Whoever he may be, a person living upon this earth wishes to leave behind, once in his lifetime, something of which he can boast, whether in terms of his environment or of the nation and the world. This is the common feeling of human beings living upon the earth.
From a little child who has not yet come to his senses to an adult, they live holding such a thought. And this is the beginning of human living.
Then at what time will the days of remembrance one can hold come about? They will appear at various moments, such as when one is exceedingly wretched, when one is distressed, when one is glad.
Wishing to Leave Behind a Day of Remembrance Is Human Nature
If there be a person who is going a road of suffering for the world, the day on which a wretched thing occurred in the process of going that road will remain for that person as a day of remembrance.
Furthermore, for a person who leads a happy life, the day that was most happy amid that happy life will become one day of remembrance for that person.
But most ordinary people will not think of days of suffering as days of remembrance. They will think of the moments of joy and happiness in their lives as unforgettable days of remembrance. This will be the position not only of people living upon this earth today but of people who must live hereafter as well.
Though many people today say they try to leave behind a day of remembrance, can we, living in a fallen age, from a position of the present world in which we must seek a new world, indeed hold a day of remembrance that can leave behind a ground of joy? Even looking at the flowing current of the times, this is impossible.
Everyone knows that the present world is a confused world. The human being has lost the direction he must go and is placed in a reality in which he cannot even clearly investigate himself. Even seeing such things, it means that upon this present stage there can be no day of remembrance that one can leave behind with joy through one’s own life. No one can deny the fact that the human being is placed in such an environment. Seen from this viewpoint, at this historic point today, however fine a day of boasting of one’s environment one may have held, it means it is impossible to leave that day upon the world stage or the national stage as a day of remembrance centered on joy.
Then, if there be a day of remembrance that humankind of today can welcome in common on the course a human being must go, what kind of day would that day be? We cannot deny that we are placed in an environment where, rather than singing of a day of happiness, the whole must become one and welcome one wretched day.
One Must Have a Day of Remembrance Centered on God and Bearing Historical Character
Then for whose sake must that wretched day become a day of remembrance that can be welcomed? This is what becomes the question. Shall we welcome that day as a day of remembrance for the Republic of Korea, or welcome it as a day of remembrance for countless nations, or else welcome it as a day of remembrance centered on God?
Seen in a small way, a day of remembrance will remain centered on me, but even though a day of remembrance centered on me has remained, it means that even if there be a day the nation can remember, that day is nothing to boast of before a day the world can remember.
Further, even though there be a day of remembrance the world boasts of, that day cannot but vanish without any value before a day the Cosmos can remember, centering on God.
The history that has flowed forth until now within this universe is placed in a destiny of having to present once and leave one time behind and go. Then what kind of day must a day of remembrance that can thus be left behind be? When we think of such a question, there will be many people who wish to leave in the world one relationship of remembrance centered on themselves.
Yet even though one has left behind a day of remembrance centered on one’s own self, one cannot form a relationship between that day and the tremendous day of remembrance that the nation and the world and the Cosmos hold. To put it another way, it means that a person who seeks to hold a day of remembrance centered on his self becomes, in the process of seeking a worldwide day of remembrance, on the contrary, only a condition of sorrow. When we consider such a question, one cannot but draw the conclusion that if one seeks to leave something behind and hold a day of remembrance centering only on one’s own self, that person is a foolish person.
Seen from this point, if there be a day on which, in the historical ages or within this world and universe, all humankind and God can truly commemorate victory jointly, at what time would that day be? Will that one day of remembrance, precious eternally, come all at once on some day, or will it come through some process of relationship? That day cannot come all at once.
Only when one adds the remembrance of a day, and adds the remembrance of a year, and adds the remembrance of ten years, or adds the remembrance of one’s own lifetime, and further crosses beyond a ground on which countless clans can add their remembrance, and peoples their remembrance, and nations their remembrance, and all the people of the world their remembrance, does a day of remembrance that can eternally represent history and represent the age and represent the future come to remain in heaven and on earth.
Then centering on whom must that day be bound in relationship?
It will not do to center on human beings alone. It means it will not do to center even on the three billion of humankind living in the present age. Even though one has decided upon a day of remembrance in which the three billion of humankind of the world can jointly rejoice, as long as that does not bear a historical character, it simply flows away.
We must know that if there be people who boast of a day of remembrance, a day that cannot be made a historical day of remembrance, that band cannot but, on the contrary, be judged before a historical day of remembrance.
What we must know today is that we must leave behind a day of remembrance together with history. We must leave behind a day of remembrance not centered on one single people but together with the world and centered on the flowing of history. We must know such matters. Accordingly, one cannot deny that the human being must follow a road by which he can leave behind a day of remembrance together with history.
To leave behind a day of remembrance that the history of humankind can commemorate is our road of destiny in following the Will. Then can a day of remembrance centered on human beings alone become a remembrance that can remain eternal? Here there must be some absolute subject. When that subject is God, it means that God is without fail involved before the history that flows on centering on human beings today. It means He appears. Therefore, even though a human being has held one day of remembrance that can remain in history, unless it holds content that can be connected with the historical ages centering on the absolute God, it cannot remain eternally. Therefore, we must know that however much one boasts of having held, in representation of humankind, one historic day of remembrance, before one day of remembrance that forms a relationship with God, it cannot but become an object of judgment.
What becomes the important question here is leaving behind, whether in the individual or the family or in society, the nation, the world, a ground of remembrance that can be bound centering on God. It means, is this not more important than anything? Those who staked their lives and fought to pursue one day on which such a ground could be left are the sages who appeared in history. That is why their teaching was to introduce God and introduce God’s dignity. They are people who went a road of labor to connect the hope of the human being with the hope of God. That is why we must know that they could remain in the rank (반열 班列) of sages.
What Can Become the Motive of Remembrance
The road of paving such a ground of remembrance is neither today’s business, nor politics, nor culture. It is religion. When one says “religion,” people generally dislike it, but we cannot help but consider that seeking the ground that lies behind that religion remains as one day of remembrance that heaven and earth can commemorate.
When you look at the family, it is not good merely because the house is fine and its surrounding environment is fine. On the contrary, however bad the environment and however shabby the house, a family that makes it a resting place and seeks to bind there its circumstances and life and all the standards of its living is a good family. There is a heart (심정) in which parents and children are there for each other. Because this is the original homeland of remembrance and the motive of all living, it becomes the foundation that determines happiness in our living.
Why is that? It is because there is the only love and relationship between parent and child that no one can violate, and the once-only relationship of lineal love between parent and child. Because the love of parents and brothers is the motive there, it becomes connected as an object of longing in our living.
So there, where that love is the motive, if one is glad that gladness will appear as the gladness of the whole, and if one is sorrowful that sorrow will appear as the sorrow of the whole. The whole atmosphere will be unified all at once. Such a position is the object all people pursue.
Accordingly, rejoicing in such a position, and sorrowing in such a position, and moreover the resolve one has newly made in such a position, can become for that person a motive that can produce a new result. Even on a course of wretched trial, one can widen a ground on which one can be victorious over the enemy. All these facts we can know through the phenomena and lives that have appeared in society while passing through the historical ages.
Accordingly, the family cannot but hold content of remembrance that can be pursued externally, that is, environmentally.
Then what is it that can become the motive of remembrance?
A relationship of love centered on the relationship of parent and child can become the motive of remembrance. The joy in that family is not my joy alone but the joy of the whole, and when there is something wretched, that wretchedness is a wretchedness that the whole must settle and cross over. That becomes a requisite of remembrance that can remain eternally.
To put it another way, if the parents have an enemy, the child cannot go the road he must go until he has avenged that enemy through his lifetime and cannot lead his life. It means that having led such a life is a remembrance bound as a ground closest to the heart (심정). You must know that although it was bound in one, content is dwelling there that can determine the destiny and life of the whole.
When we look at the relationship between God and us human beings today, we are colliding with God’s intention. If in such a position there be a person who can shed tears with God’s ideology, representing the nation and the world, God will eternally be unable to forget him, and human beings too will eternally be unable to forget him.
Moreover, we cannot deny the fact that in the process of pursuing the world of purpose centering on God, the history that such a person has walked will without fail remain as a day of remembrance.
The History of Christianity, Which Holds Days of Remembrance
Then what is religion? What has appeared in this world today to stand in place of the form of the family is religion.
You will know well the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible. In the world too, one can see many unfilial children.
If there be a road by which such unfilial children or a prodigal son can be brought to repent, what road would that be?
Parents cannot bring a prodigal son to repent by holding much money and making him submit before that money. What is the one road by which a prodigal son can have a change of heart and can be reformed as a new person? It is to have him collide with the ceaseless love of the parents.
Only when he feels that that ceaseless love is higher and deeper than heaven and earth, and feels that the parents are alive, and there feels the original value of love, can the prodigal son at last repent. The love that moves here becomes joy.
Here one is sought as a new human being, and here a new family can set out, and a new nation and a new world can be manifested. To put it another way, through one new movement arising, it becomes a motive by which one new family can be formed, and when that new family comes into being, it becomes one clan, and when that clan grows, it becomes a people and a nation, and when the nation grows, it becomes the world.
Such a historical relationship was left in human history not by the political society that has appeared in this reality today but by religion. That one runs ahead first even in going the road of death for one’s comrades beyond one’s own individual life and can volunteer even for the road of death for the Will and for the church is something that can be found only in religion. This is an undeniable fact, as we can know through history.
Religion has been for the human being the motive of the human course and the origin of the founding of new cultures. When we infer thus from all historical facts, religion cannot but be the motive of everything. Even looking at the background of world cultural history today, we can know that centering on religious thought, people founded the history of their nation and sustained the history of their nation.
We must know that, because the content of a relationship of remembrance of heart (심정) dwells here, history has come to be equipped with a worldwide form upon this ground.
That is why all the people of the world today regard the wretchedness that religious leaders underwent while pursuing the road of truth as a true sacrifice and wish to attend that day as a day of the world. Between parent and child, if there be a son or daughter who sacrificed for the parent’s will, how much would those parents wish to leave the sacrifice of that son or daughter as one scene of remembrance?
God too has such a mind and such a requirement. Therefore, we cannot deny that religion has remained in the course of history as an object of remembrance and reverence. All the more, Christianity has woven a history of martyrdom more than other religions. In being martyred, centering on what they were martyred for. They were martyred not centering on themselves but centering on God’s Will. For the sake of one world that the human being must at last seek, for the sake of a ground on which God could drop an anchor of peace upon this earth, and for the sake of the original peace of humankind, countless people shed the blood of martyrdom.
If One Were to Have a Day of Remembrance Publicly Acknowledged by Heaven and Earth
Seen from this viewpoint, what is it that can be remembered within this religious history? It is the countless loyal patriots who died for that religion. It is by this that religion develops and that it achieves its purpose. That is why it means one cannot but leave as a remembrance those who were sacrificed in that process of developing.
Seen in terms of Christian history, Stephen was an uneducated person. In that time, it was an age when no one could follow Jesus. In such an environment, he cast away his only life like chaff for the sake of Jesus, who was being chased and driven. But Stephen’s death in itself is not great. Though the severing of that bloodline of life is nothing, we regard Stephen’s death as great in the point that that death was joined with God’s heart (심정) and was connected with history. Because he shed blood in this way, centering on a historical relationship and content of heart, that stained history and came to stain God’s heart. That is why, since the human being cannot go without washing this blood, God too shows this road, and the human beings of earth too cannot but revere it. We must know this.
Then have we held one person we can revere in this world history, or held one nation, or held one family? Or else have we become one individual who can be so? This is the question.
We must desire a position where we can leave a remembrance. If one can leave a remembrance taking hold of the family rather than me as an individual, he is a happier person. And if one can leave one hour of remembrance centering on the people rather than the family, he is a greater person than the one who left a remembrance in the family.
Further, if one leaves a remembrance that can be acknowledged by heaven and earth, crossing beyond the nation and beyond the world, he comes to take part in the rank of sages.
However wretchedly that person may collapse upon this earth, and even though he goes, leaving behind no ground at all, if he is together with the world, he does not perish.
How Did Jesus Leave Behind a Day of Remembrance?
All of you, think once of Jesus. He was in a position like a fisherman on the shore of Galilee. He also led a life of begging while passing from village to village. Not only that, he was a man who was pointed at by the many people of the village and received unfavorable assessment.
That he died on the cross on the hill of Calvary is a thing that must not be. Yet how did his dying come to be such that it became one ground for achieving the democratic world that governs twentieth-century civilization today? It means this is the question. There can be many people who die scattering blood, whoever they may be. But the one thing that differed in Jesus is that Jesus died as one crystallization of remembrance that humankind reveres in common.
To put it another way, it means he went holding God’s heart (심정) more than anyone. Jesus, the Son of God, died shedding blood, but when one seeks the road he left, the fact was plainly revealed that the content of Jesus’ ideology centered on God bears a historical character. Because such a ground of Jesus’ heart became the source of history, human beings until now have come to long for that source.
Because this remained as a ground that could become the leaven of history, when a human being who goes in one direction centering on God comes into contact with that ground thereafter, he automatically comes to receive its influence, and the work of gathering that purpose once again broadens from the individual to the clan, from the clan to the people from the people to the form of a nation. And thus, you must know the fact that Jesus’ thought, centered on Christianity today, has created a worldwide cultural sphere.
Jesus’ death seems like nothing, but through it Jesus came to stand at the highest peak of heart (심정), which could connect heaven and earth as had not existed in history. He called God his Father and said that he himself was God’s only begotten Son. It means this is what is great. And while doing so, he fulfilled filial piety (효 孝) for the Father’s Will as the duty of a son and fulfilled loyalty (충 忠) for that nation and departed. Therefore, Jesus is, in the history of humankind, a filial son beyond compare before God and is the protagonist whom God could at last proclaim to be the only begotten Son. Jesus left behind an ideology of a single piece: that he would make a departure of victory through what is called filial piety.
Though those who do not believe in Jesus today do not even seek to know whether Jesus came to this earth two thousand years ago or not, those who believe in Jesus mourn Jesus’ death and revere his life. Is it not the reality that they shed tears and truly revere him, saying that the Lord sacrificed for humankind!
Then why did Jesus come to stand in a position that history cannot reach, or a position that the age cannot reach?
To put it another way, why did he stand in a position that even the sovereign of that nation could not go forth to? It is because of one single thing: because he called God Father and, saying that he himself was His son, desired a position that pursued a heavenly family. So Jesus left behind content of remembrance together with that Will.
In every religion, such a ground of remembrance remains. Therefore, we can know that the deeper and broader and greater the content by which a follower of some religion can offer up his body and sacrifice for that Will, the more that religion becomes a worldwide religion.
Today the human beings of the whole world are placed in a critical moment in which the adversities of life sweep over them. But though this world be so, in our lives there must be one base at which we can leave a remembrance. To put it another way, it means that in this present world, placed at a boundary line where complicated and manifold waves of death swirl, must there not be a religion in which one can hope for rest in the deep ground of the mind? Seen thus, we human beings today are placed in a position in which, in the process of gazing ahead, we cannot find our existence unless we, in any case, deny reality.
Deny Reality in the True Sense
The young people who are in such an environment, too, cannot but deny reality to achieve future happiness. Then do they deny being for what is valuable and to leave behind content of remembrance? No. They are like a swarm of grasshoppers that does not know its direction. It is the same as a swarm of grasshoppers that cannot fly in the meadow but flies from desert to desert. It means it is the same as a swarm of grasshoppers that, if there is no guide before the Will, cannot discover the meadow and flies until it collapses all at once.
So it means that rather than being able to leave behind something that can become a remembrance in the position where they are living and making a ground on which they can leave a remembrance in the world hereafter, they must stand in a position of denying all such reality.
Religious people have from the past until now denied reality. They have denied their nation. Though they had their clan, they could not love that clan as their clan. Though they had their family, they could not make that family a ground where they themselves could rest.
Furthermore, they were not equipped with the authority to hold the whole universe with the character of their own single individual. That is why religion set out from complete denial.
But religious people did not form a relationship with that denial. Although they ought to have found an ideal value in that denial and there sought a factor of happiness, because they had entered a habitual sphere of denial, they did not become one with a ground of happiness. But if only a standard is established by which one can step forth, denying in the true sense, a new plan will be sought in religion.
In this sense, our Unification Church today must contribute to this present world.
When one considers with this title of a day of remembrance before us, one recalls May 20 of a full twenty-one years ago.
What kind of day is this day?
It is the day when I was seized and taken to the Pyongyang Interior Bureau, received a trial, and was transferred to Heungnam prison. Seeing such a thing, since you are people who know the Will, what must you seek and enter to be in accord with the Teacher together with the Will? If one goes seeking with an ideology that came out of ordinary living or commonplace living, that simply flows away.
If the Unification Church until now has left behind one origin by which it can appear as the Unification Church, what kind of day is that day of remembrance that dwells behind it? It is not the day of remembrance that you left behind upon entering the Unification Church. You must know that. This day of remembrance must without fail be a day that can remain together with the Unification Church. It means it must not be a day of remembrance centered on oneself but a day of remembrance that can remain together with the Unification Church.
Then, when we say the Unification Church holds a history, how does the background of that history stand? What three-dimensional character is there behind it, and does it hold content of remembrance that no one can deny? This is an important question. Upon this hangs whether one can move the world hereafter or not.
Furthermore, there is the question of how some representative, however limited the environment may be, crosses beyond that limited environment and binds the world together before God with what content. This becomes the matrix of remembrance for the later generations of the Unification Church hereafter.
Then will you walk on as happy members of the Unification Church?
I do not think so. When one thinks of the Unification Church itself, one may say that if one enters the Unification Church, one eats well and lives well and receives more blessings than anyone. But it is not so. One must be able to hold a history of remembrance that can illuminate the heart (심정) of humankind and show an explosive driving force that can re-create people as new human beings. Through that being bound to an individual, it must become one matrix by which that individual can make a new resolve and a new determination and go toward a new purpose.
The Day of Remembrance the Unification Church Has Left
In the Unification Church, there are not always green spring days. When spring goes, summer comes, and when summer goes, autumn comes, and when autumn goes, winter comes. On spring days, new shoots come up, and in summer the flowers bloom fully, and this itself is not completion.
If branches are stretching out to the side here, one must break them off. Only when one breaks off the fortune of stretching out does the season of autumn come together with the fruit. It means one must deny what has spread out.
You must achieve the Four Position Foundation. The world of existence must multiply. Also, if it has developed, it without fail contracts. That is like meeting a winter such as the three cold winter months when autumn goes away.
Members of the Unification Church must hold power to drive out whatever invades from outside. Only then does one embrace the authority of heaven and earth and welcome a spring day together with the harmony of heaven and earth. And thus, when one consolidates power that can achieve life, one can burst all inner pain and gain an external victory. The remembrance of this one day in which the Unification Church can be glad comes about in relationship with God. This is something only we can do.
What I think of with gratitude is that, though the road the Unification Church has walked until now was wretched, even in a position of reaching the extremity of this wretchedness, we did not avoid it. It means we accepted that hardship wholly. And it means we accepted it not merely so but together with heaven and earth. Herein lies the significance.
From a position of the parent-child relationship, we held back tears and, taking hold of one another, resolved for the sake of a new nation. This position is not a position of perishing. It is a position where tomorrow’s hope comes seeking and a new life sets out. Even though the course the Unification Church goes on is wretched, the Unification Church does not perish. Even though wretchedness is compounded in that position, by becoming an offering that can embrace this nation or the world and bind together tomorrow’s hope, vital power is involved here, and it means we do not perish.
We must not be pessimistic because we lack something. History sets out in a new direction from such a position.
What Kind of Remembrance Do You Wish to Leave in History?
Though we have passed through several thousand years of history until now, humankind has had no day on which it could rejoice with an easy mind. It means it has not held one day on which it could dance for joy, saying it was happy.
Therefore, we must leave behind a matrix of remembrance that can move history. When we consider such a question, we must, rather than in the content of joy, within the content of sorrow, embrace God’s breast and enter into God’s inner heart and writhe and make a resolve before the road humankind must go hereafter. Going toward the heavenly kingdom, which is tomorrow’s hope, while gazing squarely upon the reality of the enemy world going to ruin, is the relationship of piercing remembrance the Unification Church holds, and that position is a noble position that cannot be exchanged even for heaven and earth. Without this relationship, even if God gave us heaven and earth, we could not inherit it. Thus, this is more precious than anything.
Then what kind of remembrance do you, having walked until now, wish to leave in history?
If there be some woman, will you leave a remembrance in which you can rejoice together with that woman? Or will you leave a remembrance in which you can rejoice together with brothers, or will you leave a plain remembrance among human beings and human beings? No. One must desire to leave a three-dimensional remembrance that can seek eternity, centering on eternity for that one purpose alone. One must leave a day of remembrance such that, even if I forget this day and do not remember it, God can say to remember this day. This is the question. Even if one forgets all the days of one’s own life, one must leave one day such that God can urge others through oneself to remember that day. If so, he does not perish.
Such a person is a greater person than a sovereign who governs ten million. That is because, though the sovereign passes away, such a person’s history remains. Though the sovereign of that nation passes away, a patriot who has held a remembrance that can remain in history remains and governs history.
Seen thus, if there be one person who has held one day of remembrance that can be commemorated before God, who owns heaven and earth, or before God, who is the King of kings, God will make that person remain in the course of history. That person cannot but be one center that can be commemorated in history. It means that person eternally does not perish. We must know that even if there are requisites by which one could perish, on the contrary, they are changed into factors by which one can prosper.
Then can you, believers of the Unification Church today, leave behind in your lives a day of remembrance of which you yourselves can boast? This is an exceedingly important question. In leaving it, one must make it remain as a day of remembrance that God can commemorate.
Otherwise, however many days you yourselves commemorate as days of remembrance, it means God does not cooperate here. Those days simply flow away. But if you have left behind a day such that, even if you yourselves forget, God can set that day up as a day of remembrance, it means you will absolutely not perish together with that day.
Leave a Day of Remembrance with Which God Is Together
What is it that the Teacher, having walked until now, is anxious about when meeting the days on which such-and-such is celebrated and commemorated?
It is whether these days are not days that will simply flow away but days that God can commemorate before I truly commemorate them. God has until now not been in a joyful position. God, who has woven a wretched history, has been in a more wretched position than anyone. That is why, if you would leave behind one day of remembrance in going the heavenly road, you must be able to leave it from a position more wretched than that. You must know that fact.
However great the trial and suffering that draw near hereafter, you must properly drive them back and go. You must become one who can know that road you must collide with as an original road of destiny with which you were born and can meet it wholly. I say these words with a mind that entreats that on the course of the life you go, you may certainly leave behind one day of remembrance with which God is together.
This can be left only when one feels the mission of a son or daughter of the Father centering on God. If there is a day on which the Father is glad, one wishes to set that day up as a day on which the son is glad; and if there is a day on which the son is glad, one wishes to return that day as a day on which the Father is glad. That day becomes one day of remembrance belonging wholly neither to the Father nor to the son but to all of us people.
So you must overcome the trials and sufferings that collide with you until the day you find the heavenly kingdom. Then, even if you die on the earth, you can remain eternally together with this earth. It means one remains long and long together with history.
When we come to know that such a road is near before us nationally, we must know that a day of remembrance on which we can leave behind a time of victory together with God remains upon the road of Restoration.