We often see in the surroundings of our daily lives that all things in the world strive for what is better, for what is more valuable, and develop toward that.
The person whom God, human beings, and all creation want to face
Looking even at yourselves, to possess something of greater value, you discard what is without value. When asked which of two things is better—that is, when distinguishing between good and bad—you make your choice regarding which of them contains more of what is valuable. You do the same when choosing objects. It is the same in dealing with people. Among your friends, with whom do you try to become close, and with whom do you try to form a relationship? You try to draw near to the person who has more value than you, who is better, who is higher, who possesses broader content. And it is the mind of us human beings to want to possess, through any relationship whatsoever, the content which that person has.
Seen in this light, it is the same with God. Just as we human beings, whether in dealing with objects or in dealing with people, have this mind that centers on what is more valuable and wish to conform to it and become one with it, so it is also with God, who created us human beings. It goes without saying that God’s love is concentrated, God’s desire is concentrated, and all of God’s will is concentrated, centering on what is more valuable.
You who are here and I are in the same position, but if a person were possessing better value—that is, a person possessing the broader, deeper, higher content, inside and out, that all people demand—we in this position would want to draw near to that person, and God too would want to draw near to that person.
If God wants to draw near and human beings want to draw near, we can know the fact that all things, which were created for human beings, cannot but draw near to him as well. Seen in this way, human beings can be called the lords of all creation.
Then, considering the question of how valuable a being the central being who can be the example before the whole must be, he cannot but be a being of infinite value.
If God exists, God Himself, also cannot but take hold of that person who becomes the example and become one together with him. Therefore, that person must be a being who can encompass absolute value and more.
Seen this way, the question is what kind of person the person is who becomes such an example, with whom God becomes one and with whom all creation and the universe can become one. When we ask what the ideal standard that a true person hopes for is, what the life of that true person is, what the standard forming that true person’s character is, or what the standard of that person who possesses all the ideal inner elements we hope for as human beings is, it is clear that it is not something sorrowful.
The position that becomes the example
No one likes sorrow. People hope that trouble will have nothing to do with them or their families. When we see a family suffering affliction, we come to sympathize with that family. Sympathy is giving what is one’s own to them. If some person is unfortunate, then for him to move to a position of not being unfortunate, to remove the conditions of that misfortune, he has to receive the help of those around him; therefore, such a position is not desirable.
Then what kind of position is a truly happy position?
It is a position where one can always give. And in giving, one must not give sorrow, but must always be able to give joy. This is what everyone hopes for.
If there is a person who becomes the example, who can be the center of all existence, in what position will he be the example? It will not be a sorrowful position. Nor will it be an evil position. Then what kind of position will it be? It will be a true position, a joyful position. Moreover, that position will be an infinitely happy position. That happiness must not be happiness within the boundary line of a finite realm, but happiness in an infinite position. When we ask whether a person possessing the content of such value has existed on this earth, there was none.
What about Jesus himself, who came to this earth as the son of God?
Of course, even though he was one who could be the example for all existence, because he was placed in an evil world, he was in a position where he had to give. Because the world Jesus himself faced was sorrowful, he always had to give. After giving, a high position becomes low. It is the same as a full tub of water, which decreases after one has ladled it out.
However high the position of Jesus was, when he faced a sorrowful environment, he had to give. And after giving, what happens? That very self cannot be placed in a joyful environment.
Then why could Jesus himself not stand in a position where he could be joyful? Because after giving, one inevitably runs into a difficult environment, and the content by which one can be joyful decreases. The problem is how to make up for what has decreased. If one cannot make it up, he will feel unspeakable misfortune, unspeakable loneliness, unspeakable hardship.
What is the only way to make this up after giving?
It is to comfort the sorrowful person and become one with him and, by giving him one’s help, to raise him from the sorrowful position to a better position and pull him up to a higher place. If, after giving, one can be repaid for what one has given, he is a happy person. Happiness begins from there.
To give an example, if a sorrowful person who was in a position of ten came up to a position of twenty because of oneself, then although one’s own content decreased by ten, that person possesses the content of having risen by ten. When what has decreased in this way is reinforced, that content often develops because of oneself. When, centering on oneself, it is not loss or decline but a phenomenon of development that unfolds, joy comes in that same measure.
Furthermore, just because one has planned a work of one hundred does not mean that the work is achieved all at once. Ten is achieved, twenty is achieved, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty—and as the possibility of its achievement rises in this way up to one hundred, what was hoped for gradually comes nearer, and seeing that, people feel joy. Seen from this point, the question is whether we can become people who, as the title of the message says, can take it as our example.
The standard of character of the person who becomes the example
Then what is an example?
What kind of person is the person who can become the example?
He is a person who raises what is low and stands in a position where he himself can also be raised. Without that, he does not become the example. In other words, the person who can become the example is a person needed above and below, a person needed to the left and right, a person needed before and behind. He is a person who can reinforce this side and can also reinforce that side. It is not that he merely reinforces and that is the end of it; it is a position where, after reinforcing, he can be replenished. If one cannot stand in this position, that person does not become the example.
That standard by which one can become the example must be an example not only in the East but in the West as well. Furthermore, it must be an example not only in the earthly world but in the heavenly world as well. It must be an example not merely for a time or within some particular environment, but an example in a position that represents the whole.
Then what kind of person is the person who can become the example? He is a person who exerts influence upon his object and, rather than suffering loss through it, can receive one more in return. Seen from this point, he must be connected with a value higher than that of us human beings. Taking a tree as an example, a tree has roots, a trunk, and branches. Because a thick branch receives much nourishment from the root, countless branches spread out and countless leaves come forth. The principle is the same as how such a thick branch emerges as the central branch among the branches.
When, centering on yourselves, you have formed relationships with many people, you must stand in a position where they take you as their example, so that if you go left, they go left; if you go right, they go right; if you move, they move; if you are still, they are still. But it must not end with that. Possessing content that is not temporary but perpetual, you must stand in a position where you can exert your influence over the whole and where you yourself can also receive influence. Then you cannot but develop infinitely.
If a tree stood in such a position, it would be the same for that tree. Therefore, only when the beings one relates with are raised does one also receive relational influence, and one’s own value of existence is raised. When one comes into such a position, a true relationship inevitably develops more and more.
God hopes that you will become an object of comfort to sorrowful people
We know that fallen human beings live in an evil world and are in the midst of sorrow. Then, with what must you, who live centered on the will, become an example before those people who have sorrow? Without giving content that can comfort sorrow, you cannot give joy. In other words, if the standard of the sorrowing object is ten, when you fill him with a standard above that ten—eleven, twelve, or twenty—then that person who was sorrowful rejoices.
Then what is it that you, who must advance Heaven’s Providence to remove this sorrow, should regard as the first problem?
It is how close you are to God and whether, in attending God, you attend Him in such a way that He can always be joyful. It is that through me God must not be made sorrowful, but through me God must be made joyful. When God, who has felt loneliness and desolation greater than any sorrow I have felt, seeks to resolve it and tries to make it up by Himself, if I become an object of comfort who can make it up on His behalf, would I not then be a person absolutely necessary before God?
If you become an object of comfort to sorrowful people, how valuable a thing would that be?
That is why it was said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” The kingdom of heaven is not somewhere else; it is within my mind. The person who possesses the kingdom of heaven is not a person who lives by sorrow but a person who lives by joy. Moreover, he does not live pursuing finite value but lives pursuing infinite value.
We are walking a course of life that has an end, yet we do not live a life that has an end but a life without end. Even in horizontal living, it must not end as horizontal living but must without fail be related to deep vertical content. When deep vertical content constantly exerts influence upon the horizontal environment and one comes to stand in a position where the environment can be made more radiant, that person without fail becomes the center of that environment in his daily life.
In this sense, to make this sorrowful world, this satanic world, this evil world better, we must without fail give. Then the question here is whether you have a supply line by which you can give infinitely.
If there is something that becomes the example, that example does not apply to only one place. With absolute content, it must transcend every environment and become the standard. And so, centering on it, a line is drawn, and centering on it, a form is made, and one must strive to conform to it.
God, too, hopes that, by centering on you, you will become such a person who is the example. The more evil the environment, the more it demands a person possessing such value. Why? Because the more sorrowful the environment, the more it needs something that can be the example.
When one becomes such a self and purifies the environment so that the central being rejoices, then the people placed in that environment can also rejoice, centering on the person who is the example.
If they can receive from that center content by which today is more joyful than yesterday and tomorrow can be more joyful than today, then such a one cannot but be a person who, as a human being whom God loves and with whom God can be together, becomes the example before all people.
Jesus, who lived a life monotonous outwardly yet deep and high inwardly
Looking at Jesus, Jesus’ life was monotonous. His life for more than thirty years, assisting as a helper in the family of Joseph the carpenter, was extremely monotonous. Yet although outwardly he did not live an ever-changing (變化無常) life, behind that monotonous life he lived, he possessed complex contentment if you call it complex, broad if you call it broad, deep if you call it deep—enough to overcome all his environment and more. That is why he was able to fill in the path of suffering and the path of loneliness with that deep inner life and have more besides. Because he possessed inner influence by which he could fill in not only his suffering but even the suffering of others, God could not but establish him as the figure who could become the example in creating a new history. In other words, Jesus lived a monotonous life outwardly, but inwardly he lived a complex, deep, and high life. You must know this.
Jesus’ outward life could not escape the limited environment of Joseph’s family, nor could it escape that workplace; yet inwardly he lived a life possessing broad, high, and deep content by which he went beyond Joseph’s family, beyond the people of Israel, beyond the world, and further still could live in the kingdom of heaven. Because he lived a life that filled in that outward monotonous life and had more besides, God could not but recognize Jesus as a human being who could be the example above any other human being. That is why God could not but form a relationship with Jesus and stood in a position where He could not but cooperate with Jesus. Consequently, Jesus was able to set out, centering on a deep, broad, and high new worldview that no one had felt and no one had realized.
Then what did Jesus do to stand in such a position?
In his daily life, he did not live only the outward life, that is, the horizontal life, but lived even a vertical life to form a profound relationship with God.
You must know that he lived this dual life, which no one else can live. In other words, he did not live only a life of being able to give; because he had a foundation on which he could be supplied eternally with that high and great value from God, he was able to bear a difficult environment, a sorrowful environment, and more besides.
If you become a person who is the example
When we members of the Unification Church came into the church and first encountered the will, we set out in the midst of joy.
You must have felt that everything in the world came into being centering on you. The more grace you received, the more you must have felt that everything was being resurrected centering on you, and that everything was forming relationships centering on you. Therefore, there must have been a time when you felt that if you rejoiced, all creation also rejoiced, and if you were sorrowful, all creation was sorrowful together with you.
At such a time, however evil the world is, it does not appear as an evil world, and however sorrowful the world is, it does not appear sorrowful. Looking upon the possibility that joy could dwell in that sorrowful world, one comes to live a life of pledging tomorrow’s hope and tomorrow’s responsibility. You must have experienced such a thing in the past.
But that standard at that time and the present are different. They cannot but be different. The sensation felt at that time was not a sensation felt on a flat plane but a three-dimensional sensation.
There are many people who have had the experience that, even in dealing with a person, their eye for seeing that person’s good points became brighter than their eye for his bad points, and that in feeling too, their sensitivity to feeling the good side became quicker than to feeling the bad side.
Although one ought to make such a life the foundation and go on living centering on higher and broader content, in social life and in the life of faith, people are acting out of habit as they did in the past. That all this faculty of discernment has been lost cannot but be a deeply regrettable thing.
When, in the course of encountering the will alone, one comes into a position of grace, one feels joy alone. Joy comes in such measure that others, looking on, could not understand it. There are times like when spring comes and all the trees and plants blossom and give off fragrance. Or there are times like when in autumn all the grain has ripened and awaits the master’s hand, and one feels to the full the joy of harvesting it. The person who has not had such a time is a pitiful person.
The more one advances into a position of value where one becomes close to God and becomes one with God, the more he is a person who can eternally be the example. On the day the center that can be the example is determined, the beings of all existence will harmonize with him and joyfully respond with him. Therefore, the more one advances into such a position, the more even a sorrowful world does not appear sorrowful. All the sorrowful things I face do not rule over me; rather, transcending sorrow, the joy induced in the midst of that sorrow rules over me. Is such a position not the position that can be the example for human beings? Is such a position not the position of having possessed the kingdom of heaven in my mind?
There are many wives here among you, but only when your mind is like that can you also lead your family to become such a family. If you wear green glasses and look at the world, all the phenomena of the world will appear green. Good and bad results appear not because of the object but according to my mind. Therefore, one must be able to sustain this and to take dominion over it.
To become a perfect person
Seen from this point, what kind of person is a perfect person?
A person who, when there is an evil person, picks apart that person’s evil points one by one and hates him by ten if the evil is ten, is not good. One must be a person who can forget that evil and appraise the value of the goodness dwelling within that evil as being beyond the evil. Only then can one relate to that evil person from a position of goodness and guide him into a new position and present to him the conditions of happiness in that new position. Through that, that person can take me as his example and follow and can form a relationship centering on me.
You must know that if, because the other is evil, one stands in a position of cursing “evil” (惡) itself and of appraising the evil as being worse than the ten it is and cursing it, then “goodness” (善) itself cannot exist upon this earth.
Therefore, what kind of person is a good person?
He is a person who loves even an evil person and who, when he faces a sorrowful person, does not leave that sorrow as that person’s own but can feel it as his sorrow. If one comes to stand in a position where he enters into that sorrowful place, indemnifies the sorrow, and can give his joy to that sorrowful person, then that person can be an example in any environment.
Then what must one do to become such a person?
One must transcend flat habits and concepts. In other words, one must think, “I was born for that person’s sake, so I will become even an offering for that person’s sake,” and again, “I was born to make evil people into good people.”
If one is a person who lives with the concept that he lives as well for their sake, then when there is a difficult problem in that environment, he will not leave that problem just as it is but will regard it as his lifelong work and remove all evil and make things good.
To become good, one must live not thinking of evil as belonging to others, but feeling it as his pain, staying up all night praying for them with tears, and holding the heart of offering a sacrifice of atonement for their sins. Such a person cannot but become the central being of an evil person’s original nature.
Jesus Christ, who became the cosmic example
The one who stood in this position was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not merely the savior of an age in a flat position; passing through the ages of history, he is the savior of the past and not only of the past but also the savior of the future.
Therefore, looking upon all the historical moments of humankind yet to come, he personally experienced the sorrow of humankind, thinking, “The people of the past had such sorrow, the people of the present have such sorrow, and the people of the future will have such sorrow.”
Was it not Jesus Christ who, for the sake of such humankind, stood in the position of the inner center and the outer center, understood them, sympathized with them, regarded all their difficulties as his difficulties, and struggled while shedding tears? We know that we human beings inevitably seek to become one centering on a person who stands in such a position.
Therefore, what kind of person is a fine person, that is, a good person?
We commonly appraise a good person, or a fine person, as one who sacrifices himself and helps others and forgives others and who, when others have difficulties, regards those difficulties as his own. You must know that wanting to draw near to such a person is the path our mind desires, the path our mind seeks. If there is such a person who becomes the example, goodness develops through that person.
Why do children like their parents?
Because parents, however bad their child may be, do not leave him as he is but wish to pull that child and move him to a good position. They do not leave him to remain a bad child. Because their heart is more earnest than that of the child who is in a bad position, the child likes his parents. In this way, parents are in the position of goodness before their children.
In the same way, that human beings take God as their example and seek Him as the absolute center of goodness, and that they wish to settle everything and have everything decided together with God, is because God is in the position of a parent. Because God is one who, when His children, humankind, are sorrowful, does not leave humankind as it is but digs His way down into the very valley of their sorrow and stands in the position of wanting to change that sorrow into His own sorrow and be sorrowful in their place, we take Him as our example and want to become completely one with Him and live together with Him. We would rather not be separated from Him. We want to live together with Him forever and ever.
To become a person who is the example, one must stand in a position close to God
The closer one is to God, the more monotonous the matter is. There is no one but God and me. Yet if one analyzes that monotonous content, it can represent the whole. Why? Because it becomes the example of the whole universe and becomes content that can deal with a thousand people, ten thousand people. Because there is content by which relationships can be formed in all directions, with goodness as the footing; the deeper I dig into it, the more infinite stimulation I can feel and the more infinitely new aspects I can encounter. There, human beings can feel happiness. The reason we seek God is that God is such a God.
Today’s scholars, or literary figures, or world-level figures are people who, the closer they come to such a vertical position, or to the original nature of human beings, to the center that is the example, the more they can feel a three-dimensional sensation. If they feel that sensation directly, they will be able to express that content clearly. What is expressed in that way cannot but become a world-level literary work, cannot but become a world-level theory.
Therefore, to stand in the true position where one can be the example, one cannot but stand in a position close to God. Because God is an eternal being and an infinite being, one must possess infinite content together with that true original nature. Thus, one must possess a heart that, rather than being finished after giving, can give again even after giving a thousand times, ten thousand times. This is what becomes the problem.
In your life of faith, on the course of seeking God, what kind of person will the person be whom you can take as your example—that is, the person of whom you can say, “He is a person who can be the example”? He will be a person who, when I suffer grief, can dissolve that grief. And he will be a person who can leave joy behind more eternally. Only then does he become the example. God is like that.
The joy felt centering on God is not temporary. It remains forever. The joy you felt in the midst of grace, the revelation in a dream, or the joy you shared with people who believe in God—that is not temporary. It is not forgotten for a lifetime. Why is that so? Because it is close to the truth. The more true a thing is, the more eternal it is. Because the more true a thing is, the more it is a position that becomes the example; it can form relationships with the whole. That is why, try as one might, it cannot be forgotten.
In our life of faith, in God’s sight, we members of the Unification Church are in the position of lamps. To become a central lamp in a world like darkness, the question is how bright the light of that lamp is. It must not be a lamp that is lit for a moment and goes out, but a being that can manifest an ever-greater light as the days go by. To become such a being, one must form a relational relationship centering on the subject that is the example. Just as when one forms a relational relationship with the subject and the two unite and give and receive with each other, a brighter light can be emitted; thus, the broader the relationship in which one can give and receive, the more one becomes a being that does not decline but can emit a light of greater value.
In the life of faith, God does not hope for a person whose life of faith grows slack and retreats, but will hope that one becomes a person who can rise higher and higher. Therefore, you must become broad and high in the inner world of the heart (심정) and in outward life and become a friend of God, a temple in which God can dwell. God comes to visit when one stands in such a position of becoming the true center.
In your married life, when the husband is a person who is an example on the outward side, you perhaps are happy from an outward position. But everything between husband and wife does not end with the outward position. While, of course, the conditions of outward happiness are demanded, one must be able to convey the conditions of inner happiness to his wife. Such a husband cannot but be a good husband. Neither should a wife end as a wife who can be praised only on the inner side. She must become a wife who can be praised on the outward side as well. Husband and wife must take a position where they can be examples to each other.
Combine outward life and inner life well
Let us think about what it is that can be the example. Outward life is monotonous. You eat breakfast and then work, eat lunch and then work again, and then eat supper and sleep. It is monotonous like this. Next comes the work of raising children. This too is a repetition and, therefore, monotonous. But it does not end as something monotonous.
The outward life of human beings is monotonous, yet behind that outward life there is one side of inner life that is broad, high, deep, and full of complexity.
Unless one is a person who possesses the inner capacity to move and push through all the monotonous outward environment freely at will, he will without fail become discouraged and fall into despair in that environment.
A husband and wife who, because some measure of foundation has been laid in their outward life, are happy with that are a husband and wife who cannot be an example. Even though outward life is happy, to make that outward life more radiant and manifest it as something happier, one must have broad and deep inner relationships. This is what is necessary. Inside and outside must both be furnished. One must not have only one side. Nor must one have only a flat plane. One must have three-dimensional content. This is what becomes the problem.
Looking at our daily life, we are awake and active more than twelve hours. If we say that of the twenty-four hours we sleep about eight, then for what do we live the remaining sixteen?
If we live entirely centering on outward matters, with what do we reinforce the inner? With what will we reinforce the inner relationship by which the outward life can be moved?
A person for whom a monotonous life has become habitual and who thinks that this is human life is nothing more than a person who belongs to the world. One must be able to pioneer that worldly environment of living and to live a life that endows that worldly environment with content of a higher order of value. Only then can the position of goodness be determined in an evil world. A person who cannot live a life that takes dominion over the outward life cannot be called a person of faith. He cannot be called a person of Heaven.
Jesus’ outward life was monotonous, but inwardly he lived a life for the people and for the whole of humankind. He embraced the value of such an inner life, felt it, and lived experiencing it. Because Jesus lived such a broad, deep, and high inner life, he was able to become the friend of humankind in the age of history and, becoming the example in human history, has moved thousands of years of history so that people would come to resemble him.
What words I speak and what actions I take as I live are important. What kind of life is the life of facing one’s children as a mother in the family and of living attending to one’s husband as a wife?
That life is generalized. You are all treading a generalized course. Is this goodness? Can it become goodness? Such a life of us human beings cannot be taken as the example. But if it is a life together with God, and if it is something of greater value, then it can be said to become the example. Therefore, what enables one to live a life of greater value that can be taken as an example is being close together with God.
Become a family that is the example before the satanic world
How must a person on Heaven’s side live?
In the family, when a wife faces her husband, she must not face him on a flat plane only. She must face him on the foundation of her inner life. Just because her husband’s way of treating her has changed somewhat from yesterday, the wife must not treat her husband badly in return. There must be no difference.
If he treats me well, I must feel a higher inner stimulation, and even if he treats me badly, rather than criticizing it, I must become a self who can make up for what is bad. Such a wife is a wife needed by her husband. Only when the husband, likewise, becomes a person who can be that way before his wife can that family develop.
But a family in which they bite and tear at each other, find fault, and view each other with antagonism will regress and be destroyed. That is, they cannot but separate. You must know this.
Therefore, the standard by which one can become the example centering on the family is that husband and wife live centering on inner character, acknowledging each other’s valuable content and reinforcing each other’s lacking points. You must know that only then can that family become the example to the outward satanic world. It must not end with a wife who treats her husband that way and a husband who treats his wife that way; as the days go by, they must broaden the scope and make it three-dimensional. Only when one comes to know that all people need what has been joyful in his family and stands in a position of striving to propagate and develop it before the world does, he becomes a person who can be the center of goodness, the example of goodness, representing God. You must know this.
What must one do to live such a life?
One must connect the whole of one’s life with God. When there is a bad matter, do not try to settle it between human beings. Settle it together with God. Settle it through faith. Also, when there is a good matter, one must not be pleased centering on oneself. One must be able to be pleased together with God.
Although giving and receiving (授受) has begun between you and you, one must think that the relationship and the motive were always formed first between God and me. A person who in this way relates every problem with God and establishes a system of living in which he tries to settle accounts together with God will without fail develop.
Let us become people whom even Satan avoids
Within our lives there are periods of indemnity (탕감). Whether in normal living or in abnormal living, there are also positions of misfortune. But one must not digest that misfortune as misfortune. When one runs into an unfortunate circumstance, he must not settle it by himself but must digest it by forming a relationship with God.
Then why is it that unfortunate things come to me? It is because God has been carrying out the history of indemnity. The history of indemnity is carried out with the people and the world at stake. In carrying out the history of indemnity, indemnity cannot be made unless a good person becomes the offering. That is the content of Restoration (복귀). Therefore, if I, who am good, have stood in an unfortunate position, I must know that it is because I have taken up a burden to save all people. That I bear such a burden is the proper way of responding to God’s love.
If there is a person who, in this way, lives together with God and digests things together with God, then everything he faces begins together with God and is concluded together with God. Therefore, that person can give infinitely and have more besides, and becomes a subject who can form infinite relationships at any time. You must think about this.
Just because today has been good, one must not say, “God, today I am truly thankful.” And just because it has been sorrowful, one must not say, “God, today was truly sorrowful.” If it is good, one must be thankful as it is good, and if it is bad, one must be thankful as it is bad. It perhaps is a minus for me, but if in the public sphere it can be good for the whole, one must be pleased for the sake of the whole. If through me the whole can be good, one must be pleased.
Thus, goodness is giving what is good before the whole. Because goodness is wanting to give what is more precious and of broader scope, even though I am in a lonely and painful position, I must know how to be thankful. To give goodness to the world of the object, one must know how to be thankful even for such pain.
As you know, Mrs. Jeong Seok On’s mother is Mrs. Kim Seong Do, and Mrs. Kim Seong Do and Mrs. Jeong Seok On give thanks. They are ones who give thanks for this and give thanks for that.
If you think about it quietly, that is right. Satan cannot invade a person who knows how to be thankful. Even if Satan has invaded, he runs away. Even supposing one receives Satan’s invasion, one thinks, “God has given me a trial to indemnify the whole.” Because facing such a person once, and twice, and three times—the more he faces him, the more he himself is ruined—Satan will not face him even if told to. Yet the more one tries to avoid this, the more Satan pursues him.
God ought originally to be a God who faces only what is good, yet because the first human ancestors fell, He was changed into a sorrowful position. Therefore, to become one with these human beings, God could not but take upon Himself the whole of that sorrow. Without wearing a sorrowful expression, without standing in a position of saying that He is not sorrowful, He cannot become a good God, a God of joy. He cannot become a God who can have a starting point of joy.
Therefore, God has until now walked a laborious course for the sake of this sorrowful earth. Had He instead thought that because it is laborious and painful, it is a road not to be walked, goodness could not have set out. But God walked this road because, however hard and difficult it might be, this road is a road walked for the sake of goodness and a road for finding the more radiant value of goodness.
Even if this road were the road of death, He walked it while finding infinite happiness there and finding eternal joy. Though the start was not a start of joy, without centering on a God who could wrap sorrowful content in joy and digest it with joy and advance, the joyful kingdom of heaven could not have been established.
Therefore, Jesus did not pray for his joy or happiness. When he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said,
“Abba, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as the Father wills.”
What is the Father’s will?
It is to take upon oneself the sorrow of all people. It is to take upon oneself the death and suffering of all people. It is that the Father’s will is to present happiness to all people, even if Jesus is sacrificed.
Before such a will of the Father, when one is infinitely pained and infinitely afraid and runs into the final barrier, it is despairing, but one must not despair in that place—one must go beyond that despair and have hope. Because Jesus went over that hill with the conviction that the road he was walking was not a road of ruin but that he was crossing a hill for the sake of a world of new beginnings; from there the new history of Christianity, a history of joy, set out.
Let us absorb what is bad and change it into an element of life
If more than two-thirds of your lifetime were an unspeakably wretched life, an unspeakably painful life, could you cut away all of that two-thirds of your life? No. You cannot cut it away. It follows you without fail.
Because we are fallen descendants, we were born as the fruit of the recompense for the sins of our ancestors. Therefore, in our lifetime, there are highs and lows.
Then can we discard the low and take only the high?
That cannot be. One must properly accept everything as one's destiny, and if there is joy in the high, then, centering on that joyful content, one must pull up the sorrow that has fallen into despair. One must be able to possess such reserve strength of joy, such reserve strength of hope. To live a life of faith from such a position is the course of life for us fallen human beings today.
What you must know here is that when one says, “I must establish an example of love. I must establish an example of living. I must establish an example of life. I must establish an example of character. I must establish an example in my family. Or, I must establish an example in society and in the nation.” There is not only what is good there, but there is more that is bad than what is good. More than two-thirds is bad. What is good does not appear. Even looking at the social pages of the newspaper, there are more bad articles than good articles. They put in almost nothing but bad articles.
Therefore, people who intend to digest this world and establish a good world are being pushed about by such things and driven about by such things. But one must be able to swallow this, digest it, and make it into nourishment. And having planted the calm, composed inner goodness of God, one must make the elements of evil into manure or into nutrients and thus into a motive for development. Only then can one possess vitality.
What is filthy is bad, but when it is absorbed as fertilizer for the growth of life, even that filthy thing is necessary. For even if a seed is planted in a place where filthy manure has been spread, it makes no difference to the seed. When this seed puts down its roots in a filthy ash heap, if it is an ash heap, or in a manure heap, if it is a manure heap, and absorbs it and comes to possess vitality, then that manure becomes a factor causing the living being to grow. Likewise, even though you have trials and suffering, if you only possess the subjective capacity to digest those trials and that suffering, you can become a person of character radiant through all ages.
Today our Unification Church too is on a course going toward the evil world. On that road there is the happiness of the Unification Church and the good standard of the Unification Church, but that happiness and good standard do not appear first. Because it must without fail walk the road of indemnity and walk the road of responsibility and mission, it appears not first as something good but as something evil and sorrowful. If it appeared only as something good, anyone at all could go. That is why it appears as something sorrowful.
That sorrow is a denominational sorrow, but it is a sorrow that can represent the people and a sorrow that can represent the world. The greater and higher and broader that sorrow, the more it is an indemnity for making the Unification Church worldwide. It is not something that ruins the Unification Church. In this way, on the day it crosses over the hill with the subjective capacity to digest everything, the Unification Church can lay a worldwide foundation.
The Unification Church, which must become an example to the world
Where does the reason lie that I always tell you to overcome?
It is because if you endure and cross over, there is hope. But in enduring and crossing over, it is not crossing over while weeping and wailing. Overcoming is crossing over with an appearance of not being troubled, however troublesome it is.
Even though one is sorrowful, one must cross over with an appearance of not being sorrowful. That is true overcoming. It is not crossing over reluctantly but crossing over with endurance. It is gritting one’s teeth, enduring, and crossing over. Only when, however lonely and sorrowful and painful it is, one can digest it with joy and cross over, can even what is evil, even hell, be made into the kingdom of heaven.
Only then can one be an example as a true person of faith. Moreover, it becomes the foundation on which one can be an individual example to the world. You must know that, going further, it will not become a foundation on the level of an organization.
If you consider that you live seventy or eighty years, and that two-thirds of that is a sorrowful life, then what must be done with this two-thirds? Centering on God, it must be made into a joyful life. It must be made into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a place where one lives while giving. God too must give. Parents must give to their children. Even after giving something good, if there is something better, wanting to give that as well is the heart of a parent. Is it not so?
However fine the holiday clothes they dress their babies in, however good the food they have fed them, they are not satisfied with that but wish they had done something better for them. Wanting to give something better even after having given is the heart of a parent and the heart of God. Therefore, when two-thirds of your lifetime is unfortunate, the problem is how to digest this. Everyone has a hill. What is important is whether one has acquired the qualification to break down that hill and digest it.
If God were to give you a prize, where would the place of giving that prize be?
Would He give the prize in a place where all people are watching? No. Of course He could give it there too. But He can also give it in the opposite place. Rather than in such a place where countless people follow along, saying it is good, He gives it in the very last place.
If it is the only treasure God has, He wants to give it to one person alone. If everyone follows along, He dislikes it. Even if all people fall away, He wants to give it to the one who survives, to the person who survives even the crisis of death.
Then where will you receive this prize?
You must decide this question. Even if suffering comes to you, you must not despair. There will be people who receive the prize in a joyful position, and there will be people who receive the prize in a sorrowful position. There will be people who receive grace while feeling joy, and there will be people who receive grace by entering into sorrow. That cannot be helped. Because relationships of high and low and of front, back, left, and right are intertwined, not everyone is the same.
Even when reading a certain book, the person called A may receive an infinite impression and regard it as of absolute value, while the person called B may say, “Well, it’s just so-so,” and feel no emotion at all. Why is that so? Because the direction of their sensibility is different. Because the circumstance in which one reads it is different, however good that book is, one is not moved.
In relating to God as well, some people can relate to God from a joyful position, and some people can relate to God from a sorrowful position. Therefore, there are also various kinds of grace. It is said that the Holy Spirit too comes as a Holy Spirit like fire, a Holy Spirit like water, a Holy Spirit like clouds, a Holy Spirit like silk, is it not? All are different. You may think, “The person called A lives happily, so why do I suffer like this?” But suffering does not mean one is unfortunate. On the contrary, one can be ever so much happier. One can be better off than anyone else. It can be so.
Now our Unification Church is walking the road of suffering and the road of pain, but this is not something unfortunate. On the contrary, it is happier than the established churches. It is so because we are a step ahead of them. Therefore, we can be the example in this evil world or in the world of the future. Moreover, we can receive the reverence of all people.
If one feels happiness even in the midst of suffering, that person is the happiest.
That is not suffering. A person who is pleased in a happy position, when he comes into a painful position, easily falls and easily drops away; but a person who goes all the way down to the bottom and finds happiness from there cannot fall even if he tries. For such people, the further they go, the more happiness comes to them.
Knowing that, I tell you to live a difficult life. Even in the midst of living a difficult life, one must be able to say, “Ah, this is good.” Because Satan always enters into a good position, what is good is momentary. Therefore, you must know that a life possessing the capacity to digest a difficult position, a sorrowful position, is a life of grace, a healthy life, in the life of faith.
Indemnity is for moving one to a position of grace
Therefore, even when one meets with a sorrowful matter, one must know it as a matter of course to digest that sorrow with joy together with God rather than digesting the sorrow as sorrow.
If one thinks that he walks the course of indemnity for the nation and the world, then whatever difficulty he meets, he becomes joyful. If one regards it as a position of grace that God has bestowed upon him for the indemnity of the world, then even though that person has no direct connection with the world, he enters into a position of national and worldwide value.
If one prays with tears for the nation and the world, and gives thanks while silently overcoming difficulties, he enters into a position of national and worldwide value.
One must become a person who can take possession of grace even when grace is not given. Even though grace was given so that one might do the work well, if he cannot do that work, he loses the grace instead. But if a person who has not received grace digests things as though he had received grace and works for the world at the risk of his life and gives thanks before God, then the grace is transferred to that person. It is in that sense that it was said, “He who seeks to die shall live, and he who seeks to live shall die.”
The position of taking away what belongs to another is not a position of laughing and dancing. The position of being supplied with more valuable content is not a position of laughing and being pleased, but a position where one must be tense. A tense position. Then what kind of position is a tense position? It is a position where sorrow and pain cross each other. It is a position of tying off and cutting off everything.
Where did Jesus go when he died?
It was already unjust enough that he died on the cross on this earth, but where did he go for three days after he died? He went to hell—hell. That is the test. For human beings, death is the greatest terror, but for Jesus, going to hell was the object of the greatest terror. Then, considering the question of whether Jesus became the master of terror in that hell or the master of happiness, what do you suppose Jesus did during those three days in hell? You must know that he made it his concern to become a self who could overcome the suffering of hell.
Seen from this point, people of faith must not flow along together with the evil in an evil world or a sorrowful world and must not flow along together with that sorrow. On the contrary, they must block that evil and dam up that sorrow and be able to present here a condition of joy. You must know that, since evil people need us there, if one becomes the central being in that environment, he can become a person who is the example.
In that sense, God is the central being who is the example of the universe. Why? Because God is not one who looks upon the suffering of all people with lamentation and an appearance of despair but is one who can overcome all that suffering and appear as the master of new hope; that is why He is the example of humankind. You must know this.
Let us follow God’s example
In your life of faith, what is best for you will be taken away. But being deprived of it does not mean you are unfortunate. If God has need of an offering, must one not offer the very best? Because the very best must be offered as the offering, the very best is taken away. Why is it taken away? It is because you do not know how to offer an offering, and so God can take it away to make it an offering in your place.
If one thinks in this way, then rather than difficulty ending as difficulty, one can welcome that difficulty with joy, and while joy does not fall away but becomes a firm foundation and can remain before God. You must know that a difficult crisis comes to you in order that you may see the beginning of that joy.
When speaking, it is said that one must tie things off and cross over, but what is it that must be tied off and crossed over? That tying is the difficult thing. To tie a knot (He wrote on the board and explained), this end must go over to that end, and that end must come over to this end. It must be done in reverse. Only then is it tied. Is it not so? It is the same. Though it seems bad, what is good bears fruit. It is exchanged. It is switched around. Satan goes to God’s side, and God goes to Satan’s side. It is swapped. Therefore, tying is not an easy thing. But to swap them, there is no other way.
In your lives, there are times of trying. You come to draw a certain circle. It is tied and passed through across several generations, or several dozen generations, several hundred generations, several thousand generations. The more evil the ancestors, the more knots there are. The knots are small but many. Yet the more good the ancestors, the knots are large and not many. Those knots are not for oneself but are knots of offering for the people and for the nation. And we must without fail become like that.
Then where is the kingdom of heaven?
It was said that the kingdom of heaven is within you. It is not an easy thing for the kingdom of heaven to come into my mind. The kingdom of heaven comes into my mind only after the adversities of life and the satanic world have been broken down. And so, to break down the satanic world, the history of indemnity unfolds.
Knowing that, as you go forward centering on the will, you must digest sorrow with joy. Just as God became the example to all people, we too must digest sorrow and evil and become an appearance of joy and glory.
Moreover, because God is one who has overcome the road of suffering to appear before us, we too must take God as our example and stand in the same position and go on living a life of faith. You must know that by so doing and bearing witness to the world, we can become sons and daughters of God.
