Seventeenth Commencement Address
Unification Theological Seminary
Barrytown, New York
On this happy and joyous occasion of the Unification Theological Seminary's seventeenth graduation exercises, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the 44 new graduates. At the same time, the administration, faculty and staff of the Seminary, who have helped these graduates complete their academic program, also deserve to be congratulated.
On this special occasion, I would like to speak to you regarding your future and the problems of the world today. The year of 1993 is the most significant in human history because it ushers in the new age of God's providence called the Completed Testament Age, which will consummate God's ideal for His creation of the universe and human beings. This new dispensation has already been proclaimed to people throughout the world. It is shocking to some, others rebel against it, and still others don't know how to react to such a radical proclamation. This is especially the case among religious leaders of the Judeo-Christian faith and other main religions. Actually, these people have no idea how to deal with my unprecedented proclamation.
When we look back on religious history at the small group surrounding Jesus two thousand years ago, we find a parallel between that time and ours. A similar proclamation was made to the Jewish people and religious leaders of that time. The religious leaders of that time were shocked. They investigated Jesus and his message and they still did not know how to react. They did not know what to do about his claim to be the Messiah for whom they had been waiting for 4,000 years, as described in the Old Testament. The exact same pattern is found in this century as my wife and I proclaimed ourselves as True Parents and the Messiah in the Completed Testament Age. You and I know this situation and circumstance very well, don't we? During our 33-city tour, Mrs. Moon and I proclaimed God's message for the new age, and most of the people responded positively. Some groups were negative to what we said, but whether people like it or not, accept it or not, I have to make this proclamation because God commanded me to do so.
Heavenly Father does not want to change or delay His dispensational plan and timetable to restore the world and the people now under Satan's control. That is the reason why we are boldly proclaiming God's providential plan and new message to all humankind and all religions. There is no other way to save the corrupted world, to save the lost souls from the earthly hell where we now live.
Let us look at the religious and political worlds. Major religions, all claiming to be centered on God, are not united. Rather, they are divided and fighting with each other, even to the point of using violence, as we see in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, to justify their narrow-minded doctrinal orientations as they interpret the ideals of the founders of various religions. How can this happen in the name of the same God? If God exists, how can this happen? I say to you, you need to give a clear explanation of these phenomena in order to persuade today's young people with this century's mentality.
The political world is also divided, into Right Wing and Left Wing as well as into secular versus sacred value systems. Political corruption is everywhere. We have to eradicate political corruption as we]l as religious disharmony, both within denominations of Christianity and among the great religions of the world, so that people can receive the coming Messiah as True Parents in the Completed Testament Age.
In the past we have continuously done inter-faith work among the major religions, so that we may work together under the banner of True Parentism with messianic ideals. We have also been working to bring unity in the political arena between the extreme right and extreme left. We have been working in both areas. Since the cold war ended, finally the ideal of True Parentism can bring harmony and cooperation among differing political ideas and lead to the emergence of solutions to end the political confusion and conflict now brought about by emphasis on national, ethnic, and racial purity and separatism.
Even during the post-communist era new measures to solve all these problems should be explored and developed into practical solutions to bring global peace at this time. Today there are no clear moral and sacred values in the world, even though communism has ended.
In order to bring a halt to this situation of chaos and confusion of ideological wars in the religious and political arenas, I would remind you of my teachings of "The Four Great Heart (Shimjung) Spheres of Heavenly Love" and "The Three Great Kingships." What does this mean? What is ShimJung? Shimjung can be defined as "a strong emotional desire to obtain happiness and joy through love." In other words, ShimJung is an uncontrollable, irresistible stimulus to feel nothing but the desire to love. God created the world and human beings to love as His objects because of His own Shimjung He created everything only out of the desire to love creation and human beings.
There are four Shimjung spheres: Parental (to children), Conjugal, Sibling's and Children's (to parents). However, Shimjung, the desire to love, is meaningless if it cannot be, or is not, acted upon. In this sense Shimjung is the other side of True Love, just like the other side of a coin or the other side of a piece of paper. Thus, we can say Shimjung is equal to True Love. However, neither Shimjung nor True Love grow automatically. Just as a baby growing in the midst of a family receives parental love gradually and grows stage by stage until adulthood, Shimjung and True Love must grow gradually through effort and time. Among the Four Great Shimjungs it is Conjugal ShimJung/True Love that is representative of the other three. This means that within this one type of (conjugal) Shimjung there are aspects of the other three types.
However, an four types must be experienced and grow within each and every family, thus creating the world of "Four Great ShimJung Spheres of Heavenly Love."
Then, what are "The Three Great Kingships"? I must say that there are also "Three Great Queenships," but for ease of speaking I include these in the explanation of the "Three Great Kingships." Those of you who have studied the Unification Principle know that every object has three purposes: to relate to each of the other three positions in the Four-position Base through Shimjung and True Love from the position of object. In the same way, there are three subjective positions and purposes--to relate to each of the other three positions in the Four-position Base through Shimjung and True Love from the position of subject.
The head of the family is in the King's position, the subjective position, the position of parent. The position of husband/father in the family is that of a King within his own family. In the same way, the King (or leader) of a nation is also in the parent position to the people of the nation, and holds both subjectivity and authority. This also applies to the school, work place, country and world.
So why three Kings? This means three generations: grandparents, parents and children, three generations of Kings. Then, how can one family have three Kings? In actuality, only one King rules, but the grandparents represent the Kings of the past and Heavenly Father, the parents represent the present King; and the children represent the future Kings who will one day be Parental Kings of their own families. Why this royal title? Simply said, God wanted the ideal family, the school, the work place and the world to give the highest honor and respect to these three identities. There is nothing like this in the existing society and world, so we have to work very hard to reach this standard and ideal which God had already planned before the Fall.
God's ideal family is revealed in my teachings of the Unification Principle. The family must maintain total focus on Heavenly Father and True Parents in order to realize 'The Four Great ShimJung Spheres of Heavenly Love" and "The Three Great Kingships." The realization Of all these things begins at the family level as the basic unit which leads to the clan, society and world levels. This is why I emphasize the heavenly, ideal family unit on earth as a new concept of family centering on Heavenly Father and True Parents. This family is the only center of the clan, nation and world. This is the absolute, Golden rule. This is our philosophy and way of life, to be a model to the people of the world, living daily with Heavenly Father and daily attending True Parents. This is the model family in the Completed Testament Age.
In the Unification Principle, the Blessed family is the cornerstone for the creation of God's ideal on earth. We have now, throughout the world, over 50,000 Blessed couples in our Unification Movement. In order to realize God's ideal for creation and humankind, we must set up the heavenly tradition through new education and training for those Blessed couples throughout the world. You must work hard to recruit new citizens for the new age so that they can be Blessed and become honorable citizens of the Ideal World. You have to work harder. When you are bravely proclaiming this new age of the Completed Testament even under difficulties, hardships, rejections and opposition, you have to work hard to bring the people. There is no alternative to fulfill.
God's will in the Completed Testament Age, there is no other way to save the world. I already gave all the members of the Unification Movement a mission which we call "Tribal Messiahship," in which you have to work very hard to save your family and clan even though they are not ready to accept the new dispensational plan and message to restore the individual, family, clan, national and world-wide levels. This is God's and my proclamation: to bring the heavenly tradition to the people of the world; to restore God's lost children; and to bring back God's innocent and pure lineage. Based on God's ShimJung and God's True Love we are building God's ideal on earth centering on the coming Messiah, that is, the True Parents of humankind.
I have completed the necessary conditions and made a strong foundation on which you are able to accomplish your God-given mission. My part has already been completed. That is the reason why the proclamation of the Completed Testament Age is needed now. Your only job is to work hard as Tribal Messiahs, the highway to heaven has already been constructed by me. Therefore, you must follow my footsteps, spread the new message for the new age, and proclaim the arrival of the Completed Testament to all people centering on Heavenly Father and True Parents on earth.
As seminary graduates your role is enormous, your mission is risky and requires sacrifice for the sake of the world. You have studied, academically, an the religions of the world. You have also experienced the living God during your time in Barrytown, you have now become experts on the Unification Principle and Unification theology and thought, and you know the Heavenly lifestyle. You need to know how to establish "The Four Great ShimJung Spheres of Heavenly Love" and how to fulfill the positions of "The Three Great Kingships" within your families, clans, nations and the world. To help you do this, I want you to utilize the incredible book, The World Scriptures which I published for the education of the world's religious and political leaders.
Do not talk about differences among religions, but work together based on the commonalties found in each religion which came from God as He worked throughout history to bring about the Completed Testament Age. Also, bring harmony among the differing political ideologies by applying Shimjung/True Love so that political leaders can become God-loving and God-fearing, holding to sacred values in their political world. Then the world will find great hope for the future centering on True Love. You have to teach others the message of True Parentism, the message of the Completed Testament Age, to bring about the supra-religious, supra-racial, and supra-national goal that is to be obtained in the 21st century. I hope that you are marching on with the new banner of the new age of the Completed Testament. Then Heavenly Father will be with you even under difficulties, hardship, and severe opposition that you will face.
Your role as Unificationists is to maintain oneness within the spheres of vertical and horizontal relationships by being vertically one with Heavenly Father and one with your mind and body, and being horizontally one as husband and wife, and one with your family, clan and neighborhood centered on the True Love of Heavenly Father. When you form these vertical and horizontal relationships to bring oneness, that point immediately becomes God's dwelling place, a living temple of God as described in the Bible. This formula can be applied to the religious and political worlds to bring eternal world peace centering on Heavenly Father and True Parents.
I have already shown the standard and example for you to follow. Now I am giving you the mandate to be the pioneers in accomplishing Heavenly Father's and True Parents' will on earth. You are the standard bearers for True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.
In Isaiah 46:11, God said "I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." God is absolute and unchanging. Therefore, He will definitely make His providence succeed, under any circumstances, no matter what. You must have confidence in your future mission and bring total victory, overcoming any difficulties, hardships, rejections and opposition that you may encounter. Heavenly Father and I will back you up. You have nothing to fear. I win always back you up. Be brave, be bold, be courageous in fulfilling your heavenly mission as commanders in the battle between God and Satan.
I trust you completely to bring total victory for God and True Parents. God bless you. Thank you, very much.
