The True Parents' Practice of True Love

1. Tribulations and persecution are no problem for those who have tasted God's love. I have suffered persecution to this day, but I walked tall all the way. It is only because I know God that I could overcome world-level difficulties and come to this place to meet you today.

I know what God's love is. Who can block the way of true love? No one can stop even the human love between a man and a woman, so who can stop the love of a person who has tasted the love of God, the origin of human life? No one can.
(142-118, 1986.03.06)

The path of love True Parents walked

2. To share my history with you, I would have to tell so many stories. There were times of despair, but I never succumbed to despair. I was put in places of servitude, but I was never without backbone.

I still remember vividly my experience in Pyongyang. As I walked into prison wearing handcuffs, I waved to the members who had come to say goodbye to me and bid them farewell. I will never forget that moment.

Other people go to prison in disappointment and despair, but I went with a heart of hope. God had told me what sorts of people I would meet in prison. When I was hungry, God mobilized people to bring me food.

Even though I was unable to speak the truth, I was always confident because God showed me living evidence that He was with me by making many people come to me and follow me. (17-032, 1966.11.06)

3. One cost of following the Will was that my clan came to ruin. My father, my mother, and most of my siblings perished. Yet with the destruction of my family, God drove me to love all of you.

By sacrificing my family and relatives, God led me to love my enemies and their families. Drawing compensation from my enemies for the sacrifice of my family was God's idea; it is the teaching of Unificationism.

It explains that God sacrifices His sons and daughters and those who are closest to Him as He loves and strives to recover nations and peoples that are owned by the enemy. (36-262, 1970.12.06)

4. In my historical position, I have been through all manner of shame. You have no idea how much humiliation I endured to set straight the way of the Will. Once I devoted myself for one year and eight months to witness to one woman.

Every time I went to her house her husband persecuted me, yet still, I sat down at the table to eat with him and witness to her family. To uphold the Principle, I went through the worst course of humiliation a man can endure. (218-153, 1991.07.14)

5. In the course of attending God, I never thought of myself. I never asked God, “God, You call me Your beloved Son, so why are You giving me a life of unremitting difficulty?”

Instead, I considered God to be more deserving of sympathy than me. That was my thinking even when I was behind bars. From the very first step of my walk on the way of God's Will, I comforted God. I told Him, “I am still alive to do Your Will. Thank you for protecting me.”

I walked such a path to leave behind a standard of indemnity in history. To this day, this is the tradition of the Unification Church. No one can invade it; no one can take it away. Only Heavenly Father can touch it, no one else.
(043-054, 1971.04.18)

6. On the way of the Will, regardless of where you go, if you have the bone marrow of love, heaven, and earth will protect you. Even if you are imprisoned, you will not be defeated. In prison, I never prayed, “Father! Your beloved son is in prison, so please take revenge on my enemies.”

Instead, I prayed, “The barriers to God's love have not yet fallen, so I must go through this course in prison. As Moses struck the Red Sea with his staff to divide it, please strike my mind and body, to divide the Red Sea of this fallen world. My flesh may be torn, and my bones may be broken, but I will go on. I am still alive!” (180-119, 1988.08.07)

7. Until I complete the Will, I cannot afford to be exhausted. It is because I know God's situation. In this respect,ct I am different from you. Even though all of you may abandon the way of God's Will, I absolutely cannot.

You may be able to return to the world and give up the Will, but I cannot. I must keep going, even if I am the only one remaining. (33-246, 1970.08.16)

8. I have done a great deal of work up until now, and I also invested large amounts of money. But I never invested money to make more money. I have never worked for honor or fame. I have shed blood, sweat, and tears to liberate God from His sorrow and pain and to bring true peace to humanity. Why?

Unless we liberate God from sorrow and pain on every level – from the individual and the family to the nation and the world – and thus make Him happy, true peace can never come to humankind. Because I thoroughly understand this point, I have been practicing this way of life. (198-163, 1990.02.01)

9. I have walked this path at the sacrifice of my family, my wife, and my children. When I began this path, I never thought of first giving worldly blessings to my mother and father and my clan.

The way of a patriot is to give his love and devotion to his nation before serving his family. Such is the way of a patriot. The way of a world-level saint is to leave his country behind, set out to love and serve the world and teach the people of the world to love their options.

The way of divine sons and daughters is to be born anew as princes and princesses of the heavenly kingdom and live by the divine law on earth.

Then they will continue loving based on the divine law when they go to the heavenly kingdom in heaven. (172-334, 1988.01.31)

Loving your enemy

10. In my life, I have had many experiences as a wayfarer. I wandered along many roads at sunset as the last light heralded nightfall. I still cannot forget the time I prayed, carrying my rucksack on my back, “I have continued for Your sake. I left behind my wife and child. Yet, I cannot do otherwise.”

I was facing a fork in the road. I had to succeed in going on the path of loyalty to God. I knew that if I failed, I would become nothing but an enemy. Therefore, I prayed, resolving not to take time to love my wife and child until I could welcome God to the earth.

This is the bloody road I had to take to save this world. I knew that unless I made this resolution, I could not build a true world. You, too, need to make such a resolution. You are in a position to build this world with me, so you should not weep while holding on to your wife and children.

Rather, you should shed tears while embracing the greater world that you are working to recover in the future. (18-164, 1967.06.04)

11. There were no shortcuts, there was no smooth path for this wayfarer with a rucksack on his back. Mine was a tiresome, difficult path as I searched while shedding blood and tears. My course as a wayfarer, as a youth seeking the path of Heaven, was like that of a hunted and hounded lamb.

On that path, the tears that fell from my eyes were not my tears; they were tears that God shed through me. (18-164, 1967.06.04)

12. The Bible warns us not to forsake our first love. My first love is for God, and to this day, I have never forsaken Him, even while walking the way of suffering and adversity as I carried the responsibility for the providence of restoration.

No matter what anyone said, and even though my life was torn to pieces thousands of times, I could not deny that love. God knows it. When I see God, I feel heartrending sorrow.

When I think of God's situation, sometimes I feel resentful toward the thirty million Korean people who are opposing God's Will. But when I think of His suffering throughout the six thousand years of providential history, of His endless endurance as He leads the providence of restoration, I feel ashamed. This is why I too must endure. (17-033, 1966.11.06)

13. If God had cursed fallen human beings, their way to the future would have been blocked. But God did not do that, and hence the hope of salvation has remained throughout human history.

I have inherited this tradition and this heart of love; therefore, I prayed for my enemies, even though they hounded me to the point of death. I filled their cups with God's blessings. I am praying even now for God to bless them. This is my teaching as the teacher of the Unification Church.

You who have been attending me for many years cannot deny it because you witnessed it with your own eyes and experienced it as a fact. I am the one who carries God's bitter sorrow deep in my heart.

Yet, I know that even if I could draw a sword and slash to pieces the heads and bodies of the thirty million people of this nation who behave like my enemies, it would still not dissolve God's bitter sorrow. Instead, since I know that the way of love is to love them even more, I have to make known to them the love of God that I keep in my heart. (22-108, 1969.01.26)

14. I was whipped brutally while walking this path. Sometimes just thinking of what they did to me fills me with indignation. When I felt that way, I just wanted to smash them all. But when I thought of God, I pitied my enemies. I knew that God persisted in His affection for them and I resolved to love them more.

When I thought of that, there was nothing I could do but try to comfort God. When I returned after being severely beaten, I busied myself with trying to comfort the broken heart of my Father, who shed bitter tears on receiving me, His son, in that condition. I have been busy on my path.

I paid no heed when village dogs barked at me, or when a landslide nearly buried me. This has been my path as the teacher of the Unification Church. For decades of my life, I devoted myself to this path. During the time of the Japanese occupation, even while I was busy with this work, I was persecuted and imprisoned.

Wherever I went, I was harassed, hounded, rejected, and cast into miserable circumstances. Still, I never reproached Satan; I only lamented that the environment was not yet prepared, and I continued my work. (18-254, 1967.06.11)

15. In the Bible, we learn that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Unless you adopt this tradition, you cannot rally people around you. I have done that. Once, when I heard the news that my enemy's children were going hungry, I sent them everything I had except my underwear and one of my blankets.

For one week I lived with only one set of underwear and one blanket. Later, I sold the only blanket I had left, to them. Why did I do it? It was not because I was a fool; it was because I had to set the condition of completely loving my enemy on the way to restoration. I did it because I had to practice the Bible's words, “Love your enemy.” (23-320, 1969.06.08)

16. Because of whom does God support the Unification Church? I hope you are a person who can say, “It is because of me.” Please live in such a way that God can give you His help and support.

You must become such people. This has been my secret and my philosophy of life. I am saying that you must be the people who leave God no choice but to help Korea because of you. You should become such leaders. The question is whether you can draw God to the Unification Church. Do not hate your enemy.

Do not rejoice at your enemy's ruin. If God were happy to see His enemy ruined, this world would no longer exist. When God cannot hate anyone, not even Satan, how can I? (17-343, 1967.05.10)

17. When you shed tears, lamenting sorrowfully that you could not love God enough, or you could not love the world enough, or you could not love your country enough, God will comfort you with tears, saying, “It's alright. That day will come.

Because you have such a sincere aspiration, I will bring it to pass.” I need you to become such people. Once you can live that way, then you can love your tribe, your family, and last, yourself. This should have been people's central mindset throughout God's providential history. (22-149, 1969.02.02)

18. I came to know the story of God's sorrowful history. I came to know of God's heart when He sent Jesus to his tragic fate. So I thought about how I could offer myself for the sake of God's Will.

While the entire Korean people ridiculed me and the world persecuted me, I loved my enemies more than anyone else to bring them back to God. I not only loved them, I even wished blessings on them.

Then I thought about how I could leave in my will a request to my sons and daughters that they would bless my enemies and love them on my behalf. This has been my aspiration, and I have paved the way to bring it to pass.
(22-131, 1969.02.02)

The practice of loving the people in the realm of Cain

19. My mother loved me dearly. She gave birth to thirteen children, eight of whom survived, two sons and six daughters. Among them, my mother loved me the most. But I never had a chance to show her my love. I did not even buy my mother so much as a handkerchief to express my devotion.

This is because I had to follow God. I had to love the world more than my mother. Had I not, it would have been as if I were stealing God's love. I would have become a swindler. I have to love this world more than I love my mother and more than I love my wife and children.

Even if I was unable to personally love an enemy who shot arrows at me, I have to love that enemy's children. Even though God cannot love the fallen archangel himself, He has to love his descendants and restore them. This has been God's providence. Therefore, you and I also have to love Satan's sons and daughters.
(25-224, 1969.10.04)

20. After endless, bitter suffering, I discovered all the secrets of the spirit world. This discovery was a precious treasure, of priceless value. Yet, I could not share it with my parents, my brother, or my sisters.

Isn't this tragic? When I left my mother by herself, I could not stop crying. I said in my heart, “Mother, I'm leaving home, and because of the way I must go, I may never see you again. Please forgive me.” After I departed like that, she came to see me in prison, weeping endless tears.

But I could not offer words to comfort my mother. Instead, I asked her to stop crying. I encouraged her, saying, “Accept that you are not the mother of an insignificant man. Please accept that you are the mother who gave birth to a great and true man.” This is my history. (22-125, 1969.02.02)

21. You must love the sons and daughters on Satan's side before you love your sons and daughters. Without making the condition of loving the children on Satan's side, you should not love your children.

Because I faced that circumstance, I had to desert my child and cross the thirty-eighth parallel into North Korea. I had to make the condition of loving many people in an enemy country and then return. I could return only after I had gained that victory in the enemy country. (100-321, 1978.10.22)

22. Until I turned thirty I never bought clothes for myself. It was not that I had no money. It was that I was responsible for many members, and I was unable to take care of their needs sufficiently.

I wanted to look after those whom I considered my sons and daughters first, with all my devotion, before looking after myself. This is the teaching of the Way, and this is the heart of a parent. Since I had not reached the point where I could provide for my members' needs, neither would I buy clothes for myself.

Furthermore, until I was thirty, I never went a day without feeling hungry. It was not because I lacked money. I had money, but I did not spend it on myself. Once I spent it on a man who was lying ill on the street and could not go home. I helped him, even carrying him on my back for a long distance. (34-349, 1970.09.20)

23. Whenever I saw people coming to the Unification Church in threadbare, patched clothing, I gave them money to buy clothes. But I never bought my mother or father a single set of clothes.

Then how could I face my parents? Whenever I saw people pale from hunger, I could not eat the food that was in front of me. Even after they left they would come to my mind, and I could not eat.

So whenever I had something good to eat, I saved it and gave it to the next hungry person I saw. I served everyone who came to see me with all my heart, even going to great lengths so that they would never forget. (22-172, 1969.02.02)

My prison life and the practice of truly loving others

24. I experienced life in the prison of all prisons. I have been imprisoned several times, but prison life never drove me to sorrow. I looked at the prison as my best training ground. Could I truly love humanity?

Could I truly love my enemy? Could I truly share my breath, nose to nose, with those who were sentenced to death? Thinking about such things, I considered prison to be a good environment for training myself.

Furthermore, it was where I reflected on whether I could feel the bitter sorrow of my people and whether I had the passion to sharply criticize social injustice. Prison is where our church began. It was there that I had to find a way to overcome the environment and set up the standard of human dignity.

There I had to be a champion of the standard of character that God envisaged for the person who would become His original embodiment. My guiding philosophy has been to secure this victory; this has been my lifelong pursuit.
(26-017, 1969.10.14)

25. While in prison I was whipped, beaten, tortured, and bloodied, yet I never resented those who beat me. The true God is the God who sacrificed His beloved son to save His enemies.

Not only that, He gave away all His treasures to His enemy. That is the love of God. God's way is to pray with tears for the one who holds the whip. This is why I did so, and still do to this day. (32-270, 1970.07.19)

26. I have experienced prison life many times since the age of twenty-four. I am a man who never surrendered to the authorities. Even under torture, even when my nose was broken and blood oozed from the wounds on my head, even when my neck was injured, I kept absolute faith and conviction in God.

I held out against my torturers, thinking, “Go ahead and hit me. The bat will break, not my body. Go ahead and cut off my hands. No matter what cruel tortures you put me through, still I will not give in.”

Countless such stories are embedded deep in the marrow of my bones. In these incomprehensible places, where no one can come up with answers as to why, I came to recognize that my Father's tearful love was right there.

And still,l I know that many thorny paths and deep valleys lie ahead of me, paths that others will not understand and which I must face alone.
(025-120, 1969.09.30)

27. My parents came to visit me when I was in prison, but immediately I sent them home. I had to do that. I never accepted visits from my brother and my sisters. I sacrificed my brother and my sisters, my family, and my relatives, to find new people.

I have loved all of you more than I loved my parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives. I have done so because God is like that. God sacrificed His own Son to save the world. God had to sacrifice the life of His only-begotten Son. Hoping to save the whole world, He would do even that. I am following His example.
(52-196, 1971.12.29)

28. In prison, I met so many people who followed me. They received revelations from Heaven to follow me. But those who followed me before I went to prison dispersed.

They doubted, “How can someone whom God loves so much end up in prison?” Jesus too lost his twelve disciples when he went to the cross. So I had to restore those twelve disciples in prison.

In the prison cell were communist spies disguised as inmates, so I could not speak a word. But the spirit world testified and people followed me.

When I was hungry, people brought me rice balls. It was because their ancestors appeared in their dreams and asked them to do so. (52-155, 1971.12.27)

29. You have no idea how relentlessly God put me through hard training. To me, God was not a loving God. Thinking of how He treated me makes me shudder. If I had the mind of a businessman, I would have run away long ago. I would have forgotten about the Will and run far, far away from God, with the fear that He would come after me.

And yet, it was when I was suffering in prison that I felt God's love the most. In that place, I came to know, “Truly, truly, God loves me.” So I did not dislike going to prison.

You Unification Church members need to suffer, even if it means going to a prison or a detention center. Where can you meet God? It is in the most serious and difficult place that you can meet God. (217-266, 1991.06.02)

Endless investment for the nation and the world

30. Many Korean patriots have shed tears for their people, but I do not know anyone who has shed more tears than I have. Even now, I cannot forget my prayer at two in the morning on April 1, 1941. I was looking back at Korea from the boat on which I had just left the dock at Busan on the way to Japan, where I was to study.

I promised Korea, “I am leaving you now, but when I return I will love you more than ever; I will shed more tears for you than ever.” In Japan, whenever I met Korean friends who were going hungry, I gave them whatever food I had, even though it left me with nothing. Whenever I met starving Korean students, I embraced them in my arms and wept with them.

When they had no food, I took off my school uniform and worked at the dock as a stevedore or carried coal on my back to earn money for their food. Please understand how I fought to love my young comrades. Whoever met me came to think of me as their best friend. (22-123, 1969.02.02)

31. To this day, whom have I loved? Not my parents or my wife and children. I have loved the world and I have loved my country. To love the world and love my country, I also have to love my people and my tribe – the Unification Church members.

To love the nation that God wants to love on earth, I have to love the tribe that God wants to love on earth and love the family that God wants to love on earth. I have shed so many tears of love for humankind.

I am confident that God will recognize this publicly. I also have shed so many tears for this country. I have loved my people more than anyone else has, and I have loved my tribe more than anyone else has. (22-137, 1969.02.02)

32. This man with knowledge of the new truth was born in the impoverished country of Korea. Born in this war-torn land, I suffered beyond anyone's imagination. I was scorned countless times, and I was hounded relentlessly. Yet despite all that, I have come this far.

Do not ever think that I am sitting here comfortably on a wave of good luck. Please wake up! While you were enjoying yourself in comfort and humming along, I shed tears for Will while standing under the eaves of some farmer's house to get out of the rain.

I wandered about the streets like a beggar in the sleet and cold. I am still fighting for my people and the world. I tell you, when on a bus or a streetcar you see some poor young person in dripping wet clothes, you should not mistreat him. Your teacher walked that road. (22-143, 1969.02.02)

33. I was not born into a lowly family. It was not my lot in life to suffer. But had I not chosen the path of suffering, I could not have opened the way of restoration. So I had to go this way.

My heart was burning with ardor to love the Korean people and all humankind. I longed to move God's heart to tears so that He could relate to this person and the world, and love them. Because I moved God to relate to this peninsula, this desolate land, I do not doubt that the day will come when the whole world will welcome Korea as their homeland, centering on the teachings of Unificationism. (22-143, 1969.02.02)

34. I left my hometown, I left my country and I left my church in Korea, only to be persecuted, abused, and pursued as I continued on my way, even to this hour. Yet even while we are pursued and hounded, we are growing.

We are not people of despair; we are people of hope. We are people united in one love that cannot be severed by anything in the world; therefore no one can conquer us. Only love can bring complete victory.

Where there is love, there is eternal victory and the possibility to build the eternal kingdom of heaven. In the presence of love, everything is liberated. This is where I am heading. (48-014, 1971.08.31)

35. I have loved God, I have loved the world, and I have loved humankind. Right after the liberation of Korea from Japan, I loved even the enemies who had tried to have me executed as a criminal.

I even sold my suit, even my undergarments, and gave the money to one of these men when his son was starving. Then I lived for two weeks with nothing. I could not even go outside because I had nothing proper to wear. I did not do this from a calculating motivation; I did it from my genuine heart.

I never pray in tears for my sons and daughters; instead, I pray in tears for you. Were it not for this foundation of shedding tears for you, God would not have carried out His works to this day. (22-149, 1969.02.02)

36. My desire for you is that you love God first before you love me. I have been trying to teach my Mother and my children that they should not love me unless they love God first. Hence, they should not be sad when I leave home to travel for tens of thousands of miles on a pilgrimage to love God.

All of you must love God and humankind before loving me. I want you to practice the law of public righteousness and, wherever you go, stand on that authority. Without doing that, any promises you make are empty. Here heavenly law and the principle of human morality are the same. (22-147, 1969.02.02)