The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1977
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1977 |
The desire of God is to see Adam and Eve receive His love and pass on the love to their children and to all things of creation. The desire of Adam and Eve is to see the love of God poured out upon their children, to give their own love to their children, and to see their children loving all the things of creation. The children want to feel the love of God and of Adam and Eve, and then give it away to all things.
In receiving all this love, the creation will exclaim, "We thought we were the lowest and most trivial things in God's sight, but now we see that all the love of God is ultimately given to us!" Being in the position to receive the love of God, love of Adam and Eve, and love of children, all things are in a most glorified and honored position.
In gratitude for the blessing of receiving all kinds of love, the creation will want to return glory to God by giving the very best in the universe to man. That is why all things provide you with food, themselves becoming your flesh and blood. The service of all things is to become the physical form of God's love, and by becoming your flesh, blood and bone, letting you grow and develop a noble character so you can live in heaven for eternity. Everything in nature will take great pride in becoming the flesh and blood of men who are children of God. Through man's spiritual quality, all things can influence the center of God's love. That is the pride of all things.
This is a most beautiful and holy world of creation. Can you men and women fulfill this kind of position as representatives of God and truly love all things? Many people in this world never try to appreciate creation but always complain instead about their food, clothes and houses.
Have you ever had the experience of giving your gratitude to the earth while you are walking on it? If you have such a loving heart to want to step softly on the ground, the ground will eagerly respond to you and even push your feet up. When you go to the bathroom, you are just giving dirty things to nature, but if you feel sorry then nature will say, "Don't worry. I will receive it and use it as fertilizer to grow many good things."
Great literary works have come from a mind of appreciation for nature. Man is not to be a robot, but to see all things with a loving heart and to express that love in a descriptive way. Do not ever have the attitude that we men are the lords of all things; it is God who has given man that supreme position.
The structure of all things is condensed in our own bodies. For example, our bodies resemble trees: the heart corresponds to the trunk in its role of circulating the blood, while the stomach corresponds to roots and the lungs to leaves. All the earthly elements are contained within the human body, and in the same way we also possess all the elements of the spirit world. Thus, when one man moves, a small universe moves, and this is why man's actions are precious and supreme.
Because you are a microcosm of the universe, when you are genuinely happy it is not just you who are happy, but the entire universe and spirit world as well. Therefore, man should live in joy and happiness for the sake of the universe. We have only one truly worthwhile way to live, acting for the sake of others and always feeling grateful. If you can praise nature as the masterpiece of God's work, you can find many ways to show your gratitude. When you always feel grateful, you are truly living in heaven here on earth.
All of creation, including man, was made by God for a specific purpose. Then, what is the purpose of creation? God's purpose for it was for the fulfillment of His will. Then, what is the fulfillment of God's will? It is the fulfillment of God's love. He did not create all things just to look at; God's purpose in creating all things is to complete and perfect His love. Even though God exists, without His love His very existence is meaningless. In order to be true to Himself, He must be a God of love; and for this reason God wants to fulfill His love in His creation.
Every Human being wants to be a true man. What is a true man? He is a man who is able to receive God's true love. The desire of all things surrounding mankind is to see the day when they can receive true love from the true men who are recipients of God's true love. All things of creation exist to receive true love from man, while man exists to receive true love from God.
Due to man's fall this perfection never came about, and since fallen man was never able to fully receive God's love, God could never fully give His love and thus fulfill perfection within Himself. Man was never perfected, and as a result all nature has been unable to receive perfect love from man. God wanted to have a reciprocal relationship between Himself and all things and man, yet even though His creation was completed, no relationship of true love ever emerged. In that respect, neither God nor His purpose of creation has ever been perfected.
People talk about love today, but is that a true God-centered love? Of course parents love their children. However, that love is not God centered. When husband and wife love each other, is that love centered on God? No, the love in existence now is far distant from the true love of God. There are all kinds of love in our society -- love between parents and children, love between siblings, and love among friends -- yet, all are still at a level of imperfection, since it is not centered on God.
What has God been doing to resolve this problem throughout history? God has been working to restore man to the original position and status. For this end, through the work of religion, God has been striving to restore man; He began on the individual level and expanded to the worldwide level as man spread all over the world. The Divine Principle tells us that restoration starts with one man; and God has been looking for one man of perfection through whom He can restore one woman of perfection. Through them, God can restore one family. Then, He can expand the family to the world level. This is the concept of one man of perfection -- the Messiah
Why is the Messiah needed? The Messiah is needed in order to elevate man's imperfect love to perfection. Since love was stolen by Satan, the Messiah comes to restore and sanctify that lost love into the holy love of God. Since man became the prisoner of Satan, the Messiah comes to restore mankind in order to recreate them to be able to receive the true love of God. This is the mission of the Messiah.
To be eligible to stand in the sight of God, restored man must establish a standard of love higher than the highest standard of the satanic world. The mission of restored man is to demonstrate a higher quality of love than has ever existed in the satanic world. In the truest meaning of love, both God and the Messiah cannot embrace the people of the satanic world as they are. If the Messiah could restore the people as they are, when God sends him to the earth, restoration could have been done instantly and such a long period for man's restoration would not have been needed.
The role of religion is to teach people to set their standard of love higher than the satanic world's standard. God's love will begin after we demonstrate our love, which is the very reason that Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." This is the true heart of the Divine Principle. You must become people who can demonstrate a greater love towards God and towards the Messiah than towards anybody else in the world, because at that point God's love will begin. By loving the Messiah, men and women can surpass the point at which man fell and reach the level of perfection. For this reason, we in the Unification Church must fulfill a seven-year course of totally giving up everything for the love of God and the Messiah.
What is the Fall of Man? Simply said, Adam and Eve disregarded God and determined to follow the self-centered way of life. Without knowing the direction that God has set forth, no matter how hard you may work, you will never receive God's blessing. When you work hard after realizing God's direction, you are actually paving the way to bring spiritual benefit to your own future spouse and children. What matters is whether your hard work is God-centered; thus you will be freed from the satanic world.
As you strive to stand above Satan and advance in the direction of God you will have to confront Satan's realm on all the different levels: the family, tribal, national and worldwide levels. On every level Satan will always attack and try to stop you. This confrontation with Satan cannot be avoided. This is the reason that religious work has always been persecuted, and why religious people must have the unshakable determination to overcome any difficulties and go on further and further towards God.
We can conclude that if there is a totally unselfish group of people, their goal will be nothing but the service of God and humanity. The entire world will not understand or accept them, and that will be the sign that God and the Messiah can be met through that group. Furthermore, it is obvious that such a movement is already working on the worldwide level if it has aroused worldwide opposition. The Unification Church is in that position today.
You must walk the three levels of indemnity course. You must willingly take the most difficult path of indemnity while you are single men and women. Through the hardship, you will set the condition of indemnity; only then, can you receive the Blessing and get married. After receiving your spouse, you will walk another type of hardship, although you may not suffer as much as when you were single. As the third step, after you have your own children, you can live a new course of indemnity. This is how you must go through the three levels of indemnity.
God, too, has been suffering all these years for one single purpose. That is to find one true Adam here on earth. I want you to endure the worst kind of hardship and receive all kinds of persecution before you are blessed by God, representing Adam and Eve. Through hardships and suffering, your character will develop and your love will deepen. I want you to be willing to embrace all of that because when two individuals are married after going through these experiences, they will truly understand each other and be able to deeply share in love. When you become this kind of husband and wife, you can certainly devote your entire energy to loving your own children. There is a possibility that God's ideal family can be created by such parents.
When you are truly practicing God's way of life, by giving yourself for the sake of others and when you are willing to go through suffering, then God will never forget you. He will not only give you the greatest of all blessings, but through you will definitely come the greatest of all blessings in the form of children. You must make up your mind while you are single to leave behind some achievement for the benefit of your mate and children. Do not become indebted to Satan, who will be trying to block you from receiving the blessing. Do not be the kind of men and women who have Satan waiting to collect more indemnity from them on their wedding day.
If you become a wife who has great merit in heaven then you can come out and say, "Satan, here are my credentials. Don't ever touch my husband! I have paid indemnity for both of us." You and your mate can work together and finally say before God, "We are free of the accusation of Satan in all of heaven and earth." When you are completely united in love and have paid all the necessary indemnity, no one can claim you. Together the two of you will be an invincible force, and wherever you go nothing will be able to stop you.
You are not working for the benefit of the church at all, and you are not here to help me. Actually, you are working to receive great blessings by standing upon the foundation which I have laid. There is no doubt that you are indebted to me. But since you are here striving to build your own heaven, to whom would you complain when you get tired? In this church you are your own employer. The person who complains or tries to make excuses will never go over the mountain into heaven. After the fall, Adam and Eve each blamed each other in explaining to God what happened, and in this world everyone tries to escape taking responsibility for their mistakes. But that is not the tradition of heaven.
You should not become persons of excuse or complaint, even though you are in a position to justifiably complain. God pushes you into positions where you want to complain and you could gripe about a thousand things a day, but it is your greatness to go over the difficulty with gratitude and not complain like everyone else in the world. There are innumerable things I could complain about to God. I could exclaim, "What kind of God are You? You're the one who asked me to go to America, but all I get here is persecution, and Americans are even trying to kill me. God, do You really love me?" However, I have never complained to God, but have only accepted my situation in humble gratitude.
I always pray, "God, wait. I want to do this myself. Just give me a little more time." In the same way, your prayer should be, "God, just wait a little bit and I will deliver the result by myself. I don't really need the help of the church. I want to prove how worthy I am in Your sight."
What would you gain through obedience? Simply this, your perfection in the love of God. In that perfection you can become a wife or a husband who is centered upon the love of God. As liberated men and women you will be given the power to liberate all things. That is the power God wants to give you and that is the reason we are going this way.
Our ideology is to each become a central figure who with love can influence his mate, influence all things of creation, influence the Kingdom of God, and even influence God Himself. Shall we really go and live that way of life? Raise your hand and stand up if you really make that pledge. Thank you very much. Let us pray.