Belvedere
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
All men and women are supposed to get married. We all think about marriage, isn't that true? I hear that in America there are many men living as if married with other men and women with other women. Do you think this is normal and acceptable? Why not? It is not right because it is not parallel with the laws of nature and the universe. When you look at all forms of creation, whether plant or animal, everything exists in the reciprocal relationship between subject and object. God created two aspects or poles in everything and mankind is no exception to that system. Even plants have male and female flowers.
Why do subject and object need each other? Why is the pair system mandatory? Truth is very simple: without a pair system, nothing could survive for long here on earth. If there were no male and female, all the animals and plants would have become extinct a long time ago. Adam and Eve would not have had any generations after them, so you certainly would not be here! The creation is deeply motivated toward one goal-its own survival.
God wants us to leave good seeds and good generations behind us. In order to do that you need a good spouse. Anyone who wants a good spouse is reflecting the basic nature of all creation, and there is nothing wrong with that. Even more than one's own survival, we want to leave behind us an improved species. This is the way God created us.
Why do men and women love each other and what is the consequence of their love? Children are the fruit and the results of love; they are left behind when you are gone. Therefore beyond love there is a higher goal or objective- to reproduce so that your life will be extended.
Why is it such an imperative, almost automatic thing that parents love their children? It is because as the fruit of the parents love children carry on to the future the love, image, and even the life itself of the parents. Your children are a part of you and because of that you love them.
Nowadays many people think they have to follow "fads" in love rather than the ordinary laws of nature. As we have said, one very important purpose of marriage is the survival of mankind and another is the improvement of the species. Unfortunately, not many people today are thinking that far; few consider their future children or how to leave behind them an improved generation. America is rampant with all kinds of perversions of love. You know better than I what is going on in this society.
Many people want to enjoy love but they refuse to have children. Even the animals do not get together just to "have fun;" they fulfill a definite purpose. The same rule should apply to humans. Historical love is created in this way and it is not just temporal but something permanent. Such a love dwells in the past, present and future. The past involves a historical tradition handed down from one generation to another.
The present will be projected into the future. The present should be better than the past and the future better than the present. When you get married your hope should be to project to the future something better than yourselves. You should pray, "God, my spouse has ugly ears but lovely eyes, nose and mouth. I have nice ears so please combine our good parts and create Your masterpiece through us."
When you are with your fiancé, you might feel joy being together, but that is not the ultimate purpose. Your ultimate goal is to have children who are better than both of you and in order to achieve such a goal you must be united under true love. If the love that flows between you and your spouse is deceitful or dishonest in any way, you will be based upon a very rocky foundation. You would not be able to expect anything better to come after you. This is a sacred, holy and, in a way, fearful understanding. Universal law will not allow any dishonesty or impurity in love.
Before now you might have said that you were getting married for love but now you know that you are also getting married for your children of the future. Love is the process toward that goal. Therefore men and women need each other in order to fulfill our ultimate purpose.
Do you think America is a different place where men can get married to other men and have beautiful children? Certainly not. Homosexuality is a perverted form of love and it is the enemy of universal law. Spirit world does not accept homosexuality at all. Anything which violates the basic law of nature requiring beings to improve themselves from generation to generation is dishonest and dangerous. The Unification Church is not only adamantly against homosexuality but we will treat it as a sickness and cure it.
Positive and negative, male and female, come together in nature to create a balance. That state of balance is like a horizontal line which represents the ideal base or foundation upon which the ideal home, nation, world and Heavenly Kingdom are created. Upon that horizontal base line, men and women become completely united. If this law of balance is not true or necessary then everyone should go to the hospital and have their sexual parts removed because they would not need them!
When I went to bring Mother home from the hospital yesterday, I had a very intriguing conversation with the doctor. It made me feel ecstatic to think about the beautiful way in which God made His creation. The doctor said that women's wombs are very small until a baby is conceived and then they start to expand like a balloon. When a Caesarean operation is performed, the womb is almost transparent from being stretched so far and the doctor can actually see the baby inside it. The womb seems to be fragile but in reality it is strong enough to contain a healthy, growing baby for nine months. That is truly mysterious!
When such mystery and beauty exists, how can atheists accept the idea that mankind came into being by accident or chance? Mystery exists not only in human life but everywhere. Sophisticated, intricate beauty can be found in the world of birds, fish, and throughout the creation. When you look at a newborn baby it is almost spontaneous to think, "How perfect is this little baby! God did not forget anything-hair, eyes, ears, ten little fingers. How wonderful!"
Love is the true ancestor of creation and the force behind generation. During my years of searching for the truth, the first question I asked God was about the essential nature of the universe. The answer was rather simple-the beginning point of the universe is love and the end result is the parent and child relationship. God created mankind and the universe in order to create a world of love through which He could dwell in that Parent / child relationship. This is the central truth and essence of the universe.
Look at yourself from that viewpoint. You came into the world as a child, the fruit of the love of your parents, and you must fulfill yourself as a parent. That pattern of love is eternal-throughout the past, during the present, and into the future it will continue. Communist theory claims that everything in society evolves, so even love must evolve. Some people even claim that love used to exist solely between men and women but now it has "evolved" to the level that love between people of the same sex is normal. Would you say that is an advanced form of love? Not only you and I would disagree with that, but also the entire universe would reject that opinion. Nobody can dwell outside of universal law and be healthy and happy.
Why do we say that one man must love only one woman? Some people have different love partners every day and feel they are justified in doing so, but we do not agree. True love requires total devotion, total love and total giving to only one mate.
Women often ask their husbands, how much do you love me?" because they feel the need to be assured. So I will give you men some good advice at this time: be careful. Since throughout your life your wife will want to know how much you love her, don't give too much initially. Save some for later. You might tell her at first, "I love you very much-like the size of a bean." Later your love can be the size of a tennis ball, then a football and ultimately your love will reach the size of the universe. But don't give the universe first, because you will have nothing more to give! When men and women meet for the first time and try to experience overnight love there is no way that can resemble true, eternal love.
Women are more sensitive and capable of comparing than men; because of this, women are more prone to cause problems within the family. Do you women disagree with me and blame the men for being rascals? When God gay/ the commandment to Adam and Eve, He specifically commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represented Eve. God knew very well the strengths and weaknesses of His children and in giving that commandment, He was concentrating on the women. Do you agree that God worried more about women'. Women must take extra care and precaution with ever, aspect of themselves.
Why do you women like to wear makeup? It is because you have an advanced sense of comparison and want to look even more beautiful than you are naturally. When I was a young man, I would sometimes walk down the street with my younger sister. One day a good-looking man passed by us and I wondered if my sister noticed him. After a few steps I asked her and she said, "Yes, of course." Then she told me what was right and wrong about the way his eyes were, his ears, his hair and the way he was dressed. Apparently she must have given him one quick glance and recorded him in some kind of a photographic memory! At that time I realized women have great sensitivity and capabilities of analysis and comparison. Do you women agree with me?
You men may be in the position to deal seriously with women for the first time in your lives. They are your fiancees and are becoming your wives, so you must be able to understand women's nature and be able to accommodate and satisfy that nature. Ask your fiancee, "What is my strong point? What am I the best at?" Let her tell you and try to change in order to satisfy her. Ask her what kind of clothes you should wear and she will give you good advice. Women have a good harmonizing ability. You should even practice the kind of laughter women like.
Men and women ought to study each other. Men should wear the eyeglasses of women and through them see clearly what women are all about. But women should also wear their women's eyeglasses, not men's, and look at the true nature of men. You always look critically at men, don't you? You should continue to look at them that way.
You women have typical feminine hands-small beautiful, and without hair. Should that kind of hand be held by the same kind of hand or by a big, masculine, hairy hand? When a man embraces a woman, his hands usually go down to her waist, while the woman usually reaches up to the man's neck. When they kiss, the woman usually has to be lifted up somewhat. High heels ought to be nicknamed "kiss shoes" because they allow the woman to kiss the man without jumping up! That must be why high heels were created.
You see how difficult my position is? I have to teach about everything! We have to deal with the problem of homosexuality so we can get rid of it. It is a shameful action before all of nature. I know there are large numbers of homosexuals in America and they are gaining political power, trying to make laws for themselves. They despise the Moonies because we tell them they are wrong. What is important is who is right or wrong in the sight of God. Our viewpoint is certainly the right one.
Another type of terrible sickness spreading in this society is that of sexual relationships among relatives in a family. It occurs between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and even grandparents and grandchildren. It is incredible to even think of it. Such things are like the root of a tree trying to become the flower; or the flower trying to become the trunk. There is a certain right order to things; in the tree, the root is a root and not a trunk; the flower is a flower and never the root. They always keep their proper position and they are never interchangeable.
Moral decline is the worst enemy of America. Two thousand years ago Roman society collapsed from within, without any foreign soldiers attacking. Today America is declining from within and that is the worst danger. Can America call itself civilized when it is filled with jungles of immorality?
Unless we can restore discipline and a strong moral fiber to this society, it will decline; there is no way to avoid it. There can be no order in love, no decency, nothing good in a family in which parents actually engage in sexual relationships with their children. No matter how good looking or strong a person may appear to be, if he is promiscuous in his love, he will eventually crumble. Look at history; when rampant immorality persisted within royal families in ancient kingdoms they were destroyed.
The Unification Church is ordained to bring about a revolution in America by restoring moral discipline. We have undertaken this sacred mission not only for this nation but for the world as well.
Yesterday Mr. Kamiyama told me about one member who joined the church four years ago, at the age of 20. He told Mr. Kamiyama, "I had relationships with at least 250 women before joining the church but since I joined, I have not committed even one fallen action." That is the kind of moral revolution I am talking about.
Perhaps many of you lived a life of free sex before joining this movement. Now some of you have been engaged for almost four years awaiting the blessing. Unification Church members all over the world are living in this extraordinary way. This is certainly remarkable. Detractors of our movement say that I am a fearful dictator, even that I "control the sex lives" of our members. But rather than controlling you, I have ignited a revolution among all races through which you can live together harmoniously under one set of moral rules. We will bring about a true, righteous world under God in this way.
The American society we see today is wearing out. People are doing all kinds of extreme, perverted things but they are certainly not finding satisfaction. Free sex and immorality never bring satisfaction or happiness to anyone.
You women should have a cardinal rule: only one man can touch you forever. True love and true marriage can only come about through one spouse. Dancing is fine as long as it is with your husband. When you are freely expressing your love as husband and wife, your conscience can be clear. Suppose you danced for many hours with your husband and your clothes got all sweaty and you looked very disheveled. There is nothing ugly or even unattractive about that. On the other hand, if you danced for hours with any other man and you still looked fresh and beautiful, that would actually be a very ugly scene.
In New York City men and women embrace and kiss freely in the middle of the sidewalk or any other place, but those kinds of people cannot be trustworthy. Even though a Moonie woman may not be so colorful and her Moonie husband may not be so handsome, they are trustworthy. If the man has have to go thousands of miles away they can still trust each other. This is because they are living under the tradition of Reverend Moon and the Divine Principle.
Children never want to see their parents being unfaithful to each other. Above all, children prefer that their parents love each other, even if they are not socially active or particularly exciting.
God's ideal of creation was to create greater and greater goodness and benefit for the world through the relationship of Adam and Eve. They were supposed to come together in love for that purpose, leaving behind children who were better than they. It is the natural hope of all parents to have children who are greater than they, because it is the hope of God himself.
About half of the 240 million people in America are women. You women should think of yourselves as representing all the rest of the women of the nation when you get married. Each of you is unique among the four billion people of the world. You have been introduced to another unique individual who will be your mate for eternity. Instead of having to go out and directly meet people from every nation and continent, you can consider your own mate as a representative of the entire world.
Do you think I came just to be a matchmaker? It is not a mandatory requirement from God that I match you couples, but everyone in the church wants it. I have become a victim of my own word, since I said that the individual must sacrifice himself for the larger good! It is incredible work but I must do it. Why is it so tough? When you get a good match you tend to think, "Because I am superior I received a good match." On the other hand, those who feel they didn't receive such a great spouse always want to blame me. Any good things become your credit but the difficulties become my fault. Is that true? Perhaps I should tell Dr. Durst to match the couples? If I did that, everybody would complain!
I will give you my matching secret: I do not match you primarily as husband and wife but I see through you to your beautiful children of the future. Is that against the Principle or according to Principle? No matter what, the Principle persists here in America.
There is still a large gap between the Principle and the American way of homemaking. Do you think the secular tradition of this country ought to continue or shouldn't the way of Principle take hold and bring a victory for God in this country? Even when you are criticized, will you uphold the Principle? Our goal is true love so even in the face of difficulties and opposition, we must tirelessly walk toward that goal. Even though many Americans today misunderstand me the time will come after my death when they will realize the truth of what I have been speaking and doing.
The real battle is already over. Regardless of court trials, regardless of whether someone is a lawyer or a judge, everyone will come to one trial ultimately and that is the trial of true love. No one will be able to deny in the future that I was the promoter of true love, that I lived and propagated the Principle and left a lantern of hope for the future.
You are a part of the history which was passed on to you from your parents. Therefore you can never deny the tradition of parents. Often when people divorce in this country, they argue about the custody of children. Each spouse may want to keep the children, but who ever wants to take responsibility for the elderly parents? However, anyone who would want to take responsibility for the parents also deserves to take custody of the children. The vertical line of past, present and future includes the grandparents, parents and children. All three points must be connected.
Why can't we just live in the present and for the present? We want to possess God as our Father and have dominion over the entire universe. The closest distance to God is through the vertical line of your parents, while the link to the universe is through your children. Thus it is illogical to deny either the past or the future.
I don't think most Americans have been taught this way. Some of you call your own parents "senior citizens." Raise your hands if you have denied or disregarded your physical parents. There are quite a few of you; you must repent. Regardless of the reason, you must not deny your parents. Likewise, you must never think that you will get married but avoid having children. You must understand the heart of parents and children. Children should be close to both their grandparents and their parents.
Why do humans alone have a sense of history? It is because we alone are created as eternal beings. Because we have eternal life we cannot separate ourselves from history. This particular sermon is being heard not only by you, but also by the entire spirit world. As your ancestors listen to this sermon, will they think I am saying crazy things? No, they will say, "How wonderful that somebody on earth is speaking the truth. There is no one else but Rev. Moon who understands these things."
Do you engaged people think, "I wish my fiancé wouldn't hear these words from Rev. Moon," or are you wishing that your fiancé were here with you listening to my sermon today? Actually, everyone wants to understand the truth, including grandparents, parents, and children. Universal truth is the base for happiness.
When someone visits his hometown, he wants to be welcomed by everybody he knows there. This is a natural desire and it is true for the spirit world and even God himself.
When you men look at your fiancee, do you naturally desire to touch her face or her body? The body is designed to be touched. Certainly a person's face is important, but the most important thing for a woman is that her spouse has a man's body, and vice-versa.
The innocent, pure baby loves his mother regardless of how she looks. Even if his mother is a hunchback with only one eye, the baby wants to be with his mommy. In the same way, men and women should love each other unconditionally; don't try to evaluate each other. The same way you loved your parents as a child-purely and uncritically-you should love your spouse. Are you confident you can do it?
When you give your first love it is always unconditional. Men and women are designed to experience the beauty and purity of first love and live together forever in that love. With that first love, there is no such thing as a racial or cultural barrier. Teenagers have minds of openness and sensitivity to all the joys, tragedies and beauties of life. They normally feel everything so deeply. Even when they see autumn leaves falling, they feel touched by that.
Unfortunately here in America there are not many who have preserved their first love. Most of you already have some kind of a past, so what can we do? Realizing the preciousness of that first love and knowing that you have lost it for whatever reason, you should be more humble repentant, and fervent than before. In order to compensate be more sacrificial in loving your spouse, ready to accept him or her unconditionally. When you are humble and open to each other, you can compensate for the loss of your first love.
If your conscience was really alive, you could not say to me, "I don't have a good fiancé; he is not the kind I wanted." Your original mind should be saying, "Father, because I am so impure, I don't really deserve any person as my spouse. But since I have received this spouse as a gift from God, I will serve him/her for the rest of my life. I want to deserve this great blessing with all my heart and soul." Those who do not have the privilege of giving your first love to your spouse must be repentful and at the same time most appreciative to God and willing to compensate. In this way you can restore your love and reach the same degree of Heaven. Remember the story of the one brother who had so many different relationships before the church. For him there is nothing but a sense of appreciation because of the blessing. Through the blessing everyone is being launched toward pure, sacrificial love. Without it, you cannot open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Do you think Adam in the Garden of Eden was thinking, "Maybe another woman has a better attitude"? Do you think Eve thought, "Some other man might be better than this one"? Suppose God happened to make Eve with only one eye? When Adam's first love was ignited, Eve would seem even prettier for having only one eye. First love creates miracles.
I am thinking that the blessed children should be married at an earlier age because I want them to be certain of marrying their first love. If each of you had been able to be blessed with your first love intact, you would feel so happy and grateful. You would not have a sense of evaluation but would be like a baby going after its mother with unconditional love.
Such a loving man and woman create an ideal couple. The Kingdom of Heaven is designed for such a couple to give birth to children. No one can live in Heaven all by himself. Everyone needs a partner, no matter what. Many religious people seek their own individual Heaven, but Moonies are looking forward to their "family Heaven." It is natural to want to be with your loved ones. Beyond the family Heaven, we are looking toward the society, nation and world-level Heaven. Beyond that, we want to see the cosmos, Heaven.
We are preparing our eternity now by practicing the eternal principle of sacrificial service. By serving and loving others in a sacrificial way, a person will enjoy total freedom once he goes to spirit world. But unless a person is unselfish here on the earth, he will be blocked everywhere he goes in spirit world.
Selfishness is very common within families. Many people are concerned only with their own spouse or children. What about you in the Unification Church? Will you say to your fiancé, "You are not educated enough; why don't you sneak out of your public mission and finish your degree?"
Why am I pushing you to live a sacrificial way of life? What am I gaining from it personally? I know that if I don't do this now, you will really accuse me later in spirit world. I want to teach you the universal principles now so you can live them and practice them.
Always I preach to you the same thing-the sacrificial way of life for the sake of something greater. The individual for the sake of the family, the family for the sake of society, society for the universe, and the universe for the cosmos. The Unification Church is like a tribe, so we must sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the nation and world.
When Korean members come to this country, I want them to work harder than the Americans and demonstrate the sacrificial way of life. Many black people in Africa despise white people, but if you white Americans go to Africa and demonstrate this way of life you will be welcomed. This is the way I have lived in this country. If I had been thinking of my own comfort, I would not have come here. Likewise, I would never have returned to face the court battle. But for the sake of righteousness and the posterity of this nation and the world, I came to demonstrate the righteous way of life. That is the way a leader must be. Certainly God will never deny that. Even Satan himself will sign the certificate saying, "Rev. Moon was right in what he said and did."
Once you get married, where will you go? If husband and wife are alone and unprotected Satan can always invade. You need a fence around you. so as husband and wife you should go to home church. Through home church we will bring people of all different races together into one unity. With that horizontal unity we can achieve the sovereignty of Heaven.
We need a nation centered upon the Principle in order to be protected so we are pursuing our goal, even through persecution. Home church will be the base of that sovereignty. By uniting our tribes of home church, we can bring about an entire nation under the sovereignty of Heaven. In order for that sovereignty to be protected, we will need a Constitution of the Heavenly Kingdom. We have the Divine Principle, but we still need a Heavenly Constitution. We must achieve this Heavenly sovereignty in order to bring liberation to both the communist and the free worlds. It is not for the sake of Rev. Moon, but for the sake of God that this must happen.
When you go to spirit world, God wants you to be able to proclaim yourself as an exemplary citizen of the Heavenly nation and world so that He can take pride in you. I want to be able to say to God, "Father, I established my ideal family. ideal tribe, ideal nation and ideal world on the earth." Where are we today? We are in the process of moving to the national and worldwide dispensation and ultimately to the level of spirit world.
If you do home church without persecution you can make progress all at once. Think of it. The world is not so large that you could not spread the truth everywhere if you were all really focused on it. Imagine if we could broadcast a Divine Principle seminar by satellite! Such a day is before us.
God is very scientific. Knowing what you want and need, and wanting to give you what you want, He gave you home church where you can do your mission as a family unit. You must set the example for your children in your home church work, telling them, "This is the way True Parents fought the battle, it is the way your mother and I are fighting the battle, and you shall follow our footsteps."
Your children will ask you why you call Rev. and Mrs. Moon True Parents. You can tell them it is because Rev. and Mrs. Moon established the heavenly tradition and they lived it. They lived the sacrificial way of life for the sake of others and the whole world.
You must tell your children another important fact, "It doesn't matter what race they are from; Rev. and Mrs. Moon are exemplary and your daddy and mommy are following their tradition in order to become true parents as well." What is the messiah? The messiah is the one who fulfills true parenthood; so the Unification Church is like a factory for the mass production of messiahs!
Will you say, "I will go to home church if the Unification Church will buy me a house, transportation and clothes"? Is that the way the messiah comes from Heaven? Not at all.
You are very fortunate people. Do you know why? It is because you are living in a different era from me. I received nothing but persecution but from now on Moonies will be welcomed. The time is coming when the mood and atmosphere toward us will be completely changed. You are able to work now in an entirely different set of circumstances than those at the time of Jesus Christ. You are very lucky.
I came alone, knocking on the doors of Christianity here on earth, and received nothing but a cold shoulder. But you do not have to go that way; you are going to be welcomed. An incredible foundation has been established for you. Judaism and Christianity shed blood, the True Parents gave blood, sweat and labor, heart and soul, to lay this foundation. You are inheriting everything free and your persecution will not last more than three years. When I was in the court battle, many people began changing their minds. They didn't want to see me being persecuted because they knew it was not right.
Home church is an incredible system. Since home church is the microcosm, without it you would have to deal in the macrocosm. the entire world. After you get married, then, where should you go? Home church. Jesus Christ united with the Holy Spirit after the resurrection and worked together with Heavenly Father as a trinity to begin the work of salvation. Likewise, you men and women are coming together and going to work in your home church area. You should be able to say to your fiancé or spouse, "I love home church better than I love you."
You have no idea how many hours I spent in prayer in my life. I really envy your position; if I were in it, I would go for 24 hours in excitement and joy. You have to give your body, heart and soul for the sake of others.
Since the home church mission is installed all over the world, I can find my home any place-South America, Africa, Europe, Asia. What should be your central purpose and desire when you go to work in home church? How do you think I will choose which home churches I want to visit? I will want to visit either the ones which have been controversial and well-known or the ones in which the people have been completely won over and you are totally welcomed. I would go to those areas either to compliment you or to comfort you.
The book of Revelation clearly states that people should either be hot or cold toward God, not lukewarm. You must start out with the coldness of persecution and turn it into the heat of acceptance. Certainly the word indemnity is a very ice-cold word.
Your activities in home church have often been the opposite of that pattern so far. You usually go to the homes where you have been well-received, avoiding those where you are persecuted. However you should rejoice over the people who fight with you and should visit their homes with enthusiasm. When the person says, "Don't come back!" you should show up every day. Clean up the area do all kinds of services. If that person still opposes you God will mobilize all the neighbors and they will say to him, "We have never seen such a good man as that home church person. Why do you persecute him? You are unrighteous." They will kick him out and embrace you!
In order to make a cold place hot, you must become like burning hot charcoal. Husband and wife must be totally united with each other and go to home church. The cold, negative people don't want to see such hot people. You should chase each other out to do home church. The wife might say, "Why don't you go to the people who are negative to you?" You should pray together and go out to those negative houses. then return and pray again.
If your wife complains and says, "I need more sleep. You go ahead and pray by yourself," you should not give up. Wake her up and persuade her to come and pray with you. It is most important to pray together. Why is that? It is because you want to be able to share in the success and rejoice together when it is a victory. If the husband is the one smiling and full of joy but the wife feels a bit guilty, that is dishonorable for the area.
Mother just returned from the hospital yesterday after giving birth, and it was a long ordeal for her. I was anxious to bring her here to Sunday Service today but the Doctor said it was impossible. Why did I want Mother to be here ? I wanted her to show a heroic example to all of you. Even though she is very weak, still Mother managed to come here and listen to three or four hours of the sermon. That is truly historic. When Mother does that, how in the world can any wives or husbands in the church complain about their situations? That is the kind of tradition I wanted to set this morning.
Do you think God will say to me, "Rev. Moon, what a cruel husband you are! How can you drag your wife out right after she came home from the hospital"? No, He will say, "You are indeed a wonderful husband. You truly love your wife." I know that is the way God sees it. What kind of husband do you women want? Do you want a husband who thinks like me? Sometimes a husband can do things that appear to be cruel, but they are motivated by genuine love, as in this case.
When you cheer for us, I want Mother to receive the same joy and praise that I do from you. When you cheer Mother, I truly want to be the first person to cheer her. To become that kind of wife is not easy. Ordinary women would definitely complain, "My husband doesn't understand women and their special difficulties."
Mother and I have now had thirteen children. The number 12 was a good number and perhaps you wonder why we went on to have 13. Jesus and the 12 apostles together make 13. Now there are twelve children and one who will become like the central figure of the group. We have six daughters and seven sons; six is a number representing earth and seven represents heaven. Mother has consummated her mission.
I always want to be a good example for every member of my family. I work hard, go to bed latest, get up early in the morning, and spend many sleepless nights meditating. Nobody in my home can say I am not working hard enough. Mother recognizes this and tells me, "Father, I surrender. Your standard is absolute." Men should fulfill the man's role with a man's dignity. He should be in the position to educate women.
You must know that there is a Principle standard for all the little details of daily life. Nothing of value can come easily or automatically. What kind of husbands will you men become? Will you be respected by your wife or criticized by her? Do you women want your husbands to become good Divine Principle lecturers? Certainly the women want their husbands to stand up wherever they are and be able to speak about Unificationism, VOC. and all those things.
All women want their husbands to be capable of meeting congressmen and ambassadors; in short, women want their husbands to be well respected. Have you men achieved that? Women also want their men to be masculine, athletic, and capable at hunting and fishing. They want their husbands to be able to socialize and tell jokes and sing songs.
My goal, therefore, is to transform all you dull men into such exemplary, brilliant husbands! In order to make you into such men, can I just sit and watch you do everything as you like? No, I push you out to do many things such as IOWC, fishing, witnessing, fundraising, etc. I want you to be exposed to all kinds of situations and get training from it.
On any occasion, I can take the platform and give a speech to inspire any kind of audience. I can go to a sports arena and do well in any type of sports. I can sit down and write essays very well. I can sit and engage in stimulating conversation with anyone, for hours and hours. When I speak with Mother for a while, she always wants me to stay and continue talking with her. Boredom does not exist in our lives. I want to recreate all you men of the Unification Church into brilliant husbands. Is there anything wrong with that?
When the seminary graduates are sent out to Ocean Church, they often complain saying, "But I'm a scholar!" However, what is a scholar? The scholar should be able to do anything, including catch and sell fish. Seminary graduates are given all kinds of missions such as being sent out to organize against communism. When someone learns too much in the classroom, he usually becomes skeptical and even scared of real life. Thus, I draw you out of the classroom and push you to work in the world. Even though some of you may not like it, usually you discover how stimulating and exciting VOC demonstrations and those things are. Once you learn to appreciate such things, you want to go out on your own.
Women want a husband who is versatile and talented, not narrow and single-minded. So far, I have managed to catch a 1,000 pound tuna by concentrating my efforts and knowledge. I am revising my activities now, though. I am going out fishing to catch smaller fish and I am investigating ways of netting them in huge amounts. I am putting a great amount of interest and energy into fishing.
Do you women want a husband who reflects my nature? You men have heard them say yes, so I am going to push you out. What if your husband goes out on the ocean? Will you go with him, even if it is a small boat and you must toss and turn all the time? When you become the wife of a versatile, multi-talented husband, you will have to support his activities. If you cannot be everywhere with him, at least you should support him and never complain against him. It is a tendency of some of you women to complain too much, saying, "Why did you come back so late last night? Why didn't you call me?' On many missions, there are no telephones. Without even knowing what your husband did or what kind of an important job he fulfilled the previous night, you should never shoot out complaints or remarks against him.
Normally it takes several years preparation to start a new newspaper, but I told Bo Hi Pak to create a new one in only two months. He could hardly respond to that direction and he mentioned all the reasons why it was impossible. But I told him, "You have to start The Washington Times in two months; no matter how you do it, it is your responsibility." When you are given a mission, you must be able to think of ten different ways to do it. The Washington Times started out being created in New York City and then being flown to Washington every night.
Even though people look scornfully at the Moonies now, you are soon going to be respected. You will become the central figure in whatever society you move. There is no one else with your kind of character and ability, so you will be automatically respected.
When you persevere in your area, visiting the negative people and trying to serve them, the opposition will crumble very quickly. Some people will change on the second visit. They will say, "I'm sorry. I was very rude to you yesterday, but I didn't mean it. Won't you come to our home as often as possible?" You might even invite all your home church contacts to a big banquet, telling them, "A very prominent, important speaker is going to give us a talk." Then when they come to the banquet they will ask, "Where is that VIP?" You can reply, "Don't you know the VIP? I am the one!" Then you can take the platform and deliver the most inspiring lecture about the Divine Principle. The people will be so impressed and say, "He certainly is a VIP!" From then on when you visit them, they will be completely open to you.
When I was in prison camp in North Korea, nobody knew anything about me. But sooner or later, people came to respect me because they saw my actions. The prison police were supposed to treat the prisoners very harshly. but they couldn't always treat me that way. Even some of them felt respect for me. At one point when I came out of my cell, the police bowed to me. Of course I never asked them to do that. That is the kind of life which is truly dramatic.
I want to bring a revolution to the American church. The American mentality is sincere but you only like to do one thing at a time. You say, "Let me finish this mission before you give me any other responsibilities," but I think you should be able to handle three-or even ten-missions at the same time!
Suppose the cooks at East Garden said, "Cooking is my only mission. I don't want to clean or baby-sit." That is not the way it works. Everything comes together; if there is someone who is willing to help anywhere the need arises, that person will succeed.
Fundraisers cannot speak too loudly in front of me because I am the forefather of fundraising. I know exactly where the money goes, as well. Every penny is spent for the purposes of God.
Suppose I went out today and became a beggar on the streets. If I came to you saying, "Can you give me a quarter?" what would you do? Would you want to give me everything you have? Actually. that is not sufficient. If I went begging on the streets, you should want to do what I do. Then my heart would be truly warmed. If I had to go begging on the streets for the sake of someone else, I would never be ashamed. If you could save someone's life by begging, you would do it a thousand times.
In Korea I learned how to be a good farmer as well. In the Oriental countryside, human waste is used as fertilizer. We didn't have proper tools, so I had to spread it all around by hand. Then when mealtime came there was no water to wash one's hands. When we ate a piece of food we would hold it by a tiny corner and eat everything except that corner, which we would throw away. That is a very dramatic, even poetic, way of life. I learned how to take baths in muddy water and still get clean.
Your mental attitude toward your experiences is all important. Diseases and bodily sicknesses can be controlled by your mind. If you think, "I don't feel well. I think I will die soon," you probably will! But if you can conquer your sickness in your mind, you can be healed. When sickness comes to you, you should think, "This illness came not to kill me but to make me stronger by fighting it off." Then you find that the sickness actually helped you.
Mother worries about my health and tells me, "Father, you are not a young man anymore. You should cut down the length of your sermons to only two hours." But I knew that if I did that, she would say, "Two hours is a little too long, so why don't you make it an hour and a half?" Then she would suggest one hour, then thirty minutes, then maybe 15 minutes. I have a secret: whenever Mother gives that kind of advice for a Sunday morning, the sermon that day will be at least four hours. I can't work under pressure of any kind; I want to be totally free. Mother tells me, "I can't understand you; you are an incredible mystery!" But once I explained my logic to her about this situation, she accepted it and had to consent to my thinking.
There are Korean IW's assembled here for a workshop. Every day I have been taking them out on the boat and giving! them training. On windy days and rainy days, they say to each other, "I wish Father wouldn't take us out today," although they don't say anything to me. That very day, you can be sure, they will go out. I push them out and direct them to catch the fish on the front deck. If I discover them sitting comfortably inside the cabin, I kick them out again. My principle is this: not many people can succeed by doing only the things they enjoy. You should be able to do anything; even if you hate to do something, you should be able to do it well. By doing something you don't want to do, you can become a person of success.
I don't worry about how to build the Kingdom of Heaven; and I don't worry much about popular opinions. For example, the wealthy class of Korea doesn't accept our church. Therefore my instruction is to focus on the working class; we will start at the grass roots and begin to build the Kingdom from there. This is my attitude-if one direction doesn't work, I never give up; I just find another way. That is why the Unification Church has come this far.
When God looks at that kind of attitude, do you think He likes it? What about people in spirit world? God and spirit world join together in an alliance to help the crusade of Reverend Moon. If the United States doesn't support this movement, I think South America can be mobilized to save North America. If the European nations fail. we will mobilize the African nations to save Europe. Once I start something, I always see it through to the end. Is that bad? It is not bad, but it is not an easy life.
The ideal blessed couple is the most determined husband and wife with a goal in their lives, who will not give up under any circumstances. They join their lives together and work steadily and patiently until they reach their goal.
When children come, your burdens will not become lighter but heavier. If you worked eight hours as a single person you might have to work 16 hours once you become a married couple. Then when you have children, perhaps you will have to work even longer with hardly any time left over to sleep. You must have the attitude that you will not be indebted to anybody but will work as much as necessary. Your success will not come easily.
Jewelers possess treasures but they are also the targets of robbers. By the same token, getting blessed in marriage is a good thing but there is also a cross to bear. You will actually have a double burden to bear: your own and your spouse's. Then your children will bring their own burdens for you to bear.
It is very exciting to get married but I want you to be prepared so nobody will get discouraged one week after the Blessing. You must have confidence now. If you truly adhere to the Principle, you will not be weakened. With confidence and strength and dedication to your mission you will overcome all difficulties. This is why I am speaking to you this way today.
Perhaps some of you might envy my position, but my role is not an easy one. The problems of the church cannot go higher than me, so whenever any of the leaders needs a bigger budget, for example, I am the one they come to. What can I do? Can I go to God and say, "Heavenly Father, we need more money"? I have to take responsibility for all these things.
I receive many serious reports of all the problems and suffering of our members around the world. Good reports do not normally come to me. I hear about our members getting persecuted in communist countries; there are so many problems our movement has to face.
Are you thinking that since you did fundraising for three or five years you ought to receive a house and material benefits now from the church? I never think in those terms. I worked for God my entire life and I have never asked God to provide me with a house or such things. I pray for hours and hours but I never pray for money. Why is that? I want to tell God, "Heavenly Father, I am alive and active. You shouldn't have to worry about money; I will take care of it." You, too, should be self supporting; you should even be able to support others. Do not become dependent on others.
There will be over 2,000 couples blessed on July 1. Have you ever considered that once I go to spirit world, you will be the ones to give blessing to your home church people? They will say to you, "Since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are not here, will you bless us on behalf of them?
Would you like to become children of the master of the house or children of the servant? If you want to be the master's children, you must be educated and disciplined. You must receive a special kind of education. When I give you the teaching of truth, you must have the heart of a child to receive it. A little child is guided by the hands of his parents. His mother tells him, "You must do this and you must not do that." Does the little child say, "Mommy, I don't think that's right. Maybe part of what you say is right, but I think that part is wrong."? The little child is not in that position. When you were young you received all kinds of guidance. When you tried to put it into practice you discovered what was good and what was bad but initially you just received everything. Without even receiving my words sometimes you try to analyze them first.
We talk about home church but how many people are really doing home church? A student attending university must go consistently to class in order to get credit. Home church is far greater than any school but because there is no test, would you not go.? There are all kinds of excuses.
We should all be most grateful for this power of home church. From the spiritual and providential point of view we do not recognize any boundaries in any part of the world. We will eventually do our home church in the communist countries as well.
Surrounding Jesus, there were two central families- that of Zechariah, or John the Baptist, and that of Joseph, which was Jesus' own family. Around them there were 70 elders. You will be restoring the position of Jesus if he had suffered no crucifixion. Such a foundation will extend to the national level very quickly.
You are going to your home church in the position of John the Baptist and in the potential position of the messiah. When you go to home church you will actually be welcomed and not rejected. Within three years time this can be accomplished. These are not just empty words.
You cannot reach the stage of perfection without fulfilling the growth stage. We must consummate home church victoriously. Without it, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world.
Three spiritual children are a necessity in order to restore the families of Adam and Noah, in which there were three sons and three daughters-in-law. Together with the parents, that makes eight. Without three spiritual children you are not entitled to the blessing. You are not sinless Adam and Eve but instead came out of the fallen lineage. Therefore you must go this course. Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples, trying to show them his love and unite them solidly together. However, disunity arose anyway and one of them betrayed Jesus. There were at least three disciples who contributed to that betrayal in some way.
We are living in an era of "winterism." Communism is spreading all over the globe and it originated in a northern, cold climate. The democratic culture originated in a mild weather climate and the ancient cultures of Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia arose in a hot climate. We are teaching the principles of Unificationism, which has the power to transcend all the differences of ideology. The communist ideology is spreading cold air all over the world and we must stop it. Otherwise the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be established.
We must fight against communism. Like strong trees, when the cold of winter hits us we will maintain our life within, although our leaves may fall off. Our families must be able to overcome all difficulties and survive and prosper. We will see the surrender of all atheistic ideologies. Until then we must survive and prosper.
Do you need three spiritual children? Jesus needed three major disciples but before those three could be distinguished, he needed all twelve. Unless you have three spiritual children, it is almost like Noah's ark floating on the water with no condition to settle on the land. This is the truth of Divine Principle; it is not my concept. I myself had to be the first to live by this principle.
Mother and I were engaged in 1960, but I waited until after the engagement of three spiritual children before we were married. Then we could give the blessing to those three spiritual children. Then there were the 36 blessed couples, then 72, 124, 430, and 777. The 124 couples blessing laid a solid foundation for the worldwide dispensation. The 430 opened the door for all Korean people to come to our movement. The 777 couples blessing allowed me to start working directly on the worldwide level.
The years 1970, 1971, and 1972 were years of incredible ordeal for the Korean blessed couples. They had to leave their children behind with reluctant families and, in extreme cases, send them to orphanages, in order to accomplish their missionary pioneering. They were almost like Moses' mother who had to leave him in the Pharaoh's palace. As you know, Moses never lost his identity. Likewise even though the blessed children lived outside the heavenly domain, they did not think their parents had deserted them. They knew their parents were righteous and putting their missions ahead of everything.
The grandparents usually complained against the parents leaving their children in that way. However the children received incredible sympathy from their peers in the secular world. As they grew, the other children supported them and helped them. In such a way the barriers between Cain and Abel were broken down. Also in that way the barriers preventing national unity were broken down at some level.
During that time the blessed couples received much criticism from the grandparents and others. But now, since the Unification Church has become so famous, those grandparents are saying, "I deserve some of the credit. I took care of the children for three years!" The policy appeared to be unwise at the time but now it is clear that it was the most righteous way to go. The unity between Cain and Abel was a great victory.
The time will come in the future when there will be another such condition necessary. Would you agree to leave your children behind, the way the Korean elders did? However, if you do your home church well you won't have to do such a thing. Home church is so important. You can still live with your children and do home church, while in Korea the mothers had to brush aside their own and their children's tears and go away to serve God. They did it because there was no other way to save the world.
There is no personal benefit I could ever derive from such an event. I appear ruthless, in a way, but I do the things I do because the Principle requires it. I can do these things decisively, without any hesitation. Satan has been retreating step by step. Since the Korean elders laid that kind of foundation of suffering, you won't have to suffer to that degree. All you have to do is home church. Now you know how important a task it is.
All the sacrifices that were made by religious people through history were to contribute toward the perfection of one Adam and one Eve. Now the time has come to achieve that perfection. The victory of Adam and Eve should be shared with the rest of the world. We cannot achieve this victory for God without paying incredible indemnity. In the first centuries Christians were martyred and Jewish people suffered incredible ordeals during World War 11. All these things are not without meaning; they were not in vain. All have contributed to the consummation of human history. Today that martyrdom and crucifixion is continuing under the communist regimes. Many good people are being tortured and thrown into death camps.
Each of you is in the position of Adam and Eve. You should think that because of you, all the sacrifices of history took place. I want you to understand that for the perfection of one Adam and Eve, all the suffering and religious persecution of history took place.
Therefore we are in a position to consummate this on top of that foundation and we must be able to bring liberation to all. Spiritually, we are responsible to liberate our ancestors. Physically, we have to liberate our contemporaries and all the generations to come.
John the Baptist, speaking of Jesus, said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." You are now in the position to liquidate the sins of the world. You are bearing the cross for the world, but you cannot do this out of duty. It must be done voluntarily, because you want to do it. Because I have pioneered this course, you can go through your own course in only seven years; you do not have to pass through a millennium of difficulties.
After 6,000 Biblical years, Satan has finally begun to retreat. He has been totally exposed through the discovery of Divine Principle. You should be able to say. "I participated in the holy war to subjugate Satan, the one who accused man throughout history." As champions of God, we must be the ones to totally exterminate him. We are in the position of the Heavenly David against Goliath.
You must walk this path with courage, the way David went out to face Goliath. He went all by himself, without any assistance. We have the weapon of shim jung, heartle that will be our rock in our slingshot. We will hit the power of Satan and he will be knocked down and killed.
Do you understand the value of home church' You are alive and strong; think of the thousands of Christians who became food for lions in the Roman Empire's coliseums. Even facing such torture, they were not shaken in their faith but sang hymns as the lions tore at their flesh. At this time, the raging lions of Satan have become sick and old: all they need is one strong punch to be knocked out, can we not continue?
You must feel, "Heaven and earth shall be restored to righteousness by my actions." Unless you have that kind of conviction and dignity, how can you say, "I am a child of God"?
Where will you go after you are married? Would you want to stay in the New Yorker, since it is a comfortable place? No, you should go to home church. For five years I have been talking about home church. When you walk the path, even without knowing very much about it, your reward can be great. But if you receive plenty of explanation and you still do not go the path, you will become burdened. I have spoken enough to you. I don't have to give you any more sermons on home church because you will be doing it!
The day of the blessing will be July 1, the first day of the seventh month. Seven plus one equals eight, which signifies a new start. Which ones of you are determined to spend your honeymoons in your home church area? Do you think Mother and I enjoyed a honeymoon? I still don't know what the word means. When you inherit my mission fully, I might consider taking a honeymoon for the first time.
When I left Korea, I left the mission there in the hands of the elder members. Will you send me off on my honeymoon saying, "We want to go with you!"? When I come back and see that your home church work is successful, I will buy a jumbo jet and take all of you to the places I visited.
July 4 is the anniversary of America's independence. You will be celebrating your honeymoon on that day. We should have fireworks on July I that outdo all the rest of the fireworks in the country.
The most important thing is to gain spiritual children. I have told you how to restore your relatives and friends by writing letters to them. Have you just pushed away my advice, thinking, "I tried and I couldn't bring any success."? Is that a good excuse?
After your wedding you may find more opposition from your parents and families. You must have a strong will and overcome many difficult situations. You should be able to purify yourselves and lift your standard higher that anyone else's in history. In absolute love there can be no degradation.
Once you are married, you will no longer be just fiancés. You can touch your husband or wife's hand. You can even kiss if you want to, but you must be able to do so with a clear conscience. If all kinds of past impure memories come to you, you shouldn't kiss. The 40 days after blessing are a period of purification and liquidation of sin. Husband and wife should sit down and talk with one another and pledge your lives to one another. You must come to the conclusion that you are the only ones for each other. You should pick out your wife's picture and say, "Yes, this is the one God gave to me. She is the one I love absolutely." Your every sense will be focused that day of your wedding. You must think that day is the day of fulfillment of all your dreams.
You must consider your husband or wife as your king or queen. All the men and women you met in the past must be totally forgotten. You never had a king or queen before but now you do. The worst you can do would be to compare your mate to a past boyfriend or girlfriend.
Remember when you look at your mate that what you can see is only the case. Inside that case, your spouse is a diamond or gold mine. A beautiful-looking box does not necessarily contain good contents. Faithful people don't show off their faith by flashy appearances, but the beauty of true faith permeates them. An ugly man normally possesses a purer heart. Beautiful women normally do not possess the strongest faith; such people tend to be tempted in many different directions.
Your family is the core of the universe. It will be a textbook for universal love. Within your family, everything will be contained: God, spirit world, your happiness, confidence, and the perfection of your life. When you say to your spouse, "My darling," the entire universe is being harmonized. God will smile and applaud you. Nothing is more dramatic than having your family as your textbook for the universal standard of love. What kind of a family is that? It is what we call a blessed family.
Just hearing the phrase, "blessed family," makes you feel intoxicated! When you are husband and wife and dance together in ecstatic joy, you don't need to focus too much on your partner's face. You will want to touch each other's hands and dance together in joy.
I will pick some exemplary, united couples and ask them to learn beautiful dances and then we will have a heavenly dancing party. Since dancing is the expression of joy, the Heavenly Kingdom must have lots of dancing. Someday we can be linked around the world by satellite television and we can all take walks together, regardless of which time zone we are dwelling in. Everybody else will be asleep, but the blessed couples will be busy walking and laughing.
My life has been very difficult and tragic, in a way, but I never lost my dream. What appeared to be an impossible dream was never impossible. It has become a reality, step by step. I used to dream of people of all five colors of skin dancing together around the world. We could even do that now, in this room. Dreams can become a reality!
No matter how miserable you may look or how tired you may feel, you have the hope of home church. Your own dream will become a reality, just as mine has. Be thankful for persecution for it will make you great. Tears will flow from your eyes but your mouth will be saying, "Thank you." Nothing in the world's literature could express such a moment. This is a great, dramatic moment.
Never be discouraged. Move on to home church and we shall win the victory there. Those who say, "I will do it," raise your hands and show me. Thank you.
