Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
An important component of attendance is to comfort. How can Heavenly Father and True Parents be comforted? Filial sons and daughters of God have gained some understanding of God and True Parents suffering and sorrow. Filial sons and daughters of God comfort God and True Parents by attending them. What form must attendance take in order to comfort them? We can comfort them by fulfilling their desires.
Filial sons and daughters seek to comfort God and True Parents before and after they are liberated from their suffering and sorrow. True Parents' whole life has been lived attending and comforting God. It is by observing and understanding True Parents' heart of devotion and dedication as well as their efforts at comforting God that we can best realize how to comfort God. One of the best ways to comfort God is to attend True Parents and the True Children.
After God's total liberation there will be almost no need for filial sons and daughters to comfort their Heavenly Father in the restorational sense. He will be a new God. He no longer will be the God of grief and suffering. He will be the God of joy and glory with living with His children in His Kingdom. Such a God has never existed. In the current situation of God and mankind there is a tremendous need to comfort God. We can comfort God and True Parents by understanding their heart. We can comfort God by taking care of His children. We can comfort God and True Parents by becoming filial sons and daughters who as their representatives help God and True Parents with their work and responsibilities. We can comfort God and True Parents by liberating them from their suffering by establishing them as the owners of true love. We must also return all things which Satan has stolen from God.
It is the filial sons and daughters vertically attending God and True Parents and horizontally living for the sake of others by serving and sacrificing for them who can comfort them.
In order to comfort the heart of God we need to understand God's Heart of pain, suffering and sorrow. Understanding someone's heart has a natural cathartic and liberating effect. There is an emotional release and satisfaction when someone's heart is understood. To understand the Heart of God likewise results in an emotional release and satisfaction in our Heavenly Father's Heart. Through the long course of one's own suffering, with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and with gratitude and without complaint, filial sons and daughters can come to understand the Heart of God and True Parents. Such filial sons and daughters can also come to understand the heart of providential figures, and of past and even current saints. We need to shed tears for God. We need to express gratitude to God. We need to praise God from our hearts. It is with a heart of deep love that we should thank and praise God.
Filial sons and daughters can come to understand, empathize with, and thus comfort their Heavenly Parent's suffering. In order to begin to comprehend His heart we need to understand God's heart at the time of creation, which was a heart of hope; His heart of grief and sorrow at the Fall; and His heart of pain and suffering currently and during the history of restoration. We need to understand the heart of suffering that human beings and families have experienced throughout the long dark history of sin and suffering. We need to understand and empathize with the suffering of human beings and families today and then take action to save them.
To understand God's heart is to enter the heart of God. We must enter deeply into His heart. This is to enter into the bone marrow of God and True Parents. We must comfort God and True Parents as we fervently long for them. Likewise, we must come to understand and empathize with the heart of True Parents, the True Children, all the providential figures, saints, and men and women of deep faith. One way we can come to understand them is through our own suffering. Heart is where our suffering is. Heart is also where our treasure is found.
Filial sons and daughters through their attendance seek to resolve the problems God and True Parents face as they strive to help and to restore human beings and alleviate their suffering. Filial sons and daughters who attend the Father must take action and accept responsibility to help remove the obstacles and situations that are causing God's suffering. We must liberate God from His suffering. We need to make our utmost effort representing God and True Parents in removing those situations and obstacles that are causing God's suffering and thereby bring about His liberation. Such filial sons and daughters stand in the position of representatives of God and True Parents and go forward in their behalf to multiply God's blessings to their surroundings.
As Tribal Messiahs who are representatives of God and True Parents we need to bring all mankind into God's true lineage, true life and true love. This is a most demanding and difficult task. We need to repent for not being able to do enough. As Tribal Messiahs who are the representatives of God and True Parents, and work on their behalf, filial sons and daughter seek to multiply God's blessings throughout their community, nation, world and cosmos. We need to fulfill our responsibilities tribal messiahs.
We should understand the heart and the suffering of God. We must understand the heart and the suffering of True Parents. God and True Parents need to be comforted. Having developed the heart of attending God and True Parents and comforting them, we learn how to comfort the hearts of others. We learn how to comfort our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors, our spouses, our children, elders in society, our leaders and all people. Conversely, as we learn to comfort our parents we can come to understand how to comfort God and True Parents. It is important that we learn to observe and comfort our parents.
Had Adam and Eve reached individual perfection and become one in heart with God vertically they would have established an ideal family which fulfils the Three Objects Purpose and thus realizes the four great realms of heart. All members of the ideal family learn to attend and comfort each other. We can comfort God by establishing an ideal family in which God can dwell. God wants to live in such a family. Such a family comforts God through their relationship with Him, through their daily activities. Ideal families are where God can dwell and settle the original homeland. We can comfort God be establishing the ideal of creation, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven.
Is there any way to comfort this God? Even if human beings were to experience pain, there is no greater pain than God has experienced. No matter how unsolvable a problem human beings have, there is no problem more difficult to resolve than God's.
Do you think that God yearns for the appearance of a son who will say to Him, "Father, how much You have suffered," with a heart more sorrowful than His? Have you ever thought that God sought sons and daughters who can say, "Father, how much have You suffered, how many times have You fallen down, and how many times have You struggled?" He wants sons and daughters who can endure many sufferings, persecutions and difficulties and cast away all sorrows, bitterness and indignation. The God we believe in and should serve is such a person. (Sermons Vol. 7-215, 1959.10.11)
The religion that can connect with the ultimate world of heart should be one that can teach us in detail about God's most sorrowful state. God is not just feeling happy and wonderful; on the contrary, His plight is a deeply sad one. He has been mistreated and is overflowing with bitter grief. A religion must appear that can teach these things in detail. Only then can we become God's filial children. (151-102, 1962.10.28)
What is God's will? It is the fulfillment of the ideal of creation. Furthermore, it is to realize the ideal of three object partners in our world. God will say, "How happy I am!" when this ideal is realized based on His love. What enables God to be happy? Today, all Christians think that the all-knowing and almighty God sits on His throne as the Lord of lords and everything proceeds according to His command. But in fact how very miserable God has been at finding Himself constantly alone. (170-95, 1987.11.8)
Filial sons and daughters should have more worries than their parents. To become children of filial piety, they must display greater concern than their parents, and they must do so in every regard. (155-253, 1965.10.31)
In order to join the realm of attendance, you must possess the quality of heart to comfort a sorrowful God and to experience together with Him His painful circumstances in having devoted Himself. The principles of restoration reveal this and teach us how to establish indemnity conditions before God. (17-245, 1967.1.29)
Is it just an ordinary thing for the spirit world to cooperate with me? However, now I must deal more severely with the spirit world and all other issues. When I see red, I can be fearsome. When I see red, I am merciless. I will wipe away all the historical indemnity, many times over. There is no way to comfort God who has seen blood spilled throughout the course of history. My idea is to stop this with my tears. (207-175, 1990.11.9)
Has God enjoyed even a year of comfort with His children, knowing that what He created was good? The answer is no; God has not experienced such joy for even one hour. And has anyone been able to comfort God in this pain? No, because no one has known the reason for the unbridgeable gap that has separated God from humankind for tens of thousands of years. No one has known why God and humanity are in such a tragic situation. (Messages of Peace 1 -- 18, 2005.9.12)
Who on earth can understand the life of Reverend Moon? His has been a life of misery; by biting his tongue he has endured for the sake of comforting God, and for the salvation of the fallen people of the world who are suffering in the realm of death. Even now, if one person were to look into my heart and speak a word of sympathy, I would burst into tears and my tears would flow like a waterfall. (Messages of Peace 8 -- 113, 2006.10.14)
Distinguished guests, I have surmounted and triumphed over a course of inexpressible suffering and tribulations. I have not lived for personal glory or comfort. Even as I walked a thorny path, hovering in a state between life and death, I received Heaven's seal and was made fully aware of the destination of God's will. Thus, I held dearly to Heaven's command to bring salvation to humanity as I returned like a phoenix and continued my hectic life's work. (Messages of Peace 13 -- 199, 2007.3.17)
God will be looking for individuals, families, peoples and nations who are one with His ideology in seeking to fulfill their responsibility to the world. God has long sought such individuals. Such people must comfort God's heart and demonstrate loyalty and filial piety before Heaven, and resolve all the circumstances of Heaven and Earth. So you have to become a person to whom God can say, "You are the person who can take responsibility for this age. When I see you, I have hope for tomorrow. You can achieve the victory in today's fight." This kind of individual is absolutely essential.
God must be able to say to that kind of person, "You are truly the bone of my bones, the flesh of my flesh, and the heart of my heart." No matter how many ancestors we have, and no matter how many people there are in this age, unless a person appears on this earth about whom God can say from the depth of His heart, "You are the greatest ancestor, unparalleled in human history," then humankind will be unable to escape the sadness brought about by the Fall of the first ancestors of humankind. We, who were born in this plight, need to attend a new set of parents. (15-216, 1965.10.10)
Filial sons and daughters must fulfill their filial duty while their parents are alive. Loyalty also must be fulfilled when the king is alive. It is no use at all trying to fulfill your filial duty after your parents have died. Loyalty is of no use at all when the king is dead. People who try to do this are deceitful. Rather than making a big memorial service for your parents after they die, it is much better to say even one good thing to comfort them while they are alive. It is much more beautiful to become a partner in their sadness and try to comfort their hearts while they are alive, rather than setting up a service with thousands of kinds of food for them after they die.
It is much more precious to fulfill your filial duty before your parents die, rather than just cherish their memory. (51-223, 1971.11.28)
A few days before Heung Jin's death, I had to prepare the ceremony of unification. "Son, you became one with me," I said. "You set the condition of becoming one with me heartistically and on a worldwide level. Also, you are the second son of my family. You are the first target of Satan's attack. Even through providential history, you are the target of Satan's attack." I know that. However, I have to be responsible and establish the supreme victory by passing all conditions. Otherwise, the whole universe and God's providential history would be destroyed.
Please, think how serious it is! I cannot think of the death of a son as the major problem when heaven and earth are carving down in my heart. How can anyone imagine that parents will not cry when they think about their son's death! But I had to be in that situation. When I go into such a situation, I cannot go alone. God must follow me. Mother must follow me. So, we must go down to the bottom of hell. In the face of my son's death, I had to console God. Mother had to admonish me not to grieve at our son's death. Also, I had to say, "God, you should not be grieving." We had to have a unified heart. On the foundation of the unified heart, the ceremony of unification could be held. Do you understand? You must know this clearly. (The Meaning of the Day of Victory Of Love, 1997.1.2, Unofficial)
Today you should not strive to satisfy your own desires, but rather must lead lives of faith and sacrifice in serving a higher purpose. Then you should attain the standard of the heart of Jesus who went through hardships for God's will and for humankind. You should advance to the position of God's true children who can comfort the broken heart of God who has gone through hardships to this day.
When you see unrighteousness you should feel indignant. Together with God's love that wants to give more and more, you should advance to the ends of this world and make effort to seek and establish His Kingdom and righteousness. Furthermore you should be able to comfort the heart of God who had gone through hardships until now to save humanity amidst such sorrow. (3-131, 1957.10.13)
Don't you have the desire to be better than God? You have that desire, don't you? Your desire can be like that. Filial children who can comfort God in his tears and sadness must be able to reach a level of comforting God more than God can. How can you comfort God if you are not better than Him? Am I not right in this? It is logical. The world with that standard is the eternal original homeland to which we will go. Do you want to go there or not? You cannot go there. With your stubborn character, you cannot move in all four directions. If you cannot turn through 360 degrees on a level plane, how can you turn through 360 degrees on the perpendicular? Turn 360 degrees over and under based on the East-West axis. You have not reached the point of doing this in an unrestricted manner. (280-119, 1996.11.11)
God who is full of anguish due to the Fall of our first ancestors must be consoled. We must start from the position where we can console God, who has a large nail of sorrow stuck in His heart due to the Fall of Adam and Eve. In order to do so, we must become filial children who can comfort the God of grief.
By fulfilling the ways of filial children representing their families, loyal citizens representing their nations, saints representing the world, and divine sons and daughters representing heaven and earth, we must console God. That is not all; we must, without a doubt, mobilize new youth, bless them anew and eliminate all elements which Adam defiled. (302-224, 1999.6.14)
Centering on Heung Jin, there were two sides: Satan's side and God's side (True Mother, True Father, and God). Before he passed away, he was still on God's side. So, before Heung Jin died, every providential condition should be completed. I had to remove his oxygen mask with my hand. True Mother had to watch that scene without shedding sorrowful tears. If she had an attachment to the offering, the offering would have been taken away by Satan. The sorrowful mind and heart to liberate God had to override that attachment.
Human emotion should not be first; God's heart should be first. When God cries, one has to be able to console God's heart by saying, "God, please do not cry." Whoever cries with such a heart instead of God will be forgiven. Do you understand? If one sheds personal tears, the offering cannot be a sacrificial one. We are going to the position where God cries. These are not just words but reality. (The Meaning of the Day of Victory of Love, 1997.1.2, Unofficial)
Then, why does God make man walk this path of hardship? God's situation has been most painful as He has to lead this dispensation! If we can understand God's situation, we can feel how miserable He is. No matter how much hardship we may have to go through, it is only our lifetime; our life on the earth is within one century.
Therefore, it is the way of filial piety and loyalty to offer daily encouragement to God. Those who complain selfishly at this point are cosmically unforgiven and unfortunate.
We who understand the misery of God's position must show filial piety to the parent. When one tries to alleviate the suffering of his parents, he becomes the man of the greatest filial piety. (The Way -- 119)
Where are the true sons and daughters who understand the sorrow of God, who is seeking us even while going the course of the cross? We need such sons and daughters. You have to understand clearly that the group, the people, the nation and the world which can unite centering on such sons and daughters is the world that God is hoping to realize, the ideal world of creation.
I know God as a miserable being. Misery is the only word to describe God's situation. No matter how miserable a person may be, compared to God, he is not miserable. No matter what kind of sorrow there may be, it is not comparable to that of God. No matter how bitter one may be, compared to God, he has no problem.
Upon creating Adam and Eve, God desired a garden of goodness. God created them in order to embrace them and love them and rejoice while all things of the universe reciprocated in harmony. Yet when we look at the Bible, where does it say that such a thing ever took place? The heart of God over losing Adam and Eve is the heart of sorrow over losing one's only son and only daughter. (Sermons Vol. 7- 215, 1959.10.11)
In order to fulfill your duty of filial piety to your Parent who has been toiling strenuously for you, you must first console Him with your tears and then take the cross off His back and go forth, bearing it with dignity.
With the heart of proclaiming the fact that the path of the cross God trod for His children has been miserable, you must stand in the position in which you are able to say, "Father, please don't suffer anymore. Father, please don't worry about me anymore!" Don't you think this is the face of the filial child who can stand before God, our Parent, who has been agonizing sorrowfully until now? When I think of it this way, I realize the fact that we, today, have been too brazen and arrogant before God. (31-35, 1970.4.12)
Filial children do not exist just for themselves but for their parents. Patriots do not exist just for themselves but for their king. Saints do not exist just for themselves but only for God. This is why the saints have been the ones to teach us about our obligations to God.
So what is God's hope? It is to save the world. What is God's situation like? He wants to love His sons and daughters. What is the hope of God's love? His hope is to live in the intoxication of that love.
You have to understand God's hope, God's situation, and God's heart. Without doing so, you cannot become a filial child. This is the crux of the Unification Church teaching. Is it right for people who want to understand God's situation not to know whether He exists or not? Can you become a filial child without knowing what God's hope is? Can you become a filial child without knowing whether or not God is sad or happy? It is impossible. The path to becoming a filial child is simple. You must want to take responsibility for the things that cause your parents to suffer. This is the way to become a filial child. (62-61, 1972.9.10)
Do you recognize God's plight? He is a Parent who, in one instant, lost His children, was forced to suffer a history of maltreatment, and was blocked at every turn as he sought to unfold His will. Let us become filial sons and daughters capable of understanding this sorrowful heart of God. (Public Venue, 2004.12.13)
If someone truly desires love, he should stand in the same position as God and give everything until the perfection of his object of love, as God does. Parents give everything until their children grow up and get married. They have to sacrifice everything and give everything until their children understand the sphere of parental heart. If the children appreciate it and give filial piety to their parents, then the parents feel joy, forgetting all of their sacrifice. This is the way of love. (The Way -- 117)
How would Heaven come seeking us? God, who exists as a spirit on the heavenly throne, waited 4,000 years after the creation of the world to raise Jesus and tried to reach out to humanity. After Jesus, He exerted Himself for 2,000 more years in the spirit world, which represents our minds. He has been seeking us through 6,000 years of the footsteps of toil until today. However, do you have the heart of filial children who are determined to alleviate the grief of the Father, who has been working to find you, and say, "Father, we are sorry. Father, we are so ashamed. Father, what can we do?"…
This is the way that people who are to attend the Father in the original Garden of Eden should be. However, you have to understand that we are fallen people who cannot sense this. Thus, we must represent the 6,000-year history, the 2.4 billion persons of humanity, and the countless lives of the many generations. Placing yourself before the Father and clinging to His heart of agony over 6,000 years, you must pledge, "We will take responsibility for the distressed heart of the Father. Please entrust to us all Your worries, sorrow and pain. We will become the filial sons and patriots who can comfort the Father, who has exerted Himself for 6,000 years." Have you ever called out to the Father and appealed to Him with this earnestness and urgency? If you have not, then you have to repent. How would Heaven come (Sermons Vol. 4 -- 57, 61, 1958.3.9)
It is the parent's heart which wants the children to rest while the parent wants to do more and prepare for the next thing. The parental heart always wants to take care and watch over everything until the last moment. You thought that you were getting up early, but I tell you, before you got up, God was already there ahead of you. When you realize that God is always one step ahead of you, you cannot get tired. You cannot just give up. You always feel, "I want to comfort God," but God is already there giving you comfort. With this understanding you just want to make every effort to alleviate God's heart. With this kind of heart and mind, you will march forward and you will never fail. (The Ocean -- 298, 1986.8.28)
God was to govern the whole universe, intoxicated with happiness and glory. Because of whom, did His position change into one of such intricacies as these? Of course, this happened because of humankind. As you realize this, you should hold onto God and console Him. However, comforting Him from the individual dimension will not console His mind. Without having the mind that can connect to the shimjung of historical grief and the body and mind that can experience the whole dimension, you must realize that you cannot liquidate the historical sorrow and the realistic sadness that have pierced God to the very marrow. (Sermons Vol. 4-157, 1958.4.28)
We today must become Heaven's sons and daughters who grieve in God's place. Even if you have some difficulty, are pursued by the surroundings, and receive the rejection of those around you, you must be able to comfort God's sorrowful heart. Forgetting our feelings of impatience and taking after the will of God, who has come forth enduring with patience until this time, we must now march forward bearing God's sorrow and pain.
God has endured for our sake, for the benefit of the church and for the good of the betraying nation and the betraying world. The faithful believers in the last days today must emulate God's heart with tears in their eyes and comfort the mind of God. You must become true sons and daughters in this fashion.
For that reason, you today must first comfort the bruised and sorrowful heart of Heaven before wishing to receive Heaven's blessing and Heaven's glory. Although God's patience can more than embrace the whole universe, we today live in sinfulness in a sinful and evil environment. In a situation like this, we cannot be filial to God, who came forth enduring with patience for the sake of the universe. That is, we cannot show devotion to God, who has performed the providence of the 6,000-year history.
Therefore, you must now understand the heart and the will of God, who came forth ruling history until today. You must be able to be filial to God. You must possess the heart with which God endured with patience, during the unfolding of the dispensation for 6,000 years. That is, you who are faced with the last days are entrusted with the mission to welcome God in your mind and bear witness to Him before all humankind.
Who will be the true sons and daughters who can attend God and offer comfort to Him by resembling His patient heart of 6,000 years? God is waiting for these very sons and daughters to come forth. God exists, He who came forth enduring for 6,000 years to save humankind. He did not abandon those who betrayed Heaven and fell into the temptation of the archangel Satan. You today must understand the heart of that God.
You who are going forward today! Do you have the will to save this nation? Those of you who are gathered here today, do you truly have the mind that yearns for the bosom of Heaven? You must become figures who can shoulder the pain of the nation. That is to say, you must be resolved and determined to endure with patience under any tribulation and suffering. You must realize that unless you become a person who endures with patience, you will not be able to bear the responsibility for the nation. (Sermons Vol. 4-176, 1958.5.11)
When you visit 360 homes, you will be kicked 360 times, but still you must go. You have to shed blood, but even if you die at home church you will still be better off. We can thank God by telling Him that by being a servant of servants we know His heart and the ordeal He has been through. No matter how difficult your life is, don't ask God to comfort you. To be a son of filial piety means to comfort God when you are in the worst position.
When you are suffering, God already knows it. You should rather plunge yourself to the place of death before praying to God to take away your suffering. Even if you die in fulfilling your mission, God will resurrect you. (Home Church -- 60, 1981.10.22)
You should know that God is liberated with the liberation of humankind. For the liberation of your families, I, Rev. Moon, console God's sorrow of having lost His family. By liberating my tribe, I should console God's sorrow of having lost His tribe, and by building a nation, I should liberate God from the sorrow of having lost His nation. What I am trying to do in my life is to regain the lost cosmos in order to console God's sorrow. I do not have my own wish, nor do I have my own thoughts. I just practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. If I am told to die, I don't hesitate to die. I try not to avoid something even if I may have to die. (300-72, 1999.2.21)
A father who is filial to his own father will want his own son to be even more filial than he is. Only then, can the grandfather and father be able to close their eyes peacefully when they die. The heart that is able to make the son suffer even more than I have is the heart of love for the son.
This goes without saying. By doing this, then together we have to comfort God, who has been suffering for us. Because a father needs such children as his successors, he lets them carry out their filial duty to such a degree that he could not forget it even after his death. That is why I impose great hardship on you. (43-60, 1971.4.18)
I received God's call when I was a vibrant youth of 16 years, and started out on this path of Heaven with unbending determination. It has been a path of indescribable pain and suffering. At each climax of indemnity, sacrifices were made that led to pools of blood, sweat and tears. It was the path of a lonely man. I swallowed desperate tears of blood and hid them within myself to comfort the heart of God, who was grieving over the tragic situation of the son He had sent forth.
I stand before you as one who has received Heaven's appointment as Savior and True Parent for the sake of liberating and releasing God and, on that foundation, liberating and releasing humankind. I do not come out of a need for money and power, or honor and fame. For more than 80 years, I have lived oblivious to morning or evening, day or night, even weathering the coldest winters and harshest snow and rain, in order to move as quickly as I could along the heavenly path. Even in the torture chamber, where my flesh was torn from my body and I was made to vomit blood, I never prayed for God to save me. Instead, my life has been that of a filial son, patriot, saint, and divine son of Heaven and Earth who sheds tears to comfort God's heart as He weeps to look upon the tragic state of His children. I left my parents and homeland behind to follow the straight and narrow path to human salvation, that is, the path of true love that lives for the sake of others. My life of never compromising and never acting in a cowardly manner may seem incredibly pitiful and bleak from a worldly point of view.
No torture or punishment could make me compromise from the heavenly path. Neither could six imprisonments stand in the way of the True Parent's search for his children. As I sat in a cold prison cell and watched drops of water fall from an eave, I pledged to myself, just as those droplets will eventually bore a hole through a boulder, the day will certainly come when these hot tears that fall from my eyes will melt the heart of God frozen in grief and liberate and release Him. That is how I have lived. It has been a sacrificial course of practicing a love that loves the enemy more than my own children and of offering everything to teach all six billion people in the world. (Public Venue, 2004.5.1)
Today we see that centered on the Unification Church a new concept of Unification Culture is developing. Where is the originating point of this traditional thought? It is God's Day. How hard did the Father work to find God's Day? How hard did He work to find me? We must communicate with His historical heart, His heart in the present age, and His future heart. In order to become filial sons and daughters who can relate without any lack to our Father who worked so hard, we must know our Father's heart and content, and we must comfort Him, and beyond that we must be able to take responsibility for all of that. (22-24)
Just by our fighting for our nation we do not become a person who can establish God's nation. The nation we support has to be one which has determined to comfort the heart and mind of God, and to not only be responsible on the racial level for the path that the world has to go, but also to make the thorny path that God travels for the sake of world into a smooth and level road. (Tribal Messiah -- 106, 1965.10.10)
God's providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. It started from Adam and Eve because they were the perpetrators of the Fall. Adam was not restored until I appeared on earth. In the course of carrying out restoration and to seek out one man, God, the almighty and all-knowing Creator of the universe has been unable to show His face for millions of years. You must know both God's love and His deep grief. (237-27, 1992.11.10)
Jesus, who felt such pangs of indignation in his heart, knew that God was deeply concerned about his situation. This is why he tried to suppress any expression of such feelings and demonstrated the filial piety toward Heaven. When we reflect upon Jesus, we can understand that he felt the heart of God, who transcended the betrayal of Adam in the Garden of Eden and expressed deep concern for him. It was natural that Jesus would pray to alleviate his sorrow; yet he suppressed his anger and tried to comfort God. This is why he was able to open the door of hope through which he could remove the grief of the fall and guide fallen people toward God. Jesus made the determination during the thirty-year preparation period that he would live his life in service of this goal. He knew he might have to stand as an enemy before the people.
As we reflect upon this, we can see that the history of sorrow has been caused by the mistakes of our ancestors. God wanted the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to comfort Jesus with the same heart of concern that Jesus had toward the people. God wanted them to pray on his behalf. It was they who should have built the altar, yet they were caught up in other thoughts. Thus, Jesus made a new determination as he received the prediction of his death in Jerusalem, and he began to make preparations for that day. (Sermons Vol. 5-152, 1959.2.1)
Father! When we reflect, deep in our hearts, once again that the providential Will was not known, we come to the realization that although 6,000 years have passed since the fall of our ancestors, humanity has failed to fathom the heart of the Father. Moreover, we have already learned that the situation of the Father is difficult and pitiful, and that the Father's Will remains before the earth, humanity and heaven today.
We reflect upon whether we have the integrity of children who can say, "Father, I am here. Please let me comfort You." We reflect upon whether we are worthy of praise in the presence of the Father. We are forced to admit that we are far from achieving that. (Sermons Vol. 5-143, 1959.2.1)
We are to comfort and liberate his heart, which is immersed in the historical sorrow of the 6,000 years when he called God "Father" and clung to Him. When we cling to the distressed heart of the Father and call Him, with just that one word, Heaven and earth that have been divided will be joined again. If you cannot set this standard again, then the sorrow of God will never leave you. You will not be able to escape from the condition of judgment by God. (Sermons Vol. 3-40, 1957.9.22)
Father, we earnestly wish that You allow the will of the restoration of all creation to be fulfilled so that there will be no screaming voices of lament. If some remain, then please get rid of them through us, so that we can become true sons and daughters, who can reassure Jesus and the Father and forge eternal relationships with the Father by connecting to that heart.
By doing so, please help us alleviate all historical grief and feel the comfort of fulfillment. Allow us to move forward together. Ardently wishing that You allow us to become true sons and daughters of filial piety who can forget all of our own affairs and offer praises to Heaven. (Sermons Vol. 4-94, 1958.3.23)
Father! Please forgive us, we who are neither loyal nor filial, for not understanding the heart of the Father who worries about the lonesome ones. Instead, until now we have been making the appeal for You to alleviate our anxiety. Please let us realize that the heart of Heaven is this miserable and anxious, and that we cannot dare to speak about our own situation to the Father.
Father, since this alone is inadequate, Father of love, we sincerely hope that You will allow us to remove the worries and concerns of the Father based on myself. Let us become the sons and daughter who can offer all that we have to the Father during this hour. Father, we are making our best effort to set the valuable conditions toward Heaven, within the sphere of our actual daily lives today (Sermons Vol. 4-71, 1957.10.4)
How much have you wept in sympathy with God's situation? It all comes down to this. (51-111, 1971.11.18)
When you are undergoing suffering, don't cry out. The living God knows your situation all too well, even though you don't tell Him about it. If you weep and pray sorrowfully for yourself, God will become more sorrowful and bear a double burden. Up to today God had not a single person who could understand His great sorrow and pain in history. He has endured them by Himself. Comfort God first. If you do so, He will embrace you and shed tears of joy. (The Way -- 138)
Who knew the miserable mind and heart of God who had to turn a blind eye to the death of His beloved son, Jesus? The origin and circumstances are not recorded in the Bible, but wasn't there something that made God unable to avoid His son's death? How miserable it is to merely gather just like that, claiming to believe in Jesus of Christianity! God has to stand on the side of the chosen people. Even so, seeing that they faced suffering and persecution wherever they went -- shedding their blood, being decapitated or burned in oil -- we might ask, "Couldn't God have prevented this?" How grievous and distressed God has been when He could not exercise His almighty power! Have you ever thought about that? How can we say that God is most high? It will be good when this can be clearly explained. (64-222, 1972.11.12)
In my background there were many incidents that evoked indignation at unjust treatment. Although many were very terrible to endure, I clenched my teeth and focused on occupying Cain's world. I had to digest the Cain world rather than merely Cain as an individual and his family. How bitter this has been! It was as if I had to melt something as frigid and huge as an iceberg. Digesting this bitterness, I have had to silently bring Satan to submission. He has been our arch enemy since time immemorial. He brought God and humankind to ruin. (163-163, 1987.5.1)
God is responsible for the fallen world and has been restoring it. He does not just dwell in a lofty, precious, holy, and pristine place. His wretched, bitter and brutal situation is beyond our imagination and beyond description. (21-73, 1968.10.14)
You can be consoled by someone with more reasons to be resentful than you have, but God has no one to comfort Him because He has more grievances than anyone in the world. God is the Alpha and Omega. Thus, deep within Himself, God is working out how to resolve His ongoing bitterness. This has been God's deep, inner anguish. Under these circumstances God has carried out the providence of restoration. (29-294, 1970.3.12)
What is it that God regrets? It is that humanity inherited a false lineage. You inherited false blood. Satan is the origin of this. He always wants to create havoc with all things of creation. You are connected to such a universe, such rights of ownership and such a lineage. The sources of all these five functions -- what you see, think, smell, say, and touch -- belong to the satanic side.
Your ancestors are the fruits of a very evil parent. How much distress God experiences in His yearning to save them! Why could God not simply get rid of fallen Adam and Eve and create them anew? He had the power to do this, but because He originally created within an eternal relationship based on eternal true love, God could not do so. (216-36, 1991.3.3)
How sorrowful God was when Adam and Eve committed the Fall and sank away from Him! They were to have been the ideal partners for God, who embodies the pure essence of love. God's sorrow exceeded that of any person. He grieved so very deeply. The deeper and greater the value of what was lost, the deeper the sorrow. This is the situation of God, who has pursued the way of restoration for His lost children. (127-18, 1983.5.1)
Who on earth can understand the life of Reverend Moon? His has been a life of misery; by biting his tongue he has endured for the sake of comforting God, and for the salvation of the fallen people of the world who are suffering in the realm of death. Even now, if someone were to look into my heart and speak one word of sympathy, I would burst into tears and my tears would flow like a waterfall. (Messages of Peace 3-55, 2006.4.10)
When parents believe in their beloved children but are betrayed by them, there is no describing the shock, distress, and misery those parents experience based on that trust. When people betray, reject and mistrust those who have loved them with their lives, it causes unspeakable misery. You cannot understand unless you experience that struggle and suffering yourself. It cannot be understood merely by words. (20-205, 1968.6.9)
You should know that for tens of thousands of years, even millions of years, God has cried out for us, "My son and my daughter!" Have you ever ardently called out to God, "Father!" until your throat becomes hoarse and your tongue dry, until you cannot breathe and your eyes cannot open? How earnestly have you struggled to embrace that standard, which is that of the Subject of life? Your character is measured in proportion to your efforts to do this. (184-219, 1989.1.1)
Even though human beings sinned, God does not just say, "Hey, you! Why did you sin?" He knows the state of people who sin. He cares about humanity rather than Himself. He comes in sorrow to sorrowful people, in suffering to suffering people, and in sympathy with those feeling victimized and angry. How much have you empathized with God's situation? God comes into our sphere of life in these ways. Moreover, He comes speaking from His heart, "Although you betrayed me, I have searched for you for six thousand years with the heart of your Father." (9-231, 1960.5.29)
How miserable is God's inner heart as He watches His children lose their original, privileged value of creation, become like fallen maggots and struggle in a life without value! How mortified He is to see people groaning in lamentation, suffering and despair, ending up being defeated instead of becoming God's direct children through His love, life and lineage and attaining the glory of the heavenly kingdom! Nobody knew God was so sorrowful. That is why I wept profusely for many days and weeks upon coming to know this God. You should be aware that the Unification Church began amid such profound circumstances. (211-207, 1990.12.30)
Since I knew the great and bitter pain that was entrenched in heaven and earth, I had to comfort God even when I was vomiting blood. Who could ever understand the bitter reality of my position as the True Parent, in which I could not pray, "I am about to die. God, please save me"? Nobody knew of this. Only God. Only He understood my heart.
Even though many people follow the Unification Church, none of them is one with my thought. All of you must understand this. A substandard Unificationist community cannot stand in the sphere of liberation. I know that the behavior of those who have received the Blessing is nowadays like that of the devil's cousins. (145-332, 1986.6.1)
Whose God are you going to make Him? Are you going to make Him America's God? Will you make Him the God of Korea? Will you make Him your God? Which? You are so greedy! If you want to make Him your God, you have to work for God more than for your own people. If God loves Rev. Moon, and if you can make more effort than Rev. Moon, God will surely love you more than He loves me. Isn't that an infallible formula? There are no objections to this. I want to see people who have a greater capacity than I do to comfort God, serve God's will, and offer distinguished service to God. If I wanted people with abilities inferior to my own, I would be a dictator. (184-224, 1989.1.1)
Since we were created as God's objects of love, He needs beings who become object partners to His eternal love forever. Just as He is eternal, we are eternal. Without becoming partners of love, we have no eternal life.
In the other world, who goes to the highest place? Those who wish it were possible to be born again as people who serve humanity as God does. Those who empathize with Him and comfort Him eternally get closest to Him: they are those who try to use whatever good things they have for the sake of humanity.
When grandparents approach their dying day, do they not pass on all good things to their children? Just as grandparents hand down to their descendants the fruits of their labors, with that kind of heart we should live in a way that enables us to say we will bequeath something to humanity. (213-196, 1991.1.20)
The Shim Jung Candle was created on January 5, 1961, and was given to Blessed Families. The Shim Jung Candle symbolizes True Parents and is therefore used when one prays in order to comfort God's heart and to commit oneself to the fulfillment of God's will.
After Adam fell, he lost the source of his true life and love, Shim Jung (heart). Humankind has continued to fail You in heart. Because of this failure, You have had to engage in restoring fallen people. Keeping in mind Your hard work, each of us has lived with the hope of rising to the position of the restored Adam. Please bind us further in our determination to restore all things.
Whenever these Shim Jung Candles are lit, may the flame they produce comfort Your heart and remind You of our commitment to accomplish Your will. Whenever we burn them and pray, may we further strengthen our determination in this time of restoration. Just as the Israelites had to follow Moses in the course to restore Canaan, now is the time for us to enter it and restore God's kingship. We must endure suffering greater than even that of the 430-year course in Egypt and the miserable 4,000-year history of God from Adam to Jesus, overcome everything and comfort Him. You do not go to heaven by apologizing or just because you've repented. The right of inheritance arises on the foundation of comforting God and the True Parents after surmounting that peak, repenting and pledging to bequeath an eternally pure lineage as the new lineage of their child. (288-114, 1997.11.25)
Historically, although there have been many patriots, filial children, and virtuous women centered on the king, no one centered truly on God's will. Yet we of today are different. People of the past devoted themselves to freedom and liberation based upon earthly standards. They might have become the object partner of
God's concern, but they were not able to give Him comfort and joy. As yet there has been no loyal subject, filial child, or virtuous woman of whom God could be proud.
Becoming God's patriots, filial children, and virtuous women is the right path for all people to follow; yet such people have never existed. Although people may have lived in this way for their king or their parents, none has done so for God. As God looked upon these people, how much He must have longed for them to become His patriots, filial children, and virtuous women! (11-77, 1961.1.29)
Tens of millions of years of history have passed, and even if several times, ten times, or even more than a hundred times that time passes, do you think it is possible to forget the world of the Fall? You should ponder the thought that God's highest hope is to forget all this, to have you and me join together, to have the sons and daughters join together, and become filial sons and daughters who can comfort God who takes the trouble to love us. (300-33, 1999.2.21)
In order to fulfill your duty of filial piety to your Parent who has been toiling strenuously for you, you must first console Him with your tears and then take the cross off His back and go forth, bearing it with dignity.
With the heart of proclaiming the fact that the path of the cross God trod for His children has been miserable, you must stand in the position in which you are able to say, "Father, please don't suffer anymore. Father, please don't worry about me anymore!" Don't you think this is the face of the filial child who can stand before God, our Parent, who has been agonizing sorrowfully until now? When I think of it this way, I realize the fact that we, today, have been too brazen and arrogant before God. (31-35, 1970.4.12)
We need to know that human liberation is God's liberation. The liberation of your families, clans and nations consoles God who sorrowed over the loss of His family, clan and nation. In my life, I will recover the lost cosmos and dissolve God's anguish. I have no wishes or thoughts for myself, except to practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. If asked to die, I will head straight for death. Even at the risk of my life I will not turn back.
In this way, I must fulfill God's desires and liberate Him forever from Satan. I must become the son who can liberate Him from His bondage, from the prison where He is entrapped. Only then can our piteous God, who suffers the bitter anguish of not having achieved liberation in the family, finally achieve liberation in the world and cosmos. Only then can He be restored to His position and establish His sovereignty based on the laws of the love of the family, tribe, people, nation and cosmos. (300-72, 1999.2.21)
None of you knows the bitter circumstances of my going to Hungnam prison after I lost all the foundation for which God had toiled for over six thousand years. Leaving my hometown was not the problem. My wife and child were not the problem. It seems like yesterday that I cried for those who, as the future hope of heaven and earth, were to welcome me as liberated people. But they vanished into hell in the clouds, disappearing into the world of darkness, even while I cried out to them that we would meet again. It seems like yesterday that I proclaimed, "Although you have disappeared, I will keep to my path and bring the bright morning sun to find and liberate you again!" I cannot forget the sound of my shouting this while in chains. I cannot forget the times I prayed while in difficulty. (220-205, 1991.10.19)
When I ask God, "God, are You not this kind of person? The God I know is like this." God would take my hand and weep profusely, asking, "How did you find that out, my son?" When God hears this He will weep. Then how loud the sound of His weeping will be! God knows that this situation cannot continue for a thousand more years. Thus, He wipes away His tears, stops His weeping and says, "My son!" You must understand God's need for such a son and daughter. (176-263, 1988.5.11)
Unless a man goes over that difficult mountain pass of indemnity while calmly and happily attending and comforting God, the kingdom of peace on earth will not appear. Such a representative and public person is lonely. When somebody stands up and says, "Rev. Moon did such things as this…," I feel like bursting into tears. Even though I am an old man of seventy whose tears should have all dried up, I harbor a loneliness that cannot stop the flow of tears of sorrow. You must never forget that there is such a parent. (183-86, 1988.10.29)
In the same way that God is in a serious position and miserable circumstances, we should be also. The Father's circumstances should be felt as our own. Unless someone appears on this earth to fulfill the duty of a child and comfort God, there will never be a way to resolve historical problems. (31-73, 1970.4.19)
A true family will be the apple of God's eye. He will embrace that family and dance. When we feel overjoyed, God, who is almighty, would like to hold on to us, and dance, and fly through the air. A true family is God's object partner that can liberate and comfort Him. (301-169, 1999.4.25)