reunion. The East and West are meeting here today, not merely because we want to see each other for personal reasons but because the heart of God is linking us together into one. Words cannot describe that heart too well for it is beyond words. Intuitively you can understand; that something is what warmed your hearts and brought you here today.

If the heart of God is not moving within your heart then you feel empty, even though you may be a member of the Unification Church. Once the invisible but powerful axis of the heart of God is moved out of you, everything becomes empty. Once the heart of God dwells within you, no matter how lonely you may be you will be filled and the universe will be filled. A person who is completely filled is a joyful person because he lacks nothing.

Once you have felt the heart of God you feel that you cannot survive if it should ever leave you, and until you are reunited with God's heart you feel lifeless. Often a child will dearly love his mother and want to be home just to be with her. If he runs home one day and finds all his brothers and sisters home but his mother gone, then he will grumble and say, "Nobody is home." Everyone else may be there, but if his mother is gone, then to him it seems that nobody is home.

If there is a center of love then you can give love unselfishly and without limit and you can become a subject of love. When you give out of the fullness of this love, you multiply love and can realize the ideal. Love transcends distance and time.

The speed of light is nothing compared to the speed of love; you have no idea how fast love travels. Love is fastest, brightest, fullest and sweetest. Love is the best of everything in all the universe. Only through the power of love can this miracle occur, not through bullets or threats.

Lifestyle of the Unification Church

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1977
Excerpt
The Heart Of Reunion
Belvedere, New York

Sun Myung Moon, May 4, 2011

Sun Myung Moon, May 4, 2011

I want you to know the lifestyle of the Unification Church. Our philosophy and the core of the Principle are connected to the center of the universe and the heart of God. We shall become the shining examples of that love and heart. I want you to realize that each of you can possess the highest thing, the brightest thing, the sweetest thing and the fullest thing.

What kind of mood were you in when you came here this morning? Did you want to get here quickly or did you grumble that you needed more sleep? Why did you miss my ugly face? I didn't bring you any gifts from Boston. You came because you can feel a special power of love when you are around me and you want to receive it. But you can manifest and give that love too, right? Love cannot be seen but it can be felt. When the parents are not present it feels as if nobody is home, As soon as I walk into a room, the room is filled.

Although I am the same kind of person as you, this is true because I devote my entire life to receiving the heart of God. There is no one who understands God more than me. Not only do I know God, but also I am connected deeply with His heart. Anyone who is strongly connected to God can become a life-giving object, even though that life is not visible to the human eye.

You may not become a sun, but you can at least become a lighthouse in the dark. When you first started selling newspapers I'm sure you were scoffed at, but now if you don't appear in your area each day there are people who miss you. You have become a lighthouse already.

You must have the faith and conviction that you are a lighthouse lighting a dark world. The lighthouse will shine forth even in the worst kind of weather because that is the time ships need the lighthouse most. When you are surrounded by the thickest fog you must shine forth all the more. The more adversity, the greater must be your light.

The Heart of Reunion

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

I am very happy to see all of you again after being away for 70 days. When you are separated from someone, you long for them the most if there is a common purpose or goal between you. Then you both yearn to see each other and look forward to the day of reunion. I am Korean and you are Americans and we come from the opposite ends of the world. There must be a providential purpose linking the two extremes of East and West; otherwise, you would not miss me and I would not miss you and we would not look forward to meeting each other again.

To the ordinary person it may seem as if the vast ocean is one stationary body of water. Actually the ocean is continually in motion, with cold currents and warm currents running their separate courses and colliding at certain points. All kinds of movement can be found in the ocean. The tides come in and go out twice a day and tidal flows all over the globe are linked together.

Beneath the ocean's surface are a great variety of fish, which are influenced by the currents and the tidal waters. Very often many fish gather where the warm and cold currents collide, creating certain areas famous for fishing such as the northern part of the US near Boston and northern Europe. Different types of fish live in fresh or salt water, but at spawning time certain species go to an estuary, where the fresh water and salt water flow together, to lay their eggs.

It is very intriguing and even mystical to see how the places and times of meeting and coming together are very important to all forms of life. For instance, the ancient cultures such as developed in Greece and Rome without exception began to grow at places where land and water meet. No early human civilization could prosper apart from a river or the sea.

It is universal power that pushes two extremes together for a greater purpose

When the distance between two parts is extreme there is always greater joy, emotion and drama involved in their reunion than if they had not experienced such extreme separation. I came from a land on the other side of the globe, a land that many Americans drink of as being a remote country. In their minds they still envision Korea as being ravaged by war. It is as if the U.S. was on the pinnacle of a mountain while Korea was in the depths of a valley. That is why many people cannot understand how a man from Korea can attract such attention in a nation which stands at the pinnacle of modern-day culture.

In the vast ocean a tremendous variety of things happen when the warm and cold currents meet. When we gather together we are like five kinds of ocean currents flowing into the same area and extraordinary things can happen as a result. It is not my will or your will but some providential will that makes this so. There must be a universal power that pushes two extremes to unite for a greater purpose.

Exciting music is not made with just one or two tones, but with tones which range from high to low and with a variety of instruments. That blending of extremes makes exciting music. At the same time, one instrument alone cannot create excitement. In order to make the drums exciting the drummer has to combine many motions and gestures as well as rhythms. The violin combines different extremes, using thin strings to create very feminine, beautiful sounds. The beauty of the violin is that even though it has only a few strings, it is possible to produce extreme variation in sound.

The union of people from the East and West can be compared to playing the violin; Westerners are like the low notes of a violin while Asians are like the high notes. Americans walk with a long, swinging stride, like King Kong, but the Japanese walk lightly, taking small steps. More excitement is created when the two extremes unite to make one harmonized picture. We do not use the word harmony to describe primarily the unity of similar things. The most moving, beautiful harmony is created when extremes come together. The value of harmony lies in this unity.

What color flowers do you like? Everyone has a different preference. If everyone liked only the color yellow, however, then everything in the entire world would soon be yellow, with yellow clothes and even yellow lipstick. The result would be a mad, mad world of yellow! The blending together of all kinds of colors can be interpreted and understood in many different ways; it is a universal mystery. When you can see your feelings reflected in different ways you never tire of such beauty.

In just one person you can see many different colors; Bo Hi Pak, for instance, has black hair and a tanned forehead and a gray suit. Women always wear ornaments to enhance their appearance, but they don't wear everything of the same color. When they wear red they want to wear some jewelry that matches, something of a different color that harmonizes.

Would everyone without exception like to have blue eyes? How about having a blue tongue or blue skin and teeth? Why did God give blue eyes to some people? The people who have white skin, high noses and blonde hair need some contrast, so God gave them blue eyes, like two little ponds. Because American noses are so high their eyes are very deep; you have to peer in several miles to see their eyes! If they had black eyes at the bottom of such deep wells they would look fearful, almost evil in a way. Having lighter color eyes creates beauty and harmony in a much more dramatic way.

Imagine a person laughing whose teeth were all black. He would look like a monster! When you examine the creation you know that God is really an artist, and that no better harmony could have been created. Everything is interestingly blended, with people having precisely the features which would harmonize with a certain color face.

One action may have two entirely different meanings. Imagine a person whose mouth was always open. You would usually think that something was wrong with that person, that he was out of his mind. But that person might be intoxicated by some magnificent emotion or some tremendous shock. Laughing and crying change your features in similar ways, but one expresses joy and the other sorrow.

Light is always created at the boundary when two things meet in harmony. Why should people from one culture follow someone from an extremely different culture? Why have you Americans come to the Unification Church, which was founded by a man from Asia? You are here to unite the universal beauty of the two extremes of East and West together into one harmonized culture. When two great cultures meet to form harmony, turmoil is inevitable at first. When a flowing stream hits the rocks in its path disturbances are created. It goes through many convolutions, splashing over rocks and churning at the bottom of a waterfall, but that does not alter its destiny. All streams eventually join the mainstream which flows to the oceans. All water is connected to the same source and flows to the same destination. In the same way many parents are currently opposing the Unification Church, but the day will come when they will join the mainstream, just as all running water eventually does.

There is tremendous variety and purity of creation in the mountains, and the water from mountain streams is also very healthy. Mountain water absorbs essences from the varieties of creation found there, but rivers which run through the plains and flat lands, like the Mississippi or Nile, have no clean taste or special characteristics. Every pebble on the bottom of a mountain creek, every weed and every leaf play an important part in harmonizing the entire environment. When looked at from this viewpoint everything becomes more beautiful. The running streams which start in the depths of the mountains will never make you sick, no matter how much you drink. Mountain animals drink the pure water and breathe clean air all the time so they are strong and healthy.

Everything that I am speaking of comes down to one simple word: harmony. The ideal world is not a world of uniformity and regimentation but a world of harmony in which each person plays a distinctive role. It is not one species alone which creates the grandeur of the mountains. They are made beautiful in part by the infinite variety of the trees, some gigantic, some crooked, and of all different shades and hues.

Cultures must partake of both the pinnacle and the valley

Why do we meet here? Why do we need to create harmony? I have a reason for selecting the topic of today's sermon as "The Heart of Reunion." External unity itself has shallow meaning, and I want you to appreciate the fact that there must be deep meaning and love in our gathering together. There are all kinds of subjects to study in our world, but I think the study of harmony is the most important. After being educated in the "Department of Harmony" would you want to marry within your own cultural and racial background?

White and black people live together here in America but have they created perfect harmony in this land? Who is responsible for that lack of harmony, white people or black people? Be honest and frank. I agree with your answer that basically white people have been responsible for that. Even though God meant for harmony to exist when he put two extremes together, there is little harmony among the races here in America. The white people must take primary responsibility for the lack of harmony in this country,

At high noon the sun is bright but even at that moment the sun is moving towards the opposite extreme of midnight. In living you must be willing to go through the darkness of midnight to arrive at the high noon of the next day. The Western culture is primarily a white culture, and in general white people think of themselves as superior to the black and yellow people. Westerners think of their culture as being self-sufficient, but that is comparable to refusing to go through midnight; the sun cannot always remain at high noon. The Western culture will never see broad daylight again unless there is unity. When Westerners can be broadened by absorbing elements from other cultures, a new day will dawn and there will be the glorious prosperity of another high noon.

The cultures which can go from the pinnacle to the valley and vice versa are closer to perfect harmony than those which never change their positions. The Greek and Roman empires thought they could stay on the pinnacle forever. They had no intuition that they would be destroyed, but now their civilizations are gone. Today the Western culture is enjoying being on the pinnacle, but this civilization will also terminate unless it seeks the valley. This is a universal law and no one can escape it.

The key to the continuing prosperity of the cultures is harmony but a harmonizer is needed, someone who can bring unity between two extremes. That unity cannot be accomplished all at once, but will require time. It is logical that a yellow man would be the mediator between black and white. Because God needed such a mediator He asked me to come to America to heal the rift between white and black. It is the white people who have been rejecting me while the black people have embraced me. That does not mean that God is showing special favor to the blacks alone, however. That phenomenon will help to save the white people by giving them another chance to transcend the barrier of race.

White people feel threatened by two things primarily: the power of communism and the increasing power of the yellow race. When Western leaders look at me and at our movement they wonder whether I am a communist or the leader of some yellow menace and they easily feel suspicious. But an even more formidable enemy would be the yellow race mobilized by the communist influence. America is obviously fearful of Red China, and the American government policy makers are in effect trying to charm the Chinese leaders.

Why should America, only 200 years old but the mightiest nation on earth, be so intimidated by Red China, whose present form of government is less than 30 years old? Anyone who is aware of world affairs can sense a threat to the Western world from the Asian communist powers.

I may be from Asia but the position I take is opposite the communist stand. The Asian communists say that there is no God, but I proclaim that there is a God and that He is our Father. Instead of supporting communism I have come to the West to educate the young people about God. The communist Chinese declare that the yellow race has unjustly suffered because of the white race and that the oppressed people of the world should now unite under communism to conquer the world. I declare that we cannot allow that to happen and that our solution instead is to unite all the races together under one common parent, God; that will be the governing power of the world.

Two powers within the yellow race are confronting each other in a fierce battle. One, the Asian communists, wants to swallow up the West, while the other, our Unification Church forces, wants to defend the West from that menace. I have come to this country for a purpose which is like filling a container with everything necessary to accomplish that mission. Once everything necessary is gathered, that container will overflow and then nothing will be able to stop us from defending the West. The power that is gathered will certainly not be for yellow people alone but for the salvation of the Western culture and all races of mankind, coming together as one gigantic river more powerful than Niagara Falls. We are building up that stream, starting out like a small creek and building into a big river.

The seasons of history

In what direction should the Unification Church go? We must move to the extremes. If we are in a high place we must head toward the lowest place and work there. If we are in the lowest position we must head toward the highest position. In America, the Unification Church is in the lowest position. We should be ready to aim as high as possible and move America back to God. It is realistically beginning to happen this year. Eventually we will not be on the bottom but will find ourselves way on top.

Where should we go after that? To Moscow! The tropical waters of the earth are slowly fuming toward the North Pole, while at the same time the waters of the northern areas are heading toward the warm areas. The ancient cultures were found in semi-tropical climates-for instance, Egypt by the Nile River and Greece by the Mediterranean. The present nations leading the free world are found in the temperate climates, however. The trend of history is inclining toward the cold weather zone, with a northern power like. the Soviet Union determined to dominate the world and cover it like a blizzard.

The Garden of Eden was located in the tropical zone, which can be compared to spring. Human civilization eventually spread to cooler climates comparable to autumn, and now has penetrated the coldest, most winter-like areas. History has entered the autumn, and just as winter's winds blow the last leaves from the trees, the cold wind of communism is being felt in this autumn culture. But at the same time, autumn represents the harvest when new seeds enfold the promise of a new generation. Now the leaves of the old culture are falling, but at the same time we are harvesting the seeds of a new culture.

I want you to know that this trend of human civilization precisely parallels the patterns of restoration. The seed is protected by its hull and cannot be destroyed by weather. It is protected until the new day arrives. Who will greet spring when it arrives? The seed is the only element that can go through the hard cold winter to start new life in the spring. This is not my theory at all but an historical principle.

The new way of life will not be contaminated by either the communist ideology or democracy. In other words, the seed will not be affected by any of the four seasons. Where can we find the ideology which can be that seed? The Unification Church has the ideology, and you will be the seeds that shall survive the severest weather to meet the spring. Have you ever before thought about yourself as being a seed?

You are just starting to think that way. If you are absolutely convinced that you can cultivate that seed then this is an historical event. This concept is so gigantic and the reality is so soaring that once you deeply realize your position, you would feel as if you have been struck by lightening. I know you have never imagined that such gigantic things are happening.

Like seeds forming, you must absorb elements from all races and cultures

Today's Western culture is equivalent to the autumn season. No matter how much you may want to delay winter's arrival, its coming is inevitable. Even now winter is knocking at the door and in order to be a fruitful seed, the Unification Church needs a shell of discipline and training that will enable it to survive under any circumstances. In the summertime people go to cool places on their vacation and in the wintertime they go to warm places like Miami Beach, trying to escape the cold weather. But Unification Church members do the opposite; we meet the seasons head on and conquer them. That is our way of life. Your living that way is a manifestation of formidable spiritual power. The degree to which the American people say you are brainwashed is a measure of your conviction.

You know you will go through winter but you must also envision spring's coming. Your job is to make yourself a solid seed so that when the spring comes God will cast you on very fertile ground and you will be fruitful. Are you ready to be tested by the cold weather of communism? Could you withstand torture by people who want you to recant your faith? If you are that strong, the fallen world will call you a problem child because no one will be able to bend you; but in studying the trends of history it is obvious that people like us must inevitably appear. The existence of the Unification Church is not an accident but the fruit of history.

We are thankful to be chosen for this job because we have the hope that after the cold weather of communism passes a new world will be born and spring will come. That is the day our hope shall be realized. The winter is never permanent. By gathering together people from all races and cultures we are trying to exchange each other's indestructible elements in order to arm ourselves to overcome any circumstance. We can never be destroyed if we are trained for survival.

In order to become one solid seed, you must draw energy and nutrients from all elements: the soil, water and sun's rays. All year round a seed is gathering the elements it needs. Do you white people still have some feeling of separateness from black or yellow people? Do you black people feel resentment towards whites, even after learning the Principle? Unless each of you can draw good elements from the others you cannot survive to grow in the springtime. The whole point is how to create one indestructible seed. When the spring culture of the ideal world comes I would like to name it "choon wha," which means "one central harmony" or "central peace." Are you ready to become the essence of the central harmony?

Our contribution is to knit all mankind together with the love of God

History is advancing toward one spring culture of the Kingdom of God on earth. That is the ultimate goal of human history. You are supposed to be the seed that will grow in that springtime, but where does a seed come from? God is the ultimate origin or root from which each seed grows. You are the seeds of God, created through the process of love, and two gigantic loves are essential for your life and must be harmonized within you-love of humanity and the love of God.

Love must always freely move into the center and then back out to the world. Love is not stationary but flowing all the time. The center of that circling movement is the Messiah; in occupying that position he channels the heavenly love so that you can transmit it on a horizontal level.

Throughout history man has thought that the ideal society with perfect love between man and God and man and man was only a dream, but the Messiah shall make the dream a reality. The Unification Church is born for that purpose and we can attain that goal. The greatest contribution we can make to the world is to knit all of mankind together with the love of God. Throughout history there has always been conflict between North and South, East and West, not just between nations but within families and on every level of society. Historically unity has proved to be an impossible task but I am striving for that today.

Even on the small peninsula of Korea the Southerners and Northerners have a sense of different identity and have had animosity toward each other throughout their history. Even in our church, when a southern man and a northern woman were blessed together they were like two knights ready for battle. When they initially confronted each other with animosity their families were also hostile, but as their relationship became happier their joy naturally influenced their surroundings and their relatives. Now their hearts have been melted and they are united as one family.

Initially there was a great deal of criticism of our mass weddings in Korea, but now many Korean young people anticipate becoming part of one such wedding. Even non-members feel a great deal of excitement. There was also violent opposition in Japan when our members were married apart from the usual traditions, but now the parents have seen how happy their sons and daughters are and how beautiful they are together. Parents have even said there must some magic to those mass weddings to make those people so happy.

Americans think you are just foolish young people but wider acceptance of our movement will come when people see the fruit of the Principle. The quickest way to unite mankind into one family is by intermarriage of the different races. The movement which can elevate such marriages will inevitably bring harmony and unity to the world, without war or conflict. In the future more and more Americans will seek international marriages uniting the different nations and races; these will bring honor not shame.

To accomplish this gigantic historical task, you must discover the extraordinary power of love, love that does not become the circumstantial victim of society. Supreme love transcends every national, racial and cultural barrier. People have always talked about love but human love alone will never accomplish the task of universal unity. Therefore, the Unification Church rallies around one love, the love and heart of God. We are the first group in history to talk about the heart of God.

If it is really true that we know the heart of God then we are like the sun rising in the morning and no one can ever stop us. Furthermore, the brightness of that morning sun shall brighten the entire world. There will be one center of heart here on earth, linking all mankind to the heart of God, spreading all over the world and constantly pulsing through the action of give and take, unable to stay in just one place.

Love is the best of everything in all the universe

Your whole purpose for reaching the center is to meet the heart of God. That experience is so overwhelming and exciting that you cannot disappear there forever, but must emerge again to embrace your family, society, nation and world. As you touch each of those areas you will always leave a bit of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is the joy in the heart of reunion. The East and West are meeting here today, not merely because we want to see each other for personal reasons but because the heart of God is linking us together into one. Words cannot describe that heart too well for it is beyond words. Intuitively you can understand; that something is what warmed your hearts and brought you here today.

If the heart of God is not moving within your heart then you feel empty, even though you may be a member of the Unification Church. Once the invisible but powerful axis of the heart of God is moved out of you, everything becomes empty. Once the heart of God dwells within you, no matter how lonely you may be you will be filled and the universe will be filled. A person who is completely filled is a joyful person because he lacks nothing.

Once you have felt the heart of God you feel that you cannot survive if it should ever leave you, and until you are reunited with God's heart you feel lifeless. Often a child will dearly love his mother and want to be home just to be with her. If he runs home one day and finds all his brothers and sisters home but his mother gone, then he will grumble and say, "Nobody is home." Everyone else may be there, but if his mother is gone then to him it seems that nobody is home.

If there is a center of love then you can give love unselfishly and without limit and you can become a subject of love. When you give out of the fullness of this love, you multiply love and can realize the ideal. Love transcends distance and time.

The speed of light is nothing compared to the speed of love; you have no idea how fast love travels. Love is fastest, brightest, fullest and sweetest. Love is the best of everything in all the universe. Only through the power of love can this miracle occur, not through bullets or threats. The Unification Church's philosophy and conviction are connected to the center of the universe &-the heart of God. We shall become the shining examples of that love and heart. I want you to realize that each of you can possess the highest thing, the brightest thing, the sweetest thing and the fullest thing.

What kind of mood were you in when you carne here this morning? Did you want to get here quickly or did you grumble that you needed more sleep? Why did you miss my ugly face? I didn't bring you any gifts from Boston.

You came because you can feel a special power of love when you are around me and you want to receive it. But you can manifest and give that love too, right? Love cannot be seen but it can be felt. When the True Parents are not present it feels as if nobody is home, doesn't it? As soon as I walk into a room, the room is filled. Although I am the same kind of person as you, this is true because I devote my entire life to receiving the heart of God.

Anyone who is strongly connected to God can become a life-giving object, even though that life is not visible to the human eye. You may not become a sun, but you can at least become a lighthouse in the dark. When you first started selling newspapers I'm sure you were scoffed at, but now if you don't appear in your area each day there are people who miss you. You have become a lighthouse already.

You must have the faith and conviction that you are a lighthouse lighting a dark world. The lighthouse will shine forth even in the worst kind of weather because that is the time ships need the lighthouse most. When you are surrounded by the thickest fog you must shine forth all the more. The more adversity, the greater must be your light.

I have now set the fishing tradition

I have become a legend in the Gloucester area; the newspaper there wrote several articles about our fishing and we were a topic of conversation for the whole town. Hundreds of boats come every year from all over to fish in that particular area; when the New Hope put out to sea and dropped anchor then often many other boats would follow and anchor in the vicinity. When we had a tuna strike then other fishermen would bring out their binoculars to watch what I was doing. At first the negative people would want the tuna to break loose and escape, but after a few days of successful catches they began to change their thinking and the rumor began that I have something good working for me.

I was always the first one out to sea. Some of the seasoned professional fishermen would go out early to outdo me but no matter how early they got out the New Hope was already there. The fishermen were not only inspired by this but when they tried to compete with me they had to work so hard that they had no time for their usual drinking or laziness. By the end of the summer a rumor was going around that declining town that I am the only one who can save Gloucester.

Without any exception I got up every day at 3 a.m. The New Hope went out in the moonlight and in many cases returned home with the stars and moon shining. Do you like to get up early in the morning? The staff members working on the boat were never told what time to get up but since I arose at 3 they followed me, no matter how sleepy they were.

This has been my tradition for four years in America. It is not easy to follow me because no one can outwork me. My crew knows what I would do, and if I tell them to be out by 1: 30 on the Atlantic they get up and go out with no grumbling. I have even set the tradition of staying out and working all night. All night.

This summer I did not earn much in terms of money, but in terms of tradition, I earned billions of dollars worth. By following that tradition, the fishing industry in our movement will blossom and contribute much to America's entire fishing industry in days to come. Because I have now set the fishing tradition, no one will hesitate to go out to sea, even the women. If I were a coward then no one would go seriously but now people will be eager to go. There is a record of when and where I caught each fish and how big it was. In the future fishermen will be trying to challenge that record.

Even though fishing is incredibly hard work, I wanted to give myself without any reservation to set the tradition for the posterity of the Unification Church. That has been my work for the last 70 days. What would you do if I were to go out selling the News World 24 hours a day? Would you be selling 24 hours a day also? I might bring the victory if you do not.

You don't know how hard I worked in witnessing. For seven years in the early days in Korea I slept only two hours a night and day after day I spent preaching the word of God and teaching the Principle myself. Sometimes members would become drowsy and sleepy and then all of a sudden be chastised by an angel saying, "How can you sleep like this when he is working so hard day in and day out?"

I'm sure this is the first time you have heard these things. The things I ask you to do I have already done many times in the past. Now I am asking you to do the same. You have no cause to complain.

Throughout my entire life I have accumulated a wealth of experience and spiritual power and now I am bringing it all to America. When visitors come to America they usually try to take something back to their home country, but I am doing the opposite. Everything I have accumulated I want to freely give to the American people, but instead of welcoming me, America is rejecting me.

If you were not here giving me love and listening to me then I would have no more interest in America and I would leave this country. You are the ones holding me in America and you represent 240 million people. You are the hope of this country; without you America will be lost. While you are alive and strong you must let 240 million American people know that the Unification Church is a movement of reunion centering upon the word of God. Once you harness the power of the heart of God, you will have the energy to be a lightning bolt, lighting up all of America. The important thing is whether you have that explosive power in your hearts. You are now like living bombs, just waiting to be ignited and then explode, not for destruction but for salvation.

Today is a new day of reunion and this is the reunion place for the East and West and heaven and earth. The implications of this unity are vast; with this kind of heart New York is much too small to be our stage. When you reach out you must feel that New York is not large enough to hold you. Have you felt, "I am the harmonizer of heavenly culture and earthly culture. I am the focal point of love. I am a messenger of the love of God, having the infinite energy that will bring springtime to this nation."

When you live with the heart of reunion, with the heart of God and the heart of parents, constructive and creative power is generated. By having this nation as our center and all coming together as one we can truly become dynamos to create a new world culture.

There must be purpose for having reunion because otherwise no one would want to meet a second time. We must be ready to meet again after creating some achievement. This morning you should be different, making a new beginning with your heart of reunion and marching forward to the ultimate fulfillment of your goal. Those who can be different this morning, raise your hands. God bless you. Let us pray.

Good Day

Sun Myung Moon
July 3, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

Merely hearing about a good day makes us feel good. Without exception all men are looking forward to living good lives, but who is going to decide what is a good day? No matter how many good things are going on around you, unless you are feeling good yourself you do not think it is a good day. Our conclusion is that you are the one who decides what is a good day.

A good feeling is correspondent, needing to be reciprocated. No matter how good you are, you don't really feel good unless the environment responds to you. Upon waking up in the morning the surrounding atmosphere gives you a certain feeling or mood. Something may uplift you and then you feel good, or nature may communicate with you and you feel happy.

The beauty of nature is not just horizontal, however, but is also vertical. Sunshine beams down upon the earth and creates vertical beauty. When you look at a broad river stretching away before you, you feel absolutely expansive and want to breathe the universe. Yet all these factors alone cannot make one really happy.

Joy cannot be stimulated only by seeing objects. Viewing the river and the sunshine cannot fully stimulate your joy. If at the same time your ears perceive beautiful music or sounds of nature then the visual beauty will be greatly enhanced. If you are gazing at beautiful sights and ' all of a sudden you hear beautiful music then your eyes are pulled in the direction of the music, right?

Which of the two is more stimulating? Why music? Music is another expression of visible nature, capturing the essence of human joy and sorrow. Human passion can be conveyed by music and generate a certain mysterious feeling of inspiration in the listener. People drive three or four hours to get out of the city for a picnic on the 4th of July, looking for a beautiful, natural setting. Yet even then they carry a radio or Sony TV. Why? It is human nature not only to seek the beauty of nature but to pursue stimulating sounds of music as well. Without it we are not complete. Smell is another stimulus to reach one more level of awakening.

However, even if your vision is satisfied by beauty and your ears by beautiful music and your nose by beautiful fragrance, what happens when all of a sudden someone appears with whom you can share your joy? That stimulating relationship comes first; when you have someone you really want to talk with then everything else becomes secondary.

When you have someone you can relate to with love then it is not only your mouth which is speaking. Your entire body is involved in your conversation. When you communicate with a passionate heart, your entire body and soul are totally mobilized to express yourself. You cannot just talk, but want to gesture with your arms and move around and look at everything. That is what makes your expression more genuine.

Your senses are for perceiving and communicating joy

Why did God give man his five senses? They are God's gift for perceiving joy and relating ourselves to everything around us. By looking at someone's eyes you can tell whether that person is joyful or sorrowful. Your eyes tell everything about you. But even more amazing is the fact that all five senses work together. There is no such thing as your eyes laughing and your mouth crying. When your eyes laugh then your whole face harmonizes together to express one feeling. Often people erroneously think they laugh only with their mouths. It is the same as if a single individual in a group would stand up and start laughing; you would say he was a crazy person. No, your entire body laughs, including your limbs.

Sometimes I speculate about who invented make-up. Women try to re-create themselves by using cosmetics, but they invest the most time and creativity in making their eyes beautiful. Your eyes are a very critical part of your face, carrying great weight in your expression. If your eyes look bad then your whole appearance is bad.

To draw attention to their ears women wear earrings. Nowadays even men sometimes wear an earring, or go one step further and wear a nose ring. The nose is also an important area. You want your nose to stand out in a beautiful way, but with the wrong kind of make-up your entire face looks flat. Western women with bigger noses want to make their noses look a little smaller, while Oriental women have flat noses which they want to make stand out a little more. After fixing their eyes, nose, and ears women also fix their mouths.

This emphasis on make-up illustrates my point this morning. Your senses are such an important medium of communication that you want to improve them to carry greater weight. In addition to wearing make-up, Western women like to decorate their necks. Unlike Oriental women, Western women expose the upper parts of their bodies, particularly when they go to parties. Then they need to wear necklaces with ornaments in the center. Western women are tall and have long necks and to balance their long necks they wear necklaces to create a focal point of attention.

In an effort to look shorter, Western women wear short skirts. A tall woman in a long dress looks like a crane or a stork! However, women's behavior in the West does not suit the shorter Oriental women. If little Oriental women were to expose the upper portion of their bodies and wear short skirts and necklaces then they would look ridiculous.

Whether you realize it or not you make efforts to harmonize with nature, wanting to present yourself in the best way possible. All existence in the universe is relative to something else. You want to wear good clothes in order to present yourselves well to other people. If you don't care about your surroundings then you do not have to pay any attention to how you dress and act.

We relate our love to everything in the universe

The topic is "Good Day." On which good day would I share the greatest joy? Which day is the best day for your ears? Is this a good day because you are hearing a good message? What is a good day? When your eyes perceive beauty and your ears hear beautiful things then you might say you had a good day. Every sense must be in harmony. It is a good day when all five senses and everything in your body can rejoice together.

Then what is the essential factor? There must be one event which can evoke the joy of all five senses. Only one word expresses that essential factor: love. Who in this universe will recognize the precious value of love? Man values love the most. Have you ever heard of art in the animal world? A literary masterpiece or a great painting expresses love. It is as simple as that. True and profound writings about the interactions of love in the past, present and future are always part of great literature.

The art of expressing beauty is essential in literature. An author doesn't just talk about "eyes," but about "eyes which sparkle like stars." There are all kinds of expressions of character, like, "your nose stands up like a craggy mountain," or "your nose is the symbol of strength." The fundamental purpose for using such adjectives and images is the expression of love. In comparing something to nature, you are not just expressing a feeling about nature but expressing love. You always relate the beauties of the trees, flowers, flowing rivers and waterfalls to love.

Why do men do this? To begin with, beauty and nature were created to stimulate our sense of love. That is one purpose of their existence. A masterpiece of literature has as its central theme a love which connects all of the beauty and wonder of nature--the heavenly bodies, the beauty of rivers, mountains, trees and flowers--all of which come together to stimulate the expression of human love. Unless a work expresses the feelings of everlasting love then no matter how well it is written, the reader easily loses interest. The central theme of true art is always how to manifest the human passion of love. Poetry is no exception; poems just use fewer words. Young people in particular are idealistic and most sensitive to all these feelings, being easily intoxicated by the emotions in art and literature. Science and other areas of teaming are very monotonous and dry in comparison.

What about religion, is it a dry subject? Religion is not a dry subject because a religious way of life is centered upon love. Religion has also stimulated a great quantity of art. The major portion of art is the horizontal expression of human passion, but a religious expression of passion describes vertical love. That is the only difference between secular and religious art. An expression of vertical love is not found in jumping around as in classical or folk dancing; you don't pray by square dancing, for example. The passionate love is the same, but the expression is different.

The religious experience engenders a deeper awakening of love, which inspires something even greater than the horizontal form of art and literature. For this reason, a religious philosophy and life serves as the basis for art in every culture. In European museums the masterpieces are those which are related to religious philosophy or a religious expression of love. The foundation of all art, whether it is sculpture, painting or literature, is always a religious passion or inspired divine love.

In looking at a painting of a man and woman in love, seeing that they are in love does not give the viewer inspiration. If their surroundings in the picture suggest an atmosphere of love and the composition itself suggests some quality of heavenly, eternal love, then the painting becomes profound, conveying an essential depth of feeling in that one finite frame. That painting is realistic because it depicts a man and a woman, but it is also profound because it is as deep as the universe and God Himself. In viewing such a painting you can be greatly moved by the substantial connection between human reality and such profound depth.

It is also human nature to express the consummation of human passion in different ways. In addition to pictures of your family you may have a picture of some religious personage whose philosophy describes a certain kind of love. Normally your family pictures are displayed underneath the image of some religious personage, which shows that you want to be embraced by some greater universal awakening or environment. That environment is the setting in which you want to show your love. That is vastly more meaningful than offering your love in a setting as barren as the desert.

Yet that is not all. In addition to those pictures you decorate with beautiful pictures of nature and with plants. In doing all this you imprint your personality within your room and create a microcosm of the universe there. When you go into someone's room you can quickly know that person's personality.

Why does your mind work like that? Somehow it pleases you to do that; some inner feeling pushes you toward surrounding yourself with greater beauty. It is our constant effort to harmonize ourselves with the universal existence. Even those who have no religious concept at all and who do not know about the saints and religious leaders at least have a secular person they respect, like a hero in history or a national leader or even their own ancestors.

This particular human behavior is universal, whether in the past or in the present, whether Western or Oriental. Do you agree? It expresses your basic original nature of not wanting to be isolated, of wanting to be with people you look up to or love, and with nature. You want to be a part of your surroundings and you constantly look forward to both horizontal and vertical relationships of love.

In your loving relationships you always want to be embraced by the entire universe, having your cosmos around and within you. You just cannot bear to be outside of it. The good day is the day you acquire that horizontal love and vertical love harmonized together in the universe, so that you are living in an atmosphere intoxicated with love. The conclusion I come to is that this is the good day you are looking for.

Everyone has to agree with this conclusion, whether the President of the United States, an Oriental or Westerner, a high-ranking or a humble person. Even in the spirit world everyone will agree with this conclusion. Furthermore, if you go to God and ask Him whether that is His conclusion, He will say, "Yes, that is my conclusion also." Why do you applaud? Something in this message made you laugh and feel happy. Words of truth stimulate your feelings of joy.

Each one of your features expresses the heavenly four positions

The forehead is an expression of God's world and is wide in order to depict the wide heavenly world. The eyebrows placed as they are symbolically represent the boundary between heaven and the physical world. So the features below your eyebrows are an expression of the physical world. Your eyes symbolize a man and a woman standing side-by-side on the same level. Wide eyes are horizontally long instead of vertically long. Can you imagine your eyes being vertically long? The eyes move horizontally more than vertically. When you look up, your whole face moves up instead of just your eyes. However, when you look from side-to-side you don't have to move your face too much; your eyes can move instead.

Just like the eyes, men and women are supposed to move more horizontally than vertically, covering the entire horizontal universe. You can find three parts in your eyes, representing formation, growth and perfection. In addition, the eyeball represents the universe, symbolized by its roundness. Unless wheels are round they will not move smoothly. For the same reason men and women should be round, not square or angular.

Your ultimate goal is to become a man or woman with the same qualities as the eye. Below the eyebrows everything exists in duality, while above the eyebrows there is only one. Again there is a contour, with your forehead, nose, and mouth representing formation, growth and perfection. There are three lines in your mouth-the upper lip, the lower lip and the line where they meet.

Have you ever thought about who sets the direction for your body? Your nose is always forward of your body, going in front of you and guiding the way. There is a little valley between your nose and mouth. There are vertical and horizontal lines in your face, with the mouth and eyes creating horizontal lines and the nose forming a vertical line.

Another analogy can be made about your face. The eyes represent God, the nose represents mankind, and the mouth represents the entire creation. This is very logical because you absorb the things of nature through your mouth. The central point of the universe is Adam and Eve, the nose, and overall the entire universe is always watched by God, the two eyes.

God existed in the beginning, and later when men were created with physical bodies the eyeballs developed first. Do you know that? This is not only true with humans but also with the entire animal world. The nose develops last. This is especially true of Orientals. Westerners are born with bigger noses so you do not notice this too much, but when an Oriental baby is born it usually has a very flat nose. In Jin is a good example because she has a flat nose, but later as she reaches the age of 20 her nose will be more prominent. This parallels the course of creation, in which man was created last. The nose is the last to be perfected in the human body.

Why do you have 32 teeth? 4 times 8 makes 32; the number 32 is composed of 8 groups of 4. The teeth are the first parts of your body to deal with nature, continuing their work every day.

When you have 32 beautiful teeth you will never get hungry because your teeth will always be ready to deal with the universe. The appearance of your teeth is very important, particularly for women. It is logical that the things of nature, knowing they were created for the purpose of men, would want to be taken care of by beautiful teeth instead of ugly teeth. Did you know that nature appreciates beauty? Our appearance is not just random; it corresponds with the universal creation.

The respiratory system has four units, and the same is true of vision. Inside the brain there is one focal point for reception of nerve impulses from your two eyes, which explains why you see one image instead of two. You have two ears and can hear sounds coming from all four directions.

The overall structure of your body is also an expression of the heavenly four positions. Your mouth and nose both have a shape which is a modification of the four positions. On your hand the thumb represents God and the two thumbs represent the dual essentialities. A baby growing in its mother's womb frequently holds its thumb inside its fist. It is symbolic of God remaining in the center of the universe, surrounded by time, the seasons and all existence. Each finger has three segments corresponding to the three stages of growth, and all together your four fingers have twelve segments, paralleling the four seasons and twelve months.

You have three essential organs-the lungs, heart and stomach. When you look at the human face you see three major areas and by analyzing their proportions you can analyze someone's personality and destiny. The universe is round and the entire human body is also basically round. Don't look at someone just from the front because he should have beautifully round and solid features in the back also. Athletic champions tend to have thicker bodies, meaning that they are rounder.

Perhaps you think my head is an average size, but actually it is an extraordinary size. I can never find ready-made hats that are big enough. My head is wide both sideways as well as front to back. The individual is indeed a microcosm of the universe, so by knowing universal truth one can analyze any individual. Without even one word of conversation I can know a lot about a person.

Harmony is needed because all of man's characteristics are essential

The differences between Oriental and Occidental people are noticeable. Westerners have large eyes and immediately perceive anything that is close by. On the other hand, Oriental eyes are smaller but they illustrate a tendency to penetrate more deeply and look further away. This difference already reveals who it is that will have greater vision of the future and a deeper philosophy of human life; Westerners are more pragmatic and reality-oriented than Orientals.

My eyes are narrow but long. Because physically I am very similar to this universal structure I can perceive and penetrate many situations and understand people from many different cultures. This is very meaningful.

Just being a Westerner should not become your pride. A Westerner has a longer but also narrower nose because God has a special purpose for the white people. That particular feature of Westerners is related to the fact that the Western culture developed primarily in the northern areas. A longer nose is a benefit when living in a cold weather climate because winter air has to travel a longer distance and will warm up more before entering the lungs. In addition, the nostrils are narrower in order that too much cold air should not enter the nostrils at the same time. The black people have different characteristics, with shorter, wider noses. The culture of black people developed in the warmer regions. Hot air should move in and out of the body more quickly than cold air, and with shorter noses the air travels a shorter distance. The beauty of the creation stems in part from its adaptability.

Would nature be as beautiful if each species had only one color? Would bears be as beautiful if they were only white, or are bears of many colors more interesting? Among human beings, those who live in the northern areas have whiter skin, while those nearer to the tropical zones are darker skinned. Those in the middle areas have yellow or brown skin.

Westerners whose ancestors are from the far north often have blue eyes, representing a longing for the blue color of clear skies and fair weather, and for the clear blue water of the warm seas. When you are living in an area covered by icy whiteness you grow up longing for green areas and blue water.

People in the valleys should not scorn those on the peaks or vice versa. Both features are needed, so harmony is the key word. There are seven major colors of the universe and one color alone cannot fully express beauty. The harmony of these colors brings out the fullest beauty. White is created when every other color is reflected away and also when the seven colors of the rainbow all blend together. White is the color of perfection and nobility so the highest places on earth are covered by white snow. God's beauty is harmonized beauty.

The hand expresses many things about a person. When his hand is very thick, that person is richly blessed. Having a deep palm indicates something similar; when you have a deeper container then things remain in it. Each of our features has some meaning.

Oriental culture analyzes the universe by first examining basic principles. On the other hand, Western culture examines the external creation first, trying to then deduce basic principles. Which way is more direct?

It can be said that the Western culture is a meat eating culture, while Eastern peoples primarily eat vegetables and fish. The white culture originated in the northern areas of the globe and the most available food came from animals. Having its origins in the necessity of killing animals, Western culture developed the practice of medicine that emphasized treating symptoms of illness primarily by introducing foreign substances or by surgery.

Did you know that Westerners have shorter intestines than Orientals? The explanation is that the main food was traditionally meat, a substance which should not remain in the body too long because harmful substances may otherwise be produced. Paralleling this fact, Westerners generally lack the spirit of perseverance and patience to hang on until the last.

Among the animals, tigers and lions also have very short intestines because their main food is meat. Animals like the cow and ox have very long intestines because their primary food is grass. In the Bible it is recorded that the animals which were offered as sacrifices were vegetable-eating animals, like sheep and oxen and doves, which eat insects. Animals like the cow, sheep and ox have infinite patience; no matter how hot the day, they keep chewing and keep plowing.

Oriental people have longer intestines because vegetable substances are more beneficial when they remain in the body longer. By having to pass through a longer digestive tract food remains in the body longer. Throughout history the people who needed greater fortitude and patience to endure more suffering and to be a pioneering force were the Asian peoples. The Western culture needs an alternative to its present way of life; Western culture will decline if it continues along one extreme.

It is also time for white people to love the darker colors and to appreciate the hot weather as well as the cold. It is providential that America has been entangled with Asian affairs and involved in assisting Korea. It is not just because the American people have merciful hearts. It would not bring good fortune to this country if President Carter ever disengaged this nation from Korea. If America were to retreat from Asia at this time then because of the law of indemnity America would suffer a great deal to overcome the effects of her failure. I have a clear responsibility from God to stop America from abandoning her providential responsibility. Asia and America must maintain their connection.

We are the kind of people who breathe the universe every day

How do I know you white members love me? Simply by the fact that you are here, in many cases against the opposition of your own parents. Why are you doing it? I did not make you do it. The universal destiny is pushing American young people to come to the Unification Church. Providential destiny is not a man-made destiny; it is heaven's work that the Unification Church is plowing forward, and anyone who is trying to stop it by human power will be shattered. The destiny of God shall not be affected.

If we were only engaged in selfish, human affairs we would have been destroyed a long time ago. If an individual without a heavenly purpose had received such accusation and slander as I have he would have collapsed a long time ago. But I am different; the more persecution and pressure I receive, the tighter and stronger I get. No one can turn me back because I am not waging a man-made campaign; I am following a universal destiny. That is why you are extraordinary, even fearful people. No one can figure you out. Only a small portion of the moon shows before the full moon appears, but each day more is seen. Opposition never makes you Moonies small; it only makes you grow. Through the month of June we have been hard-pressed, even seeming to decrease in the eyes of the world. But from the month of June on we are going to gradually show more and more until the full moon is seen. The day of the full moon is a good day.

I am really enjoying talking to you this morning. I don't know where the time flies!

When you look at a seed you think of the universe. When you look at the stars you think of the universe. When you look at a bird flying you think of the universe. When the butterfly flutters by you look at the universe. When a tiny little ant is crawling on the ground you think of the universe. We are the kind of people who breathe the universe, who live and harmonize with the universe every day. The universe is our stage.

In the morning you pick up 50 copies of the News World and go to a dirty comer of New York City, yet even then you are breathing the air of the universe, running out to embrace the universe. Even the negative reaction of the people never deters you when you have a universal frame of mind. The sweat you wipe off is universal sweat, not your own. In the same way, when I speak to a congregation I do not think I am just speaking to you but to the whole universe.

I am convinced that when I speak not only you get excited but also nature and spirit world and even God become joyful. Even negative people who come find themselves forgetting their criticism. I have seen instances when people have come to listen to me, not for spiritual inspiration, but to find fault. After one hour they totally forget their purpose for coming and after the speech they think, "Oh, I came for some other reason. I was brainwashed!" That is how the stories of brainwashing got started.

Certainly they were not brainwashed; without realizing it they were momentarily intoxicated at being absorbed into the universal harmony. This is the kind of experience which all of humanity will eventually enjoy. That is certainly not brainwashing. Instead it is washing all the dust off the human spirit so that each person can experience the universal harmony.

By itself, human love can only create a flat surface

I know very well that my critics think amazingly bad things about me. They even think I am not human, but some kind of iron man who doesn't need food or rest and who cannot be controlled. What they imagine is my mysterious quality is nothing else but my being in harmony with the universal destiny. That is what influences my surroundings. It is there like an invisible magnetic force which can attract any metal located in its electric field. Metal is pulled to it because there is a certain rapport. That is exactly what happens when we are together like this. Universal force and strength enable people to feet some kind of affinity with me, whether they like it or not.

Your mind responds to that magnet because the power of love is activated. One person cannot pull another human being unless that love is practiced. I am not talking about horizontal love; this mysterious, powerful love is vertical. Our greatest pride and treasure in the Unification Church is that we bring the living God into the realm of human affairs. God is not a concept to us but a living God with whom all our lives can be connected and harmonized. Our philosophy and theology is uncomplicated, stemming from the heavenly four positions.

This philosophy can unify up and down, front and rear and left and right, all directions. This harmony will create one grand circle, the ultimate expression of perfection. Everything can be absorbed within that circle; there is nothing it cannot contain. Human power and love can be horizontal and therefore unite left and right, front and rear. But human love alone cannot unite up and down. Without the vertical element, human love can only create a flat surface.

How can we add the vertical element? Which comes first, horizontal or vertical? Why the vertical? Look at the tree as one natural expression of universal truth. The trunk has to be correctly aligned in order for the tree to be aligned. If the trunk dies or is cut down then no tree remains. If you ask a tree what it resembles the tree will answer, "I live in the image of the universe."

Trees grow into a rounded shape, particularly those trees which bear fruit; a tree trunk and branches together create one big ball. The vertical line is the trunk itself, growing like a solid pillar. When that trunk is alive the whole tree is alive and reaches up to the heavens. Even vines which spread on the ground like the sweet potato, always turn their leaves and sprouting tips up. All nature is directed toward the source of life. In nature that life source is the sun so everything in nature looks at the sun.

Do you think about what takes the role of the sun in human life? Can we say that the source of love is here on earth and that together men and women can ultimately perfect their love here? That is not true. Only illicit love looks down to the ground. True love is always looking up for some greater source of love, like plants looking for the sun's rays. Such people are proud of their love and have nothing to hide.

Like the sun, the position of love is the universal center. Being higher than man's love, that center is vertical not down on the ground. That center is God. It is His vertical love which supplies the richness and resources of life. It is important to understand whether that life source exists beneath or above man. The higher love represents parental love, while the lower love represents children's love. Love always flows from upper to lower. Throughout Biblical history there was an emphasis on having sons because having an heir was very important. An heir ensures that there will be a channel for vertical love to continue on for another generation and bring prosperity.

Even though the American divorce rate is increasing, most separated parents each want custody of their children. Because the life source of universal love is a vertical one, parents either consciously or intuitively want to become closer to the trunk-line of love through a relationship with their children. If the vertical line is not straight then you cannot expect the horizontal love to be straight. Without vertical and horizontal lines which are at 90 degrees, the ideal of four positions cannot exist.

Throughout history those seeking a devout life of faith have abhorred married life. Each major religion recognizes the value of celibacy. Marriage is the horizontal expression of basic human nature, while man is supposed to obtain the vertical expression first. After the perfection of vertical love man is supposed to expand that love onto the horizontal level. This is why religious life stresses the vertical, spiritual life, discouraging horizontal love.

The fall of man began at this very point. Adam and Eve, the ancestors of mankind, engaged in horizontal love before obtaining the vertical love between God and man as parent and children. That was the fall. We have to rectify this wrong beginning. Because human history started with illicit horizontal love, vertical love must be upheld and horizontal love must be denied. Now you can understand why throughout history the religious life has been one of denial, of leaving your spouse and children and parents. In attempting to deny everything in the human world, religious people led ascetic, isolated lives, searching for the lost vertical love. Until recently that way of life was stressed by religion.

Do we need religion then? Human history actually started out with a loving relationship with God and it will be consummated by religion, nothing else. The way of life that denies the necessity of religion, like communism, cannot remain any longer. No matter what people may say or try, there is no other ultimate solution to human affairs. Religion is the only way we can solve human problems. Every culture throughout human history had a religious origin. Those peoples and nations in history which could not advance to a higher religious philosophy were always destroyed. Today's America is a proud nation, but it is the power of Christianity which made this nation's greatness possible.

You must love the world as much as you love God

The religion which will provide a solution for world problems will be the one which can put everyone in touch with the core universal truth and force. The Unification Church exists just for that purpose. There is a proud German man sitting here and he has so much pride in his own country that he thinks the German people are a super race. Why did he come here? Simply because he is a Moonie no one will treat him with respect.

This proud German came to America and was given instructions to sell the newspaper every day and to go witnessing. He was told to do incredible things and yet he does not have to do any of them. He is free to go back to his own country. What power could have kept him here? All of us are here only because we know the ultimate solution for the problems of the universe.

The Unification Church has one special, extraordinary feature, and that is the concept of "True Parents." Never before in all of history has that been heard of. Such a name as True Parents is logical, however, once you really know the fundamental truth. Now you are looking forward to becoming a true brother and sister and a true husband and wife, but how could you do that without first installing True Parents? You need a model or prototype, and the True Parents must provide that standard of human behavior. Thus in the Unification Church we have two of the most important words under the sun: True Parents. That is why people from all over the world and with all different colors of skin are disregarding their old surroundings and relationships and opportunities and following this one goal.

Why is this goal so valuable? Do you need the True Parents? You say so, but how will your parents feel when they hear such words? They quickly feel some implication that they are false parents. For this reason I am sympathetic with them when they want somehow to get rid of me or kidnap their own children. Of course they want to keep you as their children. Have you ever read about parents kidnapping their own children before? Why don't you just go home on your own? Your parents are waiting, ready to do anything for you.

When you come to the Unification Church you gain nothing tangible that you can get hold of. In one way of thinking you are in miserable shape. Yet there is something here you cannot disregard, something formidable and mysterious yet very real. It makes your heart full of joy and inspires you to give your total self and even then still not feel adequate.

I have never said that you must not worry about anything else except loving me. Instead I say that you will only deserve my attention by totally loving the world and the universe. I am actually pushing you out, not pulling you in. My central teaching is this: as much as you love me you must equally love the world, mankind and the universe. If you see something valuable in me then live the same way for the universe.

Other people will say that you are crazy for living this way, but as long as you are sure of yourself in loving God and mankind then you will be totally intoxicated in this way of life and in this love. Then you really won't care about criticism and will find fulfillment. Once you stand on that ground, then no matter what the world says you will have a spiritual strength and power that nothing under the sun can resist or obstruct. When your love and faith are that real then life truly becomes intoxicating.

Do you white people think this is true? What about you black people, do you feel the same? Did I convince you of this? It was not 1; only God could do that. You must realize that we are living in the most incredible time, witnessing unprecedented events. We are being carried along by the universal destiny. This movement is not made by man and I am not just pushing my own ideology.

My life is only like one little seed, dropped in the ground of this dark world and beginning to show signs of life. All of a sudden the world is seeing signs of life, noticing little leaves appearing. Now a tree is forming, growing both vertically and horizontally. As my efforts have an effect on a larger scale then my influence on the environment also grows larger.

When I say you should love the world as much as you love God I mean that your vertical love should be practiced on the horizontal level. In order to create the heavenly four positions you must live both the vertical and the horizontal together. You may want to stay with me, but when you come to me I will only kick you out and tell you to love the world. Then as you come back from the world I will accept you.

We want to create here the total perfection of the heavenly four positions, but to do that you must practice your vertical love in a horizontal world. The person who says he loves the Unification Church and the Unification ideology but does not want to live and practice it is only a swindler. I must love the world as much as I love God; otherwise I am not worthy to stand in the sight of God.

I know that God still loves America and the world, so regardless of how I am mistreated I will still love America and the world. I cannot return to God until I love the children of my fiercest enemy. Then my responsibility will be accomplished. We have to subjugate our opponents, not by force but by love, the natural process of the universe. That is our ideology. This is the most profound ideology anywhere, the perfection of religion. There is no better philosophy than that one.

We are talking about the heart of God, not just the concept of God's existence. Our ideology is simple. I want to love my spouse as much as I love God. I want to love my children as much as I love God. I want to love my neighbors as much as I love God. I want to love the world and mankind as much as I love God. Since I know that this is the only way of life that God can approve and the only way we can reach God, I have been completely practicing this life. I want to leave this tradition and conviction with you also.

The depth of your love for God is your standard for loving your husband, your children, your neighbors, your society, your world and even those in the dungeons of hell. That is your criteria. I want you to make this feeling passionately real, down to the marrow of your bones. You cannot just will this to happen one day; you must make daily efforts and struggle to overcome the limitations of your heart. That's what we are here for. Critical adults may think you. are all immature and young-looking and accuse me of being some kind of fly-by-night charlatan. That is far from the truth; what we are doing is as permanent as a rock.

God wants restored children who can maintain heavenly dignity

No matter how much outsiders study us they cannot find the source of the power of the Unification Church. You have your own dignity and pride in doing even trivial, menial work and no matter how the world persecutes or criticizes me I am not bothered at all. I have my own pride and dignity and power source. Only God's love could bring that power.

Even though I often dress very humbly, I feel even better than a king on the throne of a nation. I have a deep understanding with God. You too can think of yourself as a prince or princess of God. Our Heavenly Father has asked you to go the way of a lowly person in order to come to His throne ultimately. This is what you are doing now. No matter how humble you look, you must not forget your dignity and pride as a prince and princess of God.

That is precisely my way of thinking. I started out in a humble place in the small nation of Korea, yet I had the dignity and pride and awareness of being God's prince and I precisely understood the direction I was walking. The first chapter of my mission included stirring up a great deal of controversy in Korea. In the next chapter I went to Japan and turned the entire nation upside down. Now in the third chapter I have come to America and the entire nation is agitated, wanting to get rid of me. This is not the end of it; America is only Chapter 3. In Chapter 4 the entire communist world will say, -We must completely eliminate him."

I want you to know that you have in your hand a special credential from God and True Parents which says that you are the princes and princesses of God. You are privileged people, but with that credential you must do things which other people cannot duplicate. That is your pride and dignity. I came from Korea with that Heavenly credential and I have done things that other people just cannot compete with.

Because I am summoned by God I cannot degrade this credential or shame myself; I must maintain the dignity of a prince of God even though I may die a thousand times. If you call me Father then you are taking positions as sons and daughters. That means you inherit that credential from me. Can you live up to that credential? Do not bring shame and embarrassment to that position.

Do you have the ambition to be the top notch people of the world? Why do people who do not know anything about God still have that ambition? God initially created man to become His sons and daughters and we have to prove our dignity as His princes and princesses. We have to live victoriously, becoming triumphant on every level, from the individual level all the way to the world level. By setting the standard of triumph and victory you will be recognized as truly being sons and daughters of God.

Put yourself in the position of God who has lost His children and wants to restore them. He is our almighty Father so would He want to have children of dignity and pride or would He prefer children who are petty and weak? Why shouldn't your marriage be arranged based on your whims and desires? Marriage is very important to God so as princes and princesses you should not be capricious and influenced by some handsome man or beautiful woman who is not God-centered. A prince and princess should only marry another prince and princess. Even though a member may be crippled and ugly, he still shines far brighter than anyone who is not God's restored child. The members of our Church have that value.

I want to trust that as strong men and women nothing will deter you. If people slap you and sneer, "Are you a prince or princess of God? Don't be ridiculous"' could you seriously maintain your certainty? I am in the image of God. I may not be handsome like God, but you know that at least my heart absolutely resembles God's.

It is my pride that I have total unity with the love of God. God is my Father and no one can sever that relationship. Even if you behead me you will not separate me from God's love? Are you like that? You must be dignified men and women, standing as the backbone of God's love. You are a tower of strength, the visible form of God's love. As you achieve this nothing can deter you.

Only by your practicing this standard can we have oneness

We will march on until we win the ultimate victory. If death stops me then even after death my march will go on. My worst fear is not that of death but the fear of what it would be like to lose God's love. That is the one thing that we can never allow to happen. I want you to know clearly the position you hold in relation to God and the True Parents. That position is so valuable that millions of dollars of the world's money cannot buy it.

It is possible for us to be welded together so perfectly that nothing can separate us. Then if I push you out into a mission far away, what you are actually doing is not becoming separated but expanding your center of oneness, and your power will increase according to the degree of your unity. In other words, the further away you go, the more your power will increase. It is analogous to stretching a rubber band. The more you stretch it the greater will be its pressure and tendency to contract. In the same way, your desire to be close to the central point increases. The further you go away from the center, the stronger is the pull you feel.

You are pushing yourself forward because you feel pulled to the center all the time. That's what you are doing now in witnessing and fund raising. You go out because you know the significance of your mission, but actually you want to be in the center, and in order to get back there quickly you have to finish the mission. Then you can say, "Father, I am here."

That is why my pushing you out is not a merciless act but a loving act. By doing so you feel the greater attraction to the center and you become more energetic. When you have difficulty and hardship you think, "How much Father suffered in order to make me grow and raise me up. In order to let our people grow I must suffer like Father." When you compare yourself to my position you will always gain strength.

If you keep doing, thinking and acting like that you cannot help but keep growing; you cannot stand still and grow. Your gradient of influence and power is based on how much you are growing. Ultimately you will become like the original center, like a sun which generates energy rather than a moon which reflects energy. By practicing this you can come to fully understand my situation and God's loving heart. Only then can we have oneness and a common pride between us. There is only one mainstream, and it is connected to this way of life. We want to liberate God from 6,000 years of sorrow in our lifetime. You are very ambitious if you want to do this quickly.

The center of this world is God's position. By disciplining yourself in this way you will become a living, walking God, a true son or daughter. With God in the center and each other at either end a new creation will be formed and the heavenly four positions created.

The happiest day and the good day will be the day God feels delight because of you, the day when you people and all the universe can be harmonized in ecstatic joy and delight. Your perfection is the source of joy for the universe. That will truly be the ultimate good day. Jesus taught and lived this way, desiring most to have a true loving relationship with God.

Jesus' first goal, therefore, was to become an absolutely pure, perfected son, and his second goal was to become a true husband for one woman to whom he could pour out his entire love, a woman who loved God as much as he loved God. Jesus' third goal was to be like God in loving his sons and daughters as God loves His own children. Jesus wanted to become a father himself so he could love his own children. Those were his three goals.

After fulfilling this position as son, husband and father, Jesus wanted to fulfill God's desire by expanding this harmonious love to the entire world, enabling the entire world to enjoy the same intensity of God's love as Jesus did. As you know, Jesus was crucified on the cross. His great misery and heartbreak was that he then could not fulfill his goals of husband and father. Certainly he could not spread those three loves of God throughout the universe. The crucifixion totally blocked the fulfillment of Jesus' desire.

We must inherit Jesus' heartbreak of his unfulfilled desires and take the responsibility to bring the good day when they can be achieved here on earth. Then we can expand our love throughout the world and embrace all the things of creation. The day we can make that a reality is truly the best day.

Once we achieve all of Jesus' desires in full then no other duty will ever be as heavy. We will rejoice over our accomplishment with dance, music and song. We may not see the total fulfillment of it in our lifetime yet we are not discouraged because this Principle will be fulfilled whether you are here on earth or not. That is our pioneer's privilege, laying the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God.

When you realize that this staggering dream could come this close to being reality in our lifetime, how can you sleep at night? How could you ever sit idle? It must become your hard-headed struggle to shorten the period of accomplishment. I want to completely give my blood and sweat for this goal in order to shorten the time. Your prayer should be, "God, don't let this arduous task be passed on to my descendants. Let me do it. If there is any suffering to do, let me suffer so I can leave them the accomplished, fulfilled Kingdom of God." If you live in that philosophy every day yet still are not able to fulfill this goal in your lifetime, then still you will be free from the accusation of your posterity. However, if you spend this time idly then you indeed will be accused.

Every day we must give our absolute, maximum effort to see this good day. I don't care which path I have to take in order to see that day. I may work like a beggar or be maimed, but no matter what happens to me, as long as it helps to advance this purpose I do not mind.

I am close to the age of 60 and keenly aware that each moment is totally precious. In my heart I am constantly declaring an emergency. Mankind is sitting idle, waiting for your helping hand. You are not working so that I may see that day, but because God is waiting for that day and mankind is waiting for that day.

This is the first Sunday of the month of July 1977. You must become builders of the good nation and the good world. If you are committed soldiers then the good day will be realized. You must feel that if anything hampers that goal then you could toss aside your own ego and fate. Forget everything and become unswervingly fierce, dashing forward to restore everything. Shall we do it? Those who will do it raise your hands. Let us pray.

The Pinnacle of Suffering

Sun Myung Moon
June 26, 1977
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

Certainly no one enjoys suffering or tribulation because there is no happiness or joy in it. People want to avoid suffering because it is an abnormal state of being and it represents reversal instead of progress. Our individual minds reflect God, the center of the universe, who must also dislike suffering. If God, the center and master of the universe, is in a position to suffer then all the other elements of creation that belong to God have the same destiny.

I represent the Unification Church, and if I am in a position of suffering then the members of our church cannot avoid the same fate. As the leader, my own suffering is for the public purpose and is inherited by everyone who belongs to the same organization. The same principle applies to a family, society, nation, and the world. Though the president of a country may not be in a position of suffering, there may people in his country who are deprived. The president of a nation is responsible for the individual or group that is suffering, whether he is directly or indirectly involved. He should work to eliminate the suffering of the people.

Any organization, family, society, or nation is composed of a subject, or leader, and followers. Let us use the family as an example. A member of a family may be burdened with tribulation which does not directly involve the head of the home. Therefore, the head of the household is in a position to alleviate his relative's suffering. Some of you in the church may be experiencing great struggle, yet I am not directly involved in your individual situation. That means that I can work to alleviate your suffering.

We can extend this concept to the ultimate level; God may not be in a position of immediate suffering, but He is in a position to liberate the suffering of all people under Him. If God Himself is in a position of suffering, however, then the situation is entirely different. Who will lift away the suffering of God?

For God to liberate man, God himself must be liberated

Unless someone has experienced God's suffering in his own life, he cannot liberate God. God is in a position to have happiness, not suffering. If there are people who are suffering, there is always hope that their tribulation can be lifted, but only as long as God is in a position to exercise His power of liberation. The most important point I want to make this morning is that, at all cost, God must not be put in a position of suffering but must be freed from it.

What is the pinnacle of God's suffering? There is no question that the fall of God's children, Adam and Eve, is the focal point of His difficulty. Their separation from God was a very pitiful and tearful situation. God is the Father of mankind and Adam and Eve are His first children, the ancestors of fallen mankind; when these children fell, the consequences had a direct impact on God and caused Him incredible suffering. Because the fall was a physical act, God lost His connection with the physical world, and in addition, He endured suffering of the mind and suffering of the soul. The seeds of man's suffering throughout history were planted by Adam and Eve being corrupted at the beginning of human history, and from that time on suffering was handed down from generation to generation.

The fall of man brought three consequences: God lost His children and He lost His temple, because man was to be the dwelling place of God. Furthermore, God lost the only home in which His love could be manifested; Adam and Eve were not only to be the children of God but to be the recipients of His love. With the fall of man God lost everything He had hoped for in the love of His own children, the love between husband and wife, and the love between parent and child.

The ironic thing is that Adam and Eve did not deeply understand how much pain and suffering their actions were actually causing God, and since then no one has ever understood God's heart of suffering at the moment of Adam and Eve's fall. The fall was the pinnacle of the suffering of God. The destruction which occurred in the Garden of Eden must be indemnified, and man must be restored to his original state by his going over the apex of God's suffering.

How can fallen man feel God's heart if Adam and Eve could not feel it? In listening to a sermon like this you may feel sympathetic with God but you still do not feel His sorrow down to your bone. Let us bring this situation down to the personal level. Suppose a woman has lost her parents, husband, and children in a tragic accident. Even though she has been living in the fallen world all her life and therefore has seen and experienced many types of evil and sin, the tragedy of her loss still causes her unbearable suffering. How much more pain and shock God must feel, being completely pure and never having experienced any sin, suffering, or crime before the fall of Adam and Eve.

Today many people commit suicide. Do you think God's suffering at the moment of Adam and Eve's fall was greater than the despair people feel when they commit suicide? God's suffering is the only true suffering. No one but God is truly entitled to use the word "suffering." We may experience some tragedy, yet as time passes the pain and grief will be eased. However, that is not true spiritually, and the passing of time will never ease God's heart.

One thousand years is just one moment to God, who has no concept of time, and the pain of man's fall has never gone from God's mind and heart. Could God ever decide, "I don't want to suffer any more," and just cast His suffering out of His heart? Even though He is almighty, could He ever change His situation? God's love is absolute, unique, and unchanging, and it is impossible that He could alter His heart and decide not to suffer.

If you lost your loved ones, you could never erase from your mind the memory of them or the pain of their departure. It is there to stay. It is the same with God. There is no way God can remove Himself from the tragedy of the fall unless the fundamental cause is eliminated. God cannot say, "I don't want to be part of this suffering any more."

God's entire hope has been concentrated on the momentous day of resurrection

God's experience of the worst kind of suffering and tribulation was the beginning point of His restoration work, and He only finds hope in one exhilarating word: resurrection. Resurrection has the deepest meaning to God because through that path mankind is able to return to the original state when Adam and Eve were brand new and without sorrow, sin, and crime. Since the fall was the pinnacle of God's suffering, the reunion of God and His children will certainly be the pinnacle of His joy.

God's heart will burst with emotion and His eyes fill with tears of joy at the moment that He is liberated from His suffering and sorrow. God's hope and desire and entire restoration work have been concentrated on that one momentous day of resurrection.

What must be man's desire? To liberate God's suffering we must experience greater pain than God's own pain at the fall. Our desire and hope is only to go over the apex of suffering and meet a liberated God in the realm of resurrection. Religion is the road which will take you to the pinnacle of suffering and beyond to the realm of resurrection. Man's first step is to conquer and liquidate the suffering of God.

I am not talking about only your own individual resurrection but the resurrection of your brothers and sisters as well, because the fall occurred with more than one person. You must go over the pinnacle of suffering together because the conquest of suffering will occur in the same atmosphere as did the fall of man. Therefore, you will experience the same situation as Adam and Eve before the fall, and must go over the hill of suffering instead.

Adam and Eve's relationship was far more than that of brother and sister. They were in the position to become husband and wife with the blessing of God, but instead they became husband and wife in the satanic way after the fall. For this reason you have to go over the hill of the fallen world and into the realm of the resurrected love of a true husband and wife. First you must restore yourselves into a position of vertical love with God and upon that condition you will be brought together in the horizontal relationship of husband and wife. Together, centered upon God as husband and wife, you will create the trinity that will become the base of four positions as you give birth to children. This is the process of resurrection. There is no other way to surmount the pinnacle of suffering and liberate God.

Men and women long for the day they will become husbands and wives, and for the rest of their lives they will remember it as a most momentous day. If they form a happy marriage, it is a rare couple that forgets their anniversary. Every cell and fiber of your body concentrates on that one goal: the day of the fulfillment of love as husband and wife. That is a day you can really experience truly ecstatic joy, and every inch of your body wants to be uplifted by the joy of that day. Nothing is more precious than the fulfillment of that love.

Have you ever thought about how to concentrate your whole being to manifest love in a most dramatic way? When you put everything into crystallizing your love then your whole system works toward that one fulfillment. You can only be melted into the bosom of love when you find that day of becoming husband and wife. Nothing else in the world can be more precious than the true manifestation of love. God has given marriage as the apex and fulfillment of your love.

That love is the purpose of life and you will definitely achieve it although there are negative forces which say that such joy and love are illusions. That kind of conviction shatters man's entire hope and desire. However, no power can destroy that hope and desire in man, no matter how negative the atmosphere. Even in the fallen world you still have this power to love and be loved.

I want you to understand that the pure, almighty God has been yearning for the day of reunion with His true children. There is no way to express or compare the excitement and joy God will experience on the day of that reunion. God's whole being is love, and there is not one moment in which God can forget His children. His entire energy is moving in the one direction of meeting His true children and no power under the sun could ever eliminate this desire from His heart. When God concentrates upon His love, a millennium has no length and ten thousand years has no significance. The heart of God will not change with the passage of time but instead only intensifies in desiring the day which brings the fulfillment of His love.

God's children will go beyond the pinnacle of His suffering

The people who can become the children of God are the ones who can go beyond the pinnacle of suffering and understand God's heart. The only man in all of history who understood God's heart was Jesus. Jesus knew God's suffering heart and discovered how to liberate Him. Even though a multitude of men had lived and worshipped God before him, Jesus could say, "I am the only begotten son of God." Also we read in the Bible that Jesus said, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me. I and the Father are one." Jesus could utter such things because he was centered upon the love of God. He was saying that in love, he and God were one. It is a strange concept to consider that "you are in me and I am in you." It is possible only when we speak of love. Jesus understood that, and he had the conviction that he was dwelling in the love of God.

Jesus also said, "I am the bridegroom and you are the bride," putting himself in the bridegroom's position and all mankind in the bride's position. The ultimate goal for a woman is to be a bride, and the ultimate goal for a man is to be a bridegroom. Love is the key word needed to speak of this relationship, which is the culmination of your life. In speaking of a bridegroom and bride Jesus was not referring to the fallen tradition begun by Adam and Eve. He knew that we must go over the pinnacle of suffering and become heavenly bridegrooms and brides.

Until the time of Jesus God's heart contained only suffering, but when Jesus proclaimed that he was one with God and was His only begotten son, God felt as though He had received an electric shock. Jesus' words were the most revolutionary words ever spoken. Jesus was the one person in history who was able to give God this type of shock. Jesus had the key to solving the entire, fundamental human problem of the severed relationship of love between God and man. He was really the Messiah of love, who could conquer the apex of God's suffering and go beyond to the realm of resurrection. If Jesus' mission could have been fulfilled on earth then God certainly could have declared to the world, "My will is done."

Could God and Jesus ever have been separated? Jesus' goal and the goal of history was to conquer God's suffering and move into the realm of total resurrection. God saw the possibility of Jesus fulfilling that goal; however, God was never able to declare the fulfillment of His desire. That day did not occur because the rebellious people crucified Jesus, destroying the opportunity for the fulfillment of God's will.

God's only remaining hope

Christians think that Jesus came to die for their sake. How can God feel when He hears this kind of remark from man? Was the establishment of Christianity the fulfillment of God's will? Could all the Christians of the world together be in a position to comfort the sorrow of God? Not at all. If Christians want to comfort God they must not only become like Jesus but also go over the pinnacle of the suffering of God. Then they would be able to say, "God, in me You see Your only begotten son." There is not one who is like that, and many Christians are only trying to secure a place for themselves in heaven. That is not the way God can be comforted.

God knew and Jesus knew that no one else could comfort God nor surpass the mission of Jesus. That is why Jesus said he would come again. What does that mean? It means that Jesus' job was left undone and that he must come again in order to conquer the pinnacle of suffering. Jesus held the key to the fulfillment of God's will, yet because of the faithlessness of the people that possibility was not fulfilled. This means that mankind must go over one more hill with the Lord of the Second Advent.

Only three major events in history are of importance to God. The first was His creation, the Garden of Eden. The second was the mission of Jesus and the possibility of his fulfillment. Since that was not accomplished, God has looked forward to the third event, which is the day of the Lord of the Second Advent, and the final consummation of His hope. That day will be the greatest day since the day of Adam and Eve and Jesus.

The Garden of Eden and Jesus' mission on earth are in the past. Of the three events, God's only remaining hope is the day of the Second Advent. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Christians are looking for the one-day of the coming of the Lord. Will God be really angry at mankind for the first time and destroy the earth on that day, or will God be able to fulfill His love at that time?

Even children who were pure and unstained, like Adam and Eve before the fall, were not easy for God to guide. But today, after the fall of man, the people God has had to work with are really trash. In the sight of God fallen man is so ugly and dirty and distorted that He does not even want to look at them. That is the fall of man. Women want to make themselves beautiful by wearing makeup and jewelry and flashy clothing. But God does not see any of that. He sees instead the true internal man and woman, which is ugly and distorted.

What is the Unification Church trying to do? You may say, "Oh, we are working to restore America and bring resurrection to this nation." But what you actually mean is, "Unless we restore the true love of God, then America and the world have no purpose." The purpose of the Unification Church is to liberate God from His suffering. That is the ideology of both God and Jesus.

We in the Unification Church follow a most difficult way of life because our goal is to place ourselves on the pinnacle of suffering and therefore be able to say before the world, "God, I am Your begotten son, Your begotten daughter." You must have that dignity and that confidence as a child of God. Have you realized that this is our goal and that you must work at it?

If you say that God is your Father then you must take responsibility for Him

Why is the Unification Church primarily a gathering place of single men and women? People who marry in the worldly way have made no condition for their marriage to be recognized by God. Each person must receive the blessing from God. For this reason God has hope in single men and women who can be trained and guided to become true sons and daughters of God before they marry.

If someone demanded to hear whether you knew God, what would your answer be? Would you say, "Well, God seems to exist," or, "What do you mean? I am His child! " Even at the point of your death could you still testify that you are sons and daughters of God? Have you ever doubted that your natural parents were your own father and mother? In an immoral nation like America, how do you know who your father is?

You have no doubt about who your parents are and God must become more real to you than your own natural parents. Then you can say, "I am His child," Is God that real to you? Your answer must come from your entire being united together; otherwise your mind will be going in one direction, and your body in another, and your heart somewhere else. If your commitment and confidence are strong, then even if the sun rises in the west you can say, "I know that God is my Father."

Your heavenly Father is not mediocre, but is almighty and all perfect. When you say He is your God, you must take responsibility for that relationship. Why aren't the sons and daughters of God afraid to be criticized, persecuted or even to die for God? The reason is very simple; it is because God, their Father, is supreme in the universe, and they know that dying for His sake is not to be feared but instead would be a most glorious expression of their love.

Jesus had not one fear about dying on the cross. He thought of only one thing, that he was dying to conquer the suffering of God. His only concern was God's mission, not his own life. At the moment of his death, the noble heart of Jesus was absolutely unselfish. That was the peak of unselfish dedication, and resurrection was possible because of his heart.

We can conclude that as long as Christians emulate the unselfish heart of Jesus, Christianity can prosper. It is impossible to have a true relationship with God, even if you call yourself a Christian, unless you follow the example of Jesus' heart. We can also conclude that the Lord of the Second Advent must come with the same heart and love for God. Upon that foundation of love the Lord can restore the individual, society, nation and world.

Following a doctrine does not qualify anyone as a child of God

God will use the religion that inherits the heart of Jesus to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth in the final day. Regardless of their pride in their accomplishments, Christians today do not have the same concern that Jesus had for the heart of God. They do not talk about the consummation of God's will or the Kingdom of God here on earth. Great churches with plush carpets do not impress God at all. If there is a man who is not recognized as being Christian but who has the same heart as God and Jesus that man will be used to fulfill God's final dispensation.

Suppose the worst communist dictator, Kim Il Sung of North Korea, suddenly died one day. Even though millions of people would be relieved at his death one man would still shed tears. Even knowing his father was a vicious dictator, the son of Kim Il Sung would grieve at his death. The relationship between father and son is a unique and special one, transcending all reason.

Religions around the world are convinced that God is smiling and happy from morning to night, enjoying His power. I come from the humble nation of Korea and have proclaimed, "God, my Father, is suffering and His heart is broken. I must liberate Him from His suffering." My prayer is that God will give me a chance to do this. That is my position now.

The entire world may call me a heretic, but only the person who understands the heart of God is qualified to be His true child. The responsibility and purpose of the Unification Church is not the pursuit of glory or power but the complete liberation of God, which neither Adam and Eve nor Jesus were able to accomplish. You and I are gathered together to liberate the suffering heart of God.

We may face more criticism and persecution than Jesus did, yet nothing will stop us. We expect opposition, but in spite of opposition we can go over the individual, family, society, national and world peaks of suffering. We will stand on the pinnacle of the suffering of God and go beyond, to the realm of resurrection.

We are looking for the one momentous day when God can declare, "I am free of sorrow. My broken heart has been healed by my loving children." You must have the confidence that you will be the begotten sons and daughters of God, who will inherit the heart of Jesus and go over the pinnacle of the suffering of God and liberate Him. You must feel, "God and I are one; I am in the Father and the Father in me and nothing can separate me from God. Even if the entire world rises against me I will not be stopped."

Our goal is so great that nothing can be compared to its value. Therefore, we shall overcome any power trying to block our way and still continue on. You must have the confidence that you were born solely for this purpose and are destined to live and die for this purpose. Have you ever thought, "If I cannot accomplish this mission in my own lifetime, I will leave a legacy for my children because with God there will be a day of resurrection"? Jesus died without fulfilling his mission in his own lifetime, but that does not mean that Jesus failed. He was resurrected and left a spiritual legacy, which affected all mankind.

Men and women look forward to becoming husbands and wives, the culmination of the horizontal level of life. Jesus, too, looked forward to meeting his own bride. God has been looking forward to meeting His children for the 2,000 years since Jesus was on earth. All of humanity as well has been looking forward to that one momentous day of hope. The Unification Church will celebrate that day. The color of your skin, be it white, yellow, or black, does not matter. Only one thing is important-your heart. This is the central point of our ideology, and if you would become a true member you must deeply understand this. Your goal is simply this, to become God's begotten sons and daughters. After that you shall become God-centered husbands and wives and restore the Garden of Eden, the ideal of God. You are in the position of Adam and Eve and you can begin the new heavenly history. You will create the first history of God.

You must not bargain with heaven, or look for the easy way

The people who do not want to inherit the suffering heart of God but only want the blessing of the final day are like thieves. I know there are members who have thought, "I thought there would be a chance to be blessed after the Washington Monument Rally. I've already been in the Church for three years, so why shouldn't I be blessed?" Are some of you thinking like that? Once you know the broken heart of God, could you ever think in this manner and still lift your face to Him? This is not the way to put yourselves in the position of sons and daughters to God.

The first qualification for the blessing is to become a begotten son or daughter of God. You must realize and fulfill that. If your commitment is so steadfast that you feel it in your bones then our work will progress much faster. Many people try to find the easiest ways and dodge the difficult jobs. Some people even bargain with heaven, saying, "All right, God, I'll do this if You will give me that." Do not bargain. It never works. You owe an incredible debt to God yet you never speak about paying back all that you owe Him. If you do not quite have the heart to meet the standard of God but have a repentant heart, raise your hand. God will not criticize you but will be moved and sympathetic with you.

Are you really a perfect member who meets God's standard 100% of the time, or are you not yet perfect? Are you sincere, or are you phony? Some of you are impostors, but even impostors do not want to be treated like impostors. That in itself is dishonest. If you are an impostor you should be treated as one.

The important thing is that the value of whatever job you do, even if it seems trivial and menial, depends on your heart. Do you sell the newspaper on the streets with the full realization that you are indeed the son of God? "God, I am Your begotten son and I am selling newspapers because I love You. The world may scorn me and criticize me but I don't care. I am concerned with only one thing: to maintain the absolute tradition and spirit of being Your true son."

The only thing I have to be proud of is the full realization that I am God's son. My only desire is to leave this tradition with you. When I look at Mother I do not see her as "my wife," but as God's loving daughter and I know I must treat her with respect. If my thinking is wrong then judge me; I welcome it. This is the ideology and position of God and no power can condemn me.

When you realize that you are the sons and daughters of God, the resurrection of your hearts can take place and your union with God can be sealed. You will not be alone in this venture but will ultimately need a spouse. Together you shall appear with one heart and one tradition before God.

You were all born into a satanic lineage, and Satan has every right to claim everything about you. But God can change you and you can be born again. If you do not realize that you must be reborn, however, then you cannot be in the position of true sons and daughters of God and you are certainly not entitled to be here. No matter what calamity may befall you, your body is the temple of God and no one can separate you from your love for God and God from His love for you. You are His begotten child and He is your Father. This is our religious way of life. We are seeking to transform ourselves from contaminated vessels into noble temples of God. I want you to know that you are a most happy and proud group of people in the sight of God.

Persecution is my opportunity to love God more profoundly

After I came to America, all types of accusation and slander were directed at me. That does not matter because I have one single-minded concern-my right to love God as God loves me. No one can alter this privilege in the slightest degree. Furthermore, I am grateful for the opportunity to be persecuted, because I have a better opportunity to feel God's broken and accused heart. "God, I thank You for this. Father, I thank You for the opposition 24 hours a day because then I have 24 hours a day to love You more. Because of this experience, my love for You is more profound."

We are constantly criticized, but God will use each occasion to produce greater results for our work. For example, "brainwashing" has been a point of attack. That issue has become stale, and the issue now in the forefront is the allegation that I am an agent of the KCIA. However, the man who was formerly chief of the KCIA for almost ten years testified before a House subcommittee that he did not even hear about me until he came to America in 1973! Even the Washington Post reported what he said. People were waiting for him to say, "Yes, Reverend Moon was my agent," but his testimony only revealed the truth. I am not asking my. critics to apologize to me; I only want them to be humble in the sight of God.

After the Washington Monument Rally last year I declared that until June of this year we would encounter great tribulation and turmoil. The month of June is almost over and I see the heavenly strategy changing. Now the time has come to declare the truth to the world. The world has been in darkness, but now the sun is rising. We can have the confidence and the dignity of God and march fearlessly forward. We cannot bend the dignity of the truth.

A poor image of me has been created throughout the years, and people actually brainwashed themselves into thinking that I am a charlatan or fraud. The honest, innocent minds of America have been poisoned by the media. But now the time has come to let the world know the truth about me and what I represent here in America. The American people are righteous people, and eventually the tide of negativity will be reversed and a different opinion of me shall be created.

This is heavenly strategy working. God wanted me to quickly become well-known, whether in a negative or positive light. Unfortunately, due to the media the negative accusations became known more quickly, but now all we have to do is reverse the tide and present our true image. The world is bored with bad news and criticism and is ready to hear about some hope.

If you follow God's basic principle of heart you will achieve victory. Your job is to become the begotten sons and daughters of God. You must say before God, "Father, I am Your child. I shall marry in Your name so that together with my mate I may become Your perfect temple, fulfill Your love, and liberate Your sorrow in heaven and on earth."

We will say to God, "For the first time in history You have sons and daughters who truly understand Your suffering. Heavenly Father, please be comforted by us, because we understand Your broken heart. God, take comfort and rest because Your sons and daughters are determined to gratefully go over greater suffering than You have." That is our prayer,

You can see how valuable and priceless an individual you are. Do not demean your own value; you are precious in the sight of God. No matter how miserable your way of life appears, your job is to uphold God's dignity. Those who can say, "Now I have changed completely and am following the direction of God," raise your hands. Now all you have to say is, "God, trust me. Eventually my spouse and myself together will go over the hill of suffering even greater than that of Jesus, who was Your begotten son 2,000 years ago." If your faith is greater than Jesus', then you will approach the Mount of Calvary and be in a position to be crucified. But you do not have to be crucified. You can conquer death and achieve resurrection as living sons and daughters.

Have you ever prayed, "God, give me the burden of America. I will bear it alone now and later I will bear it with my spouse. Please give me the worst and heaviest possible burden. This is my privilege." Please raise your hands if you can pledge to God that you will never do anything to harm or sever your heartistic relationship with Him.

When you determine in your heart and mind to give up your life for God's purpose, then the hill is no longer in front of you. Nothing is a deeper or heavier responsibility than that. You will never decline with that determination, but will gain increasing confidence and achieve ever greater victories in the days to come.

You should end this month of June with the new realization, "We are Your begotten sons and daughters." Then the new month of July will begin with new life and prosperity ahead of us. Those who are grateful to God for this opportunity, pledge to God your 100% loyalty by raising your hands. May God bless you. Thank you. Let us pray.