Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
On this second Sunday of the year, we must look back on 1983 and think seriously about it. Mankind has always asked the fundamental questions of where did we come from, what path should we take, and where are we going? The fate of each person, in the ultimate sense, is the same; there is nothing unique about anyone in that respect.
We are all interdependent as we carry on our lives. Some people might think that only their particular group comprises the true Americans but this is not so. All different races and minority groups are woven into the fabric of American society. The same principle is true vertically. All races and groups have a vertical connection with the past and their experiences up till now encompass many things.
Although masses of people are most obvious in the world, the individual is the basic unit. It is the individual which is multiplied to create the masses.
Our lives require variety. You eat one thing for breakfast and then another type of food for lunch and dinner. You don't want to live just on bagels and cream cheese; you know you need other types of food as well. Furthermore, we don't want to be confined just to the earth's surface; we want to experience flying in the air and diving under the water. We want to live the way our imaginations direct us.
Just look at the way the human head is placed on the neck. It has tremendous flexibility; in fact, a man can turn his head and shoulders and can see everything around him, encompassing 360 degrees.
Imagine that you could ask a direct question to your hand, saying, "You are not such a beautiful thing by yourself but your purpose is to touch other things. Out of all the things in the world, what would you most like to touch?" The simple answer that hand would give is, "I want to touch the things which are the most valuable." Ask your eyes, which are always rolling around looking at things, "Why are you so busy?" The eyes would answer, "I'm always looking for the things which are good and valuable." Another busy part of the face is the mouth-it is always moving. That mouth wants to be able to express the most valuable feelings. Likewise, your feet want to move toward things of greatest value.
Each of you has a mind but you can't tell me how it looks, or even where it is located in space. Your mind would have the same goal as the other parts of you-to experience things of value.
We can observe other people doing things and we may not see any underlying principle that guides their actions. However if we really examine it, we can find the center and guiding purpose of a person's life. A person will base his entire life, his actions and everything, on the central value in his life.
Suppose we asked an average woman what she is living for. She would answer that she seeks value in life. The same is true of any man, no matter how high or low in human society. Every person would say that he is seeking greater and greater value in life.
If we asked a saintly woman, "Is there something of more value than even yourself?" she would reply, "A saintly man." Likewise, the saintly man would consider the saintly woman as having greater value than himself. Do you think that is a silly answer or a correct one? Is a woman's appearance the factor that gives her more value to a man than himself? What makes the saintly man value the saintly woman so much? That woman has the love within herself which the man needs. It is the quality of her love for him that makes the saintly man value her. The reverse is true as well.
Where does love originate in the very beginning? When we answer that question, all other questions about life and love between men and women are answered. Where love is, man and woman are bound to be as well. We might ask how many kinds of love there are. Does a grandfather feel a different kind of love from his son or his grandson? Can we classify people's love according to the color of their skin? No, love is the same for all people. The same principle guides love for black people, yellow people and white people. This is the truth, without exception.
What if the love that a man and a woman need was dispersed in every direction-north, south, east and west? It would be very difficult. However, love exists in absolutely one direction. That means if you are going in that direction, you cannot retreat.
We can give a clear example of this principle in the relationship between a man and a woman. Once a man has found his love in his wife, he exists in relationship with her for her entire life, without ever retreating. Once he starts to pursue her as his object, he never stops.
Another example is your eyes. You would never think about exchanging them with another person just to see something differently. How about your mind? Would you ever imagine exchanging the way you think with someone else? It's impossible!
Since we can never exchange our eyes or our minds with another, it stands to reason that we can never exchange our spouses. A person's spouse is more valuable than even oneself; therefore, one cannot change spouses at whim. Those of you here are mostly blessed couples and some of you have started your families. Is your spouse pleasant to behold or do you hate to look at him or her? It is possible that someone may feel that he doesn't even want to look at his or her spouse but the crucial question to ask is whether or not your spouse is truly the genuine one for you. If there is something untrue-not genuine-about that spouse, then you indeed have a problem.
Suppose we had a lump of 24-carat gold and a piece of sculpture of George Washington, also made of 24-carat gold. The lump is very rough and dull, as if someone had retrieved it from a trash can. Suppose both items weighed the same, say one pound. Which has more value? In terms of the gold, they both have the same value. But then let's say that the ugly lump weighed .3 pounds more than the sculpture. Which would be worth more money then? It would be the ugly lump because it weighed more. We are not so much concerned about how gold looks or what shape it is in, but rather about its quality and whether it is truly 24-carat or not.
We could also compare the value of two people, a pretty woman and a plain woman for example. Suppose the plain woman had more truthfulness and genuineness. We must have a discerning eye, capable of telling the difference between people. We must be able to see when a person has more quality than another, even though that person might be physically less attractive than others. The person who may seem to be more appealing may not have the same quality.
It is true that the woman who has a less beautiful appearance often tends to have more love within her than a woman who is extremely beautiful. Perhaps you men might say, "I would like a good quality woman who is also beautiful!" However, chances are that you cannot have both; it is either/or. There is a Korean adage that says, "There is no truly blessed woman who is beautiful."
When a woman is beautiful in her youth she will often try to maintain her beauty even after it is gone. She may also continue to be boastful and aggressive as she was when she was young and beautiful. When such a woman approaches, people are diminished by her. On the contrary, the woman who is just average-looking will not be obsessed by her looks but will focus upon her internal beauty. Everything is relative-if a woman has one quality, she won't have the other and vice-versa.
There are all kinds of men-different shapes, sizes, colorings, different types of character and personality, and so forth. Who receives the beautiful woman and the not-so beautiful woman? The man who matches the beautiful woman will receive her, likewise with the not-so-beautiful woman. However, the most important quality of any person is his or her truthfulness. The value of a person is determined by how genuine he or she is.
Within a kingdom there are many citizens. Some of them are loyal and some only pretend to be loyal, always trying to use the king for their own benefit. In what age group would you expect to find more of the insincere subjects? It is usually older people who have learned how to manipulate and use others. An insincere person might have been quite handsome when he was younger, able to get whatever he wanted. But as he grows older, he would get skinnier and less attractive. Therefore, one can imagine that such people would tend to become the imitation loyal subjects as they got older.
Above all your other qualities, your true love must be genuine. Thus you must look at people and things with your eyes tuned in to true love. Do you look at your spouse with the eyes of genuine love? What percentage of your life do you see your spouse through the eyes of true love? Perhaps only 50% of the time? Or maybe only 10% of the time? You can evaluate yourself-if you only look at your spouse with eyes of true love 10% of the time, then you can know that you are 90% impure. You know you have to change if you have that much impurity. Ask yourself seriously how pure you are.
Is there really a God? If a majority of the people deny that God exists, how can you be sure that God exists? If I were to stand here this morning and say, "There is no God," could anyone come up here and convince me of the opposite? How would you do it? Could you grab me by the neck and choke me until I accepted that God exists? That wouldn't work! Perhaps some people would succumb to that kind of pressure but would God want people to believe in Him because of that? No, He would prefer that a person seeks to know God, finds Him, and then follows Him on his own.
If there were no God, the Unification Church would not be necessary and neither would the rest of Christianity. All the great saints of the past would have lived meaningless lives if God truly doesn't exist. However, God exists and He guided and inspired the great religious leaders of the world. Whether it was Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius, or Mohammed, a common message came through-that message was one of righteousness, peace and harmony. Because they sought to expand that message to many others and to change the world, they came to be known as the greatest of saints.
These people worked throughout their lives for the purpose of expanding goodness to the largest level. These saints all lived many centuries ago and their teachings have been guiding people for thousands of years, yet we still have not achieved a world of righteousness, peace and harmony. Although mankind yearns for this kind of world, we are still striving for it.
Each of these great religious leaders introduced the concept of universal peace and harmony, a concept which has the quality of eternity and unchangeability. Where did these saints get eternal and unchanging ideas?
Here in America, people consider freedom to be a great virtue but what is the basis for freedom; where does it come from? Certainly the freedom of all levels of existence-individual, family, and on up to the universe-is based upon God Himself. Yet the average American does not connect his freedom with God. Instead, people try to base their freedom on themselves. The self is a very changeable center; freedom, peace and harmony are lofty ideals which can never be founded upon the false center of selfishness.
Some say, "Only white people should enjoy true freedom." Yet such a concept is immediately recognizable as false. That kind of freedom is bad, not good. By the same token, the American culture has become strongly individualistic, due largely to a misguided way of thinking about freedom. If freedom is indeed so dear, then we must at least connect it with an eternally unchanging essence. If freedom is connected with that, then perhaps the search for freedom is truly worthwhile.
As we have said, true love is the most valuable thing for both a man and a woman. God as well needs to have the give and take of true love with man and woman. Because true love comes only from God, only those who are centered upon God are able to possess it. Like fish jumping for bait, men and women jump for true love when they see it. Once you swallow that true love bait, it is a part of you and no one can take it away. You never get tired of having true love inside of you or wish you had never swallowed it.
If you could find true love somewhere in the world, would you be content to just look at it or wouldn't you immediately jump at it and swallow it? Wouldn't you do anything at all to remain attached to that true love? If you women had very long hair wouldn't you want to tie your hair around true love so you would remain attached? Not only American women but also Korean, Japanese and all women are crazy about true love. This was true a thousand years ago and it will be the same a thousand years from now. If something is attractive for thousands of years in the past and future, then we can conclude that it possesses genuine, unchanging value. Certainly every ideal that we pursue should possess such unchanging, eternal value.
We can conclude that if we connect our freedom with this eternal point, it will be eternal freedom. Likewise if our peace, harmony and righteousness stem from this eternal quality, they will be eternal as well. Any eternally stable society must stem from this eternal quality. We need an unchanging center for our universe. True love is the only quality that can connect the most remote extremes within this universe. No matter how much money we have, it cannot create universal harmony; likewise, no knowledge or advanced technology will be able to do it.
Is man born with the essence and potential for true love? Certainly every person feels that within himself there is the ability to find true love. What direction does the love of man and woman flow? Quite simply, their love flows toward each other. Any man or woman is only half of a whole.
Even within a tiny seed, the most elementary form of nature, there are two parts. You can see this for yourself if you peel away the skin of any seed. One part is the plus element and the other is the minus. Nestled in between the plus and the minus is the tiny embryo. Every seed has these fundamental elements. The same is true within the animal kingdom. All living things incorporate the essences of plus and minus, just as mankind is composed of man and woman.
The little seed in the ground receives protection from the earth and moisture from the heavens and when springtime comes, it starts to sprout. Its cells multiply so rapidly, you can observe its growth from day to day. The sprout is big enough to be sustained by the ground and sky by the time the nutrition stored within that seed runs out. It keeps on growing to become a big plant and then it eventually starts to bud, itself.
This is an example of the cycle of life throughout the universe. Plus and minus elements are drawn together, giving everything of their essences to that embryo which exists between them. That is the work of Nature. In order to create a new life, man and woman must come together in physical unity. In that way the embryo is formed within the woman. God Himself has two elements-plus and minus-which were expressed in Adam and Eve. Since we were born from a seed, everything in nature propels us to return to that seed.
You are intelligent people. Can you tell me why you must get married? It is so that you can return to your original point. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this simple principle because all the power of Satan has tried to move mankind away from this truth. The result is rampant individualism and such things as the "gay liberation movement." Now many people are lower than the animals because they don't even know what is their original, natural state. Satan holds on to mankind through such confusion.
Without the unity of man and woman through the force of love, life itself cannot be perpetuated. This is very simple and clear. Without love as the very basis of life, you cannot even think about peace, freedom, and happiness. Therefore love must be found first, before anything else. To put it very simply, man and woman can never be happy without each other. That is the law of existence for the entire universe. No matter how intelligent, talented or capable, every human being is bound by this law.
Our title this morning may have sounded ambiguous but it is pointing to something very simple. Human beings are created from love and go back to love. All things take place at one beginning point and are then multiplied. Thus all women started from one woman; all men started from one man. The process of development and multiplication started at one point and will continue forever.
The purpose of our life, both coming and going, is simply love. We begin as embryos, we develop and then we experience life. In our lives we are destined to return to that point of unity in love, through which another embryo is formed. Every person is born alone, grows up and forms a couple but then each person dies alone.
Everyone is born from two parents; no one is his own origin. Centering upon the parents' love, the children come into existence. The cells of the embryo multiply hundreds of billions of times to form a new baby. What is the value of that child? His value comes from the fact that he is a participant and a part of his parents' love. Our lives depend entirely upon the love of our parents; if our parents did something to exclude us from their love, we would never have existed. There is no form of life which does not naturally seek to produce its fruit, its offspring.
Since the child is a part of the love between the father and mother, he inherits all his vital elements from them. When the parents look at their children they can see everything of value within themselves because those children are the embodiments of themselves. Also the love from the past, present and future are contained within those children.
Children want to embrace and cling to their parents, not because somebody teaches them to, but because of the force of nature. That is what the universe is propelling them to do. Likewise, the law of the universe dictates that parents love and nurture their children. Even without our being aware of this law, we are guided by it. Of course, people do neglect and hurt their children because of the invasion of Satan. Fallen man is the helpless victim of Satan and this is the source of man's agony.
In spite of mankind's invasion by Satan, there is a natural tendency for people to protect and support mothers with children. Likewise, when hunters see an animal who is caring for its offspring, they will not kill it. That is because of the influence of universal law, springing from God. Those who violate that law are violating God and they will eventually be the ones who suffer for it.
We can look at another example. There are men who have been convicted of terrible crimes and sentenced by society to die. Even though such a man did a terrible thing, his mother will weep for him and wish his life could be spared. Society will naturally respect and sympathize with the feelings of that mother, regardless of how terrible the crime her son committed. The man may go to the electric chair, yet his mother's heart will never change and the universe itself will protect her and seek to comfort her.
It is natural that every human being wants to be a part of, and an owner of, everything that exists on the earth. When a baby is inside the mother's womb, it receives everything it needs. It is developing every part of itself- eyes, hair, limbs-within that womb. The contribution of the father and the mother enable the baby to develop everything it needs to become a functioning human being.
As the baby grows and the mother gets bigger and bigger, the husband doesn't resent his wife's size. Instead, he will do everything to show his respect and try to protect her. In fact, that is one time when a man really enjoys "ugliness" in his wife. She may be unshapely but she is about to give birth to the seed of their love. Every part of her is swelling up yet for all of that, the husband appreciates her even more. That is because his wife's body is fulfilling its purpose. No husband of true love will ever be angry with his wife for losing her shape because of pregnancy. Nothing can surpass the sacredness and value of that woman giving birth to the fruit of their love.
God created everything within the universe for the purpose of love. He did not seek for greater material wealth, more knowledge, or more power over others. Just like us, God needs love. Thus we can clearly understand God's agony. Although He created mankind, He has never received the fruits of His love.
As the absolute subjective being God needs an absolute object. Who is that supposed to be? Man and woman. Why was man created with both a physical and a spiritual body, instead of just one or the other? God as Subject wanted to be able to communicate with the spirit of man, which was to be subjective over the physical body of man. The spiritual body of man was supposed to vibrate in resonance with the love of God, giving direction to the actions of the physical body. True love is the vibrating power with which God reaches out to man, trying to guide him into resonance with Him.
Man's ability to respond to the true love of God was killed due to the fall. People cannot even recognize God's true love, much less vibrate with it. The whole purpose of salvation is to restore that ability of human beings to vibrate with the love of God. Once the spiritual body of man can receive the vibration of God's love, his whole self will resound with it. His entire physical body will respond to God's stimuli. That would be the total satisfaction of love. Nothing more could be desired by anyone.
Man is totally satisfied by the touch of true love from his Subject, God. This is everything that people have searched for-the essence of true love. Yet no one has known before how to define true love and what was the source of it.
God created Adam and Eve in the same way as the other forms of life-from embryos. Only after a child grows up can he truly become one with the rest of the universe; until then, he is incomplete. As Adam and Eve reached puberty, life began to take on new meaning. Just like teenagers today, they felt the newness of romantic, poetic yearnings. They began to think about exploring the entire world and searching for adventure. They began to think about love, as well.
A loving woman can confidently feel that no matter how big and tall her husband may be, she is big enough to embrace him and encompass him with her love. In fact a true woman will feel that God Himself can come and be engulfed within her bosom. She will feel that large with her love.
A man and woman truly in love will feel like engulfing each other, penetrating each other totally. God feels the same desire. Just as Adam and Eve would have yearned to touch other in the most sensitive places, so too does God want to participate in their love and touch them. Just as Adam and Eve were intoxicated with their love, so would God be. God would embrace Adam and Eve and look forward to more and greater love in the future. He would embrace them with the strongest power of true love. Nothing could ever separate them at that point.
Don't you think God planned for that? Did you ever imagine that God had such a plan before you joined this church? Are you glad you came to the Unification Church?
All things, including human beings, grow according to a certain process. As Adam and Eve grew, they were to learn more and more about their environment. They would learn more and more about each other, as well. Ultimately, when their spiritual and physical growth was complete, they could gaze upon the entire universe at a single glance. Adam represents the entire masculine realm of the universe, Eve represents the feminine realm, and together they literally possess the universe.
There is no stronger power than that of first love. Even the power of the parents' love is not able to block the power of first love. Men and women were meant to move toward each other. The power of their attraction is so great, they don't think about whether they will hurt their heads when they crash together. How many miles per hour do you suppose they travel when they are moving toward each other? Maybe a million? As they come toward each other, mindless of everything else, they don't want to stop for anything. Adam and Eve would never worried about whether or not they had enough money to come together. They certainly wouldn't have worried about whether they had enough education or enough status.
How about you? If you first try to appraise your spouse on the basis of looks, education, or achievements, you are not operating out of genuine love. Even though you may think you are being "realistic" with such an attitude, you are not being genuine. God is most heartbroken to see this because He has set no limits on the speed at which Adam and Eve can experience their love. Even if the entire society has such an attitude toward love, it is still not a true attitude. People are very vulnerable to Satan's invasion in their love.
We have seen how soldiers returning from war have rushed to embrace their wives and children. If they could feel such passion after only a few years' separation, imagine how Adam and Eve would want to approach each other after having been separated for thousands of years. Do you think God expects them to approach other slowly, in a dignified way? Or wouldn't God and the universe expect them to just crash together? First love is like being blind and crashing into someone-someone is bound to get bruised-but that is a happy hurt! It is a violent sort of love, you might say.
The loving man and woman would give no thought to what might happen to themselves; instead they would crash headlong into each other. That ideal loving couple wouldn't have to think about getting into their bed because God Himself would be right there to form a perfect cushion for their lovemaking. God will be participating in their love so that they can experience the most harmonious unity. God will be like the nucleus and surrounding Him will be the man and woman-all three united into one. At this time the faster and more fierce the crashing together, the better it is. They are traveling so fast and with such an impact that God as the buffer will feel pain, but He doesn't mind. He wants to participate in their love.
After the man and woman come together by the force of their love, what happens? By the law of physics, that energy will diffuse and return to a slower state. Then the next time they engage in love, the force between them will have grown a little more. Every time they repeat their lovemaking, the energy between them becomes broader and broader. Ultimately everything feels their love-the individual, the family, the nation, and even the whole earth. When the man and woman are loving in this fashion and with this force and magnitude, they will have sons and daughters who can embrace the universe as a result of the universal love of the parents.
God goes all the way to the top but as soon as He reaches there, He must come back down. He does not remain on top all the time. The children are the purpose and objective of the father, the mother, and of God Himself. We call that the triple objective purpose. Everyone together creates the four position foundation, as the nucleus. This is where all the love relationships are focused-parental love, children's love, conjugal love. God and man form their subject-object relationship in the universe on this foundation.
The love between the spouses meets at the central point and the children's love toward their parents joins with them. The love between people is the minus aspect. Once that minus aspect reaches the central point, the plus element of God's love will automatically come down to join with it. This is how it works. At that moment of union, that exact spot is the center of the universe. What does it mean to be the center? Every axis must pass through that point. The love of that family is then to be expanded into the love of race, love of nation, world, and universe.
Heaven is to be occupied by the fruit of these seeds. In spirit world these fruits automatically achieve unity and harmony with God. There will be no element which goes against God. So this is like a story of how the good seed goes into the Heavenly warehouse.
People have an eternal life in spirit world so why must we spend time on this earth? The only purpose of coming here is to bear the fruits of love. As soon as a person does that, he can go to spirit world and live eternally. Life on earth is like a flicker of a second compared to the eternal life in Heaven.
We can see this purpose exemplified in the trees. They do not bear blossoms all 365 days of the year. Their time to blossom is only very short, a matter of days; then they bear their fruit. Soon afterwards they begin the cycle all over again. Fruit requires all the nourishment the tree can draw from the earth and the sky so trees absorb all the nutrition they possibly can from their environment. They must absorb it with a harmonious, loving spirit; they do not have the ability to take from their environment with a spirit of selfishness and destructiveness.
Whether it is a plant, an animal, or a man-or even God-everyone exists in the direct line of love. They all center upon love in the process of bearing their fruit. Positive and negative elements must come together with the attitude of love if they are to be consistent with the direction of God's love. Thus the spirit world is the world of love because it is the continuation of this world. The spirit world is filled with the air of love. As long as you have perfected your seed and fruit, you are welcomed and free anywhere you go in spirit world. No element there will reject you. But unless your seed is perfected, you are a foreign element there.
If Adam and Eve had not fallen, mankind would never have experienced such agony. The children would only have had to follow the parents in their love and when the time came, the children as perfected seeds would automatically live in eternal happiness in spirit world. This was the original path for which mankind was created. Thus no religion was supposed to be necessary; the difficult ways we must go now would never have been necessary either.
For the first time in history and after such a long time of sacrifice and preparation on the part of God, we can not only talk about these truths but because of True Parents, we can also know that kind of ideal life realistically.
Certainly we see love in the satanic world; in fact, it permeates that world. But we see a different kind of love in the Heavenly world. The love which is outside of God's realm knows only how to retaliate against one's enemies. Those who love each other fight against their common enemies. But in God's world, we love even the enemy and we never retaliate against others. When we love even our enemy, Satan must run away because he has no foundation to claim anything as his own.
Human history has this problem of love to solve before it can reach the ideal. This is what Jesus tried to teach. He was telling people that if they wanted to go east, they should go west. If they wanted to live, they must die. If they wanted to die, they would live. This paradox can be understood once we understand the difference between the original state and the way it became inverted. Although everyone may think they are moving toward the west, it is actually the east they are pursuing and vice-versa. So we know enough now to go the right direction.
As members of the Unification Church, we must love everybody. First we must love our enemies, whether some personal enemy or some enemy on the family level. We must love them more than anybody else. The same is true for the country-a country must love its enemy country more than any other country. Otherwise we cannot go to Heaven because Heaven will reject us.
According to this reasoning, what is the biggest enemy, greater than any other? It is the enemy who put the entire universe into chaos and destruction, the biggest enemy of all-Satan. We must love even that enemy. We must love him because God must love him; that is exactly God's position. The archangel robbed God of His love and His family; he destroyed the possibility of God's country and God's universe. Satan is truly God's arch-enemy. Since God is omnipotent, He could ruthlessly destroy Satan if He wanted to. However, God did not and would not do that because His love never operates out of hatred and destruction.
Although Satan is the most vicious, ugly, and unimaginably evil entity opposed to God, he may still some day bow down in humility to God. Until that day, God will continue in this direction. True Parents will continue and you must continue in this direction to gain overall victory. Do you understand?
We have indeed come a long way from the humble start of the True Parents in this dispensation. All the conditions have been made and now we are about ready to receive the actual physical blessings from God that have been usurped by the ungodly world. If God consistently loves all mankind and everything, even Satan, and Satan still refuses to go along with God, then God can do something. He will say, "If you do not go along with me even after all this, I will take someone away from you whom you love the most. Will you continue to embrace your illicit love and refuse to accept the original love of God?"
The universe is watching as a test is being administered to Reverend Moon in the form of the loss of Heung Jin Nim. God was watching, as well as the rest of the universe, to see who Reverend Moon loved the most-mankind and God, or his own son. Can Satan still try to hurt God at this point? No, God is indignant. He will take away from the satanic world something that they cherish the most, something which is most valuable to Satan. This is because of the victory of the True Parents in their loss of Heung Jin Nim.
The satanic forces must watch now as God takes everything in the proper direction of His dispensation. That is the way we have been going-by sacrifice and suffering we have been gradually moving the universe into the realm of God. The universe, including Satan and God, saw that Reverend Moon accepted the death of Heung Jin Nim with true love toward mankind and God, not primarily as a personal loss. I understood one principle: when I make an offering to God, I should not shed any tears about it. Thus even though my love for Heung Jin Nim was so great, there were no tears on my face at the time of the offering.
By this rightful offering, we can pay the price for all those things which God initially lost and bring them back into God's realm. The satanic realm sees that they cannot continue to hurt God's side without losing even more. Indeed, this is the highest point we could come in the way of suffering and sacrifice. But now is the great transition point. From here on, there will be a great change. If Satan hurts us any more, he will have to pay back double and even triple. This transition is most important because until now, darkness and fear ruled the world. From here on, love and light will begin to reign.
Without true love, we cannot separate Satan from the world. We cannot remove Satan by plotting, planning or by any such means. I have dedicated everything for this country; certainly they have not yet recognized it. But from now on, people will begin to see that what Reverend Moon has been doing is genuine and good for America. Americans have their own culture, their own expressions and so forth, yet genuine people in America will come to recognize the purity and depth of the love of Reverend Moon and they will repent. Because they have original minds, they will be able to understand my true love and they will express their gratitude.
We fight against communism, not because we hate Communists or because we want to destroy them, but in order to save them from that destructive way of thinking. We have now proclaimed the Day of Victory of Love, just as we proclaimed the Day of Victory of Heaven several years ago. I have established victory over the cruelest test of love-the loss of my own flesh and blood. In the face of that pain, I did not falter in my love of mankind and Heaven. This has proven the victory to the satisfaction of both Satan and God. Even Satan will bow down to me, "You are indeed a being of Heaven. I cannot match you."
I will continue to live this public way of life and nothing whatsoever can stop me. Although the realm of death struck the realm of love, taking away a most precious life, the strength of love has not even been dented. Heung Jin Nim has gone but he has left a legacy of his powerful love for his parents.
What are the future implications of Heung Jin Nim's death? In a practical sense, good things will occur at a faster rate than before. This world had been dwelling in darkness and the realm of death but I gave my own son so that the realm of life and love could prevail.
This morning at 5:00, I received a report from Korea. About 3,000 people participated in the Ascension Procession. The whole area was represented, even the government, which gave an escort all the way to the tomb area. Also they permitted a huge motorcade in which representatives of 72 countries participated. They allowed the use of enormous flower wreaths, something which they don't even use for heads of state. That means they understood-if not consciously, then spiritually-that this is an event of cosmic and historical significance and they cooperated fully with us at this time.
This is the largest ascension ceremony we have ever had yet in history. Certainly it is the most meaningful one ever to God. We must quickly rid ourselves of any sadness and begin to take up our righteous cause, with great hope for the victory.
Life comes to this earth, starting from love. As it develops it makes lots of connections, like a tree developing lots of branches and leaves. While a person is growing, he is learning to love. A husband learns to love his wife and a wife, her husband; together they learn to love their children; and the children learn to love their parents. By experiencing all these facets of life, each grows and eventually returns to where he began-to love. This is the purpose of our life here on earth; it is where we have come from and where we are going.
We must realize the principle that is governing this universe. Even animals will protect their children at the sacrifice of their own lives. Certainly that feeling is much stronger in man. If any loving parent has a choice between dying himself or letting his child die, certainly he would prefer to die himself. The vertical relationship is so important that it enables man to sacrifice his horizontal existence. The relationship between husband and wife is horizontal but the parent and child have a vertical relationship. A person will prefer to give up his horizontal relationships for the sake of the child. Likewise, the horizontal axis must adjust itself to the vertical one.
Therefore, we have the commandment to love God more than anyone, including our spouse. That is because God is the source of the vertical line and the conjugal relationship is a horizontal one. In order to ensure that the horizontal line exists at exactly 90 degrees with the vertical line, you must love God more than your spouse. After loving God that much and then loving your spouse, your horizontal line will automatically create a 90 degree angle. Each of the parents must love their children more than they love each other. This is for the same reason. They should love each other only on the foundation of loving their children more.
Whatever God loves the most, you also must love the most. Since God loves the children more than the couple and because He loves the whole purpose more, then we also must love them more. First we must love our parents; then we must love our children; finally, we must love our husband or wife-in that order. This order will be reflected through the levels of family, clan, nation, and so on to the cosmos.
Many modern Americans have the attitude that children are a burden to the pleasure of the husband and wife. They think that their own enjoyment is the purpose of their life. But if that way of thinking becomes dominant within a culture, it will quickly diminish. We must return to God's principles. God's way is actually the way that works the best in a practical sense, as well. The most general way of stating God's principles is "Live for the sake of others, not oneself."
Your grandparents have the tendency to love you even more than their own offspring. This is because the grandparents are one step closer to God than the parents. In God's culture, the grandparents would be like the king and queen to the family. The children would greet the grandparents first in the morning. With such a pattern, God and the universe can preserve that family. No matter what, we can never forsake our parents or our children. You can get a divorce from your spouse but you can never be divorced from your vertical lineage; thus you must respect and preserve it. This is the law of the universe.
How far away is this proud American culture from God's way of life! You too wanted to have parents who would sacrifice everything for your sake, but most of you did not have such parents. Too many husbands and wives only think about embracing each other, creating their own kingdom of heaven. But in that "kingdom of heaven," their parents and their children are crying for their love. Certainly that is hell, not heaven. We clearly know what must occur. It is nothing less than a revolution. You must quickly change the prevailing attitudes to the original one.
Every form of love is found within the family. Within the triple objective purpose, which encompasses the love between the four elements of the family, the number 12 is the result. Within that realm, God dwells. If this is realized perfectly, those family members do not need to search for anything more. They are the rightful seeds, qualified to live forever in the Heavenly Kingdom. Their family is like a warehouse in which the seeds are stored for Heaven and eternity.
Such a family will extend their love toward all things. They will love animals, the plant world, and all of the creation. Beyond that, they will love the spirit world as much as they love each other. Before God ever created man, He created the world of creation. That was because man was supposed to gain the sensation and knowledge of God's love from the animals and plants. Everything is directed ultimately for love-the birds and all of creation are there to remind us of love. The natural world is a textbook of love.
We must connect ourselves with our parents and our grandparents. Your own grandparents must grab hold of you and say, "I cannot live without you." Likewise, your parents must say, "I can give up everything but not you." There are different societies in spirit world-there is the society of young people, older people, and so on. When you become the fruit of true love within such a family, you can go anywhere and be completely welcome. There is total freedom for the seed of love. You can even jump up on the head of God and He will love you all the more. There is no "decorum" necessary.
In order to make your parents and your grandparents love you in such a fashion, you must also love your parents, grandparents, and your children in such a fashion. Your spouse must be willing to love and serve your parents. There is no room in the Unification Church for senior citizen's homes.
You must clearly understand what to expect from people. A baby wets his diaper and makes a lot of mess and when people are old and about to go to spirit world, they may behave like babies once again. They may even wet their diapers again. We are expected to take care of them just as we take care of our own babies. There is no difference except that the grandparents are even more precious. Those who care for their parents and grandparents in such a way will find themselves well prepared for the spirit world. Do you understand why we must do that?
Suppose I decided to drop in on you someday and even to live with you. Would you tell me, "No, Father, we don't need any old people in our house. Everything valuable in America is young!" You don't want to say that because Mother and I are your True Parents. You should be thinking about how you would take care of us if we came to live with you. Ask yourself which room you would give us, what foods you would serve, and so forth. You should always be thinking that way.
I would never demand from you but you should ask me, "What can I do to please you?" Thus when I walk into your home as the parent I would expect you to drop everything else. There is nothing more important than the visit of True Parents. You should say, "I don't know what to do. What can I do next for you?" According to the original standard, the parents are the owners of the children's home.
It is remote from God's way that parents have to phone for permission before visiting their children's homes. The parents should be free to just walk in at any time. Would you welcome such a bold visit from True Parents? Since True Parents are physically limited and we cannot visit tens of thousands of your homes, I will appoint someone to go in our place. Will you honor them just as if it were Mother and me?
The whole purpose of life here on earth is to learn how to love. You should love your parents, your children, and your spouse with the intensity of pure, first love. That will bring total fulfillment to you and to your environment. How beautiful it is to embrace your elderly grandparents. In spite of the great age difference, you can love each other as if you belonged ~o the same generation. The value of such love goes beyond any amount of money or any other thing. When God sees such a loving scene, He will bow down His own head in thanks.
It is such a beautiful sight to God when 90 year old grandparents are embracing their great-grandchildren, who are just babies. But in modern society in America, many parents discourage the grandparents from taking an active part in the lives of the children. They complain about the children being "spoiled" and so forth, but that is going against the law of nature. Children need the love of grandparents and vice-versa.
Each person needs his passport of love enabling him to enjoy total freedom when he goes to spirit world. Where can we get this passport? Only through our own children's, parents', and grandparents' approval. They have to tell us we are worthy of Heaven. Can you name any other kind of love which I didn't mention today? All the types of love are included within the family-including the love of country and the universe.
When the elderly people living in senior citizens' homes hear what Reverend Moon is teaching and doing, will they rejoice? Young people as well will become so grateful to Reverend Moon for showing them the right order of relationship with their own parents and grandparents. Once those people clearly understand my message, they will all welcome me. I have been striving to teach this message of love all along, yet I have been misunderstood and persecuted. There is nothing more valuable for American people than love. We Moonies know this clearly. Therefore, you will even sacrifice your life for the love of God.
Everything can be burned up or washed away but because of you, there is a seed of hope on the earth. This seed will perpetuate and become like a tremendous vine, growing forever and ever. No power exists which can stop this hope. The roots of a tree can penetrate even a huge rock; in exactly the same way, the power of love will grow and take root over the whole earth.
You must be proud of being Moonies, proud of practicing the Heavenly tradition of love here on earth. You must understand that you are creating the foundation for the fulfillment of your life's purpose, which is to connect your love to everyone in the world. Everything happens within your own family, the unit of the Kingdom of Heaven.
If any of you couples have had the habit of fighting among yourselves, you must stop that. There is no other happiness except within your own family; the Kingdom of Heaven must be realized there. If the whole world were dwelling in peace but you and your spouse were in conflict, you would have nothing to do with the world's peace. Do you understand that clearly now?
Each of you is following the path that I have been treading toward harmony within the family and throughout the world. That means you must love your enemies. If you are white, then you must love black and yellow people. If you are German, you must love Americans and vice-versa. Japanese have been the enemies of Americans and the Koreans and Japanese have been enemies. All those four enemy countries must come to love one another.
This is exactly what we are accomplishing in our international marriages. But once you are married, it must be more than just in name-you must truly love one another. God bless you.
