Self-Sacrifice

Self-sacrifice is to offer one’s entire self—body, mind, and spirit—to the service of God and the fulfillment of His will. In times of oppression, self-sacrifice may mean literally to give up one’s life as a martyr.

In times of relative ease, self-sacrifice means to be a “living sacrifice,” dedicating every action to the divine purpose. Jesus offers a model of self-sacrifice in his death on the cross and teaches the same by the commandment he gave his followers—“take up your cross and follow me.”

As individuals, each of us has a cross to bear, maybe several, and religion commends that we deal with our burdens with an attitude of submission and self-sacrifice.

However, Father Moon, like other great saints before him, takes up public crosses, putting his life on the line to save others and confront the evils of the world. This is the noblest way of life.

Offering Oneself as a Living Sacrifice

I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12.1

To Thee as a sacrifice Zarathustra offers the very life and being of his self; He dedicates the first fruits of his loving thoughts to Ahura Mazda;

He offers the best of his words and deeds and willing obedience to the Divine Law. Avesta, Yasna 33.14 (Zoroastrianism)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20

O Son of Man! If you love Me, turn away from yourself; and if you seek My pleasure, regard not your own, that you may die in Me and I may eternally live in you. Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 7 (Baha’i Faith)

Man, in truth, is himself a sacrifice. Chandogya Upanishad 3.16.1 (Hinduism)

Would that I were an offering, Taken up in the kami’s hand, Drawn near to my god, Drawn near to my god. Kagura-Uta (Shinto)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Human beings should present themselves as living offerings before God and become the fruits of goodness who can demonstrate Heavenly Father’s internal heart. (2:77, March 3, 1957)

An offering should not have any concept of possession. A person who would be an offering should sacrifice for his people; he should move forward for the purpose of the whole, not for his own purpose.

As an offering, you should set a public goal and exert yourself for that, not for a private goal. As an offering, you should become a foundation, or good soil, upon which God can destroy evil and establish the way of goodness. (14:10, April 19, 1964)

The Chinese character for “righteousness,” 義 (eui in Korean), is a combination of two Chinese characters, 羊 (yang) meaning “sheep,” and 我 (ah) meaning “self.” [In other words, when you put yourself in the position of a lamb, you will create the condition for righteousness.] (92:309, April 24, 1977)

All human beings have to travel a course of re-creation and restoration, and this requires that we walk the path of sacrifice. We cannot re-create ourselves by ourselves; we must walk a path by which God invests His energy to create our ideal selves.

That is why we must sacrifice. We sacrifice so that God has room to re-create us as His partners. This is the original standard of the Principle. Therefore, a religion that seeks human perfection or the ideal world must inspire its followers to make extraordinary efforts.

We sacrifice our self-centeredness, and in proportion to that sacrifice, God restores our original nature. This course is necessary because we are products of the Fall.

Accordingly, all religious people must walk a path of effort and endure hardships. It is the fundamental point of recreation. (God’s Will and the World, September 11, 1972)

To reach the ideal of perfection is not easy. It requires a state of absolute self-denial . We cannot do this if we insist on our own viewpoint. (God’s Will and the World, April 3, 1983)

The God of goodness is the God of sacrifice and love. Love cannot exist apart from sacrifice. Love is the essence of sacrifice. If you sacrifice yourself for someone you love, you do not consider that sacrifice to be a sacrifice. The more you sacrifice yourself, the more fulfilled you feel.

Love has this paradoxical nature. The size of one’s love always becomes apparent in the degree of sacrifice. That is what determines whether love is great or small.

The greater the sacrifice, the greater is the love. A small sacrifice only demonstrates a lowly love. (63:25, October 1, 1972)

When you see things with the mind of love, you do not think of yourself but deny yourself and go the way of sacrifice. You must become a perfect minus in front of a perfect plus. When a perfect minus appears in front of a perfect plus, another plus is attracted to it. For example, if I am a perfect minus before a nation, the ultimate plus, God, will be attracted…

This is a principle of heaven and earth. Therefore, the tradition of patriots is one of blood, sweat and tears. The tradition of filial piety is one of blood, sweat, and tears.

It is the same with the way of virtuous women, virtuous men, patriots, and saints.

This is the mainstream tradition: only through sacrificing our blood, sweat, and tears are we connected with the Kingdom of Heaven, the world of unity. This is an infallible truth. (113:118, May 1, 1981)

Many people worship Thee, hoping for Heaven’s blessing; others make devotions to become Thy children, but today, even after six thousand years have passed, it is difficult to find devoted people, Thy true sons and daughters, who want to be offerings to Thee. (5:8, November 9, 1958)

Taking up the Cross—Sacrifice unto Death

Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”2 Matthew 16.24-25

In accepting the true Dharma, may I abandon body, life, and property, and uphold the true Dharma. Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala 3 (Buddhism)

Jesus has many lovers of his kingdom of heaven, but he has few bearers of his Cross. Many desire his consolation, but few desire his tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but he finds few who will be with him in his abstinence and fasting. All men would joy with Christ, but few will suffer anything for Christ. Many follow him to the breaking of his bread, for their bodily refreshment, but few will follow him to drink a draft of the chalice of his Passion. Many honor his miracles, but few will follow the shame of his Cross and his other ignominies. Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ 2.11 (Christianity)

It is better to suffer for doing right, if that is God’s will, than for doing wrong. Peter 3.17

The Master said, “The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.” Analects 15.8 (Confucianism)

Fish is what I want; bear’s palm is also what I want. If I cannot have both, I would rather take the bear’s palm than fish. Life is what I want; dutifulness is also what I want. If I cannot have both, I would rather take dutifulness than life. On the one hand, though life is what I want, there is something I want more than life. That is why I do not cling to life at all costs. On the other hand, though death is what I loathe, there is something I loathe more than death. That is why there are troubles I do not avoid. If there is nothing a man wants more than life, then why should he have scruples about any means, so long as it will serve to keep him alive? If there is nothing a man loathes more than death, then why should he have scruples about any means, so long as it helps him to avoid trouble? Yet there are ways of remaining alive and ways of avoiding death to which a man will not resort. In other words, there are things a man wants more than life and there are also things he loathes more than death. This is an attitude not confined to the moral man but common to all men. The moral man simply never loses it. Mencius VI.A.10 (Confucianism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Jesus sacrificed himself in order to make the people worthy of receiving God’s love, that the world might be lovable to God. Even in death, he remained completely faithful to his mission.

If a religion arises that inspires its believers to voluntarily walk the path of death that Jesus walked, that religion will build the final foundation to defeat Satan’s realm and save the world.

Jesus willingly bore the cross to his death, out of love for the world. A worldwide religion that is willing to walk the same path of sacrifice will become God’s hope and Jesus’ hope. (124:299, March 1, 1983)

A complaining person cannot go this way; a person who makes excuses cannot go this way; a person who puffs himself up will retreat from this way. It is the way of the cross that Jesus trod, shedding blood; the prolongation of Golgotha. (6:125, April 12, 1959)

What is a religious life? Religious people base their lives on a different philosophy from other people. They approach life with the attitude, “Regardless of my circumstances, I will not take the road to hell by acting for my personal benefit, for that is the devil Satan’s foundation. Instead, I will take the public road to heaven, no matter what sacrifices it may entail.”

We seek to act as God acts and live for the sake of the public good. For the sake of the public good, God sacrifices His own family, sacrifices His own nation, and even sacrifices His own world.

Although God has all authority, He has endured immeasurable sorrow and suffering as He journeyed through history alone, ever seeking the public good—the welfare of humanity. Yet He accepted it all, never blaming anyone else or making excuses for Himself.

We need to understand that God stands in such a position because He is absolutely public-minded. He does not boast about what He has done. He does not boast that He has worked to benefit others. Working quietly to the end, God devotes Himself entirely to public tasks until the day the public world is completed. (101:146-47, October 29, 1978)

The more difficult the task, the more blessings come. Right now what I miss the most is being tortured in prison and vomiting blood. Your bodies should resonate with God’s vibration, but they cannot because they are stuck to Satan’s stony rock.

You must be shaken loose from that rock if you are to be free to resonate with God. That is why religion teaches us to sacrifice. Practice asceticism and do penance! Why? It is to cut off all satanic attachment and become God’s resonant counterpart. (102:35, November 19, 1978)

So far the basic error of religious teaching has been this: though religion has taught the basic value of sacrifice and service, it has valued sacrifice mainly for the purpose of receiving salvation.

The purpose of self-sacrifice ought to be to liberate God and humankind; people have been ignorant of this truth. Instead of sacrificing for the selfish purpose of attaining a high place in heaven, we should sacrifice for God and humankind. The purpose of sacrifice determines whether a believer’s religious path ends up being good or evil. (102:234, January 1, 1979)

This is our motto: “Let us go forth with the heart of a parent in the shoes of a servant, shedding sweat for the earth, tears for humankind, and blood for heaven.” Why do we need this motto?…

The eternal God has been weeping countless tears as He seeks to eradicate the path of pain, path of sorrows, and the path of death. As God has shed His sweat, tears, and blood first, today we should take up that task in His place. (14:244, January 1, 1965)

I worked to accomplish this task, oblivious to rain and snow. Nightfall was like dawn, and I would even forget to eat. I could not take things lightly because I knew God and felt the serious responsibility that comes with knowing God.

More than anybody else, I knew how sorrowful God was. Thus, even if my body were torn apart, crumbled into dust and blown away, all those scattered cells could still cry out as God’s cells. I grappled with this path of death, accepting it as a worthy death for a man. (137:178, January 1, 1986)