Former Headquarters Church.
Matthew 26:36–46
When you first come into the Unification Church, it will seem strange to you that the members of the Unification Church, unlike ordinary believers, use the term “family member.”
But the word “family member” is a term used among people who are in the closest relationship in the world. Therefore, you must clearly know the significance of this word “family member” and use it.
God, Who Would Judge the World of Evil and Set Up a World of Good
You will, on the whole, know well that this world in which we now live is not good.
Ask anyone, and they will say this world is a wicked world. Then, although from of old countless people came forth desiring good, why did this world fail to become a good world and become a wicked world?
For people who held a purpose, this became the greatest ridge of anguish. We know well that, to solve this problem, a sacrifice had to be paid.
Until now, there have been many who pursued good from their original mind, but there has been no one who longed for evil from his original mind. Yet when we come to see that the evil that people neither pursued nor longed for is greater than the good, we can infer that this world today did not set out from good but set out from evil. Therefore, if God exists, that God cannot but prepare one path by which human beings can go toward good.
We know well that from a wicked individual a wicked family arose, and those families gathered to form a wicked society, a wicked people, a wicked nation, so that today the whole world is placed within the realm of evil. This was not originally the desire humankind wished, nor the desire God wished.
Therefore, if God exists, God cannot but carry out a new providence able to remove the evil of this world and liquidate the evil of this world. Because one must not leave the wicked world just as it is, a movement to set up the world God willed must unfold.
This movement cannot but unfold from one family and spread to society, to the nation, and to the world.
We know well the fact that, on the historical path, the chosen people thought of Israel. Then who set it up? We must know the fact that God set it up, through a historical bond, to lay a new foundation of good.
Thus, setting up an individual and unfolding the fight against the wicked individual, He had a standard of victory set up over the wicked individual of this world; and setting up a family, He had a standard of victory set up over the wicked family of this world; and setting up a kindred, people, and nation, He sought—this we cannot deny—to remove the wicked world and set up a good kindred, a good people, a good nation.
And so God, preparing once and preparing one nation, sent within that nation one person who, on behalf of the world, could set up the whole will—that is, who bore the whole responsibility of bringing the world to a conclusion for Heaven’s side.
Who is that one?
He had to be one who, in the wicked world, centered on good, could save the wicked people, and that one is none other than Jesus Christ.
The Mission of Jesus Christ
Then, with what mission and in what position would that one have come upon this earth?
Because his mission is to restore the wicked world and accomplish a good world, he had to come to this earth with the name of the only begotten Son who could receive the deepest love of God—that is, who could stand in the place of God’s heart of love—and in a position where he could call God “Father.” Therefore, Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God.
History attests to the fact that Jesus descended upon this earth as the good king of kings to set up God’s will. Accordingly, the Israelite people ought to have united around Jesus.
Today, in this wicked world, human beings live their social life centered on themselves.
The view of society, the view of the nation, the view of the world, and the view of the universe they hold are, without exception, things that can pair only with the evil within the realm of the fall.
Until now, there has not appeared upon this earth an individual life, social life, national life, worldwide life, or cosmic life from a standpoint connected with God and able to pair with good. Therefore, what Jesus Christ came to this earth and sought to convey throughout his life was the whole will of God.
Jesus came with the mission of bringing to conclusion the will of all historical hope and, fighting the evil of the age and driving out evil, greeting one day of victory, and, centered on a good people, organizing a nation of good, he was to become the King of kings. This was the fundamental responsibility and purpose for which Jesus came upon this earth.
Therefore, to prepare such a foundation, Jesus had to prepare a foundation of individual victory upon this earth, prepare a foundation of family victory, and prepare a foundation of kindred victory, a foundation of national victory, and a foundation of state victory. Upon that foundation, he had to set up Jesus’ view of life and view of the world.
Because God could not know how the lifetime of Jesus would turn out, we must know the fact that, gazing toward one day on which one could win victory in the individual fight, win victory in the family fight, win victory in the kindred fight, win victory in the national fight, and win victory in the state fight, He set up and raised the chosen people.
The Israelite People, Who Failed to Attend Jesus
Then what should the hope this chosen people held have been?
They had to replace their view of life, view of the human, and view of the universe with the view of life, view of the human, and view of the universe of Jesus Christ, who came to this earth as the King of kings. But the Israelite people of that time failed to attend to Jesus from such a standpoint.
And so they failed to bring the result of good able to bring the four-thousand-year history to a conclusion, and the purpose of good being prolonged, they had to fight once again together with evil. We know the fact that this has appeared over two thousand years since Jesus until now.
Jesus, who came to this earth in such a position, came gazing toward the nation of good, the people of good, the kindred of good, the family of good, and the individual of good that he was to govern.
But were there in fact that nation, that people, that kindred, that family Jesus sought, and true family members and brothers who could attend Jesus?
Here, history entered into a new problem again.
The countless Christians who believe in Jesus today think only that Jesus completed the providence of salvation upon this earth and departed. But you must know that this is a great misunderstanding.
When God set up the Israelite people as the chosen people and raised them for four thousand years, how much effort He made to set those betraying ones upon a foundation of victory!
From the very day they welcomed the Messiah, the Israelite people should have become one with him, driven out national evil and worldwide evil, and accomplished one good world. How greatly must God have wished in His heart that such a world would be accomplished through the Israelite people! When He sent that son, how greatly must He have wished that His will would be accomplished!
But Jesus, coming upon this earth, could not stand in such a position and went bearing the cross. Was this, in fact, God’s hope? No.
If, by Jesus’ dying on the cross, all people could be saved, for what would God have set up the chosen people?
That among the Israelite people, whom He had raised with such effort, the Israelite people who had grown up upon a four-thousand-year historical foundation of victory, not a single one attended Jesus…!
More than anyone, the sovereigns of that nation, more than anyone, the teachers of the law and scribes who bore responsibility for that nation’s ideological field, ought to have attended Jesus.
Although that was their responsibility, they were busy driving Jesus off as a heretic and blocking his way forward. We have no way to deny this historical fact.
The Israelite People, Who Have Paid the Price for Killing Jesus
Until Jesus came, when they suffered, God saved them, and when they were in a lonely place, He defended them. God made a thousand, ten thousand kinds of effort. B
But from the time Jesus came and went, down to now, two thousand years later, the Israelite people became a people wandering in the world, and whenever a revolution broke out, for the most part, the Israelite people had to bear the false charge. Along the flow of history, they became a people who were rejected and became a sacrificial offering everywhere in the world. We know from history the sorrowful fact that the Israelite people thus had to pay the price for killing Jesus. But that was not the end.
Why did such a sorrowful history come about? It is because they killed the King of kings—that is, the sovereign of good who could bring to conclusion the whole will of God. We must know that their sorrowful history is the price of blood for killing Jesus.
That the Israelite people, after killing Jesus, whom God so loved, spent such a wearisome existence as a people without a nation is, seen by God’s principle of indemnity, a disposition that ought properly to be.
We must clearly know that this is not a reward the chosen people should receive, but a punishment and a curse the chosen people must receive.
Who understood the mind of Jesus, who had to shoulder the historical background and bear the mission of the age?
No one understood, we say. Here you must know well the bond of the family member.
God sent Jesus through the family of Joseph, and the family of Joseph was the family God chose among all the families of Israel. Centered on the household of Joseph, God’s love was to be connected to all Israel; thus, God set up the family of Joseph as the family representing all Israel.
Then why did God most love the unfortunate family of Joseph?
It is because God sent the Son He dearly loved to that family. Therefore, the family of Joseph had to protect that son and receive the whole of that son’s will as their own will.
In such a position, Jesus was born into the family of Joseph. He was born through the body of the betrothed Mary, by the Holy Spirit.
Who Knew Jesus’ Desire and Heart?
Then what was Jesus’ original hope? Was it choosing disciples?
Or was it to pass through the past (過去)? Or was it to perform the miracle of feeding some five thousand with five loaves and two fish? No. Jesus’ hope lay in saving the pitiable Israelite people from the tyranny of Rome and in unifying the world of that time into a world of good. That was the hope of Jesus, who came as the Messiah. Despite this, there was no one at that time who believed in Jesus as the Messiah and knew him as the Messiah.
With whom should the Israelite people of that time have been directly connected? Should they have been swept along by Rome’s policy?
Or should they have been swayed by the social currents of that age? Neither. The one point of conclusion the Israelite chosen people and Judaism had to reach is to become one with the Messiah. Setting before them the purpose the Messiah bore, they had to harmonize with the Messiah and become one and, uniting from an absolute standpoint, equip one national form and collide with Rome.
In that way, integrating Rome and the whole world, they had to build a worldwide domain centered on the Mediterranean. Had the Israelite people done so at that time, this world would not have become as it is today.
The apostles Jesus wished for were not incompetent apostles who followed the evil of the world. But the apostles who followed Jesus were not so; you need only consider how forlorn Jesus must have been at that time.
Jesus did not want incompetent apostles. Had the apostles Jesus wished for been found, Israel could have crossed over the world of evil. It could have crossed over the multitudes of evil.
Because Jesus bore the historical responsibility of accomplishing a good world, he made driving out evil his greatest wish. So, to accomplish this wish, Jesus lived out each day gritting his teeth and biting his tongue. No one at that time knew this.
Jesus’ purpose was to save all people, not to die on the cross and save an individual. Then why was Jesus’ purpose of having to save the world all at once not accomplished?
Why could he not save the people all at once?
It is because the people who followed Jesus at that time failed to consider that Jesus desired to save the family, kindred, and world all at once. Everyone thought only of believing in Jesus and going to heaven and did not think of the desire Jesus wished.
So how anxious Jesus must have been, who held in his heart God’s will that the Israelite people must be saved from Rome all at once! But the apostles who followed Jesus did not know it. Even Peter did not know it.
Who understood Jesus’ heart?
Who knew the inner heart of Jesus, who, each time he walked the valley of the Mount of Olives, appealed to God?
How much did Jesus wish to tear down the power of Rome!
How much did Jesus long in his heart, not for the multitude of Judaism and the Israelite people who opposed and did not understand, but for a true Judaism and a true Israel that could offer sacrifice solemnly before God! The disciples did not so much as dream of such things.
We must clearly know that Jesus could not be satisfied with disciples who thus said only that they would believe and go to heaven. Such a multitude ought not to have become Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus, coming upon this earth, had to become one with the rulers of the Judean nation and the leaders of the Jewish religious body responsible for that nation’s ideological field and make Rome surrender before God.
Although the Israelite people and Judaism had to become one and go forward, putting the Messiah before them, they instead opposed Jesus; so what would become of their fate? That the chosen people opposed Jesus makes no sense.
Jesus, Who Grew Up in Sorrow
Does it mean Jesus came to die? Does it mean Jesus’ dream lay in dying?
Today’s ignorant Christians may say so, but we must clearly know that, in fact, it is not so. If Jesus came to die, for what did God set up the chosen people?
Then could such a thing have been done at one stroke? No. The family of Joseph was the family God chose. The family of John the Baptist was a relative of the family of Joseph. Joseph was a descendant of David, whom God could not but love. So God set up the family of Joseph as the representative family of the people. In that way, He brought about the birth of the one Jesus.
Then you must know why Jesus had to leave the family of Joseph and go about choosing disciples.
Jesus was born upon this earth in a wretched environment. That was because Mary and Joseph failed to fully carry out their responsibility. The detailed content I will omit, as there is no time.
From the day he was born, Jesus had to set up the law of loyalty before God and prepare a foundation on which he could first uphold God and set up God’s will.
From where did he have to prepare that foundation?
He had to prepare it for the family of Joseph. Of course, this is not recorded in the Bible. But Jesus had to prepare it from the family of Joseph.
Mary, who bore Jesus, received the guidance of the fair angels of Heaven and knew what her son would one day become. Even so, it was not that God was always with Mary while Jesus was growing up.
Accordingly, as time passed, Mary came to think that Jesus had somehow just come to be born. In such a family, Joseph and Jesus grew up.
On the other hand, in Joseph, there arose a suspicious mind whether Jesus was truly conceived by the Holy Spirit or conceived by someone. And so, the more he thought, the more his mind was tormented. You too, consider it once!
When a betrothed maiden came bearing a child and said she had conceived by the Holy Spirit, how must Joseph’s mind have been? He may have believed the fact that God had taught him, but each time he looked at Jesus, each time he looked at Mary, how could he not feel severe torment?
Thus, Jesus could not help but grow up sorrowfully in the bosom of a stepfather.
You must know this circumstance of Jesus. Jesus was a sorrowful one. He waited on his younger siblings but was one who never once received their waiting.
Even when Jesus heard Joseph tell him to do something, he did not hear it from a position of truly receiving a father’s love. He heard it from a position of being suspected by his stepfather. Thus, Jesus grew up amid unseen mistreatment.
Jesus, Who Had So Much Han
Mary, too, whenever something displeasing happened to Joseph, or whenever Joseph so much as frowned a little, could not but sink into thought as she looked at Jesus.
What do you suppose it would be like for you?
Can you understand the heart of such a person?
If a wife had gone into a marriage bringing a stepchild, how, when the husband so much as frowned a little, could she not connect all of it with her stepchild? You must know that Jesus was one who, in such a position, could not have a foundation of happiness.
Therefore, in Jesus’ heart there was much han. As a festival day drew near, his younger siblings could rejoice and delight and make preparations together with mother and father, but Jesus, full of thought, could not but read the mood even when he asked for a single garment to be made for him.
So Jesus could not but greet the festival with a forlorn figure.
These things are not in the Bible. Then how does one know? This is a thing one can know by meeting Jesus and asking him. Consider once whether it would not be so.
Even if rice cakes and such had been made at home on a festival day, Jesus could not first put out his hand and say, “Mother, please give me some too!”
Even when there was something good, and though he looked upon the beautiful clothes his younger siblings wore, you must know that Jesus could not say, “Give me some too. Make some for me too.”
Jesus, whose circumstance could not be told in full! Jesus, who could not, shoulder to shoulder with young friends, keep step with his surroundings and enjoy the days! When one thinks of these things, one’s breast is torn.
Who knows these things?
People know only, “Oh! The King of kings, the only begotten Son of God, has come upon this earth!” —they do not know that he was a little Jesus who shed endless tears each time he looked at children rejoicing with their parents in festive clothes at festival time.
When he looked around the world, what he longed for was the affection of parents who could embrace him. Jesus, who, though he had younger siblings, could not call his younger siblings his siblings!
Jesus, who was in a circumstance where he could not claim to be the elder brother before those younger siblings! Jesus lived a truly wretched life. You must know this circumstance of Jesus.
You—consider it quietly: whether these words are words Teacher Moon has made up or not. You—would it be so, or not?
Could God have led them every day by pulling them by the nose, saying, “You wretch, you wretch!”? Because it was a circumstance in which that could not be, you must know that Jesus was sorrowful.
Do you know what the words he spoke mean —
“Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20)
It means it was so from birth. And do you know why Jesus, facing his flesh and blood, said,
“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?…. Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:48–50).
You must know that Jesus went bearing in his breast a han that could not be told in full.
Jesus, Who Felt the Responsibility for the Salvation of Humankind and Secretly Poured Out Devotion
Jesus grew up in his childhood in a carpenter’s family. He worked as a helper under Joseph the carpenter. But you must know that each time Jesus took up the sickle and cut wood, and took up the plane and planed wood, he worked with a mind to save Israel.
He worked with a solemn sense of responsibility: “The Israelite people, made God’s chosen people, must not be like this; I will, in their stead, cut and trim and make a new Israel.”
With such a heart, he always worked, embracing and loving Israel, with a mind that could tumble about together with God. No one knew the desire of Jesus, who held such a single thought.
But Jesus poured his whole heart and strength into adorning his life, consulting God. In the deep night, in the quiet night when his parents and siblings slept knowing nothing, he went outside, and, gazing at the stars of heaven, appealed to his heart; and gazing at the flowing river water or at the leaves swaying in the wind, he made them his friends and soothed his heart, saying, “You know my circumstance and know my will well, don’t you?” Human beings did not know Jesus, but the created things and nature became his friends.
You must know that Jesus, the Messiah, who came upon this earth for the sake of human beings and who was to be recognized by human beings, because he could not find true human beings and could not find an environment where true human beings could live, could not but secretly long for the bosom of nature and for the bosom of God. You must know that Jesus was such a one.
Had Joseph and Mary originally known that Jesus was the true son God sent, the prince of God, and the Messiah of all people, they should have attended him as the prince of God from the very day he was born. They should have worshipped Jesus every day. Because he came as the King of kings and as the heavenly sovereign who could rule the whole Cosmos (천주) forever and ever, from the very day Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary should have poured out all their devotion and attended him, fully rendering the way of loyalty and filial piety.
Humanly speaking, where is there a rule that one must fully render the way of loyalty and filial piety before one’s own son? But by the heavenly law, it had to be so.
Originally, when God sent Jesus to the family of Joseph, He did not send him to make Jesus sorrowful. That God, teaching them in advance, brought about the birth of Jesus through Mary’s womb, was not to make Jesus suffer. It was to have him receive glory and receive protection, not to have him driven and pursued.
But it went awry from the family of Joseph. So, the more Jesus knew the time and knew that Heaven’s mission was laid upon his own single self, the more he restrained himself and strove—one cannot know how hard—to guide his siblings and parents before God’s will.
The words he spoke —
“How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings?” (Matthew 23:37)
— were not spoken, looking at the Israelite people. They were speaking, looking at his family. Jesus first strove for his family.
Jesus, who came bearing the responsibility of setting up, in the stead of the heavenly order (천륜), the nation of God—that is, Jesus, who was to do a work more precious than anything, more valuable than anything—wished first to be for his own beloved parents, the closest of all.
Would it not be so, you?
Is it not the way of a child to wish to give first to his own beloved parents whatever good thing there is? And would he not wish to give first to his beloved younger sibling, his own beloved relative, before anyone?
Therefore, Jesus, from the time he came of age, considered the historical bond by which God had come seeking the household of Joseph and, to set up God’s will centered on the household of Joseph, resolved and prayed before Heaven any number of times.
But did Joseph and Mary attend Jesus?
By principle, even when serving food at mealtime, they should have served Jesus’ portion first. Joseph and Mary should have taken responsibility for the whole of Jesus’ life. Should it not have been so? Seen centered on the will, would it not be so?
Thus, Joseph should have attended Jesus. Joseph should have become, even among the disciples, the chief disciple. Can you believe that Joseph should have become Jesus’ chief disciple?
If you had met with such a thing, what do you suppose you would have done? Consider it—whether, seeing it in terms of the will, you would have done so or not.
Jesus, Who Had to Forsake the Foundation God Had Prepared
The more Jesus knew that the mission he received from God was great and enormous, the more he sought to accomplish it in the family of Joseph. That was because there was a content, according to the Principle, that had to be so. Joseph had to become Jesus’ chief disciple. If that had happened, would Jesus’ younger siblings follow or not?
Though it is not in the Bible, his younger siblings criticized Jesus, saying that if he wished to appear as the Messiah, why did he not go to Jerusalem, where there were many people?
Would it do for his younger siblings to criticize him so?
Mary too slighted Jesus, they say. She did not treat him properly. But by principle, it had to be accomplished from within that household. Centered on the family of Joseph, it should have been possible to fully accomplish God’s will.
Then who is John the Baptist?
He is Jesus’ cousin on the maternal side. He is a relative. The relatives were to lay a bridge and become one centered on the family of Joseph. Joseph and Mary were to become one and uphold Jesus’ will; the siblings were to become disciples, and the relatives were all to become apostles—that is, the siblings and relatives were to become the twelve disciples, the seventy, and the hundred and twenty and drive out the wicked world.
You must know that, had they in this way confronted other kindreds and other peoples, Jesus would absolutely not have been nailed to the cross.
But Jesus’ will, which was to have been accomplished by taking a footing centered on the siblings from within the family, was not accomplished. This enormous heavenly way should, in fact, have been upheld first by those parents and siblings, but it was not. Thereby, the household of Joseph came to expel all at once the four-thousand-year grace by which God had come seeking them and to betray God all at once. Because they drove Jesus out, the circumstances changed. Did Jesus go about seeking fishermen like Peter and James for nothing? No. Would that have been Jesus’ mission?
At the wedding house at Cana, when Jesus’ mother told Jesus that the wine had run out, what did Jesus say? He said,
“Woman, what have I to do with you?” (John 2:4)
One cannot know how many such complications and stories are knotted up. But the facts behind them are not all recorded, one by one, in the Bible. That unspeakable circumstance no one knew.
The words Jesus spoke at the wedding house at Cana, looking at his mother—“Woman, what have I to do with you?” —and the words he spoke when his mother and brothers came seeking “him—‘Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:50)—are words that his mother and younger siblings did not do according to God’s will.
You must know for certain. Was Jesus one who came to die?
No. He is one who was grieved. Though it is not recorded in the Bible, Jesus went about seeking his mother and father and earnestly exhorted them three times over. But they failed to uphold Jesus’ will.
Even so, the heavenly order cannot be absorbed before the human order. Human order must follow the heavenly order. Jesus knew that the will for which God sent him upon this earth was not to set up a human order but to set up the heavenly order that could set in order and judge this wicked world.
So Jesus, to set up the law of the heavenly order, could not know how earnestly he pleaded, setting before them God’s will. Though he exhorted them three times over, it did not get through, either to his mother or to Joseph.
Meanwhile, Jesus became thirty years old, and, upon becoming thirty, in the end he could not but leave home for the sake of God’s will.
Until now, there has been no one who knew the circumstances and grievance of Jesus, who could not but leave home at thirty, and, further, God’s painful and sorrowful circumstances. There has been no one who knew how sorrowful Jesus must have been, who had to come out, forsaking the family and household God had prepared—that is, the four-thousand-year foundation Heaven had prepared for him.
Jesus, Who Could Not but Go the Second Course
Originally, Jesus need not have gone out into the wilderness and been tested. But because it came to this, Jesus had unavoidably to fast for forty days and, restoring the four-thousand-year history through indemnity, cultivate that foundation again.
Through the forty-day fasting period, he had to seize back all the conditions of grievance by which Satan had invaded his household and set them up again before God. To indemnify what God had toiled over for four thousand years until He set up the family of Joseph, Jesus had to make a decisive appeal before God. That is why there was the forty-day fasting period. Therefore, after forty days, Jesus entered again into the second course. You must know how the second course came to begin.
And what must the heart of Jesus, who walked such a second course, have been?
Jesus was driven out by the family of Joseph and driven out by his relatives. But originally, rising within and without—that is, centered on the household of Joseph- the relatives were to unite, and, setting up John the Baptist, who was of high repute in that age, they were to cultivate a foothold for God’s providence in the new age. In that way, they were to prepare an environment in which the Israelite people and Judaism could not help but follow.
But all this collapsed. Because it all collapsed, a head-on collision began. He was to have accomplished the will first at the family level and then faced the people, but instead, he had to face the people and come seeking the family.
Do you understand what this means?
He was to have faced individuals, families, kindred, people, and nations in that order, but because this was broken and reversed, he had to seek and set them up again.
So he had to set out seeking the people, set out seeking the religious body, and, within the people and the religious body, organize the kindred and organize the family, and seek the bond of parents and siblings. You know these things well once you learn the Principle.
Had Jesus, centered on the family of Joseph, prepared the will of the heavenly order and become one with John the Baptist, he could have accomplished everything centered on that family and household. Would it not be so?
The John the Baptist of that time was a person of repute whom the whole nation regarded as a teacher. This John the Baptist, together with the sovereigns of the nation, was to have set out centered on Jesus, but because John the Baptist went in the opposite direction, Jesus came to stand in a pitiable place.
Jesus said that the gospel is preached to the poor, and this cannot but be a truly forlorn thing. Jesus came to this earth as the only begotten Son of God, the prince of God; how then is it that he had to preach the gospel to the poor?
The Israelite people had desired a Savior for four thousand years. But because Jesus’ first hope, which had to set out from the highest place, was not accomplished in the family of Joseph, he had no choice but to seek and climb from the bottom.
So he had to gather fishermen who followed him, like Peter, John, and James, and set right the corrupt religious body and the Israelite people. From here, the fight began.
Many say that Jesus came to die on the cross. When the Teacher hears such words, he becomes furious.
Does God save by killing Jesus?
When the four-thousand-year history had collapsed, was one saved by the cross?
Is it that one is saved because he died on the cross, but if he had simply died, he could absolutely not be saved? It is because Jesus rose again and forty days later ascended that the way of the cross was established. Had Jesus not set up the forty days, the resurrection too would not have come about.
Because he rose again, set up the forty-day foundation of victory, and ascended, Christianity was able to win. Therefore, the crosses hung throughout the whole world must be cut down by the hands of Unification members. Those hearing this for the first time will think it strange, will they not?
Then why does the Unification Church say “family member”?
You use the word “family member” well, do you not? Are you truly family members? The word “family member” that you call one another is not so flimsy a word. Then why did the Teacher of the Unification Church put forward the term “family member”? A historical complication dwells therein.
The Complication Dwelling in the Term “Family Member”
For what did Jesus die?
First, it was because of the family of Joseph; second, because of John the Baptist; and third, because the church did wrong. This cannot but be a grievous and indignant thing. God, trusting the Israelite people He had raised down through the four-thousand-year history, sent His son; and, having killed that son, they say he came to die? That is all they know.
Then, for what would God have carried on the providence for four thousand years centered on the Israelite people?
Would He have carried on the providence to kill Jesus?
Even if he had died at birth, Jesus is still Jesus and still becomes the Son of God; so, for what would He have had him make a loud commotion after he had fully grown to thirty years old and be driven and killed? He could have just had him die at birth.
Can he not be the Savior as an infant?
This is something one can understand well enough, yet some people believe without understanding it—truly a shameful thing. And with that, they say they will go to heaven?
The Teacher speaking here has looked into all of it.
Where lay the prime cause of Jesus’ coming to be killed?
It lay in the family of Joseph. For what did Jesus come to this earth? He came to find a family. Even though the nation of Israel was at peace, the family of Joseph alone had to set up the heavenly nation centered on Jesus. Only then could Jesus, as the bridegroom, take a bride.
Originally, God did not create things so that the husband enters heaven and the wife enters hell. The purpose was that the protagonists of the ideal at the time of creation—that is, father and mother and son and daughter—would form a kindred, form a people, and form a nation. Should it not be so? But because the human being fell, hell came to be.
Jesus, who came facing such a will of the heavenly order, had to have upon this earth a true family able to accomplish the will for which God sent him—not one he was to have by going to the spiritual world.
If Jesus were to die on the cross, then countless disciples too are bound to shed blood on the cross.
So heaven is not a place one can enter, embracing disciples who thus shed blood and died. To have the disciples who believe and follow him upon this earth shed blood and to save them thereby was not the original purpose of salvation. Jesus was not one who, from the beginning, had to do such a thing.
The Meaning of Jesus’ Saying, “I Am the Bridegroom, and You Are the Bride”
Heaven is the place one enters after attending the prince God sent, being publicly recognized as God’s sons and daughters, singing of original love, and, centered on original parents and original siblings, accomplishing the original family, original people, original nation, and original world—that is, after accomplishing the earthly Kingdom of Heaven.
Despite this, you must know the fact that the place Jesus went was paradise. Paradise is a place like a waiting room for entering heaven.
Originally, God’s purpose in creating heaven was that true children would be born from true parents and, forming a true family and kindred, a true people, nation, and world in which God could rejoice and live. Thereafter, one goes to heaven. This was the original purpose for which God created heaven. But did Jesus ever stand in such a position? Why did Jesus come to enter paradise? You must clearly know that forlorn fate and complication.
Jesus spoke: My Father is God, I am the bridegroom, and you are the bride. You are the bride. Therefore, you must seek the bridegroom.
Jesus means that, as the bridegroom, passing through the bond with the bride, he will, as the father, come seeking sons and daughters. He means that he will make sons and daughters not by the name of servant but by the name of friend. He means that he will make the believers spread throughout the whole world into true heavenly family members who give full loyalty to Jesus, the bridegroom, and attend God.
And so he means that Jesus will become the original husband and wife and the original parents and accomplish upon this earth the original world in which he can embrace human beings as his original children.
This was God’s hope and the bond Jesus brought with him. Because the people of that time did not know this, Jesus, having come as the Son of God, came to stand in the grievous position of dying in the body of a criminal.
What would be the purpose of a bridegroom seeking a bride?
It is to multiply children. Without a bride, how can one bear children? Therefore, Jesus said, I am the bridegroom, and you are the bride. Jesus had to seek one bride. But what is the actual state of the Korean religious world now? “Oh, because I believe well, because I am a revival pastor, I am the bride before Jesus,” they are saying. But that is spoken without knowing well what a bride is.
This figure of Korea is truly pitiable. America, the Roman papal see, and believers throughout the whole world will before long have no choice but to admit these facts.
Among pastors these days, some pastors like anything, so long as it is Western. It is not that I am reviling such pastors; it is that such is the fact. In the end, the point is that one must study.
When one says one will teach them what they do not know, they make a great fuss, saying they will not have it. They say it is fearful because if one entrusts them to the Unification Church for just a week, they all come over. Do you understand?
Why would Jesus have said “bridegroom”?
He spoke so because only by passing through the way of human order does the heavenly way come forth. Accordingly, Jesus cannot but set up upon this earth the heavenly way that has passed through the way of human order. That is, because the human beings upon this earth fell, the True Parents came to be needed before such human beings.
Why would God have made the human being male and female?
It was to multiply upon this earth children God could love and have them have dominion over all things. But after God made one man and one woman, did He ever, looking at them with joy, say, “Now that you have been fruitful, I will bless you,” and hold a wedding ceremony for them?
Pastors today perform weddings well. But they must clearly know the fact that when one they have blessed goes to the next world and becomes a traitor before God, they too become traitors.
Christians Ignorant of the Advent of the Lord at the Second Advent
Considering it coolly, did God, who created heaven and earth, ever in fact wed Adam and Eve?
He was unable to wed them. Adam and Eve married wrongly. Adam and Eve held their wedding centered on Satan. Because God, for six thousand years, could not perform the wedding He so desired, one must, in reverse, bore a hole of restoration through indemnity and fit it together.
Setting up a true son and a true daughter, one must perform the marriage feast of the Lamb in the name of the bridegroom and the bride.
Not knowing even this, you say Jesus comes riding on the clouds?
Will it do for Jesus to come riding on the clouds? Because they believe such absurd nonsense, it is a grave matter. What was lost must be found in the place where it was lost. Because it was lost on the earth, it must be found on the earth; what becomes of it if he comes riding on the clouds?
The trumpet of the archangel?
Have you seen it? Because they do not even know what it is, it is a grave matter. It refers to the proclaiming of new news. What the Unification Church speaks is the true trumpet. It is a very great trumpet. The new Word is truly a golden trumpet made of gold. Therefore, one must come and hear it.
Is it the way of God for the prince of Heaven to come riding on a cart and say, “So-and-so, have you been well? At last I’ve come to fetch you!” Is that the heavenly law of Heaven?
Does Jesus come riding on the clouds to meet such absurd people?
It is a truly pitiful thing. Such people are ones who, if you go and ask them just three times, will turn away saying, “I don’t know.”
This is an age when one goes about riding jet planes. When one can ride a jet plane at will, is it not a mad thing to go on foot? A distance one could reach in about an hour by jet plane takes, going on foot, more than ten days, more than a hundred days. In that case, is it not as good as not going at all? Such things must be smashed.
Is there any need to take more than ten days, more than a hundred days, to settle a matter one could settle in one hour?
Taking on a task that ought to be handled within one hour, they say they will keep dragging it out and out….
Here, what you must know is the point that the family member centers upon. Let us once again consider the term “family member,” centered on Jesus.
Jesus, Who Wept in the Garden of Gethsemane, Embracing God’s Sorrow
Jesus clearly beheld the road that went beyond the Judean nation to Rome.
“If Judaism becomes one with the Israelite people, Rome comes over into my hands.”
Thus he beheld, thinking so. The dead Jesus took four hundred years to conquer Rome; had Jesus, who came as the son of God, been alive, would Rome have been a problem? Jesus could have conquered Rome upon the foundation of Israel. Because this is our Principle, it cannot but be so.
As Jesus entered his twentieth year, the Israelite people grew ever more decrepit. They were suffering under the tyranny of Rome. When Jesus beheld the Israelite people, whose future hope was all blocked and who had entered the road of twilight, he burned with an unspeakable love for the people.
Staking Israel, how much did he appeal before God, weeping with love for the people?
The Israelite people did not know this. So the more time passed, the more Jesus came to feel anxious.
Jesus, who held the faith that Israel’s sovereign must govern and move Israel, knew that he had to tread Judaism underfoot and rise and, further, tread even Rome underfoot and rise.
Jesus, centered on a new view of life, a new view of the world, and a new ideology, could have struck down Rome all at once.
Because Israel, whom God had toiled over and prepared for four thousand years, failed to become one in family, people, and religious body, the grievance knotted in Jesus’ heart was great. Jesus lamented that there was no foundation on which he could stand and lamented that there was no hill on which he could stand.
Whom was Judaism to await and seek?
Was it not the one God had sent? Wasn't the foundation that countless ancestors had cultivated through history, going the path of death as sacrificial offerings, meant to make Israel a foundation of happiness?
When such people failed to recognize him, the Messiah, we must know how lonely and indignant the heart of Jesus, who beheld this, must have been.
The greater Jesus’ mind of loving the people, the more he felt anxious, while on the other hand, he knew how pitiable God was. Even in such a position, how anguished must the earnest heart of Jesus have been, who, not resenting God, wished to take hold of God and fully render the way of filial devotion—with no one on any of the four sides to uphold him, and everything appearing before his eyes becoming, rather, a sorrow before God, so that he had to embrace that sorrow and console God! And how sorrowful must the breast of God have been, who beheld Jesus driven before the Jewish people! Jesus could not but wail, considering these things.
Jesus, considering that the final path of destiny he had to go, taking responsibility for this earth, had drawn near, went up to the garden of Gethsemane and offered before God the prayer,
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39).
At this time, for Jesus, it was not a matter of his dying or living. He did not pray before God because his being sacrificed as the dew of the cross was a hand; he prayed, considering that God had toiled for four thousand years to find and set up the Israelite chosen people.
You must know that Jesus, who knew that the course he had walked—treading the path of hardship and the path of suffering, weeping for Israel over long years and walking a blood-knotted path—would now all be shattered to pieces if he died, wept, taking hold of God’s toilsome, historical, sorrowful circumstance.
The Responsibility of the Believers of Unification
If God forsook this people, whom He had toiled four thousand years to set up, where would they go? Jesus was anxious for the Israelite people. Because he knew the fact that it was his responsibility to take hold of the people and connect their future fate, he asked that Israel’s sin be forgiven.
In this way, Jesus fulfilled his responsibility toward Israel. We must know the earnest heart of Jesus, who, anxious for the betraying people, for the sake of one day of their hope, asked that their sin be forgiven.
In the mind of Jesus, who died on the cross, there was infinite sorrow and grief over the new hope. How great must the grief of God have been, who knew such a heart of Jesus! Who upon this earth will know this circumstance and resolve the han and dissolve that grievance! This work rests upon the saints of the Last Days. The Unification Church came forth to teach this.
The Teacher has, until now, walked in Korea the path God told him to go. But the pastors of the established churches have, for twenty years, done every kind of slander and scheming to drive out the Unification Church, which runs the path of being for Heaven. Yet you must know that, because the Teacher knows the will of the providence by which God has been seeking for six thousand years, he is anxious for those who scheme against him and prays night after night. To pray for them is the Teacher’s mind.
I know well that there are pastors who think, “Unification Church, you great Satan-devil! It was said that in the Last Days many antichrists would appear, and here is that antichrist! I wish it were dead.” But what the result of that will be is all too clear a thing.
The believers of the Unification Church today must not become spineless people. God’s sorrowful mind dwells within our minds, and the grievance of hundreds of millions of ages dwells within our breasts; to resolve this, to accomplish the resolution of han, and to attend God with joy is the responsibility of the believers of unification.
You must clearly know that the believers of unification are people who have stepped forth to resolve the han of the Messiah, who came as the Father of humankind and the monarch of the whole universe, and to become the final victors, the final shield, able to greet one day of victory.
Where had the world of hope, the nation of hope, the kindred, family, and individual of hope, in which God could be present, whom God could embrace, and who could attend God, gone?
Because there was no such person of hope, Jesus had no choice but to stand on the path of atonement on the cross and go on the final journey. Therefore, Jesus likened his body to a temple and vowed that he alone would not be broken for the sake of God’s temple. You must know that, mind.
The Unification Family Members Who Must Resolve the Han of Jesus, Who Longed for Love
Therefore, Jesus said that, though he had much to say, he could not say it all because they could not bear it (John 16:12).
Why did they so fail to know Jesus’ circumstances?
When they were hungry, they could open their mouths and say they were hungry, but they did not know that for Jesus there was a condition of indemnity by which he had to cross over such hunger. Such a grievous circumstance, and the heart of God no one knew.
Do you remember the words he spoke —
“I still have many things to say to you, but now you cannot bear them. Yet when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but will speak only what he hears, and will tell you of things to come” (John 16:12–13).
You must be able to understand the circumstance of Jesus, who went bearing such a han.
We must understand that Jesus, who died on the cross, was driven and pursued and had to struggle with an indignant heart. You must know that the path he walked remains a path of tears, and that the path of blood he walked has still not ceased in the course of history.
The believers of the Unification Church must know these things. Embracing the heart of the lonely Jesus, saying, “The world Jesus desired, that world—let me find it, I pray. The nation Jesus sought, that nation—let me find it, I pray. The people Jesus wished to embrace, that people—let me embrace it, I pray.
The family in which Jesus wished to rest, that family—let me live in it, I pray—one must be able to attend to him like an elder brother. One must attend to him in a place where he can be loved more than I, respected more than I, and cherished more than I, before the Parent.
Jesus, coming to this earth, was one who could not have parents. Accordingly, in his heart, the love of parents was infinitely longed for. He wished to have parents who, when he called, “Mother! Father!” would answer, “Yes, my son!” and say, “I too will cooperate for your will.” Jesus longed intensely for the love of parents.
Jesus was not in a position to receive love from his relatives either. When Jesus went up to the temple in Jerusalem, his family all treated him as a madman. There was an uncle in a neighboring village, but because that uncle thought he himself was the one receiving the parents’ love, Jesus came to dislike facing that uncle and could not face him.
In truth, Jesus longed for that uncle’s love. Therefore, each time Jesus beheld God, he could not but think how greatly God too must wish to love the people of this earth.
When we behold the household centered on Jesus and Jesus centered on the nation—that is, when we consider the household of Joseph centered on the Israelite people—we must know the fact that Jesus received no love from his family and relatives.
Jesus, who received no love from the Israelite people! Jesus, who had to be driven by the Israelite people and die! Where upon this earth was there a place where he, having come, could receive love? Jesus, who longed for love until his breast was torn! We cannot help but resolve those hand-filled things.
The Harrowing Circumstance Behind Putting Forward the Term “Family Member”
Jesus was one of a people without a nation. Jesus, who was born as one of a people who, though there was a people and though there was a sovereign nation, received no protection! He had relatives, and he had a family. But he received no love. He longed for love. He longed for the love of parents and longed for the love of all those around him—the cousins, the uncle, the grandfather, the villagers.
But where had the people, who ought to have embraced Jesus, gone?
Where had the father, who ought to have embraced him, gone? Jesus, who could not receive love though he tried and could not give love though he tried, was a truly unfortunate one.
When Jesus, who came to the earth in the stead of God’s heart, was driven by the human beings upon this earth, what must his heart have been? Jesus, who, taking hold of Heaven, went forth gazing only at the lifeline of humankind! But you must know Jesus, who, in the end, dying upon the cross, gazed at Heaven.
Jesus, who received no love, and also Jesus, who could not give love—in all this heaven and earth, there are countless parents, but where were the parents Jesus could love! There are countless brothers upon this earth, but where was the family Jesus could love? Where were the relatives Jesus could love! Where were the people Jesus could love? Where was the nation? Where was the world? Jesus, who was chased and driven! But Heaven knew all the sorrowful circumstances of Jesus, thus driven within and without.
From this perspective, what is it that we must do?
The term “family member” of the Unification Church was coined from this point. Because it was the desire to teach the heavenly order, to gather humankind and equip the bond of the family member God desires, the term “family member” was put forward. Therefore, you who have become family members have the mission of taking responsibility for and resolving the han of Jesus, who was so wretched, grievous, and indignant. And you have the mission of taking responsibility, in his stead, for the path of hardship of Jesus, who went the crisis-ridden path of the cross. Jesus, who went, leaving behind a han while awaiting the morrow! That it is your mission to resolve that, han.
The multitude that has stepped forth, resolved to death, to pioneer this path of the will is the family members of the Unification Church.
You must know the harrowing circumstances behind gathering you and teaching you the term “family member” to pioneer this path. Hanging out the name “family member,” in which such content dwells, we have until now walked this path.
Now the year 1965, too, is drawing to its close. The time is drawing near when we must knot up 1965, take responsibility for the fate of the nation, and decide life or death. In such a situation, the question is whether you can, in fact, stand with dignity before God by the name of a family member. We cannot help but consider this once again coolly.
You must know that, however much we strive with all our strength, we cannot be compared with Jesus. The people who were his disciples were not true disciples. His parents, too, were not true parents, and his relatives, too, were not true relatives. The world in which he lived, too, was not truly his world. We must know the fact that he had not a single person he could naturally call.
Jesus, who could not love Mary though he tried! You must know that Jesus was one who, though he went about leading Peter, John, and James, could not love them, though he tried. Because such a historical han is knotted up, today God’s sons and daughters must resolve this han. Otherwise, one cannot become God’s son or daughter.
To be saved and go to heaven. The words are perfect. But who will heal that wound—the nail driven into God’s breast and the bruise formed in Jesus’ breast!
You must clearly know the fact that one who cannot become a person able to console their mind absolutely cannot enter heaven.
The Path the Unification Church Goes
Then what must the family members of the Unification Church do today?
We must become people who can be loved in the stead of Jesus, who received no love, and become people who know how to love in the stead of Jesus, who could not love.
What this means is that our believers of the Unification Church, wherever they go—for example, when they see little children—must be able to love them in the stead of Jesus. In that way, there remains for Jesus a national han and a worldwide han of not having loved.
Therefore, the family members of the Unification Church must become the uncle, the aunt, the elder brother, and the elder sister who can love little children as Jesus did. Do you understand? Because it is our mission to resolve the han of Jesus, who had so much han, we cannot but become Jesus’ uncle, elder brother, younger sibling, or elder sister. Because it was a han that there could be no mother and father who could love Jesus, no grandmother and grandfather who could love Jesus, and no relatives who could love Jesus, you must become people who resolve that han.
To become Jesus’ elder brother, one must love Jesus from the position of an elder brother; to become his elder sister, one must love Jesus from the position of an elder sister. And on the other hand, one must love humankind in the world.
Only then can one stand in the position of a family that treats Jesus as Jesus and stand in the position of a relative. Only then can a new nation centered on God’s will be set up through us, and, in the stead of that nation that failed to love Jesus, a new nation that loves Jesus be set up.
The path the Unification Church goes is such a path. Only then can all nations love Jesus, and a world in which the whole of humankind can love Jesus—that is, heaven—be accomplished. Have you ever prayed for it to be so accomplished?
When have we ever thought of and loved the humankind of the world as Jesus did?
That we have not done so is a han. You must know that, however rugged and harsh the path one goes, the path of life must be gone, filled with love and not refusing it. Otherwise, one cannot resolve Jesus’ han.
Jesus, whom one wished to meet! Jesus, whom one wished to meet and live with! I must become one who can receive that circumstance. One must become a mother and father who can hear that circumstance.
One must become an uncle who can hear that circumstance. One must become a nation that can resolve that circumstance. Because that nation failed to understand Jesus’ circumstance, in the stead of Jesus, who could not love the nation, one must be able to love that nation and love that world.
One must be able to love those people and that kindred. Only then can one resolve the han of Jesus, who could not love.
To Become a Family Member of Jesus
For that, one must make an environment able to resolve the han of Jesus, who could not love. Only then can you yourselves today become the younger sibling who gives full loyalty before Jesus, become the elder sister, become the family of one household, become the kindred. Only then can one become a multitude that receives God’s love.
Have you ever loved in that way? One must be able to love the family Jesus could not love, the people Jesus could not love, and the world Jesus could not love.
One must become a person who knows how to struggle with not being able to love in this way. And thereby one must stand in a place where God can be together with one.
You must know the fact that only by being able to cross over such a place upon the earth can one, upon the earth, avoid the suffering of Golgotha and go before God. Only then can one become God’s son and form a bond of life with God. Only when you do so can you become a family member.
Only by being able to dissolve Jesus’ sorrowful circumstance, saying,
“Lord, when wert Thou ever treated as the Lord? Thou didst walk the path of a wayfarer, didst Thou not? Thou wast shut up in prison, wast Thou not?”
Can one form the bond of a family member with Jesus, who came in the bond of father and son (父子之因緣) with God? This applies because one stands in a position able to set up the bond of father and son; if one were in a position like that of a servant, such words could not apply.
Because Jesus considers us to be children, when there is someone who wails at the sight of a child fallen ill or a child going to the execution ground, he wishes to console that one. That is the heart of a parent.
You must know the fact that Jesus thus came with the mission of setting up the bond of father and son—that is, the mission of setting up the heavenly way.
However difficult a place my body may be in, to set humankind in the position of children and console them, grieve for them, and think of the suffering they undergo as if you yourself were undergoing it—that is the heart of a parent. Only by being able to truly understand such a heart can you become a family member. When have you ever been so?
Today, too, countless family members have gone out to all parts of South Korea and are witnessing. They are fighting on the front line. But how many times have you held a mind like Jesus’, or a mind like a younger sibling who loves Jesus? You must come to hold such a mind.
If one’s own child were going down such a path, would it not be a parent’s mind to wish to seek that child a thousand, ten thousand times?
If one’s own younger sibling were going down such a path, would it not be a sibling’s mind to wish to go in his stead? When there is such a family member within one’s own family, is it not the way of a family member to go and seek him out?
Unless you stand in the position of loving these people and this world in this way, you cannot set up God’s will. You cannot become a child able to set up God’s will. You cannot go to the nation where God’s will has been accomplished. You must know that the term “family member” is such an enormous and fearsome word.
There remains for us a course of struggle. We must know that there remains a path I must run, continuing on the course God walked with an earnest mind. You must realize that only by becoming people who know how to struggle to take responsibility for this remaining course can you hold the term “family member.”
By practicing upon this earth with this name of family member, we must accomplish the resolution of the han knotted in Jesus, and, taking hold of the people and the world, resolve the han of the cross of Jesus, who went the han-knotted path of death.
Do Not Become One Who Tramples the Term “Family Member”
Only when we hold a mind that can look down upon the world with compassion in this way can this world go the path of restoration. Knowing this fact, you must not become one of the people who trample the term “family member.”
It must without fail be so. Then you will undoubtedly become God’s sons and daughters and be able to enter even into heaven. You will, undoubtedly, be able to enter that nation. When one has accomplished such a world, heaven and earth cannot but publicly recognize it.
Centered on this fact, you must consider several times a day what my heart as a family member ought to be. When something good comes to you, whether it is something to wear or something to eat, you must not first try to wear it or eat it yourself.
What is good and what is evil?
Evil is drawing things in centered on oneself; good is being drawn along before the absolute subject partner. That is, evil is seeking to become the subject partner before the whole; good is seeking to stand in the position of an object partner before the whole.
Therefore, the conscience keeps insisting that one repay. When your mind is good, it urges you to do it again. Through the thirty million people, one must face the three billion of humankind, and through the three billion of humankind, one must repay before heaven and earth.
But one cannot be satisfied with this. The conscience cannot be satisfied even if one conquers the world, accomplishes God’s purpose upon heaven and earth, and even conquers God.
Even after conquering even God, one cannot be satisfied. You must know the fact that even if one captures God, the ruler of the one world of purpose, it is still not enough. Then what must one conquer? One must conquer even the love hidden within God’s heart. The conscience will not rest. Therefore, the religion of today must teach that.
What does religion first teach?
It teaches God. Then what does it teach next? It teaches God’s purpose. And what does it teach after that? It teaches God’s love. Seen by the teaching of religion, the human being must become the substance of God’s purpose.
That is, one must become God’s own. It is our mind to prepare, within such a bond, a foundation on which the conscience can rest forever and to wish to remain in that place forever.
Therefore, you must know that you are being restored. When one knows this fact, the conscience is truly a thankful thing. Therefore, one who has come into the church for the first time feels deeply moved, “Ah! So this is the value of human life.”
In Ignorance There Is No Completion
When one stands with dignity before God, the subject partner of the whole universe, before the God of love who can embrace eternity, and becomes a person who can be one with God and seize God’s love, the whole universe is his, and the realm of dominion over all things cannot but come to be his. From this standpoint, the human being is called the lord of all things.
The desire of a person has an end. It is not higher than the sky and broader than the earth. Then do you know what the desire takes as its end? If you know what the purpose of religion is, you can know it.
In unifying the world, one does not unify centered on the human way (人道). One unifies centered on the heavenly way (天道).
Your desire too is so, is it not?
Whether an incompetent person or a capable person, everyone wishes to make the world their own, do they not?
And because He is a God centered on one purpose, He cannot hold two purposes. Therefore, whatever heavenly complication one passes through, one must set up one's purpose. Because the external world comes to be so, the internal religion too cannot but come forth holding a unifying ideology.
Accordingly, you must know that, by such a flow of the age, the Unification Church has come to be needed.
Then, centered on what must one unify?
One must unify centered on the heart. And so the aim is to make God’s love and Jesus’ love our captives. And thereby, inheriting the heart of the God of the past, the God of the present, and the God of the future, the aim is to revere God.
Here, what you must know is the fact that in ignorance there is no completion. Today is the age of artificial satellites; will it do to believe by rough guesswork? You must know the fact that in ignorance, there can be no individual completion.
In this sense, the Unification Church is needed. Therefore, the worldwide situation cannot help but gather under the banner of unification. This is a complication of the heavenly order. Because the complication is such, the Teacher mobilizes the whole of the Unification Church family.
If there is anyone here for the first time, try praying. Then you will know that it is true that things are so.
You must know that you are the multitude that, knowing such an enormous fact, accomplishes the historical and epochal resolution of han and advances valiantly toward the future.
The Teacher sincerely hopes that you will, to the very end, never forget the honor of the name “family member.”
Prayer
The more we consider how many complications there were upon the course of restoration until now, the more we cannot but consider that there remains for us a crisis-ridden path of the heart to go.
Today, gathering the little children here, we have had a time in which we can once again consider the sorrowful facts of history.
Yesterday was Christmas, and many celebrated this day; but how many were there who, embracing such a heart of Jesus, shedding tears, and holding a heart of han, faced the Father? And how many children were there who were anxious for the heavenly path of the morrow? How many know the fact that the Father toiled beyond all reckoning? Grant that we may once again take to heart that the Father was pitiable, so pitiable.
We know that the Father’s path had so many complications and that the Father’s circumstances are so shabby because of the sin of our ancestors. The time has come when we too must tread and cross over all this han of Golgotha brought about by the error of Adam and Eve.
We must, to greet the dawn of the morrow, grope along the path of darkness even in this turmoil. Because we know that only by passing through this path of darkness can we greet a new dawn, the warriors of unification have until now fought, groping along the dawn path that others dislike.
Thou knowest that, when there were times we shed tears on this course, we wished to be together with Thee who sheddest tears, and, when there was sweating and starving, we struggled to set up one day on which we could console Thy toilsome course.
Grant that we may become ones who, leaving the han-filled past as a memory, are anxious for God together with tears; and, longing for the figure of the Father of hope, who, liquidating the han-filled bygone days spent in han-filled memory and tears, smiles as He finds the good of the morrow, grant that we may become Thy sons and daughters who know how to struggle to fully render the way of a filial child, forgetting our own shabby and pitiable figure of today—Father, this we earnestly ask and desire.
When we followed the path Thou hast walked, it was the path of the cross. But when we followed it, struggling with the heart of a pioneer along that path others do not know, we came to know that it was not a path of ruin.
The human beings mocked, but Thou didst encourage. Countless people and countless human beings opposed, but Thou didst stand before us and console us. We know that Thou didst exhort us any number of times, saying, “I am with you, and the thousand-times-ten-thousand saints in the spiritual world uphold the path you go.” Just as Thou didst console me when I was in such a place, so those who follow behind lonely me are also lonely ones; so grant that the Father’s love may be together with them too—this we earnestly ask and desire.
Are there daughters who, embracing Thy earnest circumstance and sorrowful heart, resolve that they themselves will take responsibility? Encourage them. Are there such sons? Uphold them.
Grant that we may become true sons and daughters who, on the final battlefield Thou hast left, seize the glory of victory and, sounding a song of triumph high before the Father, can show a proud figure that praises the Father’s glory—Father, this we earnestly ask and desire.
Father! Look with compassion upon the future of the Korean people. There is but one path these people must go. In the political, economic, and cultural spheres, these people have nothing to contribute to the world. We know that it has nothing to contribute except in the sphere of the heart.
We know that the warriors of unification, who follow the way of the heavenly order, must make a great contribution before these people and must carry out a mission of worldwide historical import. Therefore, grant that we may of ourselves become aware that we are bodies that cannot die though we try to die, and grant that we may of ourselves become aware that we are warriors who bear a responsibility and mission such that we cannot but move though we try not to move. And so, seizing the victory of the morrow, grant that we may not grow weary in today’s fight—this we earnestly ask and desire.
Whatever anyone may say, whoever may oppose, whoever may scheme, grant that we may follow Thee and not become ones who, like the countless multitudes who betrayed Thee on the summit of Golgotha, turn away saying they do not know Thee.
We must cross over the remaining crisis-ridden ridge of the cross; so grant that, even if a worldwide Golgotha comes upon us now, we may equip a new formation, go straight toward this path, cross over that ridge, and become ones who can sound high a song of triumph of victory.
How greatly didst Thou wish for a family and brothers in whom Thou couldst rejoice, and how greatly didst Thou wish for that kindred, that people, and that nation?
Knowing that when it becomes so, all these summits of Golgotha cannot but become level ground, the power of Satan cannot but fall, and Heaven cannot but raise the whip of the will and strike, grant that we may become Thy children who know how to obey this remaining seven-year course—this we earnestly ask.
For us, there remains the han of having failed to love the Father, so we must resolve that han; there remains the han of having failed to fully render the way of filial devotion before the Father, so we must resolve that han; there remains the han of having failed to fully render the way of a loyal subject before the Father, so we must resolve that han. For that, we must fully render the way of filial devotion on the course of struggle and fully render the way of a loyal subject.
The Kingdom of Heaven of peace, in which we can attend the Father, fully render filial devotion and the way of a loyal subject, and serve the Father, must be accomplished quickly. For that day we must take pride in today and prepare for the morrow; so grant that we may not grow weary on the path we go amid joy, and grant that we may not become ones who betray Heaven—this we earnestly implore and desire.
The year 1965, a year full of han, a year that crosses over historical complications, is passing away. Grant that, for the remaining one week until the day we greet the new year, equipping the figure of a new self, we may become warriors of unification, a Unification body, who know how to fully carry out the mission of a substitute, able truly to pray before the Father for this people that lies in deep sleep—this we earnestly ask and desire.
Grant that we may not enter a place Heaven curses. Grant that the tears we shed may become the source of life for all people and the motive of life, such that all lives cannot but go the path of those tears. Grant that our course may leave a bond by which all the people can fall prostrate before God, fully render the way of a loyal subject, and give thanks. Grant that our path of adversity may become such a path, and our sorrowful life become such a life—Father, this we earnestly ask and desire.
In the remaining days of this year too, Father, bestow blessing upon this people, and bestow blessing upon all the people of the world. Resolve the han of the countless spirits who await one day of the Second Advent in the heavens, and grant that the han of the Father and of Jesus may be resolved, that a Kingdom of peace may be built upon this earth, and that the world the Father can govern may be accomplished quickly. This we earnestly ask and desire.
Earnestly, earnestly imploring that the one day may come quickly when the glory and victory of ten thousand ages fill this earth so that we can rejoice together with the Father and return glory to the Father, we have prayed all these words in the name of the True Parents. Amen.