Belvedere International Training Center, Tarrytown, New York
Translator - Sang Kil Han
The topic of Father's sermon this morning is Tong Il Kyo and in parentheses, Uri ui Charang. Charang means pride: Our Pride or The Unification Church's Pride.
All men want something to be proud of. This is true in an individual's life, and on the family level, too. A family wants something to feel pride in. What about the nation? It is true for the nation, too. The desire to have something to be proud of expands to higher levels with no exception. But stop to think of it - have we noticed any man who lives in the world and is proud of the world? We notice correctly that man is prone to be proud of the individual. We see that all the time. We also see that people want to be proud of their family. Also, the fact that someone wants to be proud of his nation, we see that all the time. But, no one feels proud of the world.
Let's imagine that we were going to participate in a contest of pride to see who could boast of the most things. Have you ever stopped to think of such a convention or competition? Have you ever stopped to think how much you have to be proud of? Do we have many families anxious to go into a world-wide contest to brag about their own family, all three generations? By the same token, there would be a match to be proud of the country. As is obvious in the fallen world until now, people have not been aware of anything beyond their own country. Of course, people have a concept of the world. When we say "the world," we mean one world under which everyone lives, just like one earth. Can the same person who won the grand prize for being proud of his own country, attend a similar match to be proud of his own family? Does he have as much to say about his family as he did of his own nation? Also, can the individual who won first prize for being proud in the individual match, go to the match where they are proud of the family and also win first prize there? One person won a prize being proud of himself, but compared to the person who won first prize for being proud of his own family, he is on a different level. They could never compare. By the same token, the one who won first prize for pride in his own family cannot match the one who wins for pride in his nation. What if we have a contest to see who is most proud about the world he lives in? Even the national level champion cannot match the world level champion.
We in the Unification Church frequently use this vocabulary and concept of the universe which no one else uses so much. If you look at the Chinese character for universe which is Chun ju, it explains much detail. Chun means heaven and ju means house: heavenly house. That is the universe. If you further analyze the world heaven, heaven means two men. Likewise house, which is ju, means house or be comfortable. The other part means freedom. So peaceful freedom or comfortable freedom means house. Freedom and comfort are there, which is a home. So universe exactly means house, but not just an individual house, a house which belongs to everyone. This is exactly what this character depicts.
What kind of person can you call a rich person? Who is a rich person? One definition is this: if you go into a rich person's house, you find everything. The more rich a person is, the more variety of things you can find in his house. The nation is a kind of house also. Whose museum would be better, an American museum or one from England or France? Which one is bigger? Father went to a museum in England where they had things from all four corners of the world. Englishmen had brought things from all different parts of the world like Africa and they were very proud of it. "Look, how big England is!" We may think all the articles which were displayed in the museum were very happy to go there, "I am so happy to be displayed in a British museum. I am very proud to be displayed there." But, did they go like that or did they not want to go, feeling, "It's not fair, it's not right"? They were crying, but were still displayed in the museum. Did they welcome going or deny going? (Denied.) As long as the objects are not happy or proud of being there, the museum will be just like a prison to them. Even when you go to prison, you go into the prison situated in your own country. Your family is nearby even though you are in prison. But, in this prison, your own country is far, far away and you don't have family nearby either. How can we justify this or ever say, "This museum is a wonderful place. We are so proud of our collection of objects from all over the world"? How can you be proud of it?
In the world, as you know, people have power and money and buy lots of artifacts from all over the world, which they take pride in, but what is the most precious thing you can think of? For instance, if there is a very precious article in the London museum and someone wants to trade it for you, would you trade yourself for that very precious object? What kind of a price tag would you put on yourself? Then what is the most precious thing you can think of? (Love.) Before we get to love, we were talking about something we can see. Mankind. Mankind includes everything: grandparents, children, partnership, True Parents and God, too. They are all included in mankind. If there is such a thing as the human museum, would there be anyone who wants to sit there for the rest of his life? Could he be happy? Objects are there to be admired by all men, so maybe they wouldn't mind, but if a man was put in that situation, he wouldn't stay there. No matter how good, or how beautiful a place is, we don't want to be fettered. We don't want to lose our freedom and have to stay there. Then, people can realize, "Oh, the most precious thing is freedom." At that point, nothing would be precious for a person anymore. The only thing he would be craving is freedom.
American people love freedom, don't they? Democracy, equality, freedom are very important here. What are we going to do after having freedom and equality? What is the purpose? What are we to do with them? If they are so precious, we must have some use for them. I live an all around good life, isn't that so? But then what is the definition of a good life? In other words, how can you say, this one is a good life, but that one is not such a good life? For instance, if Americans are very happy and they have a good life only for Americans and no one else has an equal life, is that a good life? No, it cannot be. Even though one country may enjoy the good life, it is not truly the good life because the world now comes into view.
As we see so visibly now, even though equality may exist in one country, if that same equality does not extend to the rest of the world, there is unrest and no one is happy anymore. Happiness, equality, and democracy are all glittering thoughts. Americans would not notice because they act freely and they have equality and democracy, but back in Africa, would the African people join in with the same happiness and equality and freedom that Americans have? No. It is something they have nothing to do with. They don't have this freedom. They don't even know what it is. The situation is different there. They wonder what equality is. In one country these things are highly prized, but it is not necessarily so in another country. If there is freedom in the world, then of course, every nation can join in and be equally free and happy. But, if only one country has freedom, the world can't necessarily go in and join them. Small things can go into a large space, but a large thing cannot go into a small space and fit. Isn't that true? If you have a big pocket, you can fit much into it, but if you have a small pocket, even if you have many small pockets, you can't fit a large thing in. Small things can go into any pocket. If you have a large pocket, you can sort out all the objects you have and according to their size, you can put them into different pockets.
Freedom and equality - do they apply instantly to everybody? Unless it is so, for example that one country has the same standard as any other country, then there is no such thing as freedom and equality. Let's say there are two jackets, exactly the same style, but one is slightly inferior, it has some speck on it or the needlework is done a little wrong. Two people have to choose one jacket each. Each person will want to have the better one. If you make an observation you will find this is true. If there are two identical items, but one is slightly better and one slightly worse, and if the two people are total strangers, they will want to reach out for the better one for themselves. You have the freedom to choose the better one. Who says, "No, Father, that is not so," raise your hands. This is true no matter where you are - in America, the Orient or Africa. It is the same. This happens often, people always want to have the better thing so they compete. They think they are free to do that.
What is the limit? How does freedom work? It is questionable. This freedom which we cherish so much here in America may fit into America. They don't mind that lifestyle here, but it does not fit in Korea or any other nation. Then of course, can we go out in search of what is complete, perfect freedom? The law in America and the law in Korea are different from each other. The standard of freedom becomes different. Then what is the perfect freedom? That is the question.
What about happiness? Where is happiness, what is it? Can you feel happiness all by yourself? (No.) You are very quick to respond no. In every day life we think about this, so everybody has a ready answer. If you don't experience it alone, then you must have someone to be happy with. Who is that someone? Who do you want to be happy with? A man wants to be happy with a woman. What about homosexuals? We have often pointed out that the only way for a man and woman to become absolutely united, which each one absolutely desires, is through the sexual organs. That organ has nothing else to do except join man and woman. This is not an interpretation, this is the reality we see in nature. By nature this is true. Because of love, man and woman came into being, we know that. Like Father mentioned in his sermon yesterday, the whole universe has been created for the same common purpose, the intertwining of love. Yesterday Father expounded on that. Likewise, because of love man and woman were created. Can the nose be situated on the hip instead of the face? We have two eyes. Can you ever imagine two eyes operating independently, one looking here and one looking in the other direction? Do eyes have freedom? Yes, they do, but can one look here while the other looks there? It would be an extremely unusual person, and no one has ever seen that kind of man, with two eyes working independently. There is no freedom to do that, if you call that freedom.
Have you ever heard of someone drinking water through their nose? Functionally, this is not impossible, because if you put water down the nose it will come into the stomach. Have you ever seen someone try that? You can search everywhere for that kind of strange person, but no one tries to drink water through their nose.
The bosom primarily belongs to the baby. The nipples are designed so they are perfect for the baby to suckle. Imagine a mother's breast with a man's nipple. The baby will have a hard time drinking his or, her milk. It is wise that the woman's nipple is bigger than the mans. Women have hips which make it very comfortable when you sit down. They are stable. Men cannot sit for a long time. Especially when you have a baby, you need to sit down and be stable. Men can never do that. If you call that scientific or agree that it is so, then we can call the whole universe a natural museum. When you observe the arm or leg of a chair or table, it resembles the construction of the human arm or leg. Man learned everything from nature. Even if he never realizes he brought the idea from nature, it is always the same as nature. The entire universe itself, no matter where you go, what corner, is the treasure house of knowledge. You learn from it, so you can call it a university. It is nature's university. We see things, like inhaling and exhaling, that in every animal, whatever kind it may be, has the same function. What about bacteria? Do you think they may have an eye? Jim, you're not a biologist, but what is your guess? Do bacteria have eyes? In bacteria there are male and female elements also. That means they must have the organ for reproduction; therefore, it is likely they also have eyes even though we have not identified them yet. Without eyes, how can they meet and identify each other? The organs of five senses must be there.
Is it a far fetched conclusion that though there is freedom, women do not have freedom without man? If someone says that conclusion is wrong, please raise your hand. Is that a true statement: women do not have freedom beyond the realm of man? It is the same way as two eyes that have freedom in synchronizing. The aim of the eyes of women goes to man. Man is their focus. The eyes of men aim at women. His aim does not go anywhere else. Original woman has a sense of smell. Is the smell of perfume the most enjoyable scent for her or the smell of man? It must be the scent of man. That is a very important point. If you are hesitating to answer maybe if someone brings you a big jar of heavenly perfume, worth millions of dollars and you wanted to buy it, maybe you would trade your husband for it. Is that what you're thinking now? Which would you rather do, open up the jar of perfume and have your nose stuck in there, enjoying it or would you rather rest on your smelly husband and have peace and happiness there? Which one? That is a legitimate comparison; it is not foolish.
Look at it this way. No matter how beautiful a woman may be, no matter if her eyes, ears, nose and lips are the most enchanting, beautiful things you've seen, if there is no man, then all of her beauty means nothing. A women would complain and even blame her own features. She would even loathe her beauty, thinking "Why is this nose so beautiful?" She would scratch her own face, because even though she has the most beautiful face, there is no man to appreciate it. She would be in agony. She would regret and blame her beauty.
Why do you spend so much time intently making up your face each morning? If there were no men in the world, or where you are going to, you wouldn't do that. Why would you make up?
We can see the conclusion rather clearly that for woman, freedom is found in joining man. Freedom for man is joining with a woman and becoming one. A father's freedom is found in unifying with his son. Freedom exists in the president of a nation unifying with the citizens of that nation. That is his freedom. Among those, everyone has the freedom to unify with each other. If freedom is not there you cannot create unity and if freedom is used in a different way, that freedom will be broken into pieces. No one will cherish that freedom. Until this moment, no man has ever defined it in a refined, deep way, but equality and freedom are one, they are inseparable. People think they are two different things, but never, they are one. Freedom and peace are one. This is a favorite motto of the democratic world. Everybody says, "Freedom and peace," but they do not know what it is and they do not know what it takes to achieve it. Equality is like this. This means equal. Can man and woman say, "We are equal"? No, they are not equal, they are different. Their function is different, their construction is different. They do not automatically become equal as they are.
Where is freedom? Freedom means to become united; anywhere a man wants to unify he can unify. That is freedom. Two do not achieve unification automatically, it takes something to achieve unification. It is not freedom which makes unification. Man and woman can flee from each other but that is not free. A woman misses her husband so much that even if she goes away from him, she often looks back with tears. Is that freedom? That is not freedom for her.
Love is what makes freedom. From any angle you look at it, love is the most important ingredient. Without love a lot of things have no meaning. Father and Mother love each other so much and become unified, then so much peace is there. Happiness resides there. Is it true? (Yes.) Freedom cannot bring brothers to unify with each other. Equality doesn't do that, but love can bring these two into complete unity. Mother and children, and elderly person to a younger person: what can bring them into unity with each other? It is not freedom itself. Even if you have freedom you can't necessarily become one. Freedom has no meaning in that sense. What makes unity? Love. Like the president of the nation becomes united with the citizens of that nation out of love for each other. Philanthropy, the movement where everyone loves everyone else, is also because of love. Even heaven and earth and one distant person and another person can never become one without love. Freedom doesn't do that. Peace, happiness and equality don't do that, only love can do that.
Let's say there is a husband who loved his wife dearly. His wife went to spirit world a long time ago. He really wants to meet her and he thinks about her all the time and he is sad because of that. When he eventually goes to spirit world, will they start fighting or will he be happy to meet her? Let's say they have been separated for thousands of years. She has been in spirit world thousands of years, so by that time she has made her foundation there, so to speak. Her husband will go there and want to exploit that, looking here and there and using this and that. Will his wife say, "That doesn't belong to you, that is mine"? Would she refuse him? She will open up everything and say, "Everything I own is yours." There is an invisible wall from their separation of a thousand years. There is a wall because their circumstances were not the same on a daily basis. The thousand years' wall will be knocked out in one day because of this love.
We, too, have been long separated from God, but we are about to meet God and become united with Him. You may make a huge fortune and become a millionaire and become proud of being a millionaire with not so much thinking about going to God. What would that million dollars mean to God? It means nothing. You may become a Ph.D. and a Nobel prize winner, the most learned man on earth, but what has it got to do with God? Would God be impressed with that? God doesn't need money; God doesn't need knowledge or authority. God does not need these qualities. What does God need? God needs love just as much as we do. If God is our father and we are His children, how can we become united with God Himself? Only through love. Is that true? Everything else gets in the way and doesn't help.
The Pride of the Unification Church or Our Pride is the title this morning. We all want to be proud of our children, don't we? We want to be proud of the smallest thing they do. We want to make it big and be boastful and proud of our own children. Have you seen this before: there is a very ugly woman, no one can say she is pretty, and she has just as ugly a child - even more ugly. That woman is so in love with that baby that she wants to boast about that baby even to a much more beautiful woman, "What a nice baby I have, don't you agree? How beautiful my daughter is! Look at her!" That ugly woman is not abashed, her mind is as clear as the blue sky. She does not think she is out of balance. She continues to be proud of her ugly daughter. But, don't you think this is great? No one will blame her for that. Everyone will smile and say, "Yes, you are right!" from the bottom of their hearts. Looking down, God will admire that and say, "My creation is a success. I did a good job in creating love." That is what God will say.
So, America, it is wrong to pursue freedom. Americans must instead go after love. [Drawing on board.] My small house is my house and I can also call my nation my house. I can call the world my house, but the universe is larger than any of the others. God happens to reside there, right at the center of the universe. If you have a need to make unification with these, how would you do it? It is not with your knowledge, or authority or even money that you can do this, only love can do this. This travel is not easy. It is difficult, rugged terrain to reach God's house. What can make you continue, what can continually motivate you? In the house, we are encouraged to become sons and daughters of filial piety. In the country, everyone is urged to become a patriot. In the world, a saint and in the universe, a holy son. The most important ingredient here, it goes without saying, is love. Without love, everything will be shattered into pieces, no longer unified. Is that true? I don't know. You know more than me! We need to know this clearly and deeply.
All sons and daughters of filial piety in one family are welcomed by the nation. The nations ask them, "Please become a patriot now. After you have become filial sons and daughters in your family, it is time to become a patriot." It is like a crystal body. That crystal is welcome anytime in this nation. The crystal wants to become bigger and bigger. We all want to become ever bigger, don't we? That is our desire. Also, we want to become more precious, in other words, more expensive. Which one is more precious, the crystal on the family level or the crystal on the universe level? Of course, the one on the universe level. The man on the family level is a man of big character, but the one on the higher level has a bigger character. Everyone wants to become bigger and more valuable. Also, everyone wants to soar to loftier heights. Everyone wants to be higher, in other words. No matter how great you may be, as a son or daughter of filial piety, you are right here. Your size on the universe level will be just like that. But everyone's desire is to reach the universe level and stay there. Can you climb up there with knowledge, authority or money? No, absolutely not. What makes it possible for you to climb up there? Love, but what level of love? Normal love is American love. We need abnormal love. Normal love has people against unification. The Unification Church has abnormal love. Which is more precious? (Abnormal love.) Abnormal is the same as crazy, so in that comparison we are downright crazy. We are aiming for absolute True Love. There is nothing you cannot hook with the hook of True Love. It can be extended to any length. It is like rubber, it is so resilient. It can shrink down, too.
When we have True Love and we activate it, even the most difficult international marriages are no problem. We can even have a married life between enemies. The son and daughter of two enemies can get married and stay married. Doing that you can even control the enemy world.
Sometimes you think that God wants to judge unrighteous and bad people. How do you think God will do that? Will God just use almighty power and authority and judge people? No, God, too, is thinking love is the only way He can conquer His enemy, which is evil. Even God thinks this way. Therefore, God, like a very impotent, incapable person, loves and invests and forgets, continually for thousands of years. Love is the only way He can embrace evil. Even though we may not understand everything right away, we can, by reason and logic, understand that must be true. God must be investing and forgetting. By using True Love, God is carrying out this dispensation.
We have no doubt about this, do we? Do you still have reservations that God may retaliate sometimes? No, you have never seen an example of that. That is God's strategy. Here is a master. Without knowing, the servant hits the master's head. After that, what kind of feeling would the servant have towards the master? You can imagine, right? That is what God has been doing. He has been hit first and then subjugation takes place automatically without God saying anything. Satan, on the other hand, always jumps up and strikes and then realizes it was wrong and then loses. In World War I, World War II and World War III (World War III was the individual way), the common point was the one who struck first, lost. God put Reverend Moon in the position of making him available to be opposed by everybody in the world and lets him be struck. After striking, they all will be won over. All Satan's side will be brought over to God's side. It is so simple, anybody can see that at this time, but this staggering truth, no human being, not even the wisest man in history knew. Father has been revealing this to us.
Father came to America and did not take anything away. Instead, Father has been investing millions and billions of dollars for the sake of America, but American people still are going against Reverend Moon, even putting him into jail. Did America do right? They may think they won now, but in the hundreds of thousands of years to come, they will be in the position to apologize and be sorry to him for what they did and how they treated him. Kneeling down, they will beg forgiveness for what they've done even though they did it without knowing. After those times, all people, high-level, unlikely people, show respect to Reverend Moon now. Actually, we may not feel respect to Father in that way. In that sense they are better than we. We look at Father from our own perspective which is rather narrow whereas those people are the ones who know how difficult it is to work for the world. Those people admire Father because of their broad foundation. We have a small foundation. They have a broad foundation yet they love Father.
Now we can come near to concluding what there is to be proud of. We already ruled out many things. The only thing remaining is love. Love is the only thing we can be proud of, True Love. No one knew True Love until now. No one except us knows True Love. Where can we find it? A woman trying to pursue a man, is in love deeply, so even in the secular world, they thought this must be True Love. But the idea never occurred to them that this happens under fallen circumstances and that that love is out of order and needs to be repaired. They did not know that.
[Father draws on board.] We are standing on True Love. What does True Love need? True Love needs a man and woman. Until now even the highest level of love we saw was secular love and fallen love at best. This is a male and this is a female. To unify them is the highest purpose, but nothing except love can make them unified. All our organs have a purpose: the mouth digests food and the ear collects information and so forth. What does the reproductive organ do? It does not take food through it or inhale or exhale. The only function it has is to join and unify. It is not life-sustaining like all the other organs. What does it do? Why is it necessary? It is to unify east and west. Man is in the position of east and woman is in the position of west. The organ which joins man and woman unifies the vertical and horizontal. By joining horizontally and vertically we give birth to children. There is a dual system of parentship. The internal, vertical father is God Himself. Vertical and horizontal are joined together by man and woman joining together. There is no other way to connect the past and the present and the present and the future. The only way we can connect these is through love. Do you follow?
True Love must climb up higher than the level of fallen love. We can see in the past history of mankind there have been many types of love, but none ever higher than the fallen level. We have never witnessed any True Love in the past. To reach out for this love and maintain love on that high level, we must deny love in the fallen level. Not only individual love, but even the world level of love manifested in the fallen world must be denied. This is what religion has been trying to teach and do. Religion has been teaching, "Don't get married." Why? Because when you get married, you exercise love on the fallen level. That is why religion encouraged celibacy: to penetrate the fallen level of love. Originally God intended to let man and woman grow and then He would have arranged their marriage. So why are all high religions denying this and saying don't get married? It seems inconsistent. It was so we can restore mankind above the level of fallen love. The Bible teaches a very paradoxical statement, emphasizing that those who seek to live will die and those who seek to die will live. We can now understand True Love can be gained by giving up oneself and being ready to die. Only by doing that can we find True Love. If a man wants to receive all the love here, Satan is right behind him, with him. He can never separate from Satan, because he is within Satan's love. Satan will never let go. There were martyrs in the past. They were persecuted and persecuted and died as martyrs. The person who died thinking, "Now I'm going to die and go to heaven," instead found himself in hell. But the person in a similar position who thought, "I am dying for the sake of Jesus and for the sake of propagating his words," will find himself in heaven. From this perspective, the reason Reverend Moon created the Unification Church was to serve God and save God and to save mankind. He didn't do that in the easy way, but by going beyond the boundary of life and death.
When Father began his course, he aimed right at prison and death. Father didn't aim at glory. To liberate Jesus he first had to go to prison and the dungeon of hell of the Roman Empire. There he could find and save Jesus. Father knew he must risk his life so he was always ready to die any time. Father went to prison many times, but was Father put in prison because he plundered something or because he did something wrong? Once people are enlightened, they will kneel down for what they did and what they didn't understand at that time. True Love can only be found in risking our lives not for the sake of my being saved, not for my salvation, but for the sake of saving mankind and God. When we do that we can find True Love. God, too, is exactly like that. Because True Parents are in search of true children, Father has risked his life many times.
We know this is the only way we can go to heaven. Today the sad reality outside is that the average Christian thinks, "Just believe in Jesus' blood and you'll be saved and go to heaven." How absurd and impossible! Normally we ask questions such as, "What do you believe in?" The more we speak with him, the more it becomes evident he doesn't know what he believes. He has no contents. He cannot describe what faith he is. When we ask what is the borderline of faith, we'll answer we must go beyond the borderline of the satanic world. But he will not know what we are talking about. What it means is, if I kill your son, can you still believe in heaven? Yes or no? He might say, "No, I can't." That is a man of low faith. A man who answers no to that question cannot go up in faith. He will stay at the same level. What about your husband who is more precious than your children or anything else? What if God or someone said to you, "I am going to kill your husband, could you continue to maintain your faith?" Yes or no, which one? Then someone will ask, "I know you are a great patriot. I am going to sacrifice this country and destroy it." Can you continue to believe in God even then? He must answer yes before he can advance to this next level. This complete denial is required to break out of the satanic realm. This is real faith, ready to go beyond the limiting line of this world. That is the standard of our faith, not relative faith like "If you do this for me I will believe you." Or, "If my children are blessed and I have a happy life, I will believe in God and support God." With that attitude you fall below the limiting line which means nothing in the religious world.
Jesus really spoke out saying, "If you gain everything here but lose your life, what good is it for you?" Imagine a bunch of burglars gathered together here singing hymns and praying to God. Are they Christians? Let's have a fair comparison. Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham are the high names of Christianity. What have they done? What do they understand about God? What did Reverend Moon do for God and what does he teach? We can compare, a child could compare. One went straight for the path of death in an unabashed way to reach the high level of True Love. Of course God loves everybody, that is why He doesn't do anything against them, but God has a yearning, a strong desire to support someone more than other people. Don't you believe that? Who would God support - the righteous one or the less righteous one? He will support the most righteous one. Because of the conscience we have, which is a pretty good indicator, we stand with the hope of being saved.
Parents actually do risk their lives and die for the sake of their children, don't they? We see that in nature. Even birds do that. Birds lose their life for the sake of their children. This is a line, parents are here. Their children are in the realm of the fallen world. Do we understand what True Love is?
We have listened to Father talk about True Love for five years, now we have the feeling that we understand something about True Love. But, have we listened to Father's sermons from the position of True Love or from the fallen level of love? Which position did we listen from? If we heard from the low level, how can we hope to reach True Love ourselves? We have to penetrate and go beyond this line. No computer can keep track of our level of spirit here. There is simply no way, but in the spirit world it is different. Automatically a computer-like memory shows where each one of us is without a problem. In the spirit world, all the things we've done are recorded. Here, nobody knows and nobody has to know, but in the spirit world everything is disclosed to everybody. In fact, someone can appear and if they want to know something about you they just push a button like on a computer. Everything will be displayed instantly. It may say your faith is not even one percent, it's only one tenth of a percent. Nobody has to send us to hell, that person would go directly where they belong. We cannot deny this. By the time we reach the spirit world, what do we want our reading to be? Do we want to end up in the 0.1 percentile and go to hell or the 100 percentile and go to heaven? One hundred percent is our goal. Everyone now understands where True Love lies. It is easy to say one hundred percent, but it is very difficult to obtain. There may even be different degrees of one hundred percent. There is one hundred percent plus, sometimes one hundred percent zero and one hundred percent minus. There are even three degrees of one hundred percent, like A+, A-0 and A-. This is why Father has never allowed himself to relax and has never reconciled, but is always pushing the line and aiming at one hundred percent plus.
Many times Father doesn't notice the season, whether it is spring outside or winter that we are living in now. Many times Father was not aware of the season. The idea never occurred to Father that, "This is summertime, therefore I must take a vacation" because Father didn't know it was summertime. Now Father looks like he's been on vacation, doesn't he? You all laughed. Nobody wants to go on vacation.
True Love is the eternal subject for us. Centering on this individual, centering on this, the family, the clan, nation and so forth become bigger and bigger. We know where True Love begins, right? True Love begins by going beyond the boundary. We are always living with our neck in a noose. If my platform collapses, then I am hung. "With God's blessing and with God's help the platform will not collapse, and I will keep on living to see the new day." That is our life. America is far from this thinking.
We, too, never know when we will go to spirit world. Age doesn't matter so much. It is like having a death sentence hanging over our head. All we can do is hope we are not executed. If you understand spirit world, you understand this. We know True Love, don't we? Where does True Love begin? Do you understand now? What is your perspective? Do you think you can really grasp True Love or did you already catch True Love or are you capable of catching True Love? Which one? You are catching and you are capable of catching True Love. Who is going to go after you; who is going to kill you? Nobody, because there is religious freedom in America. We have religious freedom, but people who rely upon the law of religious freedom are going against the religion of the Unification Church. Have those who oppose Unification Church ever bothered to come and study for even one week? One month? They never did, but continue to persecute us. It is such a simple logic. It is illegitimate for anybody who doesn't understand the Unification Church to continue to oppose us. They have no qualification to do that.
What is the essence of the Unification Church teaching? What is the highest standard of the Unification Church teaching? You are asked these questions. The Unification Church teaches everything, but in one word, how could you sum it up? You can say, "The Unification Church is the church where they teach True Love." Is that true? Yes, you can say that. The path of True Love is serving and sacrificing and forgetting what you have done so you can do more. This is like God. Never remember what you have done in the past. Everyday God can create us new. We are to be reborn and recreated everyday. Like God Himself and many of our parents, we invest and forget, invest and forget for the sake of God and mankind and by doing that, we are reborn daily. Father knows that nobody in the neighborhood where Unification Church members live can legitimately go against Unification Church members because they are ready to stand up anytime and serve and sacrifice themselves. They don't fight for their own sakes and everybody knows this. When the streets were dirty we went out and cleaned them. We did lots of that years ago, didn't we? There is no comparison. It may not seem so significant, but up in the spirit world, it makes an enormous difference. This will constitute a condition where God can come and visit His own sons and daughters, namely us. By our doing that, God can come to us and claim His children. Imagine how many people really wanted to kill Reverend Moon. Christian churches have been praying to God to take Reverend Moon away. America is otherwise complacent, but is always questioning Reverend Moon. So America is looking at Reverend Moon and saying, "What is this? Throughout history, everyone who came into America was eventually Americanized, but now he is trying to Moonize America." But that is wrong. Reverend Moon is not Moonizing America, but Godizing. He is trying to turn America to God. That is what he is still doing.
Father is not so crazy about being respected by Americans, but the best thing Father can do for America is bring down the wall of self containment. They've got to open up before they can be saved or killed, saved in this case. They have to open up their doors. Father has been using a hammer to break down the walls. The people mind only because they do not understand. In the history of America or the world it is unprecedented for one small person to come from Asia to a gigantic, first rate country like America, and end up being blamed for shaking America and confusing the "American standard" and irritating everyone. Look at the Unification Church members gathered here; there is no area of mankind that is not represented. This is truly the museum of mankind. Here, all different races are represented. Even chronologically, some represent the past, some represent the more distant past. Everything is represented here in the Unification Church.
Collectors for the great London museum sometimes plundered the treasures of other countries to bring to the museum. Are we plundered to be here or did we come by our own will? We came on our own and chose to exhibit ourselves. To move by your own will sometimes takes a long time, but you changed quickly. To explain this, people say, "Oh, they are brainwashed." In fact, you made the decision to change so quickly that people say you must be brainwashed. They can't respect you because they think you are brainwashed. Historically, did you know that so-called authorities, such as the police, came and looked for wiring through which somehow, mysteriously, your thoughts could be influenced? They actually looked in the ceiling and took down the walls to see if they could find the wiring. We asked them, "What are you looking for?" and they said, "There must be some wiring." They gave all the reasons, all the names to Reverend Moon and condemned him.
Father never even shook hands with women here in America. American women have strong hands and ownership. Ownership means occupying. American women love to kiss people. If they were allowed, in the height of their faith, they would jump to Father and kiss him. Once they kiss him, they would take a bite of flesh out because their kiss is so strong. So Father had a one meter perimeter saying, "You cannot come within one meter of me." What is your guess? Do you think many American or no American women tried to entice Father at one time or another? (Many.) So come to think of it, there is nothing illegitimate, there is nothing wrong with the Unification Church.
Dr. Weinberger is a nuclear physicist, a very important person who is a Nobel prize winner, and he became the ICUS chairman. For fifteen years he looked at the Unification Church thinking, "There must be something which Reverend Moon does to hook, keep and manipulate Unification Church members." He watched and watched, but after fifteen years he gave up and said there were absolutely none. It's amazing, those were his own words. "There is nothing wrong with the Unification Church." We all saw Father at one time or another and thought, "What is he really up to?"
What is the topic of our sermon today? Our pride. TL means true language, true long life, true love, true lineage. This is what we are proud of. TL includes True Love, True Life and True Lineage. The contents of those three things are included in TL. Father was surprised to find out that in English these initials could include these three things. TL is number one. Is TL worthy of being proud of or are we making a mountain out of a molehill? (It is worthy.) For the person who spends his entire life to protect and enhance this, would God bless him or blame him? (Bless him.) The Unification Church may remain unpopular, not just unpopular but even persecuted, but it keeps on growing and growing. The CIA, KGB, everybody wanted to disband the Unification Church and really hurt it. They went full steam ahead to oppose it, and still the Unification Church is suffering, but still every day it is going up because of God's strategy. In the history of America, the work that Reverend Moon has done in this time span will always remain. No one can erase it from America's history. Their proceedings of lawsuits and trying to put him into jail really shattered their system to pieces. They unrighteously condemned a righteous, innocent person. It has been proven and now all the lawyers are studying about it as a bad case.
Do you think Reverend Moon lived a good life or bad life? (Good.) No, for me it has been a bad life. There was no enjoyment. For forty years I was threatened with death, how can it be a good life? But it was a righteous life and a good life in God's eyes. Reverend Moon was all by himself. He may have had relatives, but they didn't support him, even his parents and brothers. He had no friends, no country to support him, no teacher and everyone tried to stay away from him. If you feel lonely, think of how lonely Father must have felt. If Father didn't know about God, there is no way he could have continued. If Father had a human mind of seeking retaliation, and if the hydrogen bomb was at his fingertips, he could have used it if he didn't know God. But he knew God. We must know that God gave Reverend Moon the greatest gift of this eternal truth which will be here for the rest of the history of the universe. Father may be persecuted now, but he has been the only righteous man in the entire universe. God gave that kind of wisdom to Father and Father knew it. All five billion people of the world went against Reverend Moon, this one individual. Now, on the other side, God gave him the most precious and strongest gift which is the truth and heart. Behind him, right in his arms, God gave him a treasure, a gift which God would never trade even for all five billion people of the world. That is the value of the truth. Do we understand that truth? Could those who understand the truth live like we are living now? How can we live like this if we understand this truth?
No matter how huge the universe is or how wonderful the things are that are going on, we want to connect to it, don't we? We must be a part of it. God works so hard and we see everything we learned; who is it for? Who is the target of being saved? It's not even "we", it is "I". To save each one of us, God has worked the way He did. Those of us in the Unification Church know that "I" represent all the saints, all the historical times, everything that happened in history. "I" represent God Himself. God put so much real work for the sake of "me," not "us." The Unification Church is that kind of church. We represent God and all things. We are given the chance of being born again. Parents give us new birth, and after that we are born again every day. We are born again, by whom? By True Parents. Therefore, we need True Parents. True Parents also need people because people are the object. Without an object, the subject has no meaning either. Like Father mentioned early this morning, the people in the world are proud of themselves, their own families and nations, but that is as high as it goes. They will never even think about the world like we do. Members of the Unification Church think about the world and do not stop there. They think about the universe and they even talk about God's heart. We don't just talk about God Himself, but God's heart and love! People who refuse to believe say, "Those Unification Church people are unreal, they don't know what they are doing." This is what they have been thinking as they gave opposition to the Unification Church. They say the Unification Church is not a valid church. This is how we have been persecuted.
Contrary to the expectation of those who say, "They are unreal so they must fade away quickly," the more time passes, the more activity we create and the bigger foundation we gain. Now Father has sent out tribal messiahs. These members are situated in each tribe all over the world. Tribal messiahs and those from the Women's Federation all meet in the family. The most detailed teaching, not just theory, but the Principle, the basic principles are taught here. So there is no room for anybody to even raise a doubt about this.
In restoration through indemnity, a husband may have a wife, but his wife doesn't actually belong to him until the following occurs: the children are reconnected by Eve (the mother); then the family becomes one with perfected Adam; then she reconnects to her spouse. Fallen Adam is the one in the archangel's position. The person in fallen Adam's position, which is all husbands in all families, must be re-educated through restored women and reconnected here. First Eve must make a connection to the original Adam's family. These two can become one and expand all over Satan's world. The messiah came down and sent out many tribal messiahs. Women can connect to him. Cain and Abel can connect. The mother and sons connect. This is rebirth. God can take back what is His. After that, the wife, children and tribal messiah combine into one. The archangel's position is Satan's position. From here, he can obey and then unify. They can go back home. This process takes place through the Women's Federation.
The tribal messiah does this. No one has to do everything, like Father had to do before. Because of this, he sent all the tribal messiahs out and the tribal messiahs know what to do. It will expand by itself. Satan already expected this to happen in the last days, so he took all the families to himself. Traditionally in the fallen world, individuals have been proud of themselves and the family and nation, but Satan is now trying to break this so he can keep everything under his own dominion. Look at what happened to the individual. Everybody gave themselves up and became hippies and yippees and all families have been broken. There is a lot of incest going on now. Satan made it so that these families cannot return to God.
The same is true of the nation, too. This nation is becoming a big drug-using nation. There are so many problems among the young people. Who did this? God didn't do this. Satan made this because Satan knew True Parents were coming to this country. Before True Parents could claim these families, Satan occupied them. Father already mentioned that for a period of seventy years, American women had the opportunity of reigning like queens. For the seventy year duration they were prepared to meet the messiah. They are waiting for Adam to come. This is the meaning of this phenomenon, but since they do not know why they have superiority, they don't know that this period only lasts for seventy years. They don't know why it happened.
We want to be proud of the individual, proud of our family and we want to be proud of a nation that will be comprised of the Unification Church, but Father has been working on the world level which is beyond what anybody ever thought about. He will accomplish this. By the time this is accomplished, these lower levels are nothing. They will automatically be included so we don't have to try so hard to accomplish them. First we have to make the victory on the world level. It may take time, but the people of the world understand that the Unification Church has the contents to make this possible: pride in the family, pride in the nation, pride in themselves. As they see us accomplish these things, they will immediately come to the Unification Church and want to become a member. If they see we are successful they will come. Through the right use of the media and the right teaching at the right time, even within forty days the people of the world can come and join.
America and the world can see from the intellectual point of view that there is no other way but to follow Reverend Moon and his teachings. What if America and the free world somehow remain stubborn and do not follow Reverend Moon? What will happen? The only alternative is that they will perish. Is it credible, can we understand that these words must be true? (Yes.) There is no other solution. Do you say yes just because there is something wrong with your brain that brings you to this strange conclusion?
Father always worked for the sake of the world that no one else was even thinking about. Look at religious history, patriotic history or any type of history: many people fought for these three but no one ever considered winning the freedom of the world. Only Reverend Moon fought for the sake of the world. Reverend Moon fought for the sake of liberating the world; did he win or did he lose? (He won.) What is the proof that Reverend Moon won? The proof is that communism went down just as he predicted. He made it fall down. Today, high-level Americans themselves are saying, "There is no way to keep America as it is. The only way to do that is if we listen to Reverend Moon and follow his teaching and his plan." This is what they say.
If they just opened up the gates of Harvard University and allowed us to come in and freely talk and teach, in one week, from the President down, including the professors, all could be taught the truth and they could turn around. This is not only a possibility, but Father, being a practical man, has already made a foundation to be able to do this.
In Russia we can see the possibility. In a short time, in a few days all the ex-communist, high-level leaders in Russia were amazed at the teaching of Reverend Moon that they heard from Dr. Sook. In a group, they turned around and became followers of the Unification Church. What's happening now? This God-fearing, religious country of America, the most glorious Christian country of America, is about to be outdone by, of all people, the communists who denied God and did all bad things against humankind including killing. They are the ones who turned around to God before the Christians. This is what we see happening. We know how this is happening. Since the system crumbled, the Russian people are looking for a value system and they happened to stumble upon the Unification Church principles. They are just amazed. What is your guess? Can communism be influenced by the Unification Church or can the Unification Church be influenced by communism? Whose value is bigger? (The Unification Church.) By far. Who has deeper value - the Unification Church or the democratic countries? (The Unification Church.) Whose is bigger, the Unification Church or the democratic world and the communist world put together? (The Unification Church.) You just say that because it suits you, because you happen to be a member of that church! Is that why you say that or is it the truth? (It's the truth.) Are you saying this with the utmost confidence? (Yes!) Really? (Yes!) You have confidence? (Yes!) Even if you have to fight against two countries? (Yes!)
Father has been speaking two hours now. What is our pride? Should we be proud of the Unification Church? Why? This Belvedere building is like an old-fashioned stable. You are sitting in the stable and you don't own so much, so what do you have to be proud of? Even though this is a very humble garage, if there is a real treasure displayed here, people will come from all four corners of the world to view it. The traffic in Tarrytown will be completely jammed every day because so many people will come here to see the treasure. If Father could live one hundred more years on earth, think of how the earth would change. Everybody would be paying attention to where Reverend Moon is going and what he is doing. Actually, they will discard and throw away their own families, wives and children, to come here to live with Reverend Moon. They will do that once they know what treasure they will find in the stable.
Who should you be proud of, the Unification Church or Reverend Moon? (Reverend Moon.) Should you be proud of Reverend Moon or True Love? (True Love.) Does True Love reside in Reverend Moon or the Unification Church? (Reverend Moon.) What about you? You say that you are church members, not Reverend Moon members. Do you have True Love or not? (Yes.) Yes? Are you confident? Your confidence is down, that is the problem. How many times have you been to prison? We should pay a visit there at least one time, shouldn't we? Some people have so-called free lives with something good in the morning, a pleasant afternoon and a nice evening. Do people with that type of lifestyle listen to Reverend Moon and see true hope in him? No. Comfortable people do not follow Reverend Moon. Have you or have you not ever had the experience of thinking, "I regret having to join the Unification Church. If it wasn't for the Divine Principle I would run away and go somewhere else"? At one time or another, have you thought like that? Father will give you amnesty; those who felt that way, raise your hands. Those who thought like that even one time, be brave and raise your hands. Father, too, is raising his hand. Is Father smarter than us? (Yes.) You can feel easy then, you didn't make a mistake by staying in the Unification Church because the smarter person, Father, stayed here. So, you must have made a good decision. Reverend Moon teaches you to work hard and is always pushing you down to the kingdom of hell. Isn't that what Father did for the last twenty years? Did Father ever praise us? He always made us suffer more and do more work. Why do you think Father did that? Father wanted to put all five billion people of the earth, including us, down into hell so it would level out the ground. There would be no more hell; hell would be filled in. The base will break into several pieces, but we're not dying because God is supporting us. Father will support us. We are not going down to hell, but if we are pushed to hell and stay there, God will support us. Under God, the bottom of hell will break out. God wants to hold on to us because He thinks, "These are Reverend Moon's children." If Father's metaphor is true and this is reality, if this is guaranteed and you approve of it thinking it can happen, do you think you'd like to go for it? (Yes!) But, even if no one else guarantees it to you, but by your own decision you decide these things must be true and you plunge in, how much more honorable that is. It is reversed. We go to the lowest dungeon of hell for the sake of those there, then we automatically go to the highest position in the world. It is paradoxical but it is true. The lowest and highest are the same. In other words, if you are ready to plunge into the deepest bottom of hell, then you can be used and placed in the highest place. No one can blame or accuse you. Is it because Reverend Moon loves cruelty and misery that he is doing this to himself and to us? Or, is it because he is a smart leader and understands the best way to get results?
Father's lifetime is one of struggle and misery and work. This man, who we do not deeply understand how much he suffered, what do we call him? We call him Father, True Parents. Centering on what father? Who do you call father? If your blood lineage and his blood lineage is the same, you call him father, don't you? You don't have to speak, you already understand what he thinks and what he feels. That's a son, isn't it? You have the same blood, the same lineage. The lifeline is there and the love line is there. There are three lines; life, love and lineage are all connected. It is a reciprocal subject and object relationship and we do a lot of action. Therefore, when Father cries, we feel like crying, too. When he is happy, we are happy, too.
What are we proud of? We are proud of having True Father in our church. To become a true father, you have to have a true son, and a true couple. For a true brother to come, there should be true children. In other words, there has to be a true couple. Before a true couple can become a true couple, they have to be true brothers and sisters.
What is True Parents? True Parents are ancestors. Ancestors are parents. All people are their children. Parents are the master and teacher all in one. Do you follow? True Parents are the true teacher, the kind of teacher that mankind has never seen. They never even heard this teacher who teaches everything that children need to know. He is a true owner, too. Because he is a true owner, all things have a legitimate owner for the first time. Because of True Love, he can be a true owner, he isn't just given the name. Naturally, automatically he becomes the true owner because he has True Love. All these contents are here and the Unification Church is well connected in the father/son relations. We can legitimately be proud of what we are.
The Unification Church is True Father and True Mother, True Children, True Family, the true nation, true world, true universe and True God. That is eight steps. We can be so proud of each one, but how much we can be proud of all eight! Was there any True Father in any part of history? Was there any True Mother? All of these positions are unheard of. Was there ever a true king? All mankind becomes the royal families, without exception. All five billion people will become the true king's direct lineage, that means royal families. We have no regret for the communist world, we have no attachment to the democratic, so-called free world. They are only transient.
We must become family kings through tribal messiahship, tribal kings, national kings, world kings, universal kings and finally come to God. Again, Father is repeating, nothing can bring someone up from hell to heaven except for the power of True Love. The saints' names are cherished and remembered by the people of the world. Patriots are respected in each country. What about True Parents? There is only one. There are many saints but only one True Parents. Do you think all the saints need True Parents? Yes, they do. What about the advanced nations such as America and England, do they need True Parents also? Yes, because they are going after the ideal world and the ideal world is this.
When we accomplish this, the heavenly kingdom will come down and this will become the heavenly kingdom right here. Abel and Cain will join together and go to the original kingdom of heaven. This is restoration. We are speaking of the foundation for True Love which was built on all the achievements and sacrifices of the past. Therefore, what we cannot do is take love or the love family lightly. Adam and Eve partook in illegitimate love. They went to the fallen position. After the fall, how much payment had to be made by going the way of sacrifice? The individual, family, tribe and so many nations were sacrificed. Think of the quantity of payment that was made through history. This is the fearful impact of love action. It is so important. If you take one step and make a mistake it means hell. One step the other way is heaven. We must be extremely careful about how we conduct ourselves. What about American society? This country is going the diminishing way because of free sex. The most important thing is considered the most unimportant thing in this country. It goes from one extreme to the other. Therefore, you can see just how important the reproductive organ is. It is the palace of love, life and lineage. How can you misuse it? Father is telling us now how important it is to keep your chastity. It is the most important thing compared to anything else; therefore, you should really protect it. The oneness between husband and wife, regardless of the lineage one hundred generations ago, ten generations ago, they all loved each other and lived like this. We, too, live centered on those, don't we? All women live by grabbing the sexual organ of her husband. The reverse is true for men. It's so clear isn't it?
Here in America, husband and wife sleep in the same bed and keep the children away from them. If it were not for the sexual organ, why is it necessary to sleep in the same bed and send the children away? Because of that, they stay together. Therefore, we should keep ourselves so that we fit to heaven's and nature's description. We are proud of True Father, Mother, Children and Family because of this. Eventually we want to become one with God and be friends with God. God is our friend, our Father, our teacher. He is our owner. He is the center of our couple. We are very much connected to God. We live like this and at some time in our life we say, "I will stay away from Unification Church. I will disconnect from Unification Church." What a huge crime it is to think like this! Who judges the person who thinks that way? All the eight stages will come down and blame him.
Each one of us knows which level we are on. If husband and wife cannot become completely united, how can we hope to be true children? Until now, we may have thought, "I can stop being a Unification Church member," but once we know, then we cannot use ignorance as an excuse. Do you follow? From now the time is changing. We must enhance and improve our own character from now. We must claim and regard all these eight stages as belonging to "me." Think, "They are mine." We must understand the satanic world fears me very much because I am connected to these. "The world is literally in my hands," you must have that confidence. You don't have to fight for it and win; automatically everybody will come and unite with you centering on True Love. What a legitimate base we have to be proud in the Unification Church. Father is saying go ahead and be proud of yourselves. Father will not leave us alone, feeling not so proud of the Unification Church. Maybe one day Father will tell us to wear a headband like the Japanese do which says Unification Church. Since you're not witnessing so effectively, at least you could give some sign who you are. Then the people will come and ask you questions instead of you going to them. "Are you Unification Church?" They may try to fight you but they will come anyway. Actually that is not true, Cain never comes to Abel by his own power. Abel must visit Cain. Therefore, we must visit. Now Father is commanding us, have that band not on your forehead, but right at your heart. Engrave "Unification Church" right here in your heart. Go anywhere in the country and teach the people you meet. Can you do it?
May is the time of new green and this is the time that the Unification Church must really expand from this season on to the world. We are now ready to jump and ready to fly. In order to do that, this second day of May, this resolution and basic understanding is a necessity. Those who say "Father I will do it, I will fly over - representing Unification Church," raise your hands. Actually, your hands are prettier than your face. Did you know that? Father feels those hands must have sinned a lot, nevertheless they appear so beautiful. So pledge and swear with both hands up, "Father, I will do it!" God bless us!
