Jesus fought with Satan to do what kind of mission? He died on the cross while he was doing the mission of John the Baptist. Therefore has he done his mission as son or not? He has not done so. Jesus has been doing the work of the archangel from the time of his death until now. The work of a son comes after that. Jesus did not do his mission as direct son but went only the path of archangel, servant and adopted son.

Therefore even if you believe in Jesus Christ, you can be only an adopted son. If your relationship is not connected by blood lineage, you can be only in an archangel's position. Then, what is the adopted son's position? It is the same as Cain's position, which represents a different blood lineage. That is the way it has been. Until now, the history of the providence is the battle to connect the fallen and restored blood lineages.

Jesus died on the cross, but he did not die in the son's position. If Jesus had died in the son's position, he would have been a victorious offering to God and not need to come again. But he could not be offered wholly. He lost his physical body and offered only his spirit. This is equal to an angel's offering in the spirit world. That is why Christians go to Paradise instead of Heaven in the spirit world. In other words, the spirit world is the realm of the archangel. To go beyond that realm, victory must be won on earth. That is the Will of God.

Christianity should inherit not only the realm of the archangel but also the realm of victory in both spirit world and on earth. That is the mission of Christianity. But there has been no substantial completion in Christianity, only spiritual completion. That is why Christianity is centered on the spirit world.

Then, what does the Lord at the Second Advent have to do? He has to first have the power to gain the surrender of the realm of the archangel in the spirit world. If he does not have that, he cannot begin from the earth. That is the way. When the Lord comes on earth, he has to come in the position to inherit Jesus' victory in the spirit world, all of the spirit world. Jesus originally inherited on earth, the natural surrender of the archangel's spirit world position represented by John the Baptist. However, John the Baptist did not keep his promise to Jesus and these two realms were separated. Christianity exists to rebuild that.

Where did Jesus go after his death? It was bad enough that he died on the cross, but where did he go for three days after his death? He had to go to the realm of hell. Hell. That was the test. Death is the biggest fear for humankind, but going to hell was the greatest test for Jesus. Think about whether Jesus was the master of fear in hell or the master of happiness in hell. What do you think that Jesus did while he was in hell? We have to know that he was concerned about conquering the pain of hell.

When the Messiah appears to humankind, he brings an ideology for everyone. God is impartial. The Messiah comes to save all of fallen humankind. Therefore, he deals fairly with everybody in order to save them. He comes with a fair purpose and creates a fair environment. Whomever unites with the Messiah can be his disciple.

Then, what kind of path does the Messiah go? The Messiah goes from the bottom of hell to the top of the most glorious place in the world of humankind. This means that to restore humankind there is no place that he would not go even at the risk of his life. Viewed from this principle, the Messiah cannot come from the clouds in the sky. He does not come that way. The person who believes that really does not know anything about the spirit world. Please, all of you go to the spirit world and see it yourself. The Messiah moves according to an exact formula for spiritual and physical restoration.

The general public does not know about these things. If you ask a question, "Why do spiritual people want to work with the world of earth?" people cannot accurately answer. Until now nobody really understood. Why is it that no one is sure of the answer? Do you know the reason? To reach a higher level of completion in the spirit world, cooperation with the world of earth is necessary. The realm of completion was left for the earth. Only humankind on earth can reach it first; then those in the spirit world can reach it. That is why.

Whether you are good or less good, all of you are under this same rule. Together with the Messiah we have to open the spirit world like this. To fulfill this we have to build restored relationships on the earth. That is why there are the Messiah's stages of individual, family, tribe, and world, and those must be connected to the spirit world. We have to establish the victorious foundation of individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world completely on the earth. Then we can mobilize the spirit world and it can connect fully to the earth. To find the center of all this, the Messiah has first to suffer and go the painful path, from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation, and world. All has to be restored in this order.

That is why people are moving these days toward one goal and one world. One world. The world has been separated into two worlds, of democracy and Communism. Which will dominate and make the world one under its influence? In the future, the world will be one, but neither democratic nor Communistic.

The coming Lord will come from the far end of the earth. He should say something like this: "I have come to this society as a servant of servants. You should become a servant of servants to society." He should tell people: "Serve others!" Because the spiritual and physical were split from each other, people in the spirit world must begin at the lowest point and progress toward the highest. (93-42)

Christ at the Second Advent must come as the ancestor not only of the Third Israel but also of the First Israel and Second Israel. Our members must go beyond a point where you experience doubts similar to those experienced by the First Israel of Jesus' time. Then, through the Father's heart, you can occupy the position of a child who is in the deepest heart of the Father. Christ at the Second Advent must be able to resolve the problems of the spirit world. By doing this, he will be able to begin his work on the foundation where the First Israel was established. People in the spirit world have not been able to form a bond with True Parents, so they must go through this course. The archetypes of the twelve tribes already exist in the spirit world. However, Christianity, which had to become the Second Israel, lost the center by which it could organize itself into tribes. Thus, Christ at the Second Advent must proclaim the ideology of unification and organize tribes. (10-218)

If Adam and Eve themselves had fulfilled their love centering on God and then gone to the spirit world, who would be the father? God has no shape or substance. Even in the spirit world, you cannot see Him. The reason that God created Adam centering on love is that the created world has form. For that reason, God has to become a Father who possesses form.

As a result of God becoming a Father possessing form, that which is invisible and that which is visible are united into one. This, in turn, symbolizes the unity of the cosmos. Thus, God created Adam and Eve so that He could take on form. So, what is the decisive element in His taking on form? This can only be love. Adam and Eve came into the world with an appearance such that they could have a form resembling God's hyung sang aspect.

Through this, the features of Adam and Eve would have been elevated to the palace and the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven. God would have then dwelled within the hearts of this king and queen, and from there He would have ruled over both the corporeal realm and the incorporeal realm. This would have created God's kingdom. What kind of kingdom would this be? It would be a kingdom of love. Do you understand? A kingdom of love. Isn't that so? Only love can bring spirit and flesh together. It won't work with anything else. (143-93)

1. The Difference Between Your Physical Parents and True Parents

What does it mean to say "true parents"? How are true parents different from your physical parents? What are true parents? What do true parents do? What kind of love do they teach? When we speak in terms of love, what is the difference between your physical parents and true parents? The difference is in their concepts of love. Each has a different concept concerning love. Physical parents have taught about love that is centered on the physical love. Spiritual parents teach about love that is centered on the spirit world. The content is different.

You would think that having physical parents would be enough. So, why do you need spiritual parents? It is because of the Fall. The Fall. What have fallen parents been teaching until now? For the most part, they completely scorn that which is greater, and teach their children to center on themselves and take a path that keeps going downward. They teach about going down. Because of that, a line has been drawn in order to keep the children in the satanic world forever centering on the love of the parents. There has been no way to break that.

Then, what are True Parents? Right here, starting with this much of a foundation, they teach about larger and larger things. As you go higher, they teach about things that are even larger. So, what is that? They teach you so that you will be suitable for the heavenly world, the eternal world. They teach you so that when you go to the eternal world, you will be compatible there and won't have any problems living there in harmony. Do you understand?

If you go as you are to the high spirit world, you just have to go into some corner and stay there with your back turned against the entire spirit world, as if to protect yourself against the wind. You have to do that, because if you turn around and face people, they are all people who just want to live for you, deny themselves and sacrifice themselves. It's so much that you'll feel you're going to suffocate.

Who made it this way? Satan did. That is why you are hoping that True Parents will come and liberate you. You want to be liberated. What is the way to go about liberating people in this situation? Do you untie the knot just as it is, or do you go the opposite course?

Your parents look on "Moonies" to be their enemy. They say they're going to deprogram you, and they're making a big commotion. On the other hand, if you live according to my words, you will go through a lot of suffering, but you will find peace in your heart. If you take only the easy way, you will come up against despair and misery.

If you live according to my words for one year and then ten years, then you will be able to look behind you and see a mass of people following you. If you don't, then you will just fall away in loneliness all by yourself. In the end, there won't be anyone left but you. In the end, there will only be one person left. Who here today can say: "I'm confident that I won't die"? Hold up your hands. People who are confident they will not die. No one? (129-99)

If you want to return to God, then the spirit world is the stage where you can do this. The spirit world. You have to go as far as to receive training for the spirit world in the third dimension. The place where you are trained to strengthen your love for and oneness with the spirit world is the same place where you learn to love God. It's the place where you learn to love your Parents in Heaven.

For this training, the Messiah comes for the purpose of fulfilling the role of True Parents on earth today and to connect the spirit world and the substantial world to God above. That's all there is to the mission of the Messiah. The Messiah truly loves us and lives for our sake to a greater extent than anyone else in history. So, you have to be sure to pass this training successfully. You have to be able to say: "I've completed all the training." You have to do that when you go to spirit world.

Before the Lord comes, before the True Parents come on this earth, all of spirit world is divided into many parts. If you want to know what spirit world is like, it's similar to the way the world we live in now in that it cannot be united as one. Many walls have been built up, and the True Parents have to take care of all this. The True Parents do this in a substantial body like this, not having died. They do it in the substantial body, and in this way, they break through this separation between die physical and spirit worlds. Do you understand? That is why the True Parents represent not only the world of the physical body but also the spirit world, as God's representatives.

Normally you would have to die and be trained for billions and billions of years. But by attending the True Parents and by means of absolute love, you are, for the first time, able to pave a road that connects to the spirit world. By demonstrating absolute loyalty before this Messiah, you establish the condition of having demonstrated absolute loyalty before even the greatest of all spirit people. You establish the condition of having demonstrated absolute loyalty to God's commands. You have to demonstrate absolute loyalty to the Messiah in the place of God. Why is that? It is so that you can establish a tradition that enables you to become one with the people in spirit world. In order to pass this test, you need to demonstrate absolute loyalty. Do you understand what I'm saying? [Yes.]

Why do you need to attend the Lord at the Second Advent, the True Parents? It is because they represent spirit world and God. Moreover, the first parents, second parents and third parents have formed a bond of heart that is sealed in love. Thus, another reason for you to do these things is so that you can be qualified to participate in the realm of the victory of heart that represents all of this. (105-112)

What does the human mind seek after? What does the original mind long for? What does my real heart seek after? At least in comparison to the body, the mind is closer to that which is true. This is more the case with the original mind than with the conscience. The original mind has to bear some similarity with the original heavenly characteristics. So, you need to find the true central point for which the original mind is yearning.

Where are the True Parents? Where are true brothers and sisters? Where can you find a true family? Where is there a true society? Where can you find a true nation? Where can you find a true world? Where are these? If you do not have these, you can only go from unhappiness to unhappiness in your life. But that's not right. That's why we spend our lives in this world working hard to the point where we are exhausted.

Let's unite the world as one! We have to make the world as one. United centering on what? [True Parents.] Centering on the heart of God the axis of the spirit world and the axis of the world of earth have to be made as one. They have to be one with what? [True Parents.] It's True Parents. The spirit world can't do this, and it can't be done on earth. You can't take True Parents out of the center.

What is the opposite of True Parents? It's evil parents. What is the Fall? The Fall was when evil parents came into being, thereby causing a confrontation on the horizontal plane that led to the family being split in two. On the vertical plane, also, there are separate worlds of the God of goodness and a god of evil. Because all this was caused by the fact that evil parents came into being, the True Parents have to come and have give and take here. The Fall occurred because of evil parents. To deal with this, True Parents have to come into being. That which is true has to appear. (149-279)

Look here. The democratic world represents the right wing, and the Communist world represents the left wing. This is breaking down now. The same is true with the United States. Neither world has a center. What is a center? Rev. Moon has declared that what is needed from now on is Headwing thought and Godism. No form of humanism can stand before God. There cannot be anything aside from Godism. God is the only absolute and eternal center. Only Headwing thought can function as the center for all humankind. Isn't that right?

The True Parents are the ones who become the true center for the spirit world and the physical world. You don't have to think about it in a complicated way. "What is that?" "It's Headwing thought." "What is Headwing thought?" "It's Godism." "What is Godism?" When you look at it centering on true love, it's all the same concept. This is something you don't need, right? [No, we need it.] Are you saying "no" or "know"? (laughter) Which is it? [It's "no."] You have to know this kind of concept. You all know this, right? [Yes.] Then, that's all there is to it. No one can complain. That position becomes the position of hope, the position of happiness, the position of peace. Isn't that right? [Yes.]

Now you know what kind of person it takes to break through this limitation. Do you need limitations? [No.] What do you need to break through this kind of limitation? If you have the three things I mentioned already, that's all it takes. When that happens, you can extend out without limit. Even if you visit someone in the middle of the night, they will say: "I waited for you so anxiously. What took you so long?" They will prepare food for you, and let you sit in their seat. They will always be prepared for your arrival. If you could be like that, then you would be welcomed wherever you went. How happy you would be! You would like to become like that, wouldn't you? [Yes.] Are you sure? (laughter) It's not as easy as it sounds to become like this. This is the problem.

How can you restore yourselves to your original selves? "How do I reform myself? How do I revolutionize myself? How do I win in the struggle against myself?" This is the homework assigned to people in the fallen world. Kids who don't like doing homework won't receive their diplomas. Without a school diploma, people can't go the course they want to take in life. It's the same thing here. Now you know what you have to do in order to break through the limitation of where you are needed. (205-263)

Where is the limitation where Rev. Moon is needed? Whether in this world or in the spirit world, this limitation is infinite. On the other hand, if you were to ask where is the limitation of where Dr. Hendricks here is needed, then the answer is more restricted. Where is the limitation of the President of the United States? In four to eight years, he rolls over and falls.

But Rev. Moon doesn't roll over and fall. I'm different. The limitation is different. In four to eight years, the American president has to pack his bags, but that's not true with Rev. Moon.

So, will the future world need Rev. Moon or not? [It will need you.] Why? For what reason? That world will not have a leader. The only person who can lead that world is Rev. Moon. This is not my personal opinion. This is God's opinion. Ask God whether or not I'm telling you the truth. (Laughter) If you don't have the power to do that, then don't complain. Believe and follow me. It won't do any good to debate this in the manner of a democracy. If you have a chunk of gold sitting in front of you, then do you need to have a debate on whether this is actually gold? [No, you don't.]

Alright. So, how far is the limitation of where Rev. Moon is needed? If I had been alive at the time of the American Civil War, do you think that only the Yankees in the North would have liked Rev. Moon? Would only the Southerners have liked him? [They all would have like you.] That's the problem. Also, do you think that only this world on earth needs me? What about spirit world? [It's the same with the spirit world.] Why? For what reason? A palace of love was supposed to be constructed in the spirit world, and people who lived in love on earth are supposed to be able to go there. But this palace hasn't been built. Who is going to build this palace of love? Is God going to build it? Have you ever thought about this kind of thing? Will God build it, or will the people in the spirit world build it? [True Parents will build it.]

What does it mean to say "True Parents"? In the spirit world, the palace of love will begin with the True Parents. Is that right, or not? Even if there were already a palace in the spirit world, only if True Parents were to go and declare, "This is where we will build a palace," would the whole of spirit world settle down, centering on that. The spirit world absolutely needs me, too, because this responsibility has yet to be fulfilled. Should I go to spirit world soon, or wait until later? (Laughter) Why do you laugh? (205-155)

True Parents are the true parents whom all humankind must seek out. The existence of True Parents makes it possible for true goodness to be established. So what kind of people are True Parents? They are the ones who act as a kind of foothold enabling you to go with the Father. True Parents are the ones who stand as a kind of sacrifice. They are a sacrifice. In other words, the True Parents form a sacrificial altar that fills the gap between God and humanity. They form a bridge that crosses over the world of death.

Seen from this perspective, that position is where you can be with God. It is the focal point that makes it possible for you to be together with God in the bond of parent and child, and form a complete unity with Him.

That is, humankind can become one with God for the first time since being separated from him as a result of the Fall. It is a point of origin whereby two perimeters that became separated from each other as a result of the Fall can converge. Who are the ones who stand in the position of the indemnity sacrifice? It is True Parents.

Suppose there were a place where we could go and call on God in times of desperation and have Him put aside all that has happened during the past thousands of years and come forward so that we could form a relationship with Him. Such a place would be so valuable to us that we would not exchange it for anything in the world.

What is the bond that our Father has sent us so that we who are in need of salvation can be with Him, so that the humanity that is not qualified to be in the company of the Father can form a relationship with Him in relaxed surroundings? It is the bond of the True Parents.

How, then, are we to give thanks for this glory by which the bond of the True Parents has been given to us unconditionally? How much gratitude have you returned to God? In response to the grace by which you are now able to receive salvation, how much have you considered that you have been given the opportunity to be jubilant and take a vow of victory before heaven and earth? How much have you realized that you are making a new start with unlimited hope and eternal values? This is the problem.

What about the Father, then? God our Father has had the earnest desire throughout history to find His sons and daughters, and He knows that this desire can be brought to reality through True Parents who come to earth. Because of this, He has longed for True Parents tremendously! I'd like you to compare the two standards of longing-that by the Father and that by you who are in the world of death and long to be saved from it. Normally, you would think that we, as opposed to the Father, would place greater importance on the True Parents, think of them more specially, and place greater value on them. Until now, though, this has not been the case. When we consider that this is how it has been with us, we must reflect with contrition.

In the same way that humanity has looked forward to achieving the position where we can be with God, establish a bond with Him, and stand face to face with Him, so has God looked forward to being in that position with us. Each of you must be able to say: "I will achieve such a position; I will lay the foundation for such a victory." The important thing is how strongly you have determined that you will overcome any difficulties no matter how great, that you will view this position as a turning point that determines all the values in your life, and that you will make this bond your primary motivating force. Considered from this aspect, we need to realize how fraudulent our attitude of faith has been. We need to see how much we have failed to establish our own positions, but instead have wandered as aimlessly as the wind.

If we ask ourselves whether we are qualified to be with the Father, whether we are people whom the Father can be with, the answer is "no." We are in need of a savior. Then, what kind of person is this savior? He is the person who substantiates the bond of True Parents. From this perspective, then, you understand how extraordinary is the bond of True Parents. Because of True Parents, I am able to begin a true life, and undertake a relationship of new life. You must realize again that because of this relationship of life, your are able to initiate a new family. You can initiate a new society, nation and world. Also, the essential factors for the victory to resolve all the paths of life and death of the past two thousand years originate from the True Parents.

There is no "self" there. God is not the one who must travel a suffering path in order to save the fallen world. God does not have to deal with the fallen world. Instead, God comes forward with a new bond of love. He comes to us with new hope and a new foundation for restoration. These are the circumstances in which the bond between God and you is formed.

It is a bond by which the four points of the compass can be brought into oneness, and it is linked at one point of origin so that it can blow apart the world of death and establish the foundation for a new cosmos of glory. The world is able to make a new start as a result of the bond between parent and child being put into practice.

No sword or temporal power can break the bond between you and the True Parents. Even the power of Satan will not break it. Why? It is because this bond possesses the special authority to break through all of today's problems and bring salvation to humankind, and because the power that humanity has sought to find throughout history has been concentrated in this bond. Thus, a power concentration of any particular age will not be strong enough to break this relationship, where the power of history has been concentrated. In this way, the True Parents are people whom God has set forth as historical sacrifices for the purpose of doing away with all evil and making a new, victorious beginning based on a new bond.

I'm sure that in your prayers you have called on the Father just as if you had already arrived in Heaven. In the same way that the Father is in a serious position and miserable circumstances, however, you also should be in a serious position and miserable circumstances. You should say: "Father, no matter what sadness or difficulty I may face, You don't need to worry about me." In this way, you should do your duty as a child and comfort God. Unless one person appears on this earth who can do that, there will never be a way to resolve the historical problems.

Even if we should find ourselves in extremely difficult circumstances, we should not stand before God and hope to receive His sympathy. Instead, we should stand in a position to give sympathy to God. Jesus was the crystallization of all the elements that were carefully accumulated through history in the context of this bond. Because Jesus was blocked from completing the Will of God, however, the coming Lord must fulfill this Will. The coming Lord must go the course of True Parents. The True Parents are the concentration of all the fervent hopes of history. God has set forth the True Parents to represent the whole and as the condition of the substantiation of history. The bond with True Parents cannot begin in spirit world. It must be formed on earth. This is because the True Parents come to earth in substantial form. It is because they have substantial form that the True Parents can answer when you call on them, and give you sympathy when you are in difficulty. You cannot imagine how blessed humankind is that it can meet True Parents on a level plane.

Until now, God has worked to overcome all the difficulties that might be faced in a particular historical age in an effort to achieve decisive victory centering on the content I have just described.

When you look at yourself, however, there is the issue of whether you can become the king of victory or not. You have to be able to say that you have become one with that heart and have become completely inseparable from it. In other words, the pivotal axis of your life has to be the conviction that you are with the Father and that you are together with the True Parents. Only if each of you becomes the self that can continue on the same course for thousands-even tens of thousands of years-will a linkage be established between the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world. This means that you will be the master of Heaven and the master of earth. Then, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world will be opened up for the first time.

From this perspective, such a bond is not something that can be formed in a position of comfort. It is formed in a position of extreme difficulty; a position so serious that it could not possibly be any more serious; a position where life and death are on the line; a position where there is an increased level of risk.

That is why if we look at the Bible it says: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it." Jesus sounds as though he is saying something out of tune with the times, but this is the normal approach and attitude for going the way of restoration and for progressing through the world of heart. It is clear that each person is the self who must strive to achieve such a state, and that that path will be the true course. (31-74)

Many of you here have passed your fortieth birthday and are approaching fifty. Perhaps you will die within the next 10 or 20 years. When you come face to face with death, perhaps you will look back on the course you have taken after the point where you came to know God's will and ask yourselves what you have accomplished. What will be your answer?

How will you be able to keep from bowing your head in shame when you are in spirit world? Because of your failure to complete your responsibility to restore the five billion people who are still descendants of Satan, God still cannot claim his rightful place. Also, you have not been able to remove the servant-like mask of unsatisfied desire from His face. How will you go there and walk around with your head held high? How will you live there? You will just have to go hide somewhere. Everything about you will be revealed for all to see.

Is there anyone who can say he won't go to spirit world? Hold up your hand. No one? Do we all have to go? What will you take with you? What are you going to take with you? When a young woman gets married, there's something called a dowry, isn't there? In the dialect of South PyongAn Province, the word for dowry is "sirari." Sirari. Sirari refers to all the things that a woman takes with her when she gets married and moves away from home. This is the first time you've heard the word "sirari," isn't it? [Yes.]

In this part of Korea you call it "honsu," don't you? Suppose the daughter of a poor family marries the oldest son of a rich family. Just to look at her own appearance she would find it difficult to present herself to all the relatives of the bridegroom. If she couldn't even take a dowry with her, then how could she go and live in a home shared by four generations where she would be serving both parents-in-law and grandparents-in-law? She's about to go into a household where the families of the groom's siblings alone would number close to a hundred. How could she withstand the ridicule if she were to go empty-handed? When her in-laws tell her: "According to our family tradition, so-and-so did this way, so-and-so did this way, Grandmother and all the other women-folk did this way, and older sister did it this way, and so did everyone else, so what about you?" If she is seen as a failure in the family, how will she hold her head up high, or sit down to eat? How will she pick up a spoon?

It's terrible if you can't fit in with the group, if you can't be a part of the group. What will you take with you? When you say, "I've been a member of the Unification Church for forty years," they will say, "Well, what have you brought with you?" Then, how will you respond? When they ask, "What did you eat? Where did you eat?" you may say, "In the Unification Church I just ate for free." Also, they'll say, "What work did you do? You didn't even do your share of the work. The people whom I attend as my parents lived their lives in such and such a way, but is that how you lived? Are you a filial child or not?" Do you think they won't question you like this? Even if you ask yourself these questions, these are the replies you will make to yourself. What is the position-what is your own authority-by which you will be able to withstand such questioning?

I have taken abuse from the whole world and received persecution. I've been through the worst torture in the world, but I can handle incarceration as easily as I eat a meal. That's the environment that I am in; but what about you? Are you just a spectator? Suppose a man did so poorly in his studies that he didn't even finish elementary school. When it comes time for him to get married, and he goes to the home of his parents-in-law, it turns out that his new bride has graduated from university. How embarrassed he will be in that case!

Is the spirit world where you are going a place that is worse off or better off than here? Is the place where you are going after you die worse off than here or better off? It's a place that is tens of millions of times better than here. It's a world where each individual can easily see how he measures up in terms of anything having to do with moral discipline. It's a place where each individual feels the pain of knowing exactly where he is situated. If you want to go to another world you can see in the distance, then it will take you thousands, even tens of thousands, of years. Just to raise yourself up one stage in the spirit world will take years. There is no limit to how long it could take. Ask them yourselves.

I will be going to the highest position, to the heavenly throne, but you all will not be able to come with me. Because you received the precious thing called the Blessing, the door is open for you, but you can't go because you don't have the proper clothing to wear. Even if you've been invited to a feast, you can't go unless you have the proper clothing, can you? You've been asked to be a groomsman at a wedding, but you can't go dressed as if you just finished working on the farm, can you? Think about it. You have to dress appropriately before you go. Only then will you be qualified to be welcomed into that environment. If not, then you will be thrown out. They will yell at you: "Get out of here, you rascal." You won't have any friends there.

One time many years ago, there was one rich man in Mokpo. He was so rich that he owned all the land in the northern area around the city. He was the richest man in Mokpo. Then, one of my friends was going to get married to this man's only daughter, and become a son-in-law of this rich family. This was during the Japanese colonial occupation, so almost no one could afford the expense of a modern Western-style wedding with the tuxedos and the formal gowns and such. Most of the time, the groom would just wear his civil defense uniform, make sure all the buttons were fastened properly, and stick a flower on his chest.

This rich man, though, because he was rich and had all these friends coming from Tokyo and everywhere, decided to have a modern-style wedding. And I was asked to be a groomsman. I was actually one of four groomsmen there. The bride, too, had four bridesmaids. And so I went. Well, when the bride's family prepared the outfits for the groomsmen, they figured they could make all of them to match the height of the groom. And that included the outfit that I was supposed to wear. In fact, the groom was about the same height as I. But his body wasn't nearly as plump as mine. He was built really flat, like a piece of plywood. I mean he was really thin from front to back. I'm a bit thicker here from front to back. I have the build of a businessman, don't you think?

So when I put on the white shirt they had bought for me and buttoned it up, you could still see my bellybutton. My bellybutton! (Laughter) Ah, when I put on the suit, it was too small, so it spread apart like this. And the shirt stuck out like this. It was such an tremendous hell for me to have to wear those clothes; I still haven't forgotten how terrible it was. Wow! (Laughter) I think that was an important lesson for me, so that I could know how important it is, in terms of the course of fulfilling God's Will, that I be able to fit in when I go to spirit world.

I had to stand in front of this huge crowd. Here was this groomsman, dressed like this, standing in front of a crowd of thousands of people, including everybody who was anybody in South Cholla Province. It was just terrible. I still want to cry out whenever I think about it. I would much rather have found a rat hole somewhere that I could crawl into. It was all I could do to stay there in my place and endure.

After a couple hours of this, my spine began to hurt. Because the clothes were too small, I had to keep a posture that put a lot of pressure on my spine. Then, I started to get muscle cramps. What was I supposed to do? Could I cry in a loud voice? I remember I went over to a wall that had been set up to block the wind. There, I bent over like this to massage the cramped muscles. Some of you are hearing this story for the first time, aren't you? It's the first time you hear about how I massaged my cramps.

It's terrible when you can't fit into a particular environment. I know the spirit world well. I know all the saints and all the founders of religions who are in any way significant. They don't want to yield to you. You must not be shut out from that group. You should feel a sense of shame before me. Isn't that necessary in order for you to become true parents? Isn't that right? It just stands to reason. If you're just freeloading, then about the only group you will fit into is a group of beggars. (212-224)

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