London, England
Today is the point that connects yesterday with tomorrow. If today we are making progress from the past, then we look forward to tomorrow, but if we are regressing, then we have to worry about tomorrow.
For the sake of the future, all of us want today to be a time of progress rather than regress, for progress guarantees future prosperity. Although today we may seem to be making progress, unless we work in accordance with the direction of the future, we cannot be assured of any real result.
When it is said that a country is progressing, it must be recognized that it is the progress of men that makes the country move forward. A prime minister will establish a policy that moves their country in a certain direction, working closely with the citizens to ensure that a good plan is implemented.
All countries, Germany, France, and England, are the same in that their leaders try to make a wholesome and good plan for the country and set a policy that will make the nation prosper.
All countries would like to have their futures assured and would even like to be the central nation that will inherit the future.
Which country is qualified to do that?
If one country wants that, it must think of other countries as well as itself. If it just centers on itself and doesn't care about other countries, it will not lead the world in the future.
Furthermore, unless a country knows the direction of history and the wave of the future and is willing to conform to that, it cannot be successful in its plans. The world is going toward the future and cannot help but do so.
Until recently, all countries have been going on their independent courses, but now even England finds that she cannot go anywhere significant by herself. All European nations have had to support the European Common Market.
However, not only European nations but all countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas need these relationships. Therefore, each country must be conscious of how to maintain harmonious relations with other countries. Each country can think of itself only in terms of other countries and never in terms of itself alone.
International relations are usually thought of in terms of economic matters. Now, everyone works hard toward economic goals, always being conscious of other countries and hoping to play a leading role in financial matters.
Nothing goes smoothly and matter-of-factly. Though invisible and not fought with weapons, economic development is a nerve-wracking war. In any war, we must dedicate everything to the sake of victory and still have something to spare.
To fight and survive the war, a national spirit is needed in which people can invest everything with no regrets for that goal. We should dedicate everything and want to give even more.
For instance, what is England's merit or advantage?
This country was the cradle of democracy, and here diplomatic relations developed. On the other hand, the specialty of Germany is its engineering technology, while France excels artistically.
The future of each country is different, so how can the objectives of these countries be determined? All countries would like to improve and reach perfection in the fields of democracy, technology, and art.
When countries think of advancement, they don't think of one country advancing in democracy and another in art. Instead, they think that they themselves must advance in all of these areas and compete with other countries in every way. If one country is outstanding in all of these areas, every other country will admire its achievement.
It is always important for us to determine the essence of a country that warrants respect. Then what is the element of a country that every other country can admire?
It is not likely to be seen in one building or a modern factory. This can be one source of pride, but not the whole picture. Even achieving the fullest perfection in art is not likely to warrant the fullest respect.
When we look for the most basic element of a nation, we see that it is the people who produce a country. If a country has people who can appreciate each nation's achievements and know what they really mean, that country will be the nation that all other countries will eventually look up to. Everything begins with the people who compose the country.
The conclusion we come to is that instead of cherishing science itself, or art, or diplomacy, we must cherish the men who achieve these advancements.
Today, however, the world respects economic development for its own sake, and when men see another person's scientific development, they want to possess it too. Every country is envious of the diplomatic standard here in England and tries to learn from it.
If a country is an excellent artist, every other country wants to copy it. But that is an impersonal way of looking at it. Art is viewed as art, economy as economy, and technology as technology, while the people who produced a brilliant result are not thought about. Our minds don't rest upon the men who make these achievements possible.
However, when we think more deeply, it is only possible to see technology through the people who advance it and to see diplomatic accomplishments through the people who make them. It appears to be natural to see the person behind the accomplishment, but nowadays people look more impersonally.
Today, we must pay most attention to what kind of men have proven to be capable of influencing many fields. Now is the time in history when all mankind must confront the fact that external achievements like art, technology, and diplomacy are less valuable than the people who have accomplished them.
Therefore, it is men we must study more deeply and be more interested in. People have not been aware that men are the subject of these achievements, which are their objects; usually, they only evaluate the product and not the man who produces it.
Sun Myung Moon
They have treated the product as being most important, not the man behind it.
This is why men are all confused. They don't know what life is and what is valuable. Once they recognize what is most valuable, however, the problem is simplified.
In this time in history, everyone is trying to determine what life is about and where the world is headed. Many people are convinced that life must have more meaning, and they tirelessly search for the future.
Even once people realize that it is men who make technological developments possible, they cannot really explain what man is. In trying to understand, they may scrutinize and analyze to determine what this man is and what they themselves are.
To find the characteristics of England, people may study English history, trying to understand themselves by scrutinizing the past and present.
It is evident that man has tried to determine what he is through analyzing all sorts of human relations and problems, but he is so busy analyzing man that he can't give adequate attention to finding out who God is.
Since man can't solve the question of himself, he's not ready to tackle the problem of God. This is where religion stands. No one thinks that religion is an urgent problem.
Most people feel that the immediate problem is to understand themselves so they can continue to live for tomorrow.
Things having to do with God appear to concern some less immediate reality, which they can't take the time to think about. It is rather easy to say we think in terms of tomorrow, but when the actual situation is like this and man can't even understand himself, being able to understand God and the future seems very distant and unlikely.
It is men who have created the situations people find themselves in, but because they can't grasp anything within themselves, they can see only that achievement concerns one area and the problem of man is quite separate from it.
Now, everyone is baffled by the achievements because they don't understand that they have to do with mankind. In other words, men have achieved many things, but no one can clearly say what man himself should be like.
Then what kind of man is desirable for the future?
The desirable man is the one who does not depend on human achievements like technology but lives in what we can call the original way. Why? Because even man's great achievements enslave him.
Once a man understands that, he will be ready to give these things up without regret and not depend on them. Imagine the man who can give up thinking about the things that all mankind wants to possess and, no matter how difficult the way, can confidently live for the future. He is really a desirable man.
People wonder who would protect and guarantee the future of this kind of man.
Their thinking is justified because nowhere in this world is there any dependable guarantee for the future. Men who nevertheless have the confidence to live for the future are people of great value.
Everyone today is retreating from their surroundings and isolating themselves, but once the few who can think for the future find the right direction, they can go much further than average people. Such men are free because they never become enslaved by a wrong relationship to something.
Some people cannot break their attachments and struggle along with no hope, but the people who live for the future are prepared to sacrifice everything if they see it is adverse to mankind's best interests. They are better than those who cling to their old ways but have no vision.
Who can live for the future?
Ordinary circumstances today are not conducive to man's living in that way. When we turn to history, can we find any situation that nurtured that way of living?
We can see clearly that it was not the realm of science or philosophy, or sociology, that enabled man to do that. It becomes possible only in the world of religion. In medieval times, when there was much corruption in society, men like St. Francis denied everything and retreated from the world.
Instead of pursuing worldly goals, he was loyal to a vision that he must make a new church. He started a movement to enable men to give up those things that enslaved them and give everything toward that goal. By overcoming worldly things, he could greatly advance and also lead everyone who understood his goal.
The movements that encouraged man's best effort to deny his ties with present things and take up something new have always been religious. For instance, the Anglican church was established separately from the Catholic church at the time of Henry VIII.
The Puritans were a devout, dynamic group of people who had a new vision for the future. When their conflict with the Anglican church over that issue couldn't be resolved, they moved to America, hoping to find the freedom to live their religion. This one instance characterizes the recent history of the world.
That trend continues today. Young people have a tremendous urge to deny everything around them, including the established religions, and move a step higher. History shows that when someone is encouraged to deny the world to advance to a higher position, it is quite possible.
The religious ferment 400 years ago was on a local scale in different nations and didn't have worldwide meaning, but today the same situations must be confronted on a world level.
If we can deny everything that surrounds us on the worldwide level and jump forward, this movement is in line with the trend of history and will inevitably be important.
If a man is focused on settling only his immediate problems, he will have very little chance of success because he will be influenced by many personal ties. His family would say, "Are you going to forsake us all and go?" There are also national restrictions that would make it impossible to do anything one way or the other.
Obviously, if there is a group that explains clearly and guarantees the future of such people, giving them a broader vision to advance in the name of religion, that movement is important and must be the focus of our attention.
If you are going to jump over a fence, you have to back up a bit, run, and then jump. You can't jump just standing in front of it. However, retreating a bit, running, and then jumping requires spiritual qualities such as determination.
The man who has great spiritual determination will be able to jump, but even if someone without that zeal imitates his actions precisely, he won't be able to jump over.
Some other people try to jump from where they are standing, but they can't do it that way. It is only the young people with a clear vision who can leave everything behind and jump over the fence and make our movement succeed. Older people with a fixed point of view could not do it.
Men who are searching must pay attention to these areas. If they look around and can't find such a movement as ours, they must say the world is destitute, with nothing to give hope.
We can see that if there were such a movement today, it would be able to give hope to all mankind and to guide men to find themselves. History must inevitably see some movement that fits this description, and the most basic reason for thinking so is religious. We must see that kind of group before we can see any hope for the future.
If God, who does more thinking than anyone else, should come to this conclusion, then we must really look around and see if there is any group that perfectly fits this description.
The people who pay serious attention to these matters are finding that the Unification Church is the only group that is doing exactly this. Now we can see the successful vision for the future.
Unification Church members can detach themselves from the fetters and connections of the world and retreat to a distance to launch a movement for the future. Why do we detach and step back from the world, even temporarily? It is to overcome the immediate problem and to advance.
Many people retreat from reality, but they just stay put and do nothing. In effect, that is the same as staying in the world with all the old ties. Nothing is different.
Detaching from the world is only the first step, and if a person never goes on to the second step, which is the purpose, it has no meaning.
Sun Myung Moon
Have you ever flown a glider?
You launch it by pulling back on a rubber band, but when you let go, should it dip down or soar up high in the sky? Are you looking up, ready to soar in higher air?
Realistically speaking, is the Unification Church actually capable of doing that?
When we retreat in preparation to jump over the fence, are we doing it because we are forced to, or do we understand the problem and situation so keenly that we try to step back as far as possible?
Why don't other people, such as our friends and relatives, do as we do, rather than always going along with the circumstances, continuing school, and associating with the same people all the time?
Why do we give up all these things if they are not doing it?
We leave that area because it will be destroyed, and we know that if we stay there, we will perish along with it. Since we want to live eternally, we must leave that area and keep a distance from it.
Even though we retreat by our own will, we must clearly know why we do so, or else we won't be able to continue for a long period of time. When we leave, we don't want to look back and think maybe we are wrong, as Lot's wife did at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We are retreating because we don't want to perish along with the people who remain. Once we retreat, we will overcome the obstacle and go beyond it and find ourselves in an advanced position.
Are we going to fly over the obstacle for our own sake and forget about the rest of the world? No. When we cross over, we will bring along all the people who need to be saved as we do. We will have many ropes attached to us, and once we arrive, many people can cross after us.
Don't worry whether the rope is too loose or not tight enough; as long as the ropes are attached to the other side, people can cross over in various ways. Our objective is to cross safely with the rope and then make full use of it to bring the other people across with much less effort. Then we will show the world a new view of culture, technology, diplomacy, politics, economy, and the arts.
Now our lives are very complicated, and this is one reason why we want to detach ourselves. But if we successfully cross the barrier and reach the desired side, will life be simpler then?
No, it will be just as complicated, but only for a short period of time. Now, you white people find it difficult to get along with other white people, but on the other side, there will be people of every nationality, and it will be even more complicated to maintain the right kind of relations. Then you will feel it is more difficult than before.
Nevertheless, there must be some advancement in human nature and human relations. No matter how complicated it seems initially, man's nature will be much better than before.
Now it is pure hell, but later it will be pure heaven. We must know there will be something different in the future if we are to keep working in the same direction.
One big difference will be the quality of human nature. Man has tried to make use of other people, doing more bad things than good things. There was chaos and hopelessness, but now there is no question that the quality of human nature is much better.
Whoever knows that is already a different kind of man, a person who thinks about man first rather than achievements. A good individual is the one who can perceive technology in one way and future events in another way.
Eventually, everyone will develop his wisdom in this way, and though five races will coexist instead of only one, the quality of man's thinking will be so unmistakably different that it will be as though they were in an entirely different kind of world. We must have confidence in that vision.
Of course, we have a choice. We can start appreciating that new situation and the new kind of people only after we get there, or better yet, before we jump over, we can have great expectations.
This world is hopelessly entangled, and we cannot really advance here, but once we separate from it and arrive at our destination, we can definitely expect something really different. We have to have that vision of a new quality of man. Should we expect to become so before we get there or after? Definitely before.
Are we Unification Church members doing that now, preparing for the big jump?
This is precisely what we are doing now, practicing and clarifying our vision of how to become better once we jump.
Everyone seems different after joining the Church, but if you look around, there is not so much difference. The real difference is our ability to look at people in a new light and see the really new people who are like jewels. We must develop our vision to distinguish these people from ordinary people.
Today's world doesn't understand the Moonies, so they kick them around and criticize them. But even if we are mistreated, is our situation better than the ordinary world or not? Why is it better?
It's better in the sense that otherwise we would just linger and be indecisive. We would be constantly wondering, "Should I leave here or not?" But when people constantly persecute you, saying, "Get out of here, you moonies," even if you want to stay, you can't. Whether you know why you are retreating makes all the difference. When you know, being persecuted is no problem.
Religious people have always been persecuted, but no one understood why it had to be that way. Now we clearly know that we are persecuted to be separated from the world. In that sense, they are helping us. People are really saying, "Get out of here and be successful. Then come back and save us, too." Can you now have a new view about the same old persecution?
You are different because ordinarily, if someone tried to persecute us, you would be so discouraged that you might do something drastic. But now you don't mind that at all.
When there is more persecution, you say, "All right. Even if you don't persecute me, I'm not going to stay here. I'm going far away because this will perish, but before it perishes, I will jump over and then come back and save you." You must have the confidence to do that.
We must look around in the world and see if any other people are preparing for this great jump. Since we are, we must know clearly this is what we are doing.
I was born in an obscure village deep in the mountains on the small peninsula of Korea, a country no one knew much about a few years ago. This unknown man retreated from Korea across Japan all the way to America and England, as far as he could ever go to earn as much distance as possible. That distance never bothered me because I always wanted to go farther and farther.
I never thought I would have to die before finishing. I always maintain the proper angle so that once the pressure is released and I can take off, I will project on course and go even further. When the giant Unification Church airplane is launched, it will fly around the world in one trip. Can you imagine that?
Now the world has a bad image of us, but actually, we are wholly different from what people think. For forty years, people have thought that I and the Unification Church are bad, even though they haven't seen or heard us directly.
When they turn around later and discover the truth that we were never bad but excellent, the whole world will ignite like a dry forest catching fire. It will be as if we had spread gasoline around the surface and lit a match. Everything will start burning at one time.
The night has been very long, but at some point, the night must end and daylight begin. The dawn is coming to the Unification Church, and we can see some light starting to pierce the darkness.
Soon the sun will rise and daylight will fill the world. If the night is pitch black, so much the better, for once the sun does rise, the new day is much brighter and more glorious than ordinary days.
For the Unification Church, it is now morning, although for the rest of the world it may be the other way around. Do you know that "morning" sounds like "mourning"? One signifies a new birth, while the other is related to funerals. When I say there is a new night, I think of ignite. This is what we are doing now.
We will say goodbye tonight, become ignited, and really soar up high. Do you have the confidence to do that? If I set the direction and let you fly to Africa, would you fly straight there? This is why we are the center of attention of the people of the world.
If everyone is dying and one person is labeled "a problem" by those dying people, then that person is probably in the position of living; that's why he looks like a problem to those dying people. Do you have some unbreakable attachment to the world?
Do you think the world must still have some hope left that you can pursue?
Do you still want to stay in the world a little longer, going back to your old love, which you thought was so beautiful? Do you have to think deeply about it and then say no, or immediately say, "No, it is out of the question"? We have no regrets or attachments.
If we have no desire to stay in the old place, then what is our desire?
We must have an even stronger desire than before. Our desire must be to go far away and, when the time comes, to jump straight forward to the new destination.
When a storm comes during the flight, do you think you will drop into the ocean or fly in such a high place that you will completely go over the storm and land safely? Do you have that confidence?
Do you have the flexibility to go around some unexpected obstacles without colliding and come down safely? If what you say is true, and I believe it is, then this group is really worthy of attention. Then this is a group of hope that will immediately make a positive contribution. Whatever this group does, if it succeeds, then all of mankind will succeed.
Sun Myung Moon
How do you plan to survive in a new environment? If this sister takes off from here and goes all the way to Africa and lands there safely, can she survive there? She will definitely survive because the Unification Church is already in Africa. We will land on our own landing pad and not in the wilderness.
White people are afraid to travel in some parts of Africa for fear of being killed, but by the time we go there, they will have a welcoming committee for us. "You are white people, but we understand you are a different kind of white people, so we welcome you." They will show us hospitality.
Is there anything in this sister's appearance that says she's a different kind of person? How can you say a person is different from other people?
This sister views the world differently, according to the standard of loving the world. Her eyes are different because she sees people differently; before, she saw everyone as a stranger; now she sees everyone as brothers and sisters.
She is also different in her lifestyle. Always before, she lived with herself as the center and might even have tried to profit through deception, but now she is trying to give instead of receive. That is an entirely different lifestyle. Most important of all, her love toward man and toward God has thoroughly changed.
From the outside, she looks the same, but inside, she is an entirely different person. It is nothing physical that changed her, but something invisible and yet very real and powerful. She is simply a new person. The most important element, which is her love, was changed. She has a new and right way of life and love centered on God.
That goes for all of us. We are really different from the people of the world, even from our old selves two or three years ago, and are still changing. Even now, we can distinguish ourselves from ordinary people in all circumstances. They are waiting to perish along with their situation.
We will all go to the spirit world eventually. When you enter the spirit world, a person will greet you and ask where you came from. What would you say? Would you reply, "I am from England" or "I am from Earth"?
He will ask where in England you come from, and you can say London. "But London is a huge place," he will say. "Where in London?" You can say Lancaster Gate. Then he will ask where in Lancaster Gate, and you will say 43–44. You cannot be more specific than that.
When he asks you which Earth you come from, what will you say? "Heaven on earth. Am I in the right place? Isn't this heaven in heaven?" Then he will look at you with different eyes, all full of expectation, and ask you plenty of questions.
First, you have to show an unmistakable sign; if you have lived in heaven on earth, then you must be full of God's love, which must be recognizable. Can you present yourself in that way? Can you collect that love here so that when you go to the spirit world, you have God's love surrounding you?
God is Father and has the Father's love. We are His children. The son has the son's love for his father, and the father and son love each other. The only way to become one is to love each other.
The person welcoming you to the spirit world will ask the daughter of God if she has a husband, and she will brighten up and say, "Yes, I have one." Then he will ask, "As the daughter of the Father must have married the son of the Father, you must be the daughter-in-law. Did you really love him?" Then she will have to say strongly, "Yes." "Do you mean you loved your husband just like God Himself?" Then she will say even more strongly, "Yes, I loved him even more than my own Father."
If God overhears this conversation, will He be upset, or will He nod with approval? Do you think God will be happy? He will say to the universe, "Did you hear what my daughter said? That's my girl."
True love is always envious of stronger love. When someone loves more strongly, everyone will really look up to that person. In the Unification Church, they say all the members really love me. I'm not sure if it is true, but that's what they say.
Do you really love me?
Will you say you don't have to do anything more after that, or would you love the Unification Church and also non-Unification Church people just as much as you love me?
If I encourage you to go and witness, then it means I want you to love the people, doesn't it? Am I losing your love that way, or am I gaining more love? I am gaining more because part of me is witnessing too and becoming bigger and bigger.
You must love the rest of mankind with the same love with which you love God, your mate, and your family. This is heaven on earth. Women are notorious for being changeable, aren't they?
They change their minds quite often. I was sure that Oriental women are like that, but after being around Western women for several years, I've noticed that they are even more so. Do you think women often change or never change? That's one area in which we have to be very candid. God really loves the person who is candid in basic things.
It is likely that if you are happily married and after two months your husband loses an eye and a leg in an accident, your love towards him will be minus one eye and one leg. Would you demand a divorce?
Isn't that typical of how Western women do things?
Would your love be just the same, or would it increase to compensate for his loss? You always know the right answer, but would you really be able to do that? Actually, that is God's way, and those who are not that way are on the side opposite God.
In the worldly sense, if parents have a child with a birth defect, will they hate him or love him even more than their other children?
Parental nature unmistakably reflects God's character. That character was not lost even after the fall, and this is how the restoration of fallen man is possible.
If God did not have that, He would never be able to restore fallen man into the original way. This is why all of you, as filial sons and daughters, must look up to your own parents, giving your love, respect, and everything good to them. Ultimately, you must become like them.
This is a totally new concept for Western people, but they must develop that character. Everyone must apply it, not only to parents, but to the king or government, and love other people with the same pattern of love.
There were no presidents in the Garden of Eden, but mankind grew in numbers over the years. History is always moving toward a certain goal, and kings were originally supposed to have served God's purpose.
However, kings became corrupt and could no longer be depended upon, so God supported the development of democracy, in which presidents were elected by the people, even though originally, presidents had no role in the world.
Do our parents change when presidents change? A nation changes its presidents many times, and the people also change their attitudes towards their wife or husband and their own parents.
Even though you change your president, how can you change your husband? Wives never used to change husbands, but now people think nothing of changing husbands and even change their attitudes towards their parents.
Sun Myung Moon
We cannot elect God, can we? Can we elect our Lord by taking a vote?
No, God raises a Messiah up, and man must accept him. Isn't that true? All traditions must be maintained and passed on correctly. We must realize that in the democratic process, presidents are constantly changing, and this eventually leads to a change in attitudes towards husbands, wives, and even parents. Even religious thinking may be dominated by that direction.
If the kings of history had been wise, then there would have been no problems.
Even if a king had a defect, yet the people supported him with love, he would try harder and do better. But because the kings could not fulfill their missions, presidents were elected as servants of the people, doing their work for them.
The president is more of a minister than a master, so the roles are upside down.
Today, the English people don't regard the royal family as they once did. The queen only maintains her position. People even try to influence God by saying God is dead. That's what some famous theologians claim.
Today, my talk concerns the future. What is the nature of the future? What is the real nature of tomorrow? We envision the future as heaven, and the very center of the future is God Himself.
What is God like, and how are people supposed to live centered around Him? Just like God Himself, we will live for others, not for ourselves.
If everyone lived in that way and extended this love to the farthest point, then the world of such men would never perish but would actualize heaven.
Then why are we persecuted?
The reason is that there are many white religious leaders in this world who can't understand why you follow an Oriental religious leader. Don't you think this is the real reason why many white people are opposing me? They have no other reason.
If I did the same things I have been doing and saying, but I were a tall, handsome white man with blond hair and blue eyes and a high nose whose parents were English, do you think white people would oppose me for what I am doing now?
You are equally accused and persecuted by your neighbors and even your country, only because you follow my teaching and my path.
If you didn't follow me, you would never be persecuted. Knowing that you will be persecuted, why do you follow me with your life?
It is because I am a different kind of person in that I am consistent and never change. My view of love is different from that of the fallen world, which has the wrong view. I have a stronger love, and you follow me because I have a view of the ideal love and the ideal personality.
What is this ideal view all about? Is it a simple matter of you loving me and me loving you, and that's it?
Am I living for myself?
On the contrary, it is unchanging love that grasps God with the right hand and all of mankind with the left hand. Perhaps our own parents' love is just as sweet or more so in a certain respect, but is it their nature to think about the world and God?
No, they aren't primarily concerned with that. They live with the attitude, "I come first and then God." You were raised to think that with your right hand, you must grasp their left hand, and with your left hand, grasp their right hand and love them without caring about God or the world.
What has that got to do with you?
We have come to realize that the bad parent is the one who urges you to love him and no one else.
What about me? I am also a parent. Even if you don't love me so much, if I find you love God and mankind, I will be convinced that you are a good person. The difference is that I have a pattern of love that is entirely different from the world's.
One parent, you don't know what to call, but the other you call True Parents.
The True Parents educate you with one purpose in mind: don't live for yourself; live for the sake of others. Every sermon and teaching I give eventually rests on that point.
Sun Myung Moon
The bad parent will say, "Just love me and don't care so much about others." This is the key point where good and evil divide. Good and evil are not as different in content as they are in direction. The direction of love is what separates heaven from hell.
After being educated in this way, how are you going to live as children?
Naturally, the children will live the same way as their own True Parents. The children will grasp God with their right hand and all of mankind with their left hand, just like their parents, and not live for themselves but for all mankind as their brothers and sisters.
If all of you become like that, you can inherit the tradition of True Parents and become true parents yourselves to your physical and spiritual children. When you really come down to it, it's not a complicated question at all.
Who am I? In one word, I am a prototype. People look at me and try to follow my example. I am here so that all mankind can see me and be trained how to love one individual most dearly; after they are successful in that, they can direct that love toward their parents and brothers, and sisters. If you love your own husband and wife as much as you love me, that's fine.
If you want to be a heavenly person, you will love everyone as you love God. Then you will have achieved my standard. After being assured that you all love me, I will send you away to love the world in the same way. I will urge you to go and love your world first, and then come back to love me. The content of my teaching is elementary.
Then what is our hope for tomorrow?
For us to love someone, we must have some foundation, or even though we want to give love, we cannot do so effectively. We hope to broaden our foundation so we can love more and more.
For a white man to love another white man is relatively easy, but if a white man feels he should love a Black man, he must make an intelligent effort to achieve that love. This is why we have to develop our love.
Already, people say that the Unification Church is wealthy. If this is true, then who are we going to live for? The rich, white people or the people in adverse circumstances? My ideal is for white people to work and produce their own things and then bring them to give for the sake of Africa.
Why do I think of doing what hardly anyone else ever did?
Why did I choose that as my life's work? Only because God, our Father, is that way. But why Africa? Why not the Middle East or South America? They are the sons and daughters of God just as well.
Why do one son and daughter work hard for another son and daughter?
Can you say, "God, just love us white people and forget about black people. Cut them off and let us live happily ever after." Are there any sons and daughters who could cut off their own brothers and sisters like that? If you cannot understand, what would happen if you were put in God's position?
If you were God, what would you do?
The white people are very fortunate and have led comfortable lives, generally speaking. They are well-to-do and have all the advantages, whereas the Black sons and daughters have been suffering with almost nothing.
Would you say that they should continue to be deprived all the time while the white people continue to enjoy more? Would you feel that way if you were God Himself? Clearly not. You would cry with love for the Black people just as God does and want to do even more.
This is why I am planning to work in Africa. Now the Africans cheat white people and chase them away. Satan is working through the communists there, as we have witnessed.
That is God's way of sending a message saying, "White people, you must repent for what you have done and try to think of the welfare of Black people." When white men change, God will stop their persecution.
English people have accomplished some fantastic work during the last 400 years.
They have traveled all around the world preaching the gospel, but if they had followed our ideal, do you think they would still find themselves limited to a small island today? Certainly not.
The English would have been welcomed by every nation, small or large, civilized or uncivilized. All people would say, "English people, please come to stay with us so we can learn more about your love." By this time, there would be no necessity for boundaries, which only confine men's thinking. All of this is speculation, but man's imagination can be applied to the future, right?
Sun Myung Moon
Then what is our hope?
We hope to enlarge our foundation to love other people more. Although it may be difficult in the beginning, if we continue to broaden that foundation, we will progress with the protection of God.
Once people understand what we are doing, will they still kick us and try to chase us away, or will they gradually begin to welcome us? They will one day welcome us with arms wide open.
When you listen to my speech, there is no question that you are inspired, but when you meet persecution and become drained and weak, you might change. Earnestly try to retain the spirit from this talk this morning. Cherish it and keep this burning desire. Then eventually you will love the world more than your own country. That is our hope for the future.
Where would our heavenly life start?
Right here in London? Will it descend from the spirit world?
No, it will start around the one central point, which is the parents, but we will keep expanding our love to wider and wider territory.
England will receive our message, then neighboring countries, and finally the world. In other words, we will have a broader foundation to exercise love. When my visit here in England is over, I will go to South America, where there are predominantly Spanish-speaking people. Then I would like to go to Africa, ever widening the area that God can love.
England has lost all hope. All people, both great and small, just wish to be lucky.
They just hope their feet will stumble over something because their hands are already up in the air in resignation. They have no idea about what to do when communism gets aggressive.
When the Russians bluff the West in the name of so-called "human rights," Jimmy Carter, the President of a great nation, is shaken up and fears losing popularity.
While he is indecisive, his popularity sinks lower and lower. There is nothing for the president of the great nation of America to be fearful of.
The Russians have killed many people, and they have no right to speak of human rights to Carter, but Carter totally fails to recognize this. Why can't he say, "You communists are the ones who have killed millions of people? How can you talk about human rights?" With such a record, who is going to believe that Carter is a staunch protector of human rights?
Now Carter is beginning to realize the significance of the situation. The Russians take advantage of the free world all the time because Westerners have been naive enough to hope there is still a little decency left in the communists. They have been betrayed, however, and Carter has begun to pay attention, thinking that maybe he was too optimistic.
When the Russians became so active in Africa, he became alert and finally said he would be strong if they continued. Until that time, he always tried to respect what the Russians said, but it didn't work.
If America doesn't have a vision of the world and conduct its national business accordingly, how can it be trusted by the world?
America must be obvious in its vision. Communism has no place in God's ideal because it denies God. We see obviously that communism must come to an end and that Godism must take over. The Unification Church is determined and confident to re-educate the communist people.
We are not saying that God-fearing people should purge the communists in the way the communists have destroyed their enemies; we must tell them they are wrong and teach them the right way. That is what we are determined to do. I want you to understand clearly why we take this anti-Communist position.
Many of our missionaries have come here because the communists kicked them out of the countries God sent them to as saviors. That should not stop us. We will go back and try even harder to teach these people about God.
Therefore, the missionaries are now engaged in IOWC activities with the rest of us. But they will return to their mission countries to make inseparable ties. If a missionary marries someone in a communist country, he becomes one of them, and they can't kick him out. Our sole purpose in going there is to plant God's love there for the sake of that country, and we will do that whether we live or die.
The missionaries are here in training. They will engage in the same activities as the IOWC, practicing what we have learned in the Church, which is the life of love.
Here in England, it is relatively easy. After learning, they will return to a communist country and work the same way in a more difficult situation. Do you missionaries understand that you really have to train yourselves in a hard way here so that you will have an easier time when you return to a communist country?
Do you have a dream that in the future you will go to Africa to love more and more?
Do you feel that England is not your mission country, or do you feel that you must be successful here to be successful in your own mission country? Do you feel that what the ordinary members are doing is much easier than what you will do?
All Unification Church members must work in and love three different countries and learn three languages. After that, we must conquer three continents to widen our love before we go to God. Did you ever imagine that you would go to three countries and then three continents to witness deeply before going to heaven?
Do you have that far-reaching vision and the determination to carry it out? No matter how difficult the situation, we will go over it and become better and better prepared to go soon to three other countries and then three continents.
We will unsparingly give our tears, our sweat, and our love and later reach out to more distant areas to serve people. If we don't do that, a later generation must continue to do it. Therefore, we must try our best as long as we live so that the next generation won't have to work so hard.
Sun Myung Moon
The easiest way of doing that is to witness to our own relatives. After working hard in the Cain area, we can go back home. This is our immediate goal now.
We will make ties with impossible people through marriage and bring everything into the melting pot. Asians will think this way as well as white people and Black people. Everyone on earth will feel the same. In that case, do you think unity will be possible?
This means that you must invite people from three different parts of the world to come and live with you, treating them as your own family members. It is highly likely that if you have three sons, your first daughter-in-law will be from France, your second from Germany, and your third from England. Then you will have people from three different countries living with you, and you certainly will not fight or contradict each other.
If there is a small amount of food, you will share it in three equal parts. Take the smallest share, or better yet, all eat out of the same pot. What if part of the food goes into another's mouth and then falls back into the pot? Are you going to clean it off, or not mind and keep on eating?
Initially, it would be impossible for some of you, and you would rather not eat at all, but you must.
Loving is more difficult than eating out of that same pot. It is not so significant if white people can eat that way, but if there are African people included in your family and something drops back into the pot, you must tell yourself you should continue to eat.
By the time you can eat without it bothering you, you will be able to love truly. You must consider that the best training, and the more food that drops out of his mouth, the better it is, because then you can begin to love.
This is not a small, childish thing at all. This is where love begins. Naturally, God would focus His attention on such a family, wondering what you will do. Do you think God will be happy if you try to go over that barrier of love and finally win?
Why would God love things like that? Because there is more value in that kind of love than in simpler, easier love.
Do you think God is aware of night and day?
Does he sleep? Does he need a flashlight to go somewhere at night? If he does not sleep and doesn't need light to see in the dark, what's the difference between night and day to Him? They may be distinct to Him, but not in the way we think them different. In one sense, they are the same, and we must like nighttime as much as we like daytime.
God is apt to stay wherever there is more love. Do you think He would prefer being with a poor Black woman lovingly nursing her baby at her breast, even in filthy surroundings, or with a very sophisticated white woman who was casually feeding her baby cow's milk out of a bottle?
We say we live today to prepare for the future.
Then what preparations are we making today?
Even though we understand everything and make preparations to jump to an advanced position, once we get there, what will we do? Without love, we will never function normally, no matter where we are. In anything we do, we must pray and re-establish the original love.
When we go door to door and are persecuted, that challenge gives us some standard of love to achieve. We will love the people and never be beaten by their persecution.
We will push our level of love higher and higher every day, and even if there is more persecution because of misunderstanding, we can persevere with greater love. If we keep on living this way today, tomorrow, and every day, then we will be prepared for the world to come.
If we work day by day only for this purpose, once we get to heaven in the spirit world, we won't own anything, but the people we served while we were living here will provide us with everything we need.
Even though we are buried in another country, from all corners of the world, those who have come into contact with us will come to pay their respects at our tombs. This will immediately be reflected in the spirit world.
What about me? If I am buried in my native land, which is far away, would you go all the way there to visit my tomb? Most definitely. Do you think only the people with the same skin color as mine will shed tears, and that white people will have no tears? White people's tears will be just the same as Black people's tears.
What we are doing now is ensuring that the history of love will proceed in accordance with the advancement of history. We are very busy building bridges of love between England and Germany and Germany and France. We hope to build a wider and better bridge all over the world with all kinds of roads, just like a spiderweb, making it easy to travel from one place to another in love.
Some of the seminarians have gone to the airport to wait for standby seats back to America. I thought about why they came to England in the first place and why they didn't just buy a regular ticket.
Why are they spending a night in the cold airport, never complaining but feeling more hopeful about saving money?
They came here to build a bridge, and they are eager to go back to America now and put more work into their nation. They want to save money even when going to America. How precious is their unswerving confidence that what they have done is the best thing a human being can ever do. Isn't that valuable?
Many of you don't eat as well here as you did with your physical families, but no one's complaining. Rather, you are anxious to do more work, and your mind is full of the expectation and hope that you are doing this with deep love to be of service to other people.
When people look at us with the right mind, they will recognize that we are not poor but formidable, that we are the only hopeful people in the world.
Even though we are persecuted and don't always have the same food or clothing as other people, if we are going straight toward God's work and His future, then there is nothing miserable about us; the future belongs to God, not Satan.
Other people may have pearl necklaces, but when we go witnessing, we never feel inferior. When we fundraise, we don't use that money to buy things for ourselves, but give that money to be used for God's purpose.
I am that way. I am eager to scrape together every bit of money we can gather and try to spend it all. I know that if it is done through Principle, there will be no problem; nothing will be lost, but will come back in a different form. When I go to Africa, I will instruct the people in England to work harder because we need more money to spend in Africa.
My mother, who is deceased now, loved me very much. Even though I bought all kinds of things for other people, I never gave her even a handkerchief. I don't believe my mother is the unfortunate one, however. Although I didn't buy her anything myself, I am confident that everyone who knows me will be most anxious to buy everything for her. That is why I feel she doesn't need to be pitied.
Until this year, I have made sure Mother had only essential things and then gave everything else for the sake of witnessing and evangelism. I have never thought of my own daily life. Although there is money available, we don't keep it because it is spent on the world.
Sun Myung Moon
Only after doing that did I finally take the children to a toy shop here in London this year and liberally buy toys for them. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I even took them to the theater.
It's the Principle that you should do for Cain with the utmost devotion before you start thinking about your own family. Before I can go back and love Korea, I have to establish the condition of loving other countries more. If I cannot go directly, I will send someone on my behalf to love that country first.
What are we doing to prepare for the future?
We will prepare everything, even an economy that can produce more goods in a better way. We will have a more elevated diplomacy, one that doesn't hurt other people's feelings but fosters harmonious relations.
We will have art that all mankind can look up to. We are preparing now to love these things because they are our final objective. Therefore, we must prepare in a very concrete way now.
Our viewpoint is entirely different. This is critical, the essence of man's need. Britain needs this original way of looking at politics, economics, and everything through love. This is what is needed even in Africa. Indeed, this is what everyone is craving. Civilized countries need it even more because their systems are more complicated.
If you work in genuine love, do you think that things will get better every day and that God will help us prosper?
We certainly will not perish but will one day establish a brilliant culture based on this original way of thinking. It will never perish as other civilizations in history have.
Our culture will remain eternally. It will flow on and on and become even more brilliant because, for the first time, God can live in that civilization.
All the members of the Unification Church have superb abilities. Even though some don't show it yet, just wait two or three years. Most important of all, we have the source of power necessary to assure the future.
We not only do it ourselves but can convince other people to do the same thing because we have the essential truth to produce so many substantial works.
Even if we didn't put the emphasis on love and did it with cold intelligence, we could do the work. Just think, if we could do that with intelligence alone, with love, we would have a giant sword that can never be defeated. Every one of us is rather intelligent, and people will notice that. Then, on top of it all, we have love.
People in the world constantly change from morning until evening, but we don't change, even from year to year. People look at us lying down, standing up, upside down, in any position, and still they must admire us. We must have confidence in our own value.
I have been persecuted and opposed by all sorts of people in all countries, but we haven't perished. We keep going uphill, expanding our boundaries. More and more high-quality people have come to recognize us.
We can see that many people are opposing us, while with the same mouth, they are praising us. It's very inconsistent, but that's the way it is. They call us all sorts of names, but when the time comes, they testify that I am a righteous person.
I created The News World in a really difficult situation. The New York Times is a 100-year-old newspaper with great influence, which, politically speaking, can make or break a person. Nevertheless, it is an unjust paper, and The News World was created because a righteous paper was needed.
We spent millions of hard-earned dollars there and brought together many college-educated Unification Church members. We didn't hire one outside person but struggled along for eight months, improving the newspaper and even getting praise from the Mayor of New York.
Ultimately, all three major New York daily papers went on strike, leaving only The News World still printing. After three days, many reporters who were temporarily out of work came to The News World because they thought it was a nice newspaper.
Until then, they had never known that because they never looked at it, but when they read it, they thought it was a fascinating newspaper. They knocked on our doors, saying, "I saw your newspaper and heard you are doing very well." Then they asked, "Can we get a job?" We hired them to expand the coverage of our paper.
This is the interesting side of human life; everyone opposed us, but some bright newspapermen saw us and recognized that The News World is a high-caliber newspaper and wanted to get a job there.
They are making tremendous progress because they have worked really hard. The world can change that quickly. Our members never dreamed that the New York Times would go on strike and their reporters would come to get jobs at our newspaper.
You don't realize yet how urgent the Unification work is and what importance it has, but once you do, you will never find the time to eat or sit in the bathroom for hours and will be constantly on the run.
To live today, we must have a purpose and objective. You must live each day to train yourselves and prepare for tomorrow. When you look in the mirror and see that your once beautiful face now has wrinkles and there is nothing you can do about it, don't ever feel disappointed.
Working in the name of love. It is much more enriching than any superficial make-up. I always say that after you are married, you can put on makeup and do anything you want to your face.
Now you have no one to show your beauty to, so it's insignificant, but once you are married, you are living for your husband, and then there is a reason to use make-up. Then you must have a tidy appearance because you want to look good for him and set an example for your children. Then you can use makeup and have nicer clothing.
Love is our ultimate goal. No matter what our activity, we eventually come to the problem of love. Here and in most countries, you have houses to live in, but in Africa, you won't have houses, even though you pay money.
You should still be determined to go to Africa one day and work there on a large scale, serving the Africans, even without a house or accommodations.
If you become disappointed here, then in Africa you will be disappointed even more, and you might eventually run away. What you are doing now is persevering through all sorts of difficulties in preparation for the future.
Why are we doing this? So that we can better prepare to adapt to the spirit world. We are preparing ourselves to live effectively in the next world. What are we going to leave behind us?
Lots of love. With much love, we can work for eternity and never run down. This is how it is even possible to continue living in the spirit world with love. Without love, there is no living and no reward.
If we go to the spirit world without loving as much as we should have, we must keep repenting and help earthly men to do that in our place. We must realize that although what we are doing here may seem small, it is a huge task and very valuable and meaningful for eternity. Of that we must be confident.
Although I was born on an obscure mountain, the people of the rest of the world have now come to know me because I have been working in this way. It is not because people around the world welcomed me that I became famous.
They opposed and persecuted me, trying to stop me, but someone outdid their work and made me famous regardless. That someone is our Father, God. What God did for me, He will do for you, for all of us. The slightest thing we do will never go unnoticed by God.
Our hope for the future is to move toward bigger and bigger love. To secure that bigger love, we must sacrifice even more. Even though we may depart from this world while we are doing that, it is still the best way of life.
We are not going to pass from this world in despair as others have done, but will be looking up in expectation to meet our Father, God. We are the only ones who can die in that hope. Then there is no question that we will be accepted as a son or daughter of God Himself.
Do not concentrate on clever or devious ways of doing things. Eventually, these are not effective. Acquire a genuine feeling of love and don't lose it.
After I leave, would you continue to work with even more enthusiasm than when I am here? Then you must pay more attention to each other for the common objective and purpose. I ask you to say at least three good and positive things and do three good deeds every day, no matter how small.
If you are going to thank someone, don't just do it out of habit but with a genuine motive. Perhaps that person has never heard anyone say thank you the way you will.
If you keep doing this, as our work blossoms and grows, you too will be blessed, coming nearer and nearer to heaven. Those who are determined to do that, raise your hands, please. Let us pray.
Sun Myung Moon