Recommit to the vows made to True Parents
Hyo Jin Moon February 11, 1989 True Parents' Birthday World Mission Center
Today is a day of recommitting myself to the vows that I made to the True Parents. When you have a child of your own, every interaction with that child is precious and immeasurable. Every moment with your child is always fresh and of such overwhelming intensity. For us to truly rejoice on this day, we must come before True Parents as their true children. We must be grateful for that bonding relationship and the experience of true love that transcends anything man has created. We must understand that the realization of True Parents depends on our ability to become their true children, and that without having True Parents, we can never be true children. As children of these same Parents, we must have a sense of absolute unity. That is the essence of the ideal family.
How many of you come from small towns? Which do you like better: the city or the small town? Many people come to the city because they feel that there's more opportunity to find a better job or to meet people. Basically they leave their small town because they're not satisfied with its lifestyle and social structure. By moving to the big city, they find a multiplicity of social patterns and ethnic backgrounds, providing them with a better chance of choosing the kind of social structure or group they desire.
Why did you come? Most of you who came from small towns obviously liked an atmosphere of more family-oriented closeness than the big city offers. The reason you are in the Unification Church is that you like our kind of lifestyle. It's very important for you to share yourself with others. But many people who leave small towns are confused about their focus in life. Their value does not lie in those kinds of loving relationships, but somewhere else.
The diverse opportunities that exist in large cities make it so difficult to unite people. This kind of pluralistic social structure causes the existence of pluralistic values and ideologies. People belonging to such a society feel they are free to do whatever they want. But people tend to abuse this kind of freedom, creating an absence of the criterion of right and wrong. Only if there are people willing to commit themselves to a purpose greater than themselves can unity occur. If such a purpose becomes an underlying standard, a family spirit will be created.
Are You Living for Others?
What is a true relationship? Often within a relationship when something goes wrong, I hear people say, "You don't love me, but only your concept of what I should become. You're not embracing the kind of Mate qualities I possess." When you stress only your own point of view, you tend to be confronted with such a feeling. If you live only to satisfy your own personal interests, it is very difficult to have true relationships. We cannot avoid living with other people. How can you simply disregard the fact that there are millions of people in this world and put total emphasis on your existence? Such people could only have hypocritical relationships. They would only pretend to care about others -- knowing that their only real concern is their own self-interest. That's exactly what this world is -- a pretentious society! We say that we care for humanity but our daily lives have nothing to do with living for that purpose. Often, we're only trying to make ends meet for ourselves.
Let's say you are walking on a tightrope and you are scared because it's really life-threatening: "If I fall down, I'll die!" You fear it, because you know this is not where you belong. Men are not made to walk on a tightrope, but to walk on the ground. As a fallen man, you desire to go back to the original because that's where you feel safe, that's where you belong. But sometimes only when you are in a life threatening situation, do you really wish for the original world.
As members of the Unification Church, what is our one unifying theme? We want the kind of world where there is no evil, where there is peace, love, and trust; a world where we can go anywhere without fear of losing our life. We want a world where we can look at everybody and believe everyone loves and cares for us as much as we love and care for them.
A True Family System
If you have loving parents and a loving family, you know wherever you go, that you are not alone. Someone loves and cares for you, needs and appreciates you. If you have that kind of security, you feel safe wherever you go. In order to establish such an atmosphere everywhere you go, you need to feel that kind of security within a family and within a social system that has such an underlying value.
Love can embrace this universe. When we become totally enraptured in love, we see everything with eyes of love. All of our senses will be focused with that intense power of love. When you live in love you see the unique traits of everything and find them beautiful. You must have give and take with the kind of love that created this universe. When you understand the principle of love, everything you see is actually your partner of love. Through this awareness you start appreciating the value of things which exist around you.
How many of you are married? Give and take makes you happy within that relationship. Who initiates, the husband or wife? When you come home at night, and you say, "Oh, you look wonderful tonight, even more than yesterday," then the other responds and you get closer and closer. You can substantiate whatever you want. If you expect to live in a world where there is love, you must initiate it. A world abounding in love starts from you and it starts from me.
What if everybody were to say "Somebody else can provide that kind of world. I'll just tag along. Why should I make myself suffer? Let someone else do the job." If everyone becomes that apathetic, the ideal world will just drift away. Can you let that happen? If you truly love your child, could you let him drift away in front of your eyes? As much as you love your children, you have to love this world. As mi.ch as you love your possessions, you have to love Heavenly Father! That's what Father has told us. You have to give yourself for the sake of the whole.
Promote the Whole
Many times Father sacrificed his family for the sake of this world. The first parents failed Heavenly Father by not uniting with His commandment. That commandment will be the basis of constructing the ideal world where everybody can live as one. The existence and unity of the whole is the transcending value of the ideal world. In that kind of ideal society, people will live together as one. Everyone will understand the existence of self, but will consciously promote the whole.
All the unique characters within that society will achieve their true value and experience joy only when they participate in the progress of the whole. For example, I love everybody in this room, so everybody, not just one person, loves me. So this is a kind of ideal society because I have a unifying theme which is telling me that I must live for the sake of the whole. I have that concept -- it is drilled into me. I made the decision to live like that. Everyone must have that kind of desire if we want a world of love.
The failure of Adam and Eve was that they thought only about themselves; they didn't think about God. The first parents were thinking: "Oh, it would be nice to be like God, to have His knowledge. I want to touch it; I want to feel it." They made that clear decision to cross the line by forgetting about God's command. In their ideal, God was excluded.
If some of you were excluded from my ideal, do you think there would be peace? No! I love everyone who lives for the sake of love. It doesn't matter who you are, what color or what gender you are, because the true love value can unite everybody. Heavenly Father's desire is to manifest the ideal world based upon love.
Through the chosen people God is fighting to remove the barriers preventing Him from obtaining His ideal. The communists see the development of history through conflict, but they don't understand the internal cause. They believe that from a primitive communist society, through a slave, feudal, and democratic society, the communist society will ultimately come. But that ideal communist society is a godless society based upon a godless ideology where people are living for the sake of the state and are promised everything in return. The communists say that the state is the body and people are the cells. There is one principle to create a unified society and communism is using that principle without God. Communism wants to take the place of God but that's not going to happen.
Take the Initiative
Look at yourself in retrospect. Remember the fire you had in your heart when you joined. Where is it now? I applaud those who still hold on to that fire. But what about everybody else who has lost that fire? The Principle you heard when you joined never changed. We have come a long way and have made progress. How are you going to face all the saints and sages who have waited thousands of years? How are you going to face Heavenly Father who has waited 6,000 years when you don't even have the courage to wait six, seven or ten years? Yet you expect to receive the love that belongs to Heavenly Father. You are giving so little and in return you want to receive endlessly! Such a person is a thief, who steals because he doesn't want the hardship of working.
Many of you have lost the fighting spirit: "This is enough. I give up!" What is enough? People out there still don't know Principle. Did Heavenly Father give up after six thousand suffering years? We don't even use all the establishments Father has constructed. We're barely maintaining what we have; and what we have, came from the sufferings of people around the world.
If you want the ideal world, you have to get up and work! You have to take the initiative. You have to substantiate true love! Don't let love just dwell in your conceptual realm! Tell yourself: "God has been suffering too long. I want to relieve God of His regrets, His struggle, His suffering and His pain. If I love God and my True Parents, how can I just sit still?"
You're adults and many of you have children. How are you going to set an example for your children? What are you going to say when they grow up and say: "Mommy and Daddy, don't just tell me these things anymore without doing them yourselves." What are you going to say to that? Are you going to blame Heavenly Father and True Parents for giving you this kind of responsibility? Your children are watching and learning every moment. You have to create an ideal environment for your children. Your children are growing up. If you don't do it, your children will bear that burden.
I appeal to America! Through the foundation that Father has prepared, we have to give ourselves and our efforts. Every moment we should be doing something for our cause. Our actions must reflect the ideal intentions of God. We have to find that fire and light it. That is our responsibility if we want to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Responsibility is not a burden because through it you can obtain God's love. Through our own efforts we have to obtain the ideal comparable to God's ideal. You can think, "I am actually duplicating the creation process. Like Heavenly Father, I am giving my 100% for the sake of love and for the sake of the substantiation of my ideal. Only then do I have the possibility to receive the immense love of Heavenly Father."
All created things basically act only according to their instincts. Mankind, however, is not driven just by instinct; we have the freedom to make choices. Through this freedom we can choose to unite with God, and that is how we can receive God's love. Heavenly Father created mankind with perfection in mind. He didn't intend for man to fall. He had an idea of how this relationship would substantialize. But man has failed to deliver his side of the responsibility. That's why he fell -- it's not God's fault.
True Father's Course
There is only one formula, the Principle. If you are following something other than God's formula, how can you expect to receive what God has? It's impossible! If you want God's love, you have to do God's Will. Why do you think Father is going that course? Nobody's excluded. Everybody must follow that path to reach the ideal world. Make a clear choice and be committed to see it through.
Every day we have to remind ourselves where we belong. We have to say to ourselves: "I belong to the Kingdom of Heaven, I don't belong to this world. This is my house and I have to clean it. As long as our family lives here, this house will stay clean and pure." We go into the secular world and learn about it so that we can know clearly how to win over the enemy. That should be our attitude. We're here to win; we don't have to lose.
How are we going to defeat the enemy? With a love attitude: "I will give every ounce of myself for the sake of love." With that determination we will not break our commitment to God. It doesn't matter if the path is arduous or if we are tortured. That's the attitude of a hero. Even in this world, we praise such a person because he is determined. Only people with such determination and attitude will succeed: "If you push me this much, okay, I'll take it. If you push me a little further, I'll take it. If it comes back stronger every time you push me, I'll be ready; I'll be stronger. Then we'll see who wins because there is only one champion." When you go into a ring, only one winner comes out. God will fight until His ideal is realized. There is only one alternative: to overcome Satan and realize the ideal Kingdom of God. That's why God hasn't faltered or given up: because He's an absolute God. That is the kind of Father we have; therefore that is the kind of children we should be. The only way to win is to accept the pain. This is a war. If I lose, then I will have to give in to Satan and his demands, and that's not what we're all about.
We have to know ourselves. We're here to be responsible for human failures. Through our efforts, we will indemnify all the failures of past humanity. Through our blood, sweat and tears there will be a manifestation of the ideal world in the end. That's how I see it, and that's how you should see it. We must toughen up to embrace and overcome all physical obstacles. I think this way because it's what I learned when I wanted to become the greatest fighter. You have to accept those pains. I totally accept what I have to do; it's not a struggle because I made that choice.
A Heavenly Vanguard
In the past, I had a clear goal in mind: to satisfy myself. I was critical and analytical. Father told me to be responsible for going to school, but I didn't like it. Now it's different; I have to think about God, True Parents and the ideal world.
Now, I'm criticizing and analyzing every step Satan takes. Our intelligence is so that we can build an ideal world. For the intellectual, love appears to be just linear. Actually, love comes in all different sizes and shapes. Through this love, we become transcendental; we experience a spherical or fourth dimension.
What is the meaning of a vanguard? How do you think these changes will come? Just 20 years ago, black people were treated as second class citizens. How do you think they brought about that change? It started from one man's idea and because the time demanded it, that idea was fulfilled. Similarly, people are looking around and realizing that the American system is not working. We have to be the vanguard of idealists who will provide a model and example. Our ultimate goal is to have an ideal world and to find our unified nation. That's what we need to do and we have every means to do it. We truly have to put our words into actions. True love means to love our fellow man. Everybody must be the embodiment of God's ideal, not a hypocrite. God's ideal is a unified world -- one world under God. If you're really this kind of person, you must have a broad enough scope to embrace all the religions of the world. That's what we are all about -- to live for the sake of other human beings -- which is the basis of all religions. Worship God with that thought in mind.
Don't you like to see me smile all the time? Frankly, at times, people expect to see me struggle because that's more realistic. Every responsibility I accept wholeheartedly. If I am frowning or sad, it's because there is still a little piece of me left over; but I can fulfill my responsibility to cut off Satan. Think like that!
Magnify God's Foundation
Let's do it for the sake of love! Let's give everything because that's what we want. I want to walk everywhere and be welcomed by all the people of the world. Father has poured so much effort into preparing this foundation for America and now we have to be responsible. We must multiply and magnify it. That is the intention of God: to magnify His Love. I'm ready, even though it's not going to be easy or automatic, for I have to face a period of growth. That is not easy while living in these harsh surroundings where you literally have to separate good and evil. I wish this was an ideal world where everywhere you looked people would be living the ideal standard. Then, you wouldn't have to search with a magnifying glass for the ideal.
But this world is not like that. It is a war-torn environment. What is ahead of us is not as hard as what Father has faced in his lifetime. We have it easy. We all know what we have to do. We have to move as one family with one goal, united with Father and Mother. That's the only way we can look at each other: as true brothers and sisters. No matter what little problems you might have, digesting them is no problem because you love your father and mother, your brother and sister. We can sacrifice a little of ourselves to unite and become one.
Most of the time when I am with the blessed children, everything that we do is their decision. I follow what they want 75% of the time. If we have a specific thing to do, we do it. But when there is time given to us then I ask them, "What do you want to do?" I follow their intention because I love them.
If we accomplish our responsibility, every moment and every meeting will be a joyous occasion. But many times I have to say strong things because it's necessary. Not everyone is feeling like they should. Until everyone is one I have to do this. We have to truly celebrate this occasion by making one more commitment to do it! You promise me this? Let's make a pledge then.
Let us pray.