Setting today before us, people know that the past is connected here and the future is connected here. That is, the present cannot subsist on the present itself alone.
From this point, setting one individual of ours before us, the being called “I” is the fruit of the past and the starting point of the future. And you must know that my present self is not a self-isolated individual but a self that requires a central position in a place where everything is related, connecting Korea and connecting the world. That is why we say that the past is necessary for centering on oneself, and say that the present is necessary for centering on oneself, and say that the future is necessary for centering on oneself.
The present position in which God and human beings are placed
No one thinks apart from himself. One thinks of the past centering on oneself, and thinks of the present centering on oneself, and thinks of the future centering on oneself. And in thinking, one does not seek to think centering on bad things. One seeks to think of the past centering on good things, and to think of the present, and to think of the future.
That is why a person must come forth holding a good past and must pioneer a position that can be good in the present as well and must also go forward picturing a worthwhile and valuable result of the future upon that accomplished foundation. For that, that result must appear as something good not only for one’s own living but also for the people and the world. Those placed in such a position are we human beings today.
When we think from such a position, would it not be the same with God as it is with us human beings?
Seen centering on God Himself, God will think of the past in which, from the time He began creating, He passed through a process of establishing created things and made human beings as the central body of the perfection of the purpose of creation. And He will think of the wretched history of the Restoration passed through until now, from after the undesired result of the fall was brought about.
In other words, seen centering on God’s past, what would be unforgettable in that retrospect?
At first He would of course have rejoiced infinitely over the result of the great work of creation being brought to fruition, and there would have been once of joy in which, with infinite hope and infinite expectation, He gazed upon the human being, the center who could display the realization of tomorrow’s creation, as an object of every hope and delight; but when we consider God’s own position, in which, because of this tremendous result of the fall that was never thought of, that joy changed and He could not but pioneer a han-filled course of struggle through a thousand generations and ten thousand generations and could not but again take up a pioneer’s mission — and that not a pioneering done with hope, but a pioneering in which, in every heart and in every matter faced, sorrow intervened and He came forth with the hope of being able to cross one hill of sorrow — we come to surmise that it is a history in which that past, the more one recalls it, the more one looks back upon it, becomes a recollection and a retrospect that adds sorrow.
Then, setting before us God’s present position as He pioneers the Restoration of the heavenly kingdom, what is the difference between past and present?
In this wide heaven and earth today, there are countless religious people and countless Christians. But when we consider how many religious bodies, or children believing in such a religion, there are among them who can find again and give back to God, who has come forth holding sorrow until now, the desire that was lost in the Garden of Eden, we come to consider that it cannot but be a desolate present. God in such a present cannot but be far from a joyful God, but rather a sorrowful God, a God who cannot hold hope, a God who regrets amid disappointment.
The important present point at which sorrow must be turned into joy
Then, setting such an actual state before us, if we observe the world from God’s position, where indeed upon this globe would there be one point of new hope, one foundation of new hope?
Upon this globe there are many nations. Among them there are nations that boast of a civilization as advanced as nations, and there are also nations and peoples that consider themselves, after their fashion, to be a nation blessed in the world and a people that receives blessings. But if one looks beyond such a self-regarding position, God’s expectation and hope are not there.
If, then, we consider that this insignificant band of the Unification Church, which has walked a course of persecution in the land of Korea until now, is the very body that becomes the center of the desire God now beholds as He looks upon the world, we cannot but say that, from the present position centering on the will, this is an unspeakably grave and astonishing grace if it is grace, while on the other hand it is a fearsome thing if it is fearsome.
If the Unification Church today stands in such a position, then the Unification Church’s present is a position that has met a precious and tremendous worldwide event. When we look back over our histories until now, that history has been a continuation of a history of sorrow, but the present that has appeared centering on this Unification Church today, must not be connected as a history of sorrow. Must it not become the most important present point, unprecedented in the historical ages, at which one cannot but turn sorrow and pledge a result of joy?
Then when we compare the countless forebears in history who came forth following the road of the will, or the will of Providence, in the historical ages that have flowed by with our Unification Church family members who face this will today, all that the forebears of days past offered in devotion and loyalty ended, as a result, in leaving behind a history that could not be expected before God’s desire and rather in adding sorrow. Therefore, if the mission of reproducing Heaven’s joy and hope today lies with the Unification Church, the mission entrusted to each Unification Church member cannot but be tremendous. Therefore, whatever happens, we must not disappoint God again and must present before God a single thought of joy and hope. We must realize once again that we have such a historical mission.
In the past, countless prophets and forebears came and went, but if they look back upon their own past, they will not rejoice. That is all a past that must be let flow away. Furthermore, even a people holding a sphere of culture that can boast that in the historical ages its people were splendid—that good past is nothing to boast of. It amounts to no more than events that will vanish amid God’s sorrow.
Therefore our Unification Church must be able to leave, within God’s deep heart, all the precious civilizations of the historical ages and all the works that countless prophets and forebears accomplished by toiling, pouring out all their passion of loyalty and filial devotion before the will even while walking a road of death, as joy and as a condition of retrospect. If we have such a responsibility, then the responsibility borne by a member of the Unification Church today is tremendous.
Seen this way, we cannot but consider the question of whether God regards the one day’s living we live and the year’s period we live through, or the ten or twenty years we shall live hereafter, as more important than the events left behind by countless prophets and forebears of the world who came and went in the past—that is, more important than such events as have become objects of recollection. That is why we must not live a life of reproducing and repeating a history of sorrow but must fulfill the responsibility of indemnifying the history of sorrow and creating a new history. This is the mission of us, Unification Church family members.
Therefore, if this present does not become a present free of the accompanying sorrow of God that has flowed by, and does not become a present that can be praised at some point in time in the future to come, then a history that can be joyful cannot remain in the future, nor can it remain as a condition that can be looked back on and yearned for when one looks back at the present from the future. Today’s present cannot but become a time and a period that simply flow away together with history.
When we consider that, if it becomes so, it remains as a bitter and grievous historical fact that receives every denunciation in the future and passes on a history of sorrow, you must know how to realize how tremendous the position in which we are placed at this present is.
What must be left behind at the present point?
Setting before us the being called a human being, there is not much difference between a person of the present and a person who came and went in the past. That one seeks, centering on oneself, to become the center of worldwide value, a value that is the same for people of old and people of now. Seen from some viewpoint, in yearning for goodness and struggling for goodness, we are rather in a poorer position than the people of old, but we must absolutely not forget that the mission of the age laid upon us and the standard history requires are a tremendous standard.
When we see that the steps our Unification Church takes are the foundation stone of history and the spirit of history and a road that can resolve all the sorrow of the past, the lives of you who are walking that road will be not meaningless lives but lives that advance. That is not an advance along a single line but a horizontal, and further, a three-dimensional, advance. All the prophets and forebears of the historical ages will hope that you become such.
Furthermore, God will await our becoming central beings, not lacking the ability to be set forth as such a center of history. Setting such a question before us, you must always be aware that your individual selves are not beings standing as one individual but beings standing amid such a historical center and historical desire and historical expectation.
Now hereafter we shall pass through the many historical processes of the 1970s, the 1980s, or the 2000s and further the 3000s, but what must be left behind at the present point now?
In the year 1970, in the Unification Church’s passing through the year 1970, there will be a temporal boundary line. Furthermore, at the point called the present, there will be a summit that must be crossed. Seen centering on the will, there will be an individual summit, a family-level summit, and a people-level, national, and worldwide summit. And the one time when that summit can be crossed does not exist twice in the ages of the world, or in the historical ages of God’s Providence, but only once. The question is at what time and by whom that point, which comes only once eternally, is passed. We are in the process of meeting such a time, but it is difficult to determine and be confident and cross over, saying, “Certainly, more than any other time, this is it.”
From this viewpoint, when we consider that one moment of the summit winds through our present sphere of living and that my living and my heart cross over through the world, if there is a person who offers devotion with a heart of “Shall I let slip this time that comes only once?” he will be an exceedingly wise person.
Such a person will represent the heart of the saint among saints and will represent the life of the righteous man among the righteous. If such a person pursues some ideal, that person will be able to stand at the highest peak in pursuing the ideal.
That is why this present is not an ordinary present. Especially this period called the 1970s, in which the Unification Church is walking, is not one wave of an ordinary sphere of the age, nor some one index or ism. It is a period in which the highest peak in the historical ages can be formed. So we must know how precious and how tremendous the time is in the present in which we live today.
Therefore, at this time we must fulfill the way of loyalty and be able to pledge a victorious result. Furthermore, we must, by investing our craving and our own weighted loyalty and the single thought of our devotion, leave behind one full and perfect time, one present time that can be packed full without any gap before or behind, left or right. That will be the desire the forebears of the past hoped for and will become the standard the people of the world today pursue in their hearts and will also become the highest expectation toward their forebears that our descendants of the future hope for.
It would be so seen centering on the history of humankind, but it is likewise the same seen centering on the history of the Providence of Restoration. God, beholding this present day, will wish to make it one origin by which the regrettable past can be settled and one can push forward proudly toward the future. But you must know that if there is no time when one can settle each side and cross over, centering on that one time, that one moment, the sorrowful history of the past cannot be settled, and a present that can be joyful does not remain in the future.
Setting before us this problem, one cannot but inherit the sorrowful history just as it is; we must not flee from here, whatever twists of suffering we may meet. Rather than hesitating, one must strike a decisive blow from the present position for the one summit that God desires and that past, present, and future desire. And thus, if we become individuals filled with resolve and a unification altar filled with resolve that can pledge a decisive victory for the whole, this brings about one victorious foundation on which the history of the whole world can be gathered and its han resolved and brought to fruition. And yet the question is whether we ourselves, our church, have become able to settle on a foundation on which that can be so.
The band of unification, who must bring the people’s history of disbelief to fruition as joy
Thinking centering on the Unification Church today, the Unification Church has a history of some twenty years. Setting before us the question of what there is to boast of in that history of some twenty years, or what there is to boast of within God’s providential history, there is nothing there but the people’s history of disbelief—that is, the past in which the people disbelieved.
When we ask whether the fact of having been denounced by countless denominations or by the people while passing through three regimes of the Republic of Korea until now, and having been driven in our environment of living, could indeed be a condition we can boast of before God, we must know that it can be no condition whatsoever to boast of.
When we look back upon the history of days past, we must know that that history was a sorrowful period in which the history of disbelief and betrayal was carried on in the heart of God, who has carried on a history of sorrow. Furthermore, that history was a history of sorrow that stimulated this people’s shame and stimulated the people’s incompleteness and stimulated each one’s disbelief so that each might once again crave hope.
That is why the question of how to exchange the unification denomination’s sorrowful history for a history of joy at some time cannot but be an exceedingly important question for us. God will desire it, and the Republic of Korea itself, which has betrayed and opposed us until now, will desire it, and the countless forebears who came and went in the Republic of Korea will desire it. When we consider that, in a position where the anchor of the Providence has been dropped so that the heavenly fortune may fix a decisive position centering on Korea, the countless spirit individuals of the spirit world who have faced Heaven’s will, of course, and the created world upon the earth cannot but leave behind a sorrowful result; who then can leave behind a joyful result? It is not God, nor another people, nor other people. The band of unification of our unification denomination, who look insufficient and look worn out and look immature today, must do it. When we consider such a tremendous fact, your beating pulse and the throb of your sounding heart must be felt as a pulse and a throb, not like those of ordinary times. To become such, you must offer devotion in your life.
If you have passed without knowing that the Teacher is crossing his own highest boundary line, that not having known remains as sorrow. That is why from now on at least you must follow a standard by which you can know. It is impossible to take part together in the ideal world without keeping step to be bound to the summit and holding the value of having crossed that summit oneself. This is what becomes the question.
God, who wishes to embrace a greater standard
Then what will the Teacher, who guides the Unification Church today, choose? When such a time comes, does it seem he will cross alone?
Or does it seem he will somehow cross together with the band that follows the Teacher, together with the Blessed Families? The Teacher’s heart is to cross together not only with the Unification Church but also, centering on Unification Church members, with the people and the nation and further with Asia and the world. In a spring day’s environment, if it is a spring day, he wishes to cross from a position where the central place can be settled.
Seeing that, we can know that God too wishes not to confine that range to the individual but to widen it to the family, and widen it to the clan, and to the nation, to the whole world, even to the Cosmos, and to cross that one time together. When we consider that God’s heart is like this, we come to feel it is beyond doubt that God has not had a joyful day until now. Because such a day comes only once, it is God’s heart, and also a leader’s heart, to wish to meet that historic one time together with all the people of the whole world.
God has not yet had a time when He could lift an individual’s victory and praise it worldwide. Furthermore, He has not had a time when He could lift a family and praise it worldwide, and He has not had a worldwide time of victory through any particular clan, and He has not had a victorious position centering on a people either.
If an individual has done well, it is God’s heart to wish to connect that with the world. If a family is doing well, it is God’s heart to wish not to praise that family alone but to connect that family’s doing well with the world’s doing well; and if a clan has done well, He wishes to connect it with the world; and again, if a people has done well, God hopes that rather than its remaining only with a particular people, it may remain as a particular international person of the world and remain as a person of the world. That is why we must know that God has come forth until now in a position where He could not at any one time praise an individual with a joyful heart and could not praise a family and could not lift and praise a clan and a people and a nation.
The Unification Church must become one that can stand closer to God’s heart
When we think of such a position of God’s and think of the past and present the Unification Church has walked until now, if we ask whether there was ever a time when we ourselves as Unification Church members could boast of ourselves worldwide, the Unification Church, likewise, has had none. There has been no one time when we could boast as a family and no one time when we could boast as a clan. Going further, setting before us the question of whether, even if the whole Republic of Korea welcomed us, we could stand in a position where we could boast before the world, we know that with the Republic of Korea’s welcome alone we cannot joyfully boast before the world. Seen this way, before setting the Republic of Korea itself in such a position, we must go forward hoping for one foundation on which the Republic of Korea can be made worldwide and can be boasted about before the world.
When we look at the Unification Church standing in such a destiny, the destiny the Unification Church must walk today may in one way be called a sorrowful destiny, but when we think of what God has passed through and endured until now, is it not the road by which one can stand closest to God’s inner heart?
If there is a time when one wishes to boast of an individual, one must meet it not as a time of the individual alone but as one time in which one can boast together with the family; and not only with the family but further as one time in which one can boast together with the clan and can boast together with the people and the nation and the world. That such should be so is God’s heart. That is, God’s deep and great heart is to wish to meet one time in which He can boast of an individual and family and clan and people and nation and world all at once.
When we consider such things, we come to consider whether the Unification Church can indeed remain until such a time and how many people there are in the Unification Church who can think even of such things. Even if one offers one’s life and walks a road of suffering, if one thinks it grievous, one cannot connect that time and leave it as a time of the world. Setting such a fact before us, we cannot but consider that we, the band of unification who have come forth on the road of faith, resolving and pledging today, are placed in a position where we cannot but furnish revolutionary content again and pledge once more.
That we have carried on our strategy until now is not to find today’s price of sacrifice but to praise one central value that can manifest the bond of all people and all ages, centering on thousands of years of history. This is the direction and the course toward which unification thought aims. Why is that?
Because God has come forth doing so. God desires such a liberation that can praise individual liberation and, at the same time, praise ten thousand families and ten thousand peoples and ten thousand nations.
A person who can leave today’s joy as tomorrow’s joy
Setting such a question before us, has there been a culture and sphere of civilization holding a traditional thought or spiritual support suitable to this?
Until now, there has been no such culture and sphere of civilization. And we must know that spheres of civilization that did not hold such a traditional thought or spiritual support have flowed away while passing through the historical ages.
But if a new sphere of civilization is accomplished and a new culture founded that goes forward with such an assertion as this ideological support arising from unification thought—that is, one that is for the public benefit of the whole and looks toward the public righteousness of the whole and, to bind today’s joy to the value of the whole, stands shoulder to shoulder with the world and pledges life together with the world and can praise the value of the bond together with the world—then it cannot but be eternal.
If it becomes so, that sphere of civilization becomes a sphere of civilization that can carry on and hand down a newer and more three-dimensional sphere of culture than any people that could make history shine and boast a splendid culture in the historical process until now.
Today you yourselves think that you must live well and must do well. But between pledging that one must live well and do well within the fence of some family centered on the Kims, if the Kims, and saying that one must do well and live well within the sphere of the world, there is a difference as between heaven and earth. The former is a person who lives a life close to the past, and the latter is a person who lives a life close to the future.
A person who, within the limited sphere called today, pursues today’s joy alone, centering on himself, collides with tomorrow. Today’s joy is inherited by tomorrow. Therefore, one must not pass today’s joy as today’s joy alone but must hold it and go so that today’s joy can be left to the future. When it becomes so, it will hold infinite value.
If one goes forward hoping for such a place, holding such a thought—a thought that pursues not a summit centering on oneself but a summit of victory centering on the world—a place that heaven and earth and the spirit people who came and went in the past and the humankind of the present and the descendants of the future can all together raise both hands and praise, saying that this is a worldwide summit and a place meeting a spring day in which all the people of the world can rejoice—then however great the pain of living today may be, is that pain not a pain that can overcome the summit and occupy the summit? A living that can remain as one material by which the summit can be settled is one that no one can occupy.
Then when we ask which is more precious, we can consider that what centers on oneself is not precious, but that what centers on the world is precious. Why is that? Because God has not been able to lift and boast of such a one time through any historical age until now.
Then what sort of time would be the one time God wishes to boast of?
When Jesus was born, the joy in which the wise men from the East came and offered frankincense and worshipped, or the joy in which the angels rejoiced, may have been a joy of birth, but it could not be a joy of the inheritance of the great work. In other words, that was not praise and worship in which the great work of creation was concluded and God was filled with joy and the whole created world under heaven responded and harmonized, but praise and worship in setting out while looking toward the future.
That joy was a joy in a place of pledging a future joy through a process and setting out looking toward the future; it was not a joy at a worldwide summit of having accomplished the future purpose. Though they set out with joy on meeting the Jesus they had desired, we know that because they did not hold the purpose for which they had set out, Christianity’s wretched destiny remained. And we know too that the event that added a sorrow that comes not twice in human history is precisely the event of Jesus’ cross. We know that God, because of this affair, met with a greater sorrow and twist than at the time of Adam and Eve’s fall, and that He manifested that desolation as three hours of darkness.
But because the almighty God had certainly to accomplish that desire He wished to leave as a worldwide summit, He pledged that at some one time and in some one place it must be settled centering on one person and has reared Christianity through thousands of years of a history of suffering until now.
Although Christianity is thus a Christianity found at the price of suffering and a Christianity for indemnifying and restoring a history of suffering, where among the believers who believe in Christianity today is there a person who can adorn the history of suffering, and where is there a person holding the value that can be found at the price of suffering?
Though one sits in a place holding a cosmic-historical bond
When we think of such a question, we cannot but feel despair here. But rather than only lamenting while feeling despair, we must rouse a new movement in which we can feel Heaven’s sense of calling from within despair and exert ourselves all the more. Unless the origin of such a movement is sought somewhere on this globe, the fruition of God’s will and the fruition of humankind’s desire are impossible.
If there is a band that writhes for such a time and suffers for such a time and awaits and is anxious for the appearance of such a time, then from there a new history and a new world can set out. You must know that; otherwise, one cannot even think of it. That is why our Unification Church today cannot but walk such a road.
Jesus, as He passed away on the cross, said, “I will come again. I will without fail come as the bridegroom, so adorn yourselves as the bride.” He went, promising one day of the wedding feast that could be left as a boast before all people and all ages. Then is that wedding feast Korean? It is not Korean but worldwide. It is not of a people but supranational.
Furthermore, it is not denominational but supradenominational. It is opened not upon the earth alone, but God is together with it, and its center is God. And that central God desires to meet that one day not in a form of sorrow but in a form filled with joy and delight.
This time above all is the time of the worldwide summit and the time when all people meet the peak of hope and the time of concluding the sorrowful history. Furthermore, this time above all is the time when the center of the whole is settled and all the sorrowful history is removed and a new history of joy can be set out.
Setting such a question before us, has the Unification Church indeed had such a day on this ideal course it hopes for today?
The road we have passed until now has been a road of tears. At times we have come forth, pledging this road in the shade, avoiding the eyes of countless crowds, or on a road of being driven. But when we consider that that is not what God was satisfied with and desired, we today must awaken.
We must awaken more than the people of Israel and must awaken more than the Jewish denomination and must awaken more than the apostles who followed Jesus. You must know that such a tremendous cosmic-historical bond is knotted in this place where we sit today.
Knowing that each of our actions can emerge as a flower of history and that each of our thoughts can waft as a fragrance of history, we must become cleaners who can remove all the lamentation of all people. Not only that, but we must also be aware that we are historical representatives who must resolve and bring to fruition the han of God, whose heart of love is creased with wrinkles and in whose heart a nail has been driven that no one can pull out. Here it is not a problem that one’s outward dress is shabby.
If my outward form is shabby, thinking of the saints and sages who walked with inwardly shabby forms in the historical ages, we must become ones who can pledge before Heaven, from a position of a world-historical representative, that we will resolve their han and bring it to fruition, that we will indemnify and restore them.
Therefore, if one comes to be in some position where one is satisfied oneself, that satisfaction can become a satisfaction that can be shared not only as my individual satisfaction but together with the humankind of the world. What has groped along such a road is the Providence of Restoration and the history of humankind.
For this a countless price of sacrifice was paid, and for this a countless history of blood was left behind. Therefore, you must know that people are not for making me alone joyful.
If God is to carry on the work of re-creation, He desires
Then do Unification Church members today truly know that God exists?
Can they truly feel by sensation that God is within my sphere of living, and do they clearly know that He is in contact with my cells and working? God is not the God of the past alone. He is also the God of the present and the future.
Then if He was a sorrowful God in the past and is a sorrowful God in the present too, He will be able to become a joyful God of the future only if someone blocks this sorrow; who, then, will block this sorrow of God and turn it so that God can rejoice? What individual must do so, and what family must do so, and what clan, people, and nation must do so?
That nation must not be a nation swept along within the sphere of the world’s currents of thought but a nation in a position of standing at the head, able to fight within that sphere and lead the world’s currents. Only then can it become a nation that can represent the world. When we consider such a question, this cannot but be the most serious question.
If there is a person who has become so aware, then the being called “I” at this time does not simply point to me alone. It is an “I” standing in the stead of history’s resurrection, an “I” standing at the very summit of the age. Speaking in terms of a tree, it is an “I” that can hang at the tip of the main stem and become one fruit.
That is, it is not an “I” that grieves and laments that one is wretched and good for nothing, but an “I” whose living God can guarantee in the past, present and future, digesting whatever difficulty and whatever distress as delight. And yet have you become such an “I”?
When we think of God, who could not retreat at passes of sorrow in the past, retreat is unthinkable even in a dream, however much I run up against a bitter place where sorrow is weighted.
If God had thought of retreating, what would have become of this humankind today? Because the One who kept such a place is our Father, my Father, and we are sons who received that Father’s flesh and blood, we have the responsibility of repaying and settling that Father’s debt. That is why we must hold a heart that can properly bear it, even if the effort and sacrifice for this be several times what God did. When we go forth with the single thought of consoling God this way, a heart of desire in which God can rejoice arises in our hearts.
When one is driven into a sorrowful place such as God was placed in, if one says, “I am dying,” joy will not come out. If, even when placed in such a place as that in which God toiled, a place where roads of death cross, one can become sons and daughters who say, “Do not be anxious. To cross the road of suffering vigorously, you walk and leave it as one worthwhile point of tomorrow’s hope. I will go, leaving my flesh and blood upon that foundation, and leave behind that foundation of heart which history cannot cross over and history cannot crush, and then from there God will carry on the work of re-creation He desired.
From saying that I will certainly accomplish God’s desire, a motive arises by which God’s new hand can come. That is why Jesus too, on the course of the cross, said, “Abba, Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will,” and, saying, “Father, forgive them their sin,” loved the enemy even on a road of death in which His flesh and blood melted away. Because Jesus went knowing that a heart that cannot love an enemy is the Father’s heart, God made the sphere of the Second Israel appear before Jesus’ heart.
When we consider such a fact, we too must become people who take hold of God, staking our lives with such an attitude of faith. You must know that without becoming such a person, one cannot become a good ancestor who can leave the heavenly great work carefully to this age and to the descendants of the future.
How shall one receive the environment?
If happiness comes seeking on the road the Unification Church walks hereafter, one must not say that the Unification Church alone will receive that happiness. If there is something the Unification Church can boast of, one must be able to boast of it together with all people.
Furthermore, in the Unification Church’s victory, one must not say one will leave it as the Unification Church’s victory alone. If one holds such a heart, it flows away. Such a person may be denounced by history but cannot be in a position to hand down a new hope for the future. Such a foundation does not remain. When we consider this, we will know that saying one will enjoy our victory alone, our glory alone, or our joy alone is not God’s will.
Among those who have been blessed, there may be someone who laments that he is unhappy because his partner does not suit his heart; but if there is such a person, that person cannot but be one who does not know the sorrow of God, who has come walking for the future heavenly kingdom.
If, among countless families, my partner is in such a position, God will see this and know the difference between the partner’s standard and my standard; so if, though that partner is not satisfied, one holds a satisfied heart oneself and gives thanks before God, it becomes one absolute condition by which God can give blessings in the not-distant future. Therefore, we must become such people.
When, in walking the road of the will, a road of suffering hard to overcome in one’s life appears, rather than lamenting that it is han-filled and vexing to offer one’s life here, one must be able to say that one will receive it carefully as one opportunity that will not come to me again, as one opportunity of glory in which I can go together with Heaven. And for a person who can, while so doing, say, “Father, receive my life,” that does not become that person’s end, but from there a new history sets out. Death and pain and lamentation are settled together with history, and hope sets out anew from there.
The reason the Blessed Family wives must be mobilized
That is why the married women of the families are now out on the front line. That I directed this is because the time is drawing near before us. But the Unification Church’s victory must not be settled as the victory of the Blessed Families alone.
The Unification Church’s glory must not become the glory of the blessed alone. The Unification Church’s victory must not become a victory centering on the Blessed Families.
Then how will that victory be connected as the people’s victory? Victory must not be a victory done within the fence of the family but a victory done while going outside and shouldering an important burden.
The people who stand in a position of being able to become the fertilizer in a family are the married women. That such married women are on the front line is not for that family’s victory but, before the family’s victory, to pledge the people’s victory. Furthermore, it is not only to have it remain as the people’s victory but further to establish a new tradition so that it may remain as the origin of the world’s victory. From such a heart, this matter was carried out this time.
Setting such a fact before us, it may be felt as wretched right now, but the longer the days of going on this way, the more it will remain as a condition of gratitude, as a historical tradition of victory, as something that becomes a new turning point for the people.
However much one criticizes and sounds it out before and behind, left and right, inside and out, it is beyond doubt that the victorious result of all those standards will remain supranational and supra-historical.
And yet there will also be people who criticize here. There will be parents who oppose, saying their sons-in-law and daughters-in-law are persecuted. Furthermore, there will be people who, having thought that the time they desired had at last come, turn away and curse, saying that a blow is being dealt here. But such things are not a problem. The only problem is how one remains before Heaven.
Then between these two groups—the band who say they must walk this road and the band who say they must block this road—which band will remain? From God’s position, which band will He leave? Will He leave the band that opposes or the band that says it will cast away a beloved husband and child and go for the nation and the world, following the road of the will?
If it is the Unification Church’s mission to find and establish the protagonists of this age, which is the one time that must remain, then God will undoubtedly be together with the steps of those who, leaving their husbands behind and leaving their children behind, go out at the head as frail women for the nation and for the world.
Nor is it that I mean to profit by setting them forth. If there is profit, it is not my profit, but what I mean to leave as the nation’s profit, as the world’s profit, as history’s profit, as humankind’s profit, as God’s joy. That is our desire, and that is the standard of the summit we must go to. Therefore, such joy must remain not as joy within the Unification Church alone but as the joy of the people and the world and become an object of remembrance, an object of memory. You must know that it is because there is no road but this to do so that the Teacher has carried out such a thing.
Then will it stop with this?
When what has been done centering on the Blessed Family wives of the unification denomination today has become an origin God can celebrate, God will wish the husbands to be so too and will wish to send the beloved children to such a place as well.
Is this not God’s earnest desire?
We must consider Heaven’s position, in which, though the sending itself is wretched, He must command such a road to prevent the historical wretchedness of the whole from crossing beyond me and reaching the whole world hereafter. That is why we must know that this is a time when we must analyze and criticize once again what the resolve of Unification Church members must be on the course of the heavenly kingdom we must walk today and must clearly clarify in what position I am at present.
The year 1970, which was providentially important
Thinking today about such a question as “Retrospect and the Present,” we know that the year 1970 is a time that can correspond to seven thousand years of history.
Even if it becomes the highest summit as I hoped, our hearts will always flow on ceaselessly. If this year, centering on the destiny of the Unification Church today, has become the highest summit uniting the whole world and the whole of Heaven beyond the nation, then it continues into 1972 even after 1971 passes.
But if we did not obtain such a place in the year 1970, then in the year 1971 we must go about furnishing an attitude of heart by which we can meet with joy a road of suffering weighted with even the suffering we did not undergo in 1970. Likewise, if we do not obtain such a place in 1971 either, then on meeting the year 1972, we must go forth furnishing an attitude of heart by which we can gladly meet the road of suffering we did not walk in 1971.
If one has resolved to make one summit time during the period of looking toward the 1980s through the 1970s, one must be able to pledge that, during the period from the passing year 1971 to 1979, one will accept weighted suffering for not having obtained a summit time. For that, one cannot but strive ceaselessly to furnish a gallant posture as a strong and bold son of God.
One must go even to that place where, binding and offering an altar that can bring about a final settlement and putting on the priest’s vestments and standing before all people, one can cross beyond the place where God grieved and give a smile of delight—that is, a place where one can embrace His neck, saying, “Father,” and shed tears of joy and wail.
And thus one must meet a worldwide time in which God, rather than praising Himself, saying today’s victory is because of You, sets one forth, saying He wishes to boast of you before all people and blesses and boasts before the whole created world and publicly recognizes one as a son not lacking for Him to love. You must know that for Unification Church members there remains such a summit time that must certainly be met.
That is why we today must find the people even at the cost of losing the clan and must find the nation’s sovereignty even at the cost of losing the people and must be able to find the world’s sovereignty even at the cost of losing the nation’s sovereignty. You must know that that is the road of the will.
Centering on this year, 1970, we have accomplished many things and felt many things. You may not know it, but the Teacher, on meeting in 1970, felt that now was a time when a settlement could be made with this nation. That is why, in 1970, he hurriedly planned the Asian anti-communist rally. You may have thought otherwise, but the Teacher planned that work with resolute determination.
Originally, this was not a plan for the year 1970. That this work was done as a temporary plan was because there were inner circumstances of guarding against a sudden situation. That is why such a thing was urgently carried out.
At that time all the agencies hated us. Breaking through such an environment and beginning to lay a foundation from there, the Teacher set up, through April and May, all the standards concerning the nation about which he had been anxious.
And thus, on the first day of June, with decisive, victorious content, the director of the intelligence agency was able to report before the president for thirty-eight minutes on all the content of the Unification Church centering on the Victory Over Communism Union. During that period, we had to carry out operations to entirely dispel the struggle with the Anti-Communist League and the misunderstandings about us held by the highest agencies of the government.
And thus, crossing beyond June, we crossed one pass and took July as an occasion that could bring about a victorious result, and with September as the summit, in October we held the Blessing ceremony that we could present as a victorious condition in Korea—that is, a victorious condition that could be presented in a new historical age, a new age of the sphere of world culture. This Blessing ceremony may seem no great matter, but you must know that it became a shocking fact that struck like a dagger before these people, before countless denominations, and still more for the established churches. You must know the fact that it could prepare a new turning point in the historical ages.
We have become able, within one year, to carry out an operation centering on Seoul and on this Sutaek-ri training center that matches the several tens of years of history the Unification Church has walked until now. Until now we have passed through a process centering on such a goal, and now the question is how to deal with this.
What the unification denomination must settle hereafter
Until now we have received countless oppositions from the nation and from the people. That is why we, from the very lowest position, like an expelled people, like a lineage of enemies, prepared one standard, one point in the land of South Korea of the three-thousand-li peninsula, and from that point rose to the provinces and unfolded a divided, point-by-point operation. And thus, we have now become able to lay in Seoul the balanced, victorious foundation we hoped for. The fact that Seoul has stood in a subjective position means that a time has come when we can normally run the starting course of the 1970s. In that sense, the 1970s are the most important period in the historical ages.
In such a historical process, you may have passed this year meaninglessly, but for the Teacher, who goes bearing responsibility for the will, it was a serious year.
Meeting once in which the sorrowful past can be forgotten; if there is content in which we can rejoice through this one time, we must again go forward so that that joy may be connected as the people’s joy and the world’s joy rather than remaining only as the Unification Church’s joy today.
That the wives of the families were mobilized this time is a wretched thing. The other day I went around a few houses in the provinces and looked to see how the children without mothers were. When I saw those children, unkempt as they were, I was dumbfounded. In my heart alone I thought, “You must be missing your mother.” So I prayed in my heart. And I consoled them in my heart, saying, “Your mother must indemnify a three-year period for the will. This period is a period of the portion of responsibility that must be indemnified and restored by a woman, because in Jesus’ three-year course of public life, He did not have a foundation of having met an object partner. That is why she must walk this road.
Furthermore, because there remains a foundation of heart with content that can indemnify the whole, your mother has been mobilized. You do not know it now, but hereafter this will be your boast and your family’s boast. When you think that a day will come when you can praise your mother through your mouths, you are not lonely orphans. How happy you are, who can attend a lofty and precious mother long and long in your hearts!” But to look at it was wretched.
Why does God have us walk such a road?
Because we cannot but walk such a road, God has us walk this road not to conclude the Unification Church at the summit of the present position but to connect it to the summit of the world.
Accordingly, we today must leave behind the highest tradition that can establish a bond of the worldwide summit. Because we know that we must establish such a bond at the worldwide summit, our walking this road is unavoidable.
In passing through this year, 1970, what was the moment that can be most remembered and most boasted of in your hearts?
The 1960s you walked through were a pioneering age centering on God’s sorrow. But now we must not be such pioneers of sorrow. We must become pioneers of joy. From our present position, in which we must run toward a world of a new standard, we must move the world and make a new origin for the world’s tradition and the world’s thought.
That is why, if we feel joy, we must be able to connect that joy not as our joy alone but as the world’s joy; and when we cannot feel that joy, we must know that it is the normal living of Unification Church members to live going forward while putting first a heart that can rather exchange the world’s sorrow for tears.
A person who lives that way has not lost history and has not lost the age. Rather, he carries on history’s victory, and hands down the age’s victory, and settles the future’s victory. The worth he feels there is history’s worth, and the age’s worth, and the future’s worth. When one becomes such an “I,” the forebears of history become my allies, and the humankind of the present world will move centering on me. Furthermore, by my becoming such an “I,” a time will come when the descendants of the future cannot but praise all the joy of history centering on me. This is what must be settled in our unification denomination today.
The history that has been woven with sorrow must be changed into a history of joy. That joy must be connected not as joy over my individual victory but as a joy in which one can praise victory together with the world.
Then, when we consider how to connect this, since this is the highest summit, one must pledge the highest devotion. One must pledge the highest endurance and overcoming while criticizing one’s own road of faith.
When one criticizes from this viewpoint, one cannot pass the difficult road of the cross in sorrow alone. One must certainly adorn this with joy and send it off. If it becomes so, you must know that even if it is living in hell, it becomes a life that can remain in the heavenly kingdom.
