Former Headquarters Church, Korea.
Luke 2:1–20
As you well know, today is Christmas, the most important day among the many days that the countless believers of Christianity celebrate.
In our Unification Church, we have not kept December 25 but have kept January 3 as Christmas. As for this date, even historians do not yet know it for certain. They say, roughly guessing, that it is some day within a week or two before or after the 25th, but the exact day they do not know.
The Israelite People Who Failed to Prepare a Foundation for Jesus’ Birth
Then how is it that our church keeps January 3?
This came about because we entered the spiritual world in a spiritually attuned state and, meeting Jesus face to face, held a question-and-answer with him, and as a result, we came to keep that day.
Our family members know such things well. So we know and keep, as the original Christmas, January 3—unmistakably January 3. For some years, we have kept it on that day.
But because, in carrying out a great work, we cannot escape the trend of society or that customary bond, we keep step with it and have left it to the discretion of each local church to commemorate this day today.
So today, at the headquarters, we have not made outward adornment like the ordinary churches of the world. We are gathering in such a place—simple and rather such as might be thought strange—and celebrating this day.
We have restrained ourselves from preparing, out of the thought that this may be a place that can commune with the definite content of how Jesus was born and may rather be a place closer to the heart of God, who laid Jesus in such a place.
Knowing that, and in that sense, I will give you a message today with the title “The Mission of Greeting the Day of the Holy Birth.”
About two thousand years ago, just as it is written here in the Bible, Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem. Though that moment may have been, for Jesus, no more than the time of being born as one individual, for us, humankind, and for God, it was a day without a second. Because this day was, a new day of light could be found for fallen humanity, and because this day was, God’s will could at last grasp one foundation of hope upon the earth.
To set up this day, He set up the Israelite people and, passing through many courses of history, promised through countless prophets that He would send the Messiah—that is, that He would send the Savior.
So Heaven made the Israelite people take that day as their standard and drove them so that all their longing, all their hope, and the whole life of the Israelite people would be centered on that day.
Whenever the Israelite people entered some comfortable environment and reached a state where they might forget that day because of that environment, He drove them—mobilizing even the people of a gentile nation to strike them, or making them pass through lonely places—so that they could long for and think of that day deep in their hearts.
Furthermore, because it was prophesied in various places in the Bible that the Messiah would appear upon this earth, the scribes and Pharisees of that time, who revered the Bible, even knew where he would be born.
Moreover, because they believed he was the Messiah they hoped for and the responsible one who could unfold the nation of Israel into a world-level national form, that hope was earnest beyond words. But when it came to how their preparation to greet that day stood, they had not become the standard of inner heart that could accord with that standard of hope.
There would have been countless houses in the city of Bethlehem and many places to lodge, but when we think once more of the position and environment in which Jesus was born in a stable because there was nowhere to go, we must bear in mind once more that the inward circumstance of God Himself—who saw that such an environment was made to come about, God who gazed upon the scene of Jesus’ birth—could not but be unspeakably sorrowful.
When we come to gaze upon the fact that God’s only begotten Son, who came as the Savior of all people, the crown prince of Heaven, had to be born in such a miserable place — whereas it was God’s wish, and that day ought to have been such, that He be born in a place more glorious than anyone’s, in a splendid and resplendent environment, amid the welcome of all people — and that the Israelite people did not equip such an environment, and the Israelite people did not prepare an environment in which the substance of the hope they longed for could stay or be born, then there is no way to deny the fact that, though what was hoped for was earnest, their preparation, and attitude to receive Him directly were not equipped.
The whole people knew that the Messiah would surely come, but the people did not make preparations to attend the coming Messiah.
From the individual to the family to the whole Israelite people—all the more, had it been that people and denomination who knew that God’s promise would surely be fulfilled, and had the responsible teachers of the law, whatever others might do, at least prepared, as a nationwide event, a preparation to greet the Messiah, we come to think that the Messiah would not have lain thus in the manger.
Had they been an Israelite people who, then, could prepare a single room for the coming Messiah, or prepare a living environment in which he could stay… . When it was reported before King Herod, through the wise men from the East, that the Messiah had been born, it is said that the whole temple of Jerusalem was furious. Though everyone, high and low, would have heard this rumor, there was not a single person who said he would seek and attend that Messiah.
When we come to see such a fact, we can, undeniably, glimpse here that, though the standard of longing was earnest in mind, in actual life, they neglected the foundation of preparation they themselves should have made.
God, even while gazing upon such an environment—because the promised time had come, God, who could not but send the Messiah who could save Israel on earth—sent the Messiah to this earth, maintaining the time.
Therefore, had Mary and Joseph truly held in their hearts all the things the angel appeared and taught in a dream, and had they intensely experienced and felt, in the course of life, that the son to be born came as the Savior who could save Israel and as the Messiah of all people, they should have followed the testimony of the wise men from the East, just as it is in the Bible. But Mary recalled the bygone days and kept Jesus’ birth in mind, while Joseph was in the position of not knowing about this.
Seeing such a fact, we must think once more of the fact that even the parents, who received Heaven’s command and bore a direct mission, did not equip the posture of parents fitting before Heaven’s standard.
Mary and Joseph, not knowing when the day of delivery, being full term, would come, should have made preparations for it.
If they were going to seek the city of Bethlehem, they could have sent someone ahead and prepared an inn. But going to Bethlehem without any preparation, and because all the inns were full due to the countless people who had come to register, they had nowhere to go, and Jesus was born during the time they spent one night in the stable.
Seeing such a fact, when it comes to whether the family of Joseph itself fulfilled the responsibility of greeting Him, of themselves, before the heart of Heaven that sent the crown prince, the only begotten Son, that Heaven desired—the point is that they did not fulfill the responsibility. Mary herself was so, Joseph himself was likewise so, and the relatives placed in that environment were likewise so.
Jesus, Who Was Turned Away by Family, Church, Society, and Nation
Jesus’ birth was not the joy of that family’s couple alone. It was a thing the whole kindred should have celebrated. But they could not.
When we come to know the fact that they did not provide such preparation, there is no way to deny the fact that, before the wish Heaven desired, the parents failed the responsibility.
If there is anyone among you who has come here for the first time and doubts, thinking, “Ah, I cannot believe this,” then pray about it—whether it is so or not.
Jesus, as the Son of God, came to this earth, but from the womb… . His mother Mary lived, amid worry and suffering that no one knew of, for ten months, from the womb until birth, holding a worry she could tell no one. That, in this womb period, He could not live a comfortable life in an environment where heaven and earth greeted Him and rejoiced, is sorrowful; but the fact that Mary herself did not offer devotion before Heaven, and Mary herself did not make the outward preparation by which she could firmly show all people, by a testifying fact, this matter of her own, was also, in Heaven’s sight, a sorrowful thing—we must think of this once more.
Because it was so in the family of Joseph, the Jewish believers all the more, the Israelite people all the more, could not but be so. But because the born Jesus came bearing the mission of heaven and earth, it was not a matter of what environment he was born in; rather, until he could bear one purpose of the providence within the bosom of God’s protection, he could not but prepare for the purpose Heaven had appointed, even while striking against every sorrow and adversity.
Jesus was born thus and began to grow. Even in growing up, Jesus was, to Joseph, a stepchild. Joseph, having heard in a dream the angel’s command not to fear to take Mary, who had conceived, brought her in bewilderment; but as the days passed, he could not but have human thoughts.
For that reason, he could not help but treat Jesus not from the position of a father who had been sent together with Heaven’s promise, but from a position that, in Heaven’s sight, was one of anxiety.
From the time the younger siblings were born, Jesus could not help but feel all the more the sorrow of a stepchild. When he grew up with many siblings, he could not place his heart in the home. Because the father was so, and the growing younger siblings too were likewise so. He merely, without a word, played the assisting role of a carpenter in helping the livelihood of the family of Joseph, continuing only a life of cooperation; we must know that Jesus did not stand in a position where he could present before his parents his longing, or the matter of his own heaven-given, immense mission, and counsel them.
Even the younger siblings hated Jesus. Is it not in the Gospel of John that they criticized him, saying that if he wished to become known, why did he not go up to Jerusalem?
When we see this, we cannot deny the fact that even the younger siblings did not treat him as the Messiah Heaven sent.
Again, we must know that it remains as a han to Jesus—the sorrow that, on such a festival day, or a festival of the Israelite people, or a good day in that home, they could not have, centered on Jesus, a place where the joyful matter could be met through Jesus.
Growing up thus, and from the road on which he set out to testify to the will and carry out Heaven’s mission, passing through some three years of his life to the final path he walked—when we trace it, we must recall once more that Jesus lived in an environment where he could not set foot upon this earth and unfold his hope of founding a kingdom of peace: from the family, from the environment, from the church, from that society, from that nation.
Jesus, Who Came to Restore What Was Lost Through Adam’s Fall
Today, in commemorating this day on which Jesus was born, we must clearly know not only that his being born is joyful but also what the purpose of his being born was. Because he came not of himself but sent by Heaven, he did not come and go as an individual; we must know that above, he came for the sake of Heaven, and below, he came for the sake of the Israelite people.
Therefore, he had a responsibility toward Heaven, a responsibility toward the people, and, going further, a responsibility toward the world’s humanity. Because he bore not only the limited responsibility of that age but even the historical responsibility of later generations to come, we must clearly know how solitary and how difficult Jesus’ life was. And so, on this standard of heart, we must hold the earnest mind that, longing for him and becoming his side—since he would have longed for an elder brother, we become in the stead of an elder brother; since he would have longed for a younger sibling, we become in the stead of a younger sibling; since he would have longed for parents, we become in the stead of parents; or since he would have longed for the whole kindred environment of relatives, uncles, and in-laws, we, as one member in the stead of that kindred environment, comfort him in their stead, comfort the loneliness of that time, and resolve the han that could not be resolved.
We cannot but think that greeting this day with such a mind is what Heaven, and Jesus who came and went in the age of history, and the saints who have believed until now, require and desire.
Therefore, the moment Jesus was born was, for God, an unspeakably joyful moment. Not only for God, but for Jesus himself too, it was a joyful time. Not only for Jesus, but for the Israelite people too, it was a moment they should have rejoiced in. But the joy of Heaven, the joy of Jesus, and the joy of Israel all became split apart, each separately.
Heaven’s joy had nowhere to go because of the Fall, and God became a God who walked a sorrowful path together with Israel in the process of pioneering the adverse course of restoration.
Until now, God’s joy has not appeared. From the day of the Fall, though there are countless peoples and nations, they are not a nation and a people who can make God rejoice.
Again, even with the ancestors said to have acted in the stead of the will of the providence of restoration, in the true sense, He did not meet a day on which God could rejoice.
In the course of history, coming from Abel, then Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then the Israelite people and Moses, up to the time of Jesus, He did not meet a day on which Heaven could truly rejoice. He passed through a course of struggle to meet a day of joy, but did not meet a single day on which He could rejoice.
If, for such a God, one day at last came in the age of history on which He could rejoice, what day was it?
It was the day Jesus was born. The day Jesus was born is God’s day of joy. Because God rejoices, the heavenly world rejoices; and because the heavenly world rejoices, it is a day on which all the people dwelling in the world of the Way, who revere Heaven, should rejoice. To meet such a day, Jesus was born. Because God rejoiced through Jesus’ birth, it is a day on which the Father rejoices; the child can rejoice.
It is not Jesus alone who greets the day on which God can rejoice through Jesus’ accomplishing the will. Because the purpose for which Heaven, until now, drew Israel out of the satanic world, organized the Israelite people, and made the nation of Israel was to establish the joyful day of Jesus’ birth as a national day of joy, that purpose had to be fulfilled on the day Jesus was born.
In other words, through the fall of the human being, it was not Adam alone as an individual self that was lost. God’s wish that He could commune with Adam, God’s joy that He sought to fulfill through Adam—all of this was shattered. Therefore, because it was God’s wish in sending Jesus to reappear and restore, through Jesus, what was lost through Adam’s failing, Jesus’ birth foretells the birth of the nation of Israel. Together with it, it foretells the day on which God can rejoice.
Whether the nation of Israel emerges as a victorious nation, and whether, equipping such a nation, the Israelite people meet a joyful day together with God—these are the questions raised from the very day Jesus is born.
Was There an Environment in Which God Could Rejoice at Jesus’ Birth?
Today there are countless peoples and nations upon the earth, but until now they have not manifested, on a whole-people or national standard, a form in which God can rejoice. The one who came to connect this is Jesus. Therefore, through the rejoicing of Jesus alone, Heaven can rejoice; and through the rejoicing of Jesus alone, the nation of Israel can rejoice. Though this standard was to be accomplished through Jesus’ birth, the question is whether, on that day, God indeed rejoiced.
Did Jesus indeed rejoice on that day?
Did the nation of Israel indeed rejoice on that day? When we think of such things, God could not rejoice, Jesus could not rejoice, and the nation of Israel could not rejoice.
Because it was so, the day on which God ought to rejoice remains, the day on which Jesus ought to rejoice remains, and the day on which the nation of Israel ought to rejoice remains. Therefore, to find the day on which God ought to rejoice, the day on which Jesus ought to rejoice, and the day on which the nation of Israel ought to rejoice, He again foretells this day and comes prolonging it. That foretold day is the Last Days.
Proclaiming these Last Days, the history of founding the Second Israel, centered on the New Testament gospel after Jesus came and went, is the movement of re-founding and re-organizing the lost Israel.
Because the First Israel was lost on a national foundation, the Second Israel is being organized on a world-level foundation. And so now we have reached such a time as could become the Last Days, having cultivated even a world-level foundation.
Therefore, once again in the age of history, a day on which God can rejoice must come, a day on which Jesus can rejoice must come, and a day on which the ideological nation of Israel can rejoice must come.
When Israel greeted Jesus, they should have had a day on which the three positions could become one body and rejoice, but because they did not have it, we must know that the one day of the Second Advent is for that day to be greeted worldwide in the Last Days.
The Moment Jesus Was Born Was a Sorrowful Moment for God
When we today look back once more upon the nation of Israel of that time, because the social environment, or the environment in which Jesus was born, did not accord with the will God had hoped for, God’s sorrow was prolonged.
When we come to think of such things, we who greet such a day today must be able to analyze once more the sorrow of the age of history and to equip ourselves with the conditions and circumstances by which we can prepare for the day to come.
Otherwise, we must know that holding a gathering to commemorate this day is, on the contrary, an irreverent thing before Heaven.
Was God, gazing upon Jesus being born in a stable, glad?
No. Had it been that a son of King Herod was to be born, he would have been born amid the attendance of a full court of officials, amid the praise of countless people.
Lest he be cold, lest he be hot, they would have gathered every devotion and celebrated that infant’s birth on a whole-people scale. And that nation would have appointed the day as a day of celebration and carried out a commemorative event.
All the more, had a son of the Roman Emperor been born—had a prince of Rome been born who, with a world-scale domain centered on the whole Mediterranean, could move the world—how many countless peoples would have praised him and sent gifts with all devotion! And that would not be all.
How much more, then—if it is so even to be born as the son of a king of one moment, how gloriously would God wish to greet that son, born as the prince of God, the Creator of a thousand ages and ten thousand generations, the Lord of the whole universe?
How great would the standard by which God gazes be?
Did God wish that Israel alone greet Jesus?
No. He would have wished that the countless people living upon the earth celebrate his birthday on a whole-people scale.
Would that not have been so?
But there was not a single one. There was not a single one. How pitiable God was, gazing upon the circumstance of having to be born in an environment where there was not a single one, that He testified of the Savior to Israel through a soothsayer of the Gentiles! This is the mortifying thing.
That today in Christianity this fact—that the astrologers came seeking Jesus while all the teachers of the law of Judah were nowhere to be found—is spoken of as a joyful thing; this is irreverence.
Where were the teachers of the law, the scribes, and the priests, who pledged loyalty for the sake of Heaven and bore leaderly responsibility as forerunners of the age…?
Whereas the church being the church, the nation of Israel being the nation, the priests, scribes, and teachers of the law should have become one body and come, and it would still have been insufficient, though they equipped as gifts the heirlooms over which they had offered devotion for thousands of years and dedicated them before the Messiah, the fact that unrelated astrologers of the gentiles came and offered gifts is a desecration of Israel, a desecration of the heavenly kingdom.
But because the people did not do it and the denomination did not uphold it, Heaven—having the will to make the born Messiah public upon the earth and to leave at least a conditional bond that he had come into the human world—could not but build a bridge to the astrologers, who, revering Heaven, observed where a world-great figure would be born and sought and awaited him, and, through them, foretold the birth of the Messiah.
We must know how great God’s sorrow, indignation, and mortification were that it could not but be so.
Think about it—is it so or not?
That the wise men from the East came seeking… that is not joy. As for the Israelite people, they must think, “Why was there not among our people someone who, more than the wise men from the East, pledged loyalty before Heaven and, passing through a life course of being an offering, offered devotion to attend the one Messiah? Why was there no one greater than that?”
Seeing that, though the day the Messiah was born was joyful, for God it was a day on which the denomination of Judah could even be lost. It was a time when it could be testified that the nation of Israel was far from God.
When we think of this, how sorrowful God was! When we come to think of the fact that the heavenly account was woven here—that God had no choice but to set the Israel He had labored to raise for four thousand years into the position of having attended the Messiah by the emergence of an external mediator—we cannot but think how, in heart, that must have been a time of such torment for God.
Jesus’ coming to this earth was to bear the responsibility of totally indemnifying four thousand years of Heaven’s history. Jesus is the one who came bearing the destiny of Israel and the world-historical destiny.
Not only that, he is the responsible one who was to establish a new sovereign nation in the world of the past, present, and even future; found a new Israel; unify the world; and found the heavenly kingdom. How mortifying and infuriating a thing that the place where such a responsible one is born should be a stable!
Yet today in Christianity, they hold sacred the very fact that he was born in a stable. The point is that they hold that very thing sacred.
One Must Celebrate Christmas from the Standpoint of the God Who Sent Jesus
Then, in what position must we gather here, enter, and celebrate that day?
We must enter a position in which we can deny Israel’s failure and recover Israel’s bond.
We must be able to have sincerity greater than the wise men from the East, who could greet Jesus.
From such a position, knowing fully the place where he could be born, the environment in which he could be born, we must be able to attend the Messiah in the womb before he is born. Not only to attend the born Messiah, but we must become such people as can attend him from the womb period.
Why was there no such person in the nation of Israel, and no woman, no man, who would remove the mother’s distress as the Lord grew day by day in the womb, and who would take responsibility and arrange for the mother’s daily life to be at ease?
The point is that there was not a single person in the nation of Israel raised for four thousand years who could attend and offer devotion to the Lord from the time he was in the womb.
Therefore, we must remove the Israel that forgot its national mission and, with a new Israelite name, become loyal subjects and faithful women who can attend him as the crown prince of Heaven from the time he is in the womb. Holding such a bond, we must be able to live a life of being for and attending the Messiah before Heaven.
If there is a person who can do so—if it is certain that Jesus is the son of God, and if there is a person who attended Jesus from the time he was in the womb, that person is close before Heaven. Whether he be an invalid (不人) or a cripple….
When Jesus chose his apostles too, even if he were a cripple, he must have chosen him first. Before loving the disciples he loves, he must love that one—that is the point.
Had there been such sons and daughters, had there been such a person, then because of such a person, Israel would not perish. The point is that Israel could not perish. Had there been such a person, Christianity could not have become a gentile religion. Had there been such a foundation.
God is not a God who treads and moves over the bond of love, the bond of loyalty. Had there been a person who could do so, even if Jesus had been driven to death….
Had he been greeted upon a foundation on which such people kept the foundation and made preparation to inherit the historical bond, the history of Israel could not have moved away. Because the history of Israel cannot be moved away from, the Israelite people too cannot move away.
Because the Israelite people cannot move away, Christianity, centered on Jesus, could become a world religion. Rather than Christianity going to Rome, passing through a process of trial and suffering for four hundred years, and receiving persecution, winning victory, it should have won victory, passing through some period, in the nation of Israel.
We must know that it is a sorrowful fact that the foundation of Christianity’s victory was accomplished in Rome.
Had there been a person who, from the time Jesus was in the womb, offered devotion before God and, attending Mary, prayed that with his hands he would receive the crown prince of Heaven, we humankind could have fulfilled our responsibility and equipped a posture by which we could stretch forth before God.
In other words, the point is that we could have equipped the qualification. Yet the point is that we must know how mortifying and infuriating it is that we lost that qualification. It is infuriating. Because it was so—because it became an Israel that did not greet the Messiah born from the womb—the point is that the history of a Christianity that cannot greet that Messiah born from the womb was foreordained even when the Lord comes again hereafter.
Because it held a history of Israel that did not greet the growing Messiah, it can become a Christianity that, even when the Lord comes to this earth hereafter, cannot greet the growing Lord. Because Jesus, who died on the cross, held such a historical background, only after the Lord who comes again to this earth too walks the path of the cross for the sake of the will and meets a foundation of resurrectional victory is Christianity, the Second Israel, the successor of Israel, in a bond by which it can greet the Messiah.
When we come to see the fact that, in restoring through indemnity, one indemnifies by turning back and reappearing the turning points of human history just as they were, we must know how much Israel failed in its responsibility.
Therefore, when we repent, rather than repenting of the sin we ourselves committed, we must repent of the sin that the Israelite people did not prepare fully to greet the Messiah when he came to this earth.
The point is that it is a han that there was not a single Israelite whom God could remember in His mind, saying, from Jesus’ womb-period, “Ah, you are the ones who can greet the crown prince of Heaven, sent for your people, for your nation.”
In our gathering here today to celebrate this day, we must celebrate it not as a passing day, as the people of the flowing age of history celebrate a passing day, but by treading up over history and becoming the protagonists who, in the stead of the earnest heart with which Heaven came seeking Mary when He sent Jesus, can attend Mary and, as the people of Israel, know how to receive the Messiah.
If we celebrate this day from such a position, I am confident that it is a holy place that determines the condition by which you can occupy a place of the heart closer to Heaven than the countless Christians who, world-historically and historically, do not know such content. (the recording is briefly interrupted)
Jesus, Whom the Whole Nation of Israel Should Have Upheld and Attended
We must know that this is the figure of the Messiah, whom one ought to greet from the womb period. As we see in the Bible, the elderly woman Anna testified that Jesus was the Messiah.
The first person to know the Messiah was the elderly woman Anna. The one who knew Jesus from the womb was the elderly woman Anna.
So, if the elderly woman knew Anna, she should have attended to him with devotion. She should have attended to him with devotion.
If she were an old woman who kept the temple her whole life, praying while awaiting the Messiah, then from the time she met Mary and knew that fact, she should have become Mary’s servant. She should have become a servant.
Lest Mary be in hardship, lest she suffer, she should have arranged the whole environment, mobilizing even her relatives to pioneer the environment. Had she done so, she could have inherited the bond of Israel and, upon that foundation, made the history of Israel reappear. But she testified, yet she did not uphold him.
Again, there are the three wise men from the East, are there not?
Those people did not attend to him while he was in the womb, but after he was born, they came and testified. And after testifying, where did they all go? Where did the wise men from the East go?
Where did the shepherds go? Where did Anna go? They all went away. The point is that they all went away.
Originally, had there been special prophets among the Israelite people who offered devotion, held question-and-answer with God one by one, received direct revelation, and were guided, Mary should have passed the ten months, the period of his growing, amid the attendance of those prophets.
What business had Jesus doing carpentry — carpentry?
Think about it—should Jesus have done carpentry? The point is, should Jesus have done carpentry work?
The gaze Jesus cast was upon the nation of Israel and, through the nation of Israel, upon the world. Before him, there was no individual. The family of Joseph was not the issue. The point is that the nation of Israel was the issue. Because Jesus, seeking to prepare of himself until the time and season were full, could not leave the environment, he toiled several times to make the family of Joseph his base and cultivate a foundation; but because that family did not uphold him, he came out of the house and set out on the three-year course—he came out of the house and set out on the three-year course. It was because they did not know at home.
The point is that Jesus has much han regarding the home. In Catholicism, they set up a statue of Mary and believe in it, but the point is, go and see in the other world.
The point is that Jesus has much han. Therefore, when his mother said at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee that there was no wine, he said, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” Jesus said a fitting thing. He said a fitting thing. There is not the slightest relation.
The point is that the very person harboring the motive that could betray the heavenly order (천륜) and overturn the national mission and hope entirely was the mother.
So he said, “Woman, what have you and I to do with each other?” The point is that there is no relation at all.
When we think of this and that, the point is that today, this Christianity must fundamentally be judged. In that sense, the Unification Church is needed. Try striking and see who breaks.
Until now, I alone have remained in the Unification Church and carried out this work. Not a single one welcomed it. Watch and see who breaks. The point is: let us see who will break on the day of the collision. But until now, the point is that I take the blows and go forward.
Because Jesus has until now been struck individually, been struck family-wise, been struck kindred-wise, been struck people-wise, and been struck nationally, I too take the blows. Though I am struck, the point is to say, Endure, for the time will come. My enduring is not enduring for the sake of my individual self, but for the sake of resolving Jesus’ han and resolving God’s han.
Instead, because God did not have that nation in which He could be comforted, I fight to find, in a deep inward place, a foundation on which He can be comforted.
Whenever I am driven outwardly, I endure, thinking that it becomes an environment in which I can comfort Jesus’ sorrow and be buffeted by Heaven’s twists and turns, and thinking that the historical turning point can become a motive that can be knotted and resolved here. Such an account is so for God, and so for Jesus too.
Why the Israelite People Became Wanderers and Sojourners for Two Thousand Years
You must know that Jesus passed through such a lonely life. Jesus’ hand must not grasp an adze and hew wood. It must not grasp a plane or plane wood. Should Jesus have done so? Think about whether it should be so.
Would God have prepared for four thousand years to make such a Messiah?
The priests, the teachers of the law, and the scribes who bore responsibility in the age in which Jesus lived must all go to the very bottom of hell. Therefore, the responsibility of a leader of the age is a fearful thing.
To strike these down and cast them into the ground, the point is that He could not but cast the Israelite people, who had united with them, agreed with them, and were guided by them, into the hell of the whole world.
Therefore, the point is that the nation and people, kindred, and customs all had to be shattered to pieces and scattered throughout the world. And so the Israelite people had to become, for two thousand years within the world, a people of regret and lamentation in an earthly hell, until the Messiah came again.
The point is that the Israelite people were so. The time came when Israel could become independent again because a certain standard was set up upon this earth through Heaven’s bond of forgiveness.
As we see in our Principle, Adam is the first son, and Jesus is the second son.
Therefore, in the history of restoration through indemnity, one must present a standard of indemnity centered on the mission and hand over a world-level condition.
On this day of greeting Christmas, what qualifications and posture must we equip?
Rather than sitting joined, singing some song, and enjoying ourselves, we must, in a solemn place, become a historical resurrectional body representing the Israel that longed for Jesus and awaited the Messiah; and, standing in a position of alone bearing responsibility for all the tradition that the national ancestors—who awaited the Messiah Heaven promised, passing through the age of hope—desired, and being able to attend Jesus personally, we must become an “I” who can attend him. Because it is a han that we did not attend the Jesus of the womb period, you must be those who feel once more this hour that we must become an “I” who can attend him.
It Is Infuriating to Think of the Miserable Environment in Which Jesus Was Born
The point is that one must attend the Messiah with all devotion from the womb period and await the day he is born as a day of hope, like the realization of one’s own dream.
Why must it be so?
How much toil did God undertake to send the Messiah to this earth! Having made a people, centered on the Israelite people, victorious at the Jabbok River through Jacob and protecting this people lest they be harmed when driven into the enemy world, and—because the satanic world had nations—raising them even into one national form, He sent the Messiah there; so how tedious was the waiting for that day! The point is that it was a moment when God could breathe out the sigh that had been blocked in His breast for four thousand years.
The point is that it was such a day. So how much did He await the day of His birth! The point is that for God, even the ten months were tedious.
Likewise, we too must become an “I” who can attend the Messiah in the womb and be able to wish for the day he is born, with all sincerity, in the same heart as God.
You must be those who can await that day, adorning your minds—I have prepared thus, and when he is born, I will raise him thus; when he is little, I will clothe him with such clothes and raise him thus; I must attend him thus.
Had there been a person who would do so, would they have let Mary go alone when she sought the city of David, Bethlehem?
A great crowd would come to attend her as she went. Why? Because, in full terms, in a situation where each day was a worry, the point is that she could not be left to go just so. A great crowd would go around her, and, building a bridge from days before, they would surely have prepared the finest inn in Bethlehem. But there is no way to deny that it was an environment of Mary and Jesus, who did not have such people.
Just imagine that Jesus had been born in such an environment. Had it been so, the point is that the matter would be different.
If the number of people who attended him and guarded the environment where he stayed had been greater than the number of all the people who had come to Bethlehem to register, what would have happened?
Had that been possible, what would have happened? The point is that the matter would be different. Would the wise men from the East greet the Messiah born in Bethlehem? The point is, would the wise men from the East greet him?
The point is that that is Israel’s sorrow. The point is that that is God’s sorrow.
Why should gentile people greet Jesus?
Had an environmental event occurred, like the gathered crowd’s testifying as the wise men from the East did, the situation would have arisen nationwide all at once. The Bible scholars knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Therefore, environmentally, this becomes a national issue all at once.
Had that been so, the point is that Jesus absolutely does not die. This is not something I say based on my thinking. It is not something I say, thought up to please your ears. The point is that it was so. Therefore, it is an hour of pressing responsibility upon the historical ancestors.
Our Unification Church has the mission of indemnifying the age of history hereafter and founding this age. Therefore, to indemnify this age of history, one must judge the age of history. One must judge what was done well and what was done poorly.
Only after that can one carry out the mission and responsibility for the age. Without laying bare the historical origin, one cannot carry out the mission of the age.
All the more, because it is a history connected down together with Heaven’s history, the point is that one cannot but lay this bare. You must bear this problem in mind.
One should have attended to Jesus from the womb. When he was born, it is said they wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes—to wrap in a cloth….
Whose hand made that cloth?
Have you thought about that? Whose-made cloth might it be? Did Jesus’ mother, Mary, make it? Think about it. In the plight of a traveler, they were suddenly struck as by a thunderbolt. They met an unexpected calamity.
In such a situation, who made it? Might a beggar have made it?
The point is that one can think this much.
Since it was a situation of giving birth in a stable, in that situation, they would have found something close at hand. This may be a cloth made through the hand of some unspeakably lowly woman. Can this be?
Where was Israel?
That the first clothes the Messiah wore should be swaddling clothes made through the hands of such people as Heaven had not thought of, had not even dreamed of—where was the Israel Heaven prepared for four thousand years? Even rags stitched by the hands of Israelites would have been good! Thinking of this, it is infuriating and mortifying.
Again, if he was bathed after being born, where would it have been done? Think about it.
Who would have had it done?
Since Mary had given birth, the women of the village would have rushed over.
Since an unexpected situation had arisen, the women who had borne children, knowing the circumstance, cooperated. Think of the situation in which they would have washed that infant Jesus.
In what basin, in what vessel, would they have drawn water and washed him? It may have been the earthen crock that scooped out the ox’s fodder. Or it may have been the washbasin used by a person who had sinned and was about to be punished before Heaven at once. You must think of that. Where was Israel? Who supported and bathed the newborn?
How glorious it would be, had we, today’s Unification Church believers, had an ancestor who, offering all devotion before Heaven, met the hour of that infant’s birth and bathed him! But that the body of that Messiah should be washed by such hands as those through which Satan comes and goes—with what shall we atone before Heaven for this irreverence?
Have you ever thought of such things? Pastors are just holy, aren’t they?
I was curious.
Where did he begin to nurse then?
Ordinarily, one gets through twenty-four hours, but when they laid him down and first fed him water, where did they feed him? I hoped that it was not, perhaps, the stable.
Born on this earth, drinking water for the first time, nursing for the first time—you all know what a stable is, don’t you? — that he should begin to take it in such a place, where the stench of ox urine and dung reeks, and burst into crying in that place! Think about it.
Yet it seems that, because it is said Jesus was born in the manger at his birth and was wrapped in swaddling clothes, they consider that swaddling cloth to be something like a hem of God’s garment and consider that manger to be Heaven’s throne.
The Unification Church fellows must clearly know that God’s sorrow is steeped there. Because such a historical han is lodged there, today we must bear the age-level, historical responsibility to indemnify that han. And we bear such a mission.
You must know that it is a han that we could not become the ancestors who supported Mary when, having conceived Jesus, she led her heavy body to seek the city of David.
Though they were an Israelite people who ought to have worried that they did not attend her through the night when she was amid the toil and adversity of giving birth, the fact that they only slept and did not think of it even in dreams—these things deserve to receive Heaven’s punishment.
If Heaven is alive, they must receive punishment.
Jesus, Who Lived a Lonely Life and Departed Without Unfolding the Will
Today, in that sense, we must be able to offer a true celebration by which we can greet Jesus and sing a first song of true praise and answer before Heaven. It is not only at the time of his birth.
We must not, up to the time of his birth, be an object of God’s comfort. At the time of his birth, too, we must accomplish for Him a scene in which God can rejoice; and once he is born, we must become those in whom Jesus can rejoice.
In some thirty years of Jesus’ life, there was not a single person around him who served him. Because of his being born, God, who had longed for a figure that could make Him rejoice and wished to find the resting place of His heart, on the contrary, felt sorrow after sending Jesus. You must know that the second sorrow through Jesus was greater than the first sorrow through Adam and Eve.
We, the descendants of those who did not comfort God at the moment of his birth, must accomplish the restoration through indemnity of that day. You must become those who can gently go before the Father and pray, “Resolve Thou the sorrowful nails of heart that have been driven into Thy breast by such historical ancestors of ours.” And so, to greet this day, having at last made new white clothes and having washed again the clothes that we should have worn when attending the Father but lost, the clothes that were defiled—washing the clothes that were not worn the first time and were defiled and wearing them and coming before the Father, receiving the Father’s will—you must feel that this hour is the hour to greet, sorrowing that we are in a plight of having to face the crown prince of Heaven.
Jesus, who left Heaven’s sorrow even at his birth; Jesus, passing through some thirty years of life upon this earth—how lonely he was! Though he was Heaven’s responsible one who was to resurrect four thousand years of history and the Messiah who bore the mission of liberating the ravaged Israel from being a subject state of Rome, he was feeling the inner distress and trial of clearing away the environmental difficulty. He was not in an environment where he could tell anyone of such inner distress. Because the nation of Israel was not a self-reliant independent state but a colony, he was in a position of having the mouth to speak the will Heaven desired, yet being unable to speak it. He was in a position of being unable to tell even his parents. He was a Jesus who, silently, at night, gazed at the stars of Heaven and whispered inwardly; who, in the daytime resting hours, gazed at the stream flowing before the yard and spoke to it. He was a Jesus who made a friend of the passing wind and made it his habit to befriend the birds that cried as they passed by.
Though he came to this earth, he had no relatives. Many were like relatives, but the point is they were not relatives. Look at how, when at twelve years of age, he went to the city of Jerusalem and was sharing Heaven’s words with the priests in the temple, his parents, having gone a day’s journey and realizing Jesus was not there, set out to look for him.
When we see such a thing, the point is that they did not treat Jesus as a normal person. When we think that there was no environmental kindred that could accord with the true Messiah’s outlook, how lonely he must have been!
Whenever he alone appealed before the Father, he had to pledge his responsibility, shedding hidden tears. Jesus had built up such an inner life from childhood.
When we think of such an age of Jesus in such a living environment, we must become his friend, or his wet nurse, and the comforter of his mind. And was there one person who, worrying over the responsible sphere that had to be cleared away by that thread-thin child’s body in that harsh environment, embraced him with tears, and, seeing his lonely sleeping figure, prayed with tears before Heaven? How mortifying this is!
There would have been many things he wished to wear like others. Many parents in the world love their children, but Jesus was not one to be satisfied with that. God, too, is not one to be satisfied with that.
The point is that there was no helper who, through an ideological heart, bearing Heaven on the back, could embrace Jesus upon the earth, worry over his future, and pray that he please, please grow up well and liberate this people and save the world. How dumbfounding that is!
When God looked upon the priests of that time, He would have wished to cut off all their necks at once. I know the Jesus who lived a life of collapsing alone without a word, sleeping in his clothes, eating whatever there was, with no one around to protect him. I know it well. Because he holds such an account….
When I greet such a day, my breast is choked when I try to tell such a story. Who would know the lonely circumstance of him who came and went, holding a will unknown to others in a world where others did not know? I think it is natural that they do not know. Thinking that the fallen descendants do not know. You must clearly know that Jesus’ account was so.
What are today’s Unification members to do?
How much, waking or dreaming, would Jesus have longed for the day when the culture of Israel would make the Roman Empire surrender and, together with Heaven’s ideology of founding a nation, he could return a triumphant song of victory before the Father?
The point is that he longed for that day through the five senses by which he saw and felt. But knowing that it is the providence that Heaven cannot lose the Israel it labored to set up, the hidden life of Jesus—who, bearing the responsibility of having to pray for the sake of ignorant Israel even in the hours they slept, wandered alone—is not in the Bible.
That it is not in the Bible is, on the contrary, a blessing. If you knew it, you could not live eating your meals. You could not live wearing your clothes. You cannot sleep sprawled out because you are a sinner.
The Unification Church, Which Must Resolve Jesus’ Han
Because God is a God of love, He did not record in the Bible the ideology of Jesus’ life and the inner distress behind it. Knowing that to be God’s love, we must give thanks. But the point is that there is no one to resolve the han that that one, having suffered, held knotted in departing.
The point is that there is no way to resolve it. Without resolving this, the accomplishment of the resolution of han upon the earth is not achieved. Because if the resolution of han is not achieved upon the earth, God cannot rejoice; he must come again to resolve this matter. Because he knotted it and departed, and there is no way to resolve it except through him, the point is that he must come in his name.
In the Unification Church, we speak of such an inward bond. That is how we have come forth, discoursing on the heart.
Since Jesus, too, was a human being wearing a body, would there not have been things he wished to do? There would have been many things he wished to do, would there not? Would that not be so?
If so, then, centering on the mind that I must become an “I” who could, around him, night or day, at any time, obtain for him even a thousand or ten thousand things he asked, and who, though I could not be an outward standard, in such a case grasp his hand and comfort him, at least in mind, at least in word, saying that ten years later, twenty years later, I will do it a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold—we must become people who can become the elder brother among elder brothers, the parent among parents, in Jesus’ time. Only so does one become a brother. The point is that the word “family member” of the Unification Church arose from there.
Penetrating the heart in which Jesus had no true parent, no true brother, no true relative, and going to that front seat and welcoming Jesus once more, only by becoming a person who can embrace him more than the mother who could greet Jesus at that time, more than the brothers, more than that people, more than anyone, is one not ashamed to go before him.
You who reappear the fact that there was no object of comfort, no symbol of joy, before the living stage of Jesus, who lived some thirty years—even though the age of history has passed, tracing up the world of heart, you must comfort him by prayer, and, inheriting that age-level mission now, you must become people who can resolve to lay down your life, saying, I must love that people he wished to love, and I will cultivate a foundation on which I can actually love that world he wished to love. Only so can one tread up over all historical flaws.
By so doing, the point is that the age-level han knotted in Jesus’ time—that is, the han of his life—can be resolved in this present age through us. Only by standing in such a position can one recover the place of a family member who stands in a position of celebrating the day Jesus was born. The second is so.
Third, what would Jesus have wished for?
Of course, in the daily living environment, he would also need a person who would gladly greet him, but it was to recapture the sovereignty of the nation of Israel from the Roman Empire and accomplish the founding of a new, ideal Israel. That he bore the cross and went out too was going out while gazing toward such a time. Because such a time was reserved in Heaven, he endured it and went forward.
Because the people of the nation of Israel set up a sorrowful content before Heaven, they were placed in a destiny of having to vanish as the dew of God’s judgment; but within Jesus’ hope, Israel was alive. The point is that the hoped-for Israel was alive.
However much Israel betrayed, retreated, and collapsed, the nation of Israel dwelling within Jesus’ hope was, undeniably, alive together with history. You must know that the path of sharing life together with the hoped-for nation of Israel and of treading over reality to found the hoped-for nation of Israel was the path of the cross.
It was not for saving my individual self. Today’s Christians say, “Let us believe in Jesus and go to heaven,” but for whom is it? That is individualism. The point is that it is not such a thought.
Jesus died, placing before him a solemn task of greater meaning. He died for the sake of the Israelite kingdom of Heaven, to embody the Israelite kingdom of Heaven. Because he is an individual who must be a people standing in the position of saving the nation, a kindred entered into the people, a family entered into the kindred, and an individual who must dwell within the family, the point is that he is an individual centered on the founding of the nation of Israel.
The point is that it was not a nation of Israel centered on my individual salvation. Because of such a notion of faith, they sell Heaven, sell the nation, and do every kind of trick. Such a church rots. Therefore, when the Last Days come, it cannot hold its place, and it must flow into an environment where anyone can occupy it. God has endured, coming forth to see that day.
The point is that, grasping again this that flows away today, the hoped-for nation of Israel that, centered on the hoped-for Israel, would not be trampled on the cross but pioneer its course together with resurrection—the ideology of founding the Kingdom of Heaven on earth—is eternally alive.
What is Jesus’ han?
Jesus’ wish was, centered on his ideology, to make a vow before Heaven, to find the heavenly kingdom, manifest Heaven’s authority through Jesus’ figure before all people, and greet a day of victory on which he could have dominion over all ages with God’s victorious authority—but the point is that he did not greet this day.
We must become his friend from his birth, become his friend while he lives, and at the same time become his friend on the ideological side too. To accomplish the ideology, the point is that, from a revolutionary position, one must be able even to die before him.
The Kingdom of Heaven Cannot Come Before Jesus’ Han Is Resolved
And yet, just look at Jesus’ disciples. What kind of apostles are those? I dislike the word “apostle” most of all. When it came to dying, they all fled, did they not? Because it was so, the point is that ideological Israel too was entirely lost.
Fortunately, only the thief on the right, who was collapsing without even a name, became, at the instant of Jesus’ dying, an object of comfort, and so became one condition by which Jesus could keep from forgetting the earth. B
Because that prisoner was an Israelite, the point is that he became one condition by which the nation of Israel could be recovered, could be forgiven. So, because of the thief, the nation of Israel is liberated in the Last Days. Because of the word “You shall be with me in Paradise,” in the age of earthly restoration, the nation of Israel can appear before Heaven with the noun “independence.”
Had there not been even that thief, what would have become of it? The nation of Israel would have flowed away forever.
Just as the sudden, unrelated thief became a bond and participated in his rank, Christianity is such that sudden, unrelated peoples received it and went forth enjoying the privileged benefit of the heavenly kingdom of Israel.
Even in the case of a country like England, when you look into its history, it was mostly not good. Yet, upholding Jesus’ will, they came to live well. The motive by which a nation like America today came to be blessed, too, is such.
Because today’s America is the one that upheld a national spirit that could bear responsibility, standing on justice before this world—the han of not having become an Israel and disciples that could bear responsibility on the road of the fight for righteousness—Heaven blessed it, and the point is that it has entered a sphere in which it can, today, govern democracy. Because of that thief, the apostles, too, could be resurrected. Because there was the thief, Jesus too comes again; the point is.
Had there not been him, do you suppose that Jesus, resurrected, could do all that?
What was there to long for in Peter, James, and John, the twelve disciples! Those fellows were all betrayers. Is God one who goes seeking betrayers?
But because there was a person who, in that place of betrayal, crossed over the pass of betrayal, trod over the sphere of death, and, sacrificing all his positions, took Jesus’ side, it was through them that Jesus came again and stood in a position unforgettable regarding Israel. In that sense, the point is that Israel must attend to the thief. The point is that they must think of him with gratitude.
Jesus carried out the historical mission while gazing at the hoped-for Israel. But when he counted the First Israel of the bygone age of history, in Jesus’ mind there remains an unresolvable sorrow at having lost Israel. Bearing the mission to found a new heavenly kingdom, he gazed at Israel then, but the point is that the han of the Israelite people betraying and rejecting him is tied in his breast. This must be resolved in someone's time. It must be resolved.
Unless this han is resolved, one cannot become a friend on the living side and the ideological side of Jesus. Without resolving this, one cannot be saved.
If one does not resolve the han knotted in Jesus’ breast, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot come. One cannot greet him.
Some nation on the world stage today must, in the Last Days when the Lord comes, bear responsibility, reappear in the mission-sphere of the First Israel that failed of old, determine the historical sphere of Israel’s resurrection, and grasp a standard by which it can say to Satan, “Did you not trample this?” and snatch it back and strike him down.
Unless this is done, the Lord cannot come. Restoration through indemnity is so.
Only so is that han resolved, is it not? To resolve han—for example, if an indignant mind is knotted, then even if it is unpleasant to hear, only when one explains, “Was it not so because of this?” is it resolved.
How is the historical han knotted in Jesus, the han knotted through the people, to be resolved? The point is that one must say, “Because that national han was thus, I present this environment; so look at this, and receive this in its stead, and resolve it.”
One Must Have the Attitude of Indemnifying the Sin of the Jewish People Who Betrayed Jesus
In the principle of restoration through indemnity, there is no way of pardon. So I drive the Unification Church members onto the path of death. To cross over the multitude who betrayed Jesus—the twelve apostles who betrayed and fled—I drive out and thrust onto the death path the multitude who say they will follow of themselves.
They fled, saying they would die, did they not?
Am I the opposite? I thrust those who say they will follow into the path of death. It is not dying while following Jesus around; one must be in a position of being able to die without Jesus. To die together with Jesus is easy; the point is. To indemnify the sin of having betrayed Jesus, one must stand in a position of being able to walk the death path for Jesus’ sake, in his stead, even where Jesus is not.
Only so can one indemnify the sorrowful mind when those people betrayed and struck Satan, saying, “You wretch!” The point is that one must expel Satan, saying, “You scoundrel—did you, with such conditions, drive nails into my breast, knot han in Heaven, and make the national sphere of death for Israel? Even so, do you think it will not be resolved?”
Therefore, in the Unification Church, I drove mercilessly onto the path of hardship, the multitude who said they would follow the Unification Church Teacher. I drove them out, saying, “Go the path of death!” Those who are there packing their bundles and fleeing are all people who have no bond.
Holding the mind that, even dying alone, I will die in a position of duly indemnifying all historical sin; and that, even in dying, just as Jesus went embracing the people, embracing the world, I will follow the footsteps of one who, centered on the ideology of founding, centered on the ideology of world restoration, bore the cross on his back and gently walked the death path—not keeping it by dying, but resolving to keep it by living, and appearing with the authority of resurrection, without being struck by Satan’s arrow and without dying—only so does one prepare the foundation of the people’s accomplishment of the resolution of han. Because it will be so, the point is that the Unification Church today, imitating that, has come forth until now.
However many kinds of talk they make around us, we pay no heed. We have no leisure to listen. Because my path is time-sensitive, let the village dogs bark if they will bark; if one falls behind and collapses on the road, let him collapse; as for an unrelated passerby, if he would collapse, let him collapse—the point is. I cannot concern myself.
Because my path is time-sensitive, I cannot concern myself. Because there is a historical mission that can indemnify the people’s han, I have led you out, seeking to pioneer such a path.
Then, having led you out thus, what shall we do?
Because the purpose of salvation is not in the individual but in saving the nation of Israel, when the foundation of the victory of restoration for salvation is prepared, kindred restoration, of course, and family restoration and individual restoration come about automatically. This is the path a believer originally ought to walk, and it is the traditional, main-trunk (本幹的) thought of Jesus.
Yet do you believe in going to heaven?
These slovenly fellows—the point is that I intend to expel all these fellows from this earth. Such a church must perish. It must perish, failing to find the nation. The point is that a nation cannot concern itself with another nation.
I will say it once more: the history of the past has flowed away. When we come to think that this history must meet once more and be resolved, what shall I—who, leaving a historical distance, have not held any condition by which I can comfort God—do?
Centered on the Principle you are learning, and through the special bond of heart behind the Principle, the point is: let us accomplish the resolution of han beginning from Adam’s family.
One must know that God was thus toward Abel, that God’s sorrow toward Cain was thus, that God’s providence toward Noah’s family was thus, and thus what that inward heart is. And so, whenever one prostrates oneself, feeling a heart in which the blood leaps up when one thinks of it, one must equip the standing of a child who can step forth, comforting with tears, “Father, how much hast Thou labored!” and, with the devotion of attending with my mind—“I wish to attend the Father in my home and live a thousand years, ten thousand years; what does it matter if the environment is hard, what does it matter if the persecution is severe?” — cultivating, in secret, the inner standard of the Kingdom of Heaven, saying, “A victorious Kingdom of Heaven, a world-level victorious foundation of heart, has been cultivated through me,” and saying, “Now, from me, undertake Thou the first step of Thy progress in this physical world. I ask for Heaven’s counsel.”
Though it is our mission to equip such a standing, when I look at the Unification Church saints today, I keenly feel that such a multitude is not many. But I am not so—I am not so.
For this, I have resolved to offer my life several thousand times before the Father, and I do not know how many tens of thousands of times, inwardly and outwardly, I have pledged to die.
Whenever arrows poured in, and I was buffeted by harsh trials, I endured, saying, “the path my Father walked.” It is my Father. Not another’s father. I do not use the word “God.” The path my Father walked! My Father! The inner meaning of “my” is broad and great. It includes the meaning of “inner,” and it includes the meaning of “my side.” Through that, everything wells up.
Feeling such things, you must become a person who, passing through these three ages—the womb period, the age of the flesh, and the age of ideology—can be remembered in that mind, can be remembered in that life, and can be engraved in that name.
Only by becoming such a person does one become a son or daughter of God.
Because God’s sons and daughters have, until now, been on a path sought through such a place; because He passes through the age-level process of the providence of salvation in which He cultivates such a path—when we think of this time mission, that we can accompany and work together in that providential process, what would you give in exchange for it?
What would you give in exchange?
The world’s honor is but for a moment and flows away. The world’s pleasure is but for a moment and vanishes. When we think that the path we walk, the foundation we leave, will be kept eternally, together with Heaven, the point is that there is no path better than this path. In that sense, our Unification Church is not pitiable. It is not pitiable.
When I tour the provinces, there are many times I face them with tears. When I see them enduring even in a difficult environment, I feel sorrow.
How much do they endure? The more miserable it is, the more, in the midst of the misery, an intimate bond of heart with Heaven is formed. In the place where one, saying he will suffer for the Father’s sake, even while going hungry, grasps an empty bowl and, longing for rice, can call upon the Father, Heaven’s very entrails melt. Or in such a place of torture—where, for the sake of the will, one is shut in an iron-barred cell, beaten, one’s clothes torn, and sheds tears—Heaven's heart bursts forth.
In such a place, one must pledge to fix a nameplate of a filial child before the Father, to fix a nameplate of a loyal subject. Because there was no such person in our age of history, knowing the background of such a historical heart, one must comfort Heaven and pledge that one must accomplish the resolution of han for the martyrs and heroes who have been full of han until now, historically—“The path you walked was thus; I too, by walking this path, will comfort you, and, setting in the near future a promise to resolve your han, I will surely accomplish it.” How exhilarating and meaningful a time it is that one can do so! Have you ever resolved thus?
The Unification Church, carrying out such a principle and such a living foundation and such ideological work, must become, before Jesus, an indispensable friend without a second. It must become, before God, a filial child and loyal subject without a second.
You must know that that is the Unification Church tradition. The beings apart from that are all swindlers.
Only when that tradition remains can God’s individual, from there, be revived once more; only when that tradition remains can God’s sons and daughters grow gently; only when that tradition remains can the heavenly kingdom be re-founded. This is an unmistakable iron rule.
Thinking of such an inner account, you must make this an hour when you can criticize your past self that was not so, put in order your present self that is not so, and resolve to prepare your fated destiny of tomorrow as a new foundation and step forth.
Only when it becomes an hour in which one can thus resolve once more does it become this important day on which one can determine the qualification to greet Christmas, which Heaven requires.
When you greet this day with such resolve and such a mind, Heaven becomes grateful, and Jesus too comes to have the significance of greeting this day, and the point is that the hoped-for Israel to come cannot but come about through us. Thinking of such things, I have given you a message with such content today.
We Must Liberate North Korea and Save the People
Today is the last Sunday of 1966. It is the last Sunday of the sixth year, the year of the most trials, in crossing over the seven-year course. When I quietly thought this morning at dawn, I was dumbfounded.
How many trials have we undergone for the sake of this path! Truly, there were many twists and turns. To hold a single worship service, we would fight; in the middle of worship, one would be dragged out and given a cudgel beating.
Having crossed over such a han-filled indemnity age of the six-year mark, now a foundational environment has been prepared in which, wherever the Unification Church goes, these people can no longer treat it so. On one side there is sorrow, but on one side I come to give thanks.
In the old days, how much did you flee to hold a single day’s worship on such a day? There were even times you fled at night, climbing over walls, to meet the Teacher once, were there not?
Why did you do so?
That purpose was not for saving you individually or for individuals’ good. It was for the sake of that nation and that righteousness. The Teacher is a passing person. But the bond of that nation remains eternally.
The Teacher is needed to form the bond of that nation, and the Teacher is needed because it is through that bond; otherwise, the point is that the Teacher has no relation to it.
Passing through such days, now today we are spending the last Sunday of 1966. Now this day will not come again. Thinking that it is the last day of the sixth year in the seven-year course, on one side, it is regretful, and on the other side, joyful.
The first day of the month, greeting the last year of the seven-year course, falls on a Sunday. Ha! How is this? Whether it is a coincidence or whether it was hoped for—seeing it fit so, I think of it with joy. How does the first day of the month become a Sunday?
And how is today’s Christmas a Sunday?
When I think of all this, I think it is a historical turning point in which a joyful day and a sorrowful day, or a sorrowful day and a joyful day, alternate. Thinking thus, there is nothing overflowing with hope.
Instead, hereafter our mission is great. To save the people, we must raise, before this world, a national uprising of liberation and liberate the land of North Korea. We must liberate the land of North Korea.
For that, the problem is how, centered on the remaining second seven-year course, I must again drive you forth from now on. Until now, you have toiled in the process of indemnity. Now it is not a process of indemnity.
If you sow ten times, you can reap ten times. The Teacher, too, until the seven-year course ends, has been connected with Heaven by toiling, meeting the age of indemnity. Crossing over such an age, now I hope that there will be yet another seven-year period in which we can go together with the people.
There will be such a period again. Though, in the age of indemnity until now, I suffered hardship and did every kind of thing because I could not do the work of welcoming Heaven and greeting Heaven; I do not know what work I will do again hereafter. I may lead you into a den of beggars or into a labor site. Be resolved.
The point is that such a thing could be. Renting a house—now I ride about in a car, but I think a time will come when my feet become the car in its stead.
I am holding the thought, “On the day it does not go as the Teacher planned, I must do it again. If these Unification Church fellows fail their responsibility, I must indemnify it again.” Wouldn’t that be good? Wouldn’t that be good? (The words that follow were not recorded.)