Peace means the absence of conflict between two entities as they interact in a harmonious partnership. For an individual, inner peace means harmony between the dual characteristics of mind and body. In the family, peace means harmony, equality and reciprocation between husband and wife. These same qualities are necessary for peace in the world. The biblical word for peace is shalom, which also means health and wholeness. The healthy body is interwoven by countless dynamic reciprocal relationships, whose harmonious interaction brings health and vitality. This is the meaning of a world of peace in the Family Pledge. When individuals, families and nations are practicing sacrificial love toward one another, harmony and peace will naturally arise.

Peace must exist on every level of the universal family, but its root is in each individual. A teaching of Confucius makes this point:

In other words, peace within the individual is the cornerstone for peace in the family and for peace in every larger sphere. Only when we have harmony and peace between mind and body -- meaning that we willingly follow our conscience at all times-are we able to love others with sacrificial service. Otherwise, if our mind and body are in conflict, we will behave selfishly and thus cause conflicts with the people around us.

Before we can have peace, we must have freedom. A society which denies its people their basic freedoms may enforce a sort of peace, but sooner or later the people's aspirations for freedom will mount until revolution breaks out. Likewise, before we can find inner peace, we must first gain inner freedom by severing Satan's ties, by which he insistently influences the mind to enmity, strife, distrust, envy, resentment and complaint. Satan is self-centered, and he resonates with the selfish elements in our souls. He strengthens the desires of the flesh which are in conflict with the desires of the spirit. (Gal. 5:17) Freedom from sin, on the other hand, brings peace with God. God cannot brook sin, but He is always ready to welcome His children who repent of their sin and turn to Him. (Ezek. 18:23) Satan inserts in us thoughts that God is angry with us and will not accept us. This fear of God's wrath is a cruel illusion. In fact, as Jesus taught in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, God is overjoyed when the most evil sinner makes sincere repentance. He welcomes the prodigal home with open arms. Therefore, the starting point for peace is to step forward out of slavery to sin, to find freedom in God.

The peaceful individual brings peace to her family. She has the emotional maturity to be tolerant and patient with her spouse. She takes personal responsibility for any problems in their relationship. While striving for honest communication and sharing, she will not allow herself to react emotionally to "hot button" issues. Rather, she will stop to reflect within and then express only what is true to her higher self. She ever gives with a warm, loving heart. The harmony and peace in a loving relationship between husband and wife provides a good example for their children. When nurtured by their parents' warm love, peace in the family naturally expands to include peace among brothers and sisters.

Even though a family achieves peace within itself, if its nation goes to war there can be no peace. At any moment a bomb could fall on their home, or the children might be called away to fight and die on the battlefield. It is in the interest of every family, therefore, to work for world peace. Defeating the enemy does not bring peace. A defeated enemy will likely nurse dreams of revenge and re-emerge one day to attack with renewed ferocity. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." (Matt. 5:9) Peacemaking requires sacrificial love to reconcile the two sides, so that they make peace from the bottom of their hearts.

Building world peace requires that we address the actual conflicts between nations, races, religions, ideologies, and economic strata. The projects founded by Rev. and Mrs. Moon are only a few of the many worthwhile programs developed by churches, charitable organizations and governments to address these concerns; they are cited here as examples of what we all can do. Moreover, in light of Rev. and Mrs. Moon's office as the True Parents of humankind, the projects they organize and guide have a special significance. They stand as models for how God's parental love can be manifest in concrete programs for peacemaking.

The sisterhood ceremonies sponsored by the Women's Federation for World Peace [WFWP] are designed to reconcile nations that were formerly enemies: Japan and Korea, Japan and America. When women from these enemy nations cross the bridge and meet as sisters, their embrace knits together their nations in bonds of love. When the women of the world make peace, how can their husbands make war? An even more effective means of building peace is the Blessing, where people from enemy nations join in solidarity as members of one global family, even marrying one another. The motto of the Blessing is "World Peace through Ideal Families." This is the royal way to peace, digesting old hatreds with the fresh and pure love of God.

Religious harmony is another precondition for world peace. Religious hatreds run deep, and lie at the root of many conflicts in the world today, including Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, and the festering tensions between India and Pakistan. All religions find their ground in the same Ultimate Reality, though they call it by many names. A number of worthy interfaith organizations working to foster interreligious harmony have arisen in the years following World War II. Rev. Moon, for his part, gives substantial resources to sponsor the conferences and programs of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace [IRFWP], where religious leaders are making substantial progress towards cooperation and peacemaking. When in 1992 representatives from the world's faiths began participating in the Blessing, it marked the beginning of an even higher spiritual unity.

Race relations also desperately need healing. Through ecumenical activities involving Black and White clergy, Christians and Muslims, religious people are raising a unified voice. Sisterhood ceremonies between black and white women are fostering interracial harmony. When racial tensions between Blacks and Koreans festered in New York City, hundreds of ministers marched, alumni of the Interdenominational Conferences for Clergy [ICC]. Again, the Blessing takes this peacemaking a step further: the global family established through the Blessing solidifies the unity of humankind transcending race.

Ideological conflict has been the major scourge of the twentieth century. Through his implacable opposition to Communism, Rev. Moon was instrumental in its defeat. Creating enduring peace, however, requires that the victorious Western nations embrace their former enemies with love and substantial aid, just as the Allies embraced Germany and Japan at the end of World War II. In the states of the former Soviet Union, Rev. Moon supports educational projects to give their disillusioned young people a new vision of human potential through a life oriented to God and spiritual values.

Finally, world peace requires that we bridge the divide between North and South, between the rich and poor nations. The industrialized nations of the northern hemisphere dominate the developing nations of the Third World through their control of technology. They keep the developing nations in the role of suppliers of cheap raw materials, while their factories produce the finished goods and capture the lion's share of the profits. Rev. Moon advocates equalizing the wealth between North and South by transferring technology. In keeping with this goal, he built up a machine-tool and metals fabrication industry with factories in Germany, Korea and in developing nations in order to transfer the best of German engineering know-how for increasing the industrial base of the Third World. He is building a world university network to train the engineers and skilled workers capable of utilizing this technology. Ultimately, all nations should share the blessings of technology which until now have only brought prosperity to a few wealthy industrial powers. With common prosperity spread throughout a world interlinked by bonds of trade, wars will cease to have any purpose.

Living in peace as individuals and families, and establishing peace in the world, we will build a world imbued with harmonious relationships on every level. It will manifest the divine image, resembling the harmonious give and take of God's inner life. God, who is Love and the Source of love, will behold a world of love, a world fit to be His partner in love. God will pour out His love into the world, filling it with His peace.

The Korean word tongil can be rendered either as "unification" or "unity." In general, unification means the process of becoming one, while unity means the consummated state of oneness. As this phrase of the Family Pledge depicts the state of a world which has perfected God's ideal of creation, "unity" is the better translation. The Unification Church is a movement for unification; its purpose is to unite a divided world. In the Family Pledge we pledge to perfect God's ideal of creation, which will be a world of unity.

The words "unity" and "unification" have various nuances of meaning. Some think of unification as stamping everyone into one mold and making them believe the same thing. Kim Il Sung, for example, used to speak about the unification of the Korean peninsula by military force. Others speak of unity in a spiritual sense as merging into the divine Unity. Closer to the mark is the unity exhibited by a loving couple. The husband and wife do not lose their individual identities and merge into one. (There may be an initial merging in the height of romantic passion, but that is only temporary.) In a good marriage, husband and wife rejoice in seeing themselves reflected in their beloved. The two lovers dance together and move together as one. In dancing, difference makes for excitement and beauty; sameness would make for boredom. Nevertheless, even this type of unity does not reach its true meaning.

In the Divine Principle, unity means three making oneness in love. Conventionally we think of families as being formed through the unity of two, but that is not correct. God's paradigm for the family is the Four Position Foundation, in which God participates as a veritable family member. When God, husband and wife become one, a free and harmonious sharing of love and beauty blossoms among the three as they engage in spherical movement in three dimensions. This is the operation of the Trinity, manifested in countless individual trinities, God-centered families. It is the unity of the horizontal and the vertical dimensions of life. Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20), and "they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one." (John 17:22-23) Jesus was speaking particularly to the Church, but this principle applies especially to a family dwelling in unity, blessed by God.

Unity has three qualities: participation, living together, and inheritance. Family members participate in each other's lives and support each other's activities. A wife is her husband's co-worker, supporting his work and mission. A husband is his wife's co-worker, supporting her in caring for home and children. Living together means sharing each other's situation. Husband and wife and children share each others' joys and sorrows, sickness and health, wealth and poverty. Finally, family members share a common inheritance, both material and spiritual. The house and property are not the only things which the children naturally inherit from their parents. Traditions, values and teachings are also passed on from one generation to the next. A family with a tradition of music will bequeath an inheritance of music; a family with a tradition of frugality and hard work will bequeath a tradition of industry and thrift; parents who love hunting and fishing will bequeath to their children a love of the outdoors.

Moreover, God participates in the family, lives together with the members of the family, and bequeaths His inheritance. When we recite the Family Pledge in the early hours of Sunday morning and affirm our intention to live up to the standard of the Pledge, we affirm that our family is participating in God's life and God is participating with the family's life. We draw God down to join our family! He longs to live with us and share His life with us, and we share our life with Him. When we suffer and grieve in our home, He is there, suffering and grieving with us. When we rejoice, He is there, rejoicing with us. As we participate in God's providence, we sympathize with His situation and attend Him with love. God, in turn, bequeaths to us His glory, His love, and heavenly tradition.

When there is world unity, when all people move together in love, the world will function like a single organism. The cells of the human body do not need to be continuously ordered about by the commands of the brain. Rather, cells freely cooperate for the health of the whole organism through the free-flowing exchange of nutrients and chemical messengers. The cells of the hand innately know their role. No outside agency needs to tell them they are part of the hand; they know it already through biological lineage and chemistry. Should a rock fly towards the face, the hand goes up to block it by reflex before the brain even knows what is happening. The hand knows that its purpose is to serve the body, and that its welfare is bound up with the welfare of the whole body. Should the body suffer illness or hunger, the hand, which shares the body's bloodstream, knows it and sacrifices accordingly. The hand holds an image of the body within its biology; the body, likewise, has images of the hand imprinted within its various organs. The master of the body is the invisible mind. When the mind determines to write a letter, the brain activates the image of the hand within itself and immediately the hand responds. When mind and body are united, the body also operates as a unity, with every cell freely participating, sharing the common situation of the whole and aware of an image of the whole. The body moves as one by resonating in unity with the mind.

In the same way, every individual and every family in the unified world will freely cooperate and participate in the whole through the vibration of true love. No one needs to coerce them, for they will be sensitive to the situation of the planet and willingly act for its benefit. They will respond whenever and wherever a need arises. Each community, nation, and transnational institution, like the organs of the body, will know the others and be known by the others. God, who abides in the center of every family, will become the invisible mind of the world. The unified world will move as one by resonating with the heart and will of God. All the parts will be in harmony, naturally cooperating for the purpose of the planet. Within that grand unity, life will be naturally free, peaceful, harmonious and joyful.

According to the Divine Principle, the unity of the future world will be characterized by interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. (Parallels 7.2.7) In the unified world, we recognize our interdependence with all people, indeed with the entire web of nature. Our biological existence depends on the food, air and water provided by myriad organisms as well as by the labors of farmers, truckers and manufacturers who bring these nutrients to our home. A janitor and a CEO are equal in value as regards their indispensable roles in maintaining the operations of the company. Should their salaries differ a hundred-fold? The excessive value placed on money and power distorts our present-day society. In the future, people will be honored for their character and depth of heart more than for their position or wealth.

In the unified world, we work for each other's mutual prosperity. No one who resonates with the heart of God would ever want to prosper at the expense of someone else. How can we sleep in good conscience after viewing television news footage of starving children? Rev. Moon has committed himself to ending hunger on the planet. Anyone with an active conscience shares this same desire. He works to equalize the wealth between rich and poor nations by transferring technology from rich to poor nations and fostering the global education of skilled engineers. Likewise, anyone blessed with wealth and the talent to earn money should be guided by their love for humanity to share their skills and abundance with others. People with a practical skill can dedicate time to tutor others in their skills so they can become more productive and successful. As we bind together in a society that seeks the welfare of the whole ahead of self-benefit, the excessively competitive spirit of modern capitalism will be tempered by a desire to cooperate for the benefit of society as a whole. We will strive for success on a personal level in order to benefit others, as well as our families and ourselves.

Today, many people are fed up with high taxes and view their government as riding roughshod over their opportunities for success. Many conservatives would reduce the size of government and cut back its role to essential public services, like maintaining roads and providing for national defense. One should rightly ask: if welfare and other social programs were cut back, would the poor go hungry? Would the churches and charities be able to fill the needs of the desperate poor, orphans and the elderly? If the people are too cynical and mean-spirited, they may refuse to help. Conservatives don't honestly know what would happen. The missing element in any plan to reduce the role of government is the internal transformation required-the warming of human hearts to have compassion on others. As we reduce government, there must be a revival of America's spiritual foundations.

In the unified world, all people, regardless of their race, religion or nationality, will share common values. When people share universal values, they share in their consciences a common sense of right and wrong. People of all cultures will therefore cooperate to further the common good. This does not mean simply tolerating the every sundry custom and ill-considered opinion. God's truth is absolute and does not brook relativism. Nevertheless, God in His love has planted the seeds of truth in the traditions of every culture. Through sages, sacred writings, and folk wisdom, every nation has access to the way of God, as Jesus said, "I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice." (John 10:10) The truth in every culture allows godly people of every faith to recognize one another, and thence to cooperate in love. Through sharing universal values, humankind will be able to pursue holistic solutions to the world's problems.

Everyone seeks happiness. We desire a happiness which infuses our environment and stimulates the mind and heart with joy. The unity of inward joy and outward happiness characterizes the true joy that we can share with God. This is the joy and happiness of the Kingdom described in the Family Pledge.

According to the Divine Principle, joy is produced when the subject loves or creates an object partner which reflects and elaborates his own nature. An artist feels joy when he produces a work which perfectly expresses the idea in his mind. A gardener feels joy to see his vegetables grow and ripen; they embody his innate sense of life and prosperity. A mother feels joy when she loves her child and enjoys discovering hundreds of little ways in which he takes after her.

The Divine Principle describes this joy in terms of God's three great blessings to humankind. (Gen. 1:28) Each blessing calls us to attain a joyful resemblance: between God and an individual, between an individual and his family and social world, and between an individual and the natural world. For example, we rejoice to the bottom of our hearts when appreciating the beauty and harmony of the natural world as it resembles and stimulates elements of our original selves. We thrill in overcoming a challenge in the physical world just as our mind thrills at its mastery of our body. We feel happiness to be part of a free, harmonious and peaceful society because these qualities of society take after the harmony and peace within ourselves and our families. We cannot help but be deeply troubled and upset by the world's incessant conflicts because we want the world to enjoy the harmony and peace which we experience in our personal lives.

On the other hand, a self-centered person whose mind is seething with hatred or anxiety, and whose family is full of strife, may well find a perverse joy when he views the conflicts of the wider world. He likewise senses a kind of resemblance that makes him feel at home. Since strife and self-seeking pervades the world around him, he feels comfortable and justified in his own selfish life. For example, one who associates with bad people enjoys their company because he finds that they take after the lower aspects of his own character. In the company of like-minded friends, he can excuse his own evil. Many contemporary artists portray the social reality around them by creating works with clashing colors or dissonant tones which resemble their vision of the world. Moreover, when people live in cities and grow accustomed to artifice, they lose their inner harmony. They lose their sensitivity to nature as well, and consequently they abuse the earth. These are examples of joy arising from resemblance, albeit a false joy. It is false because there remains a fundamental dissonance between the fractured social world and the universe as a whole-our bodies in particular. True joy endures; it connects us with God's joy and the joy of the cosmos. Evil joy is fleeting; it is followed by remorse and pangs of conscience.

We can illustrate the difference between the things that make for true happiness and those that make for evil happiness by looking at Jesus' three temptations in the wilderness. Satan tempted Jesus with opportunities for evil happiness, and Jesus rejected them for those things which make for true happiness. Satan tempted Jesus to break his fast and eat bread; Jesus responded by upholding the word of God. Next, Satan took Jesus to the top of the Temple and tempted him to fall down; this symbolizes the temptation of illicit sex, which has destroyed countless righteous people and religious people on the path. Jesus responded, saying, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" (Matt. 4:7), meaning that we should guard the divine image which God has implanted within us. Finally, Satan offered Jesus worldly power; Jesus responded by affirming that we should serve God. The false happiness of power masks selfish ambition, while the godly person gets true joy from serving the people (Mark 10:43), who elevate him to leadership by grateful acclamation.

What is the highest heavenly joy and eternal happiness? Emanuel Swedenborg relates that in one of his spiritual visions he observed a contest over this question. When the assembled throng was queried, "What is heavenly joy and eternal happiness?"⁵ some answered it consists of companionship with the angels and pleasant conversation; others looked forward to feasting upon rich foods in the presence of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Apostles; a third group answered that they would enjoy resting forever in gardens filled with fragrant flowers and luscious fruits; a fourth group aspired to gold, jewels and boundless wealth; still others believed that the highest joy was to spend eternity praising God.

Then those of the first opinion were taken to a house with spacious rooms where distinguished-looking people engaged in pleasant conversation. In one room they were relating experiences of their former life; in another room men joked about women they had known; in another people were discoursing on philosophy, in another were debates over political issues, and so on. The visitors went about from room to room, joining in the conversations or just listening. But after a time they grew weary of conversation. When they tried to leave the house, they found the doors locked, and an angel admonished them, "These doors only open for those who wish to enter heaven; remain here and enjoy the joys of heaven for eternity." The group then felt anxious and oppressed, until they repented of their foolish opinion. They asked the angel, "What then is heavenly joy?" and the angel replied, "It is the delight of doing something of use to others; its delight derives its essence from love, its existence from truth."

The second group entered a grove with fifteen tables mounted high with delicacies; at each table was seated an elder patriarch: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Apostles. Along with the feasting, they were regaled with music, games, dancing maidens and dramatic performances. Each day the group had to eat at another table, until after fifteen days they had feasted with each of the patriarchs, and then the cycle would repeat again, and so on for eternity. Yet after a few days they were sated, to the point were even looking at food made them nauseous. Though they were detained until they had eaten at all the tables, they were desperate to escape from this so-called heavenly joy. They learned that the true food of heaven is nothing else than love and wisdom, and their employment for the sake of others.

So it was for the other groups. Those who wanted wealth and power were festooned with gold and jewels and made to sit on thrones, but after some days when no courtiers arrived to wait on them (for they were unworthy), they grew tired of their jewels. Those in the fragrant gardens reveled there for some days, but then grew weary of the scents and colors. Those who joined the angelic choir praising God grew tired of continual singing, prayers and sermons; they began yawning and some fell asleep. Each learned that the joys of heaven are not from position, wealth or glory, but arise in the course of loving and assisting others. After these things, the assembly was led to a magnificent palace in heaven, surrounded with gardens, where they saw a wedding. It was far more joyful than anything they had witnessed. The purport of this vision was later summarized by an angel, who said, "our heavenly delights are chiefly from conjugal love."' The joy of the Kingdom begins from true conjugal love in a God-centered marriage. Yet until now, how many marriages have been blessed with true love?

When Jesus was born, an angel appeared to some shepherds saying, "Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11) The advent of Jesus Christ brought great rejoicing to Heaven and the promise of happiness to all humankind. For as the Son of God, Jesus more than anyone else could be God's good counterpart and stimulate Him with joy. Jesus came to transform this evil world into the Kingdom of Heaven, where God and humankind rejoice together, as he said, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11) In the Book of Revelation, Jesus prophesied the consummation of his joyful promise will come at the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6-10), expanding into the universal happiness of the new Jerusalem: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4)

Eternal happiness begins with true families enjoying true love between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and husband and wife. Their joy arises from the passionate and harmonious give and take of love and beauty, as they live in truth and for the good. Their joy increases as they participate in the universal family encompassing heaven and earth. Families enjoying freedom, peace, unity and happiness will rejoice all the more to participate in communities, nations and a world displaying the same fruits of true love writ large. God will exult beholding such a world, which manifests His image on every level. We in turn will feel His joy cascading through us and linking all things in a symphony of love, as the psalmist wrote:

1. Sun Myung Moon, "God's Hope for Man," God's Will and the World (New York: HSA-UWC, 1985), p. 170.

2. See World Scripture, p. 221.

3. Also Qur'an 5.32; see World Scripture, pp. 340, 342.

4. See World Scripture, p. 491.

5. Emanuel Swedenborg, Conjugal Love (London: Swedenborg Society, 1989), pp. 3-41.

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