Good morning. This is the first day of a new month. Entering a new month, I think of having passed one-third of the year. I have set the second seven-year course—the last three years of the second seven-year course were 1972, 1973, and 1974—and this is the second of the three.
In Japan, he promised the members that their three years in cooperation with Korean problems would be over in April of this year. In the internal sense, Korea was carrying out its Providence, while externally, Japan was carrying out her Providence, her mission, according to the Providence.
Those three years were significant years of restoration for Japan. In the United States, from April 1972 to April 1975, those three years are significant.
Out of those three years, one year has passed. The month of April is the boundary, because in that month the sacred blessing first took place. Again, I must say, from April 1972 to the end of April 1975 are the most significant years in the providential history of the United States.
In the history of our church, May the First is the opening of a new era, in a sense. You must be determined to open up a new page in a new history, weaving it with good events.
You have been in the movement for different lengths of time. It is a grave question what kind of record you are going to leave, each one of you.
Have you been developing good relationships between brothers and sisters?
How much have you been loving each other? This is a serious question. You have to make a good record of loving brothers and sisters in this family. Even in your past, have you loved your own parents more than any others do theirs?
Among the couples, they must reevaluate their love. And you must think over your love between your teachers and yourself in the past. After joining this movement, have you been loving God's will with all your might, with all your sincerity?
You have been going through many activities, but have you set up good records in those things? For you to use every moment of the three years to the best, you must not pass a moment without recognizing its significance. On my part, I am always thinking of how to help you set up good records in these three years.
If I leave you, leaving everything in your hands, it may not be quite so well. It is because you have your own habits from having lived the worldly life. It is not an easy job to establish good records. As you well know, in the Olympic Games, those who set good records have struggled hard.
If you cannot go beyond what you have been doing, you cannot leave the best record, winning over others. You must get over all of your old habits and build new ones for you to set up good records—better records than you have had.
Sun Myung Moon
In providential history, if you are going to use these most significant three years in the best way, you have to struggle hard—and if you carry on your old habits, you cannot promise victory. I know that in the United States, you have a free environment in the economic field and in many other ways. But if you go on with your old ways, you won't be able to set up records.
It is in no way possible for you to set up good records in this providential history because, in the providential history, the ways you are doing things will be different from what you have done previously.
You must go, transcending your old ways, or you must go by leaps and bounds. There is no other way possible. Then, in what way can you carry out your missions?
Your nation has been a leading one in the whole world, and I want this nation to be the leading nation in the providential history, too. Besides your nation, as I see it, Japan and Germany are strong. To drive you hard or chastise you, I set up Japan and Germany as the standard; that is my motive for having brought Japanese brothers and European family over here.
And I want you, the members of the United States, to accept these people. To make you stronger future leaders. I have to drive you harder than I do them, those people. In New York, the European, Japanese, and American members are competing in a good fight.
For the first few weeks after I brought those people, I found that American members were really lax, and they had the attitude that they would wait and watch those people to see what they were going to do. But now that I have put them into competition, they have a new zeal to win over each other.
Some, I heard, were saying, "Master likes competition." It is not because I like competition at all; I want you, American members, to set up good records and not lose the prestige you have hitherto built as a nation. And you are not going. to make such records during a period of 100 years or more, but you have to set up good records during these three significant years.
If you go on in relaxation, you can never do that. You must be united in strong oneness, or else you cannot carry it out. If there is any other way possible, will you please tell me? There is no other way possible.
I sometimes talk to myself, saying, "Why am I here at all—to drive these people out so hard when they don't seem to like it?
I can just praise you and encourage you without driving you hard. I can do that, too. But time is not always available, and in concluding what you have been doing, these most significant years are for you to do your part.
If you cannot conclude what you have been into in a very profitable and fruitful way, I have to drive you harder—or else you, as a nation, will not have accomplished your mission. So that is what makes me serious.
If you, too, are as serious as I am, you will be resolved to make these three years the most profitable ones so that you can make the best record during these times. Yes or no? [YES!]
These three years, I have been driving the Japanese members very hard, and many things have happened. On the street corners, or when they preached, they were beaten by the mob—sometimes those with cigarettes in their mouths would burn the girls' cheeks. All sorts of things happened. They would spit at our members' faces.
Sometimes the girls would be raped. And on my part, I felt immense responsibility. I wished we could set up the record without those things happening, but the fact was bitter. But the Japanese members were never discouraged.
They united with each other all the stronger, and by doing those things in that way, they could set up good records. Without their establishing that kind of record and that kind of foundation, I could not have come to the United States for this now.
I am here in the United States now, and what are you going to do, you American members? Then, what would you want me to do to you—just leave you as you please?
There are three ways to accelerate your pace: to beat upon you, to pull you, or to push you. Which would you prefer? [PUSH!] I want each of you to choose one out of the three. It is because you are going to leave the record; set up the record now.
Which would you prefer, out of the three ways? [PUSH!]
With what would you want me to push—just with my hands or with bats?
If I pushed you with a truck driving the truck behind you, and you would have to run desperately in order not to be killed, would you want me to push you that hard?
Sun Myung Moon
[YES!!!] I am determined to push you that hard because only by doing that can you gain the goal at the soonest possible date, with the best possible crops. Time will visit you with providential crops, and time is not always available, as I said before—so, are you ready to receive that? [YES!] Frankly speaking, that is no easy job at all.
You don't know what it is like in the leader's position. If I have to drive you hard, I feel more miserable than you do. All the passed away will make it difficult for me to push you hard. If I am successful in pushing you hard, and if you are successful in being pushed hard, the whole spirit side will benefit from what we are doing.
If you do not struggle hard, all the ancestry, all the spirit world, will not benefit from us. Then you will be the target of a curse by your future descendants. You will not have fulfilled your mission, while you were given the holy mission of the restoration of the whole world, and future generations will accuse you of that.
Your every action will determine whether the whole world will be saved, so, even though it may be hard, I may as well push you. Even though we may have to die for this cause through our sacrifice, if the whole world is to be saved, it is necessary for me to push you that way.
What do you think?
I am so serious that every moment is so dreadful, and when I watch every moment passing by, I am almost trembling before the fact, because your success or failure in this Providence will determine whether the whole world will be saved or not. So, every one of the United States family must be alert.
You must realize that this is the most historical and the most serious moment in the history of the United States. Are you determined to do more than the Japanese brothers have done?
At first, when I put Japanese, Dutch, and American members into competition, for the first few weeks, the American members did one-third of the work that the Japanese brothers did.
So, I could not leave them as they worked. They, themselves, the members of the United States, began to consult each other, I could see, and then I found they were doing better and better.
Firstly, they had to be united into strong oneness, and then, when they went out, they could bear more fruit. To be united into one, that was the first condition. Second, they were resolved to sacrifice themselves. They were ready to sacrifice themselves without being selfish or self-centered.
The third thing was patience in strife. Without those three factors, the Japanese brothers rest less than they do. In that they could not win the struggle, so they had to think of sleeping less, and in that way, they had to set up new standards, and by my having brought members from other nations, they are awakened to the fact.
You cannot stay where you are—you cannot keep on doing what you have been.
In witnessing two people selling flowers and candles, you cannot be defeated by the Japanese brothers. Will you be defeated by them? [NO!!!] Those who have been dozing off said, "No!" Can I trust you? [YES!]
How can I trust the answers from those who have been dozing?
You must be awakened to the seriousness of this to think that you are shouldering the responsibility of the whole nation, and whether you succeed in this mission will decide the success or failure of this nation in the providential history.
Many people have immigrated to this nation, and they did that in hope and zeal- and happiness. But I am here with a heavy sense of responsibility. We are on the verge of life and death, success or failure.
Well, I have a clear view of how I am going to do this. I have my own plan of how to carry out things—and, always, every morning, when I wake up, I say to myself, "I am going to do better than I planned." Every day, when I kneel before God in prayer, I am more serious than anyone of you here or anyone else in the United States, I am sure.
Sun Myung Moon
You do not know what I am going through—I know it is a difficult job, but if you get over all those difficulties and attain. The goal is for you to be the leading nation in the providential history. I have made these three years a historical part of your nation, and I want you to work really hard for these three years.
These three years are the most significant years in your history and in the providential history, and this is something like Jesus' three years of public mission, and we are holding the tollgate to the world.
Our mission from now on will be on a worldwide level. And I want you to be like the Roman Empire, not in opposition to Jesus but in cooperation with Jesus, or at least I want you to be like Jesus' disciples, in cooperation with him to the last moment. And, if you cooperate with me in entire oneness, then we can make our mission a success.
If you are really cooperative with me, not like the disciples who denied Jesus at the last moment, but if you take up your cross and follow me in unity and in cooperation with me, then we are sure to win over the Satanic power and carry out our mission toward success.
Then each one of you must put yourself in Jesus' position, praying the bitter prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you must win yourself and win over Satan. You, yourselves, must be able to get at least twelve people in one year, or 72 people in six years, or 120 people in your lifetime. During these three years, I want any one of you to meet that standard, at least one person.
I must repeatedly say that these are critical moments, the most significant ones.
Without your knowing it, I have been going through many bitter things, and I have been struggling hard to win something for me to be able to go back and forth between many nations, and yesterday was a historical day in which I obtained that—and with that in mind, I am thanking God for that privilege, to have been freed and to have been cleared of the obstacles.
From now on, I am really going to push you hard, with confidence. But I cannot force you, so if you are not ready for that and if you are reluctant to do that, I will let you go. What would you do? Which would you prefer? [PUSH!] Do you really mean that? [YES!] Aren't you going to complain? [NO!]
You must realize that you, as an individual, each one of you as an individual, is no problem, no question. Sometimes I think that if I could die this moment-and God's will be realized, I would prefer to die instead of doing this hard job of pushing you. I would rather die than try to push you. I am so serious, you must know that.
Without my being as serious as this, I cannot say that I am the leader of your group in the place of God. Out of these 70 people, who are those I can really use for the right purpose? Who are the male members? Who are the female members?
If I push you hard, you may complain inwardly, or if I beat upon you, you may say, "This is the Korean or Oriental way." But, if I am a general on the battlefield, can I always read your facial expressions and hesitate in pushing you ahead?
Sun Myung Moon
God is alive, and I am here, in accordance with God's will—and if God and I are entirely united in pushing you ahead, if you are pushed by its forces and attain the goal, we cannot but win. You cannot carry it out all by yourself; you need me.
Firstly, you and I must be united into one. And then we both, you and I, must be resolved to sacrifice ourselves for this nation. And we must pour out all our efforts in perseverance and patience.
I understand, from today you are going to go through a three-day fast, and in my mind I said, "These three days are historical; I wonder who initiated this fast. Whoever it is is really God-oriented, and their mind knows that these three days are so significant, and I am happy. I want you to be resolved to set up the best record this month and in the months to come.
Have you ever loved this nation and the people of this nation in the real sense?
Have you ever done that? You have tried to, and you have intended to, but have you really loved this nation in the truest sense? Have you ever established the record of having loved this nation? Well, who is confident of having done that?
How can you express your sincerity? How can you express your love?
By showing the people the way to God, by feeding the people with bread, in what way can you say you have done your part? You must actually feel that, without my help, these people are on the very edge of life or death; if I leave them as they are, they will be killed. They are destined to be killed. Have you ever felt things that way?
You must know that the people are going to commit suicide, and with those people, you must cling to them and try to persuade them not to kill themselves, or try to awaken them to the new facts, or you must shed tears sympathizing with them.
You must be able to tell them, "I am going to kill myself if you are going to die!" You must be as serious as that. Have you ever said that to a man? "If you are going to kill yourself, kill me instead."
If you are that serious about that person, he can stop killing himself. Have you ever cried out in witnessing to people, cried out at the top of your voice, even shedding tears, sweat, and blood? Have you ever done that much?
These being important years, you must be resolved to carry out your mission—and I think one person a month is too small a quota, and I want you to work really hard, knowing that this nation will be ruined without your help, without your struggle.
I have already spent five or six months in the United States, and I'm sure Japan needs me, Korea and the European nations need me, and I cannot stay here too long. Japan also needs help.
So, just in case you fail, I must get you and the European members to help the Japanese family, the Japanese movement.
If you cannot assume the subject position, I cannot have other members from other nations keep helping you. In case you lose subjectivity, my putting manpower here will be of no use.
Wouldn't that be true?
So, day and night, I want you to be earnest—and in the evening, at night, kneel before God—you must sink into deep. Meditation and remind yourself of the fact that these three years will be the most significant, and that you are going to play the role of Jesus in his public ministry, and in that case, you will be Jesus having fulfilled the mission, and you must not fail in this.
You must be different today from what you were yesterday, and every day must change progressively. And every morning you want to get up earlier than you did yesterday, and you must be ready to work harder than yesterday and bring more crops than you did yesterday.
With me and you together, we are going to go over the hill of Golgotha. Would you stop here or go on beyond the valley of Golgotha? Beyond!! Just as Jesus did, I want to ask you the question, as Jesus did. Jesus said to Peter, "Do you love me?
Do you really love me?" He asked three questions. Jesus repeated those questions three times, asking him, "Do you love me?" and that meant that Jesus wanted Peter to love him more than anyone else did and more than he loved anyone else. And I am earnest in asking these questions of you.
Sometimes I feel that I am representing the East and you are representing the West, and we two fit together in unity; we can win the whole world. It's better for the Oriental nations to become one with each other when an Oriental nation and a Western nation are united together; that's stronger.
Better than for the wealthy nations to be united into one—the poorest Oriental nation, Korea, and the wealthiest Western nation, the United States—if those two are put together in strong unity, it will be real power.
If you, the leading nation of the world, will put yourself in a more miserable position than Korea, which is the most miserable nation, the poorest one, then your sacrifice will save the world. An astonishing miracle will be performed right there. A record can be set.
I understand that in your nation, even the poorest ones can have bread at least, but if you reserve that for the moment when you have witnessed so many people, and if you are resolved that you will never eat any bread unless you can bring in so many members, then wonderful things will come about. Before being hungry for bread, be hungry for men; and unless you bring more members, you do not eat—then that is a more wonderful thing than to eat.
Do you know in what way you can establish a record?
Forgetting to sleep, forgetting to eat, forgetting to cleanse yourself—if you struggle hard to establish better records than other people, then history will be at your own disposal. And we are going to set up a good history with the events you are making and creating. Are you determined to carry out this mission of such historical import?
Your way is a rough one. You must persevere. You must never be self-centered, or else you cannot go this way and cannot set up good records. If you are in a breathless, difficult situation, you must be thinking of your ancestors. You must remind yourself of Noah, who struggled for 120 long years.
Think of Moses' 40 years in the wilderness, with untold hardships, after leading a glorious life in the pharaoh's palace. Think of John the Baptist, who prepared for 30 long years in the wilderness, living on locusts and wild honey, to prepare the way for Jesus, the messiah. Think of Jesus before the Cross—he struggled hard to leave the record of having saved mankind, even on the spiritual level.
Even though they struggled so hard, Noah was a failure, in a way, Abraham was, Moses was, and Jesus was; and in them, we must know that we have to struggle harder than they did. That will be our motto, our own standard.
We will not be that way in a year or in the future, but now we must do that—right now. If you go on with this attitude, you will leave good records behind you.
Sun Myung Moon