A Sacred Journey

In order to receive the Blessing in the Unification Church tradition, a number of conditions are required. Do you know what they are? First, you have to set the condition for the restoration of all things. Second, you have to restore true pride by the condition of overcoming Satan. Third, you must have at least three spiritual children.

All these things are required because of the fall of man. You need to be restored into the original blueprint of creation. Unless you fulfill all these conditions completely in seven years' time, you are not eligible for the Blessing. Therefore, in order to have that indemnity paid before the Blessing, you have to go through a three-and-a-half-year period of restoring all the things of creation into the heavenly domain. After that, you have to go out for another three and a half years to seek spiritual children. In doing this, you are testing yourself in the world of Satan so that you can become an undefeatable person from Satan's point of view.

In order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you have to have a heavenly family. The family is the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. That heavenly family has to be restored from the satanic realm into total purity.

I want you to understand this: Although many, many religions have come and gone or are still flourishing, this is the first time in all of history that there has ever been the opportunity for the Blessing. Even the True Parents could not immediately start this dispensational process at the perfection level. Since the fall of man took place at the third level of the growth stage, the True Parents had to begin their journey from that level, and in seven years they had to go up to the perfection stage. After the Holy Wedding of True Parents in 1960, there were three consecutive seven-year conditional periods through which they paid the indemnity and laid the heavenly foundation.

The international worldwide dispensational work has been proceeding for the last 40 years. Through my victorious track record, we are now getting out of the period of persecution. The time has come for the true, central structure of Heaven centering upon the True Parents' family. When the tribe has been organized, the heavenly nation will be constructed, and this will expand to the worldwide scale. We have come to that stage. Organization centering upon what? Centering upon each family.

Let's say a blessed family multiplies for three generations. If each generation is 20 years, in sixty years' time it will be a completely multi-racial, multi-national family, because so many different races and nationalities will be connected through that one family. What kind of language will be spoken in that family? Do you think they are going to hire interpreters to translate the conversations between grandfathers and grandchildren?

You can see that a realistic and practical goal for the Unification Church must be the unification of language. You are the children of the True Parents. Therefore, you must speak in their mother tongue. That tradition is a vital requirement for our Unification movement. There must be a language revolution. This is the final agenda in the history of humanity. No one else could create a revolution of language except me. No one else could even think of such a thing.

Look in this audience. Represented here we have Asia, America, Europe, Africa, South America--all races and cultures from all six continents. You might think, "How can we ever have a one-language world? " However, if we don't, what will happen? You won't be able to talk to your own son-in-law or your own grandchildren. You can see that this is the greatest problem. I want you to understand that we are creating a new history, a new generation. We have to become a new breed of new people, a new race under God and True Parents. That is our determination today.

After you receive the Blessing, will you take it lightly and then maybe throw it in the trash can like you would a tissue? In some cases in the past you have made me grieve by doing this. I cannot allow this situation to happen anymore. You men and women are receiving a sacred marriage. Can you marry according to your own will? Heavenly marriage especially requires the parents' approval and blessing. What is the meaning of this marriage? Heavenly marriage in the Unification Church is, in a way, a graduation, bringing you from the indirect dominion of God into the direct dominion of God. In the direct dominion you have to have a heartistic relationship with the True Parents and God.

Becoming perfect vertically and perfect horizontally--this is the meaning of the matching and the Blessing. First, you must demonstrate that you are children of filial piety, absolutely loyal and obedient to the True Parents. After that, you can step into love with another person. So when men and women are united with God and True Parents in heart and become pious sons and daughters and then come together horizontally, this is the ideal marriage. Now you are becoming part of the true lineage of God and Adam and Eve.

You will continue the tradition and pass it on to your own descendants. Without carrying this true love tradition, you will not be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. By the Blessing you are changing your lineage. You are cutting off your fallen nature, restoring and transforming it. This is a most extraordinary, revolutionary concept. You are cutting out the fallen root and linking yourselves into True Parents' root and becoming a new creature. This is the purpose for which Jesus Christ came, and to fulfill it, Jesus has to come again. He is coming to consummate True Parents' position.

Through the True Parents, the Blessing will take place and the change of the lineage of mankind will occur. That's the purpose of the Second Coming. The Blessing is the ultimate consummation of God's dispensational history. The time will come when the Unification Church Blessing will become the aspiration of every human being worldwide. Citizens of all nations will want to go through this process. Then I will make heavenly requirements. Everybody will have to go through these requirements and must pass in order to participate in the Blessing. There will be no compromise.

This is very serious. You are here to receive the Blessing. Whether it is given or not is my prerogative, but the important thing is that you realize the value of the Blessing in all seriousness. You have to come to this realization in your bones and heart, so that you will cherish and defend this Blessing with your life. In order for you to receive such a Blessing, I have given my entire life as a sacrifice. For humanity, this is a time for salvation, for receiving a great gift. But this has required tremendous investment on the part of God and True Parents. If you take it lightly, without considering its value, then that kind of mistreatment of the Blessing cannot be forgiven.

You have listened to me now, and you know the seriousness of the Blessing. You know what kind of incredible endeavor you are getting into. Are you thinking, "I am going to take total responsibility and truly become a standard-bearer for the True Parents"? Those of you who are determined in this way may stay. Otherwise you have to leave. The family cannot be an isolated unit. The family belongs to the clan, the clan belongs to the tribe, the tribe belongs to the nation, and the nation belongs to the world. The family is the individual building block for the world community and must bear that responsibility. Because of this, the sacrificial love and sacrificial attitude of the family become very, very important.

Ours are the most incredible and the most unusual mass weddings in history. What are we accomplishing by doing all this? What is our ultimate goal? We want to totally unify with God, fulfill God's will, and do what God wants. What does God want? God only wants you to become central figures of true love, that's all. He wants it for Himself, and He wants it for all His children.

It's only logical. The heavenly and God-centered society can only be accomplished by love-centered true families. This is what I am trying to create.

Then how can you say, "Well, my family is the most important thing"? That is not so. We have to follow God's tradition by trying to become a true love family belonging to God. Therefore, whatever God wants, we must follow. Isn't God a cosmic being? If you really want to become sons and daughters of God, your concepts, thoughts, and way of life should be at the cosmic level. Do you think Mother and I could live happily ever after just thinking about our own well-being and being contented with our little home in our little kingdom? That is not what God wants. What God wants is cosmic restoration. He wants a world of love, a world of truth.

Therefore, I myself am not doing enough. No matter how difficult the way may be, Mother and I will still be struggling and going further and further, sacrificing everything to reach that goal. It used to be that whenever we came together and performed a holy wedding, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and all the radio and television stations went crazy, and your parents tried to take you away.

But today, when several thousand people gather in the World Mission Center for a matching, the entire world is quiet. Instead, people are saying, "Well, that Rev. Moon! He's got another matching going on! We've got to join in, too. "Why are you so eager to get together for this matching? Because this is the only way you can reach the ideal of God. Without passing through the family, you cannot connect yourself to the heart of God and you cannot belong to God's Kingdom.

Without the family unit, you cannot become the embodiment of heavenly law. I am asking you women: Do you feel confident that you will bear children? If you are, can you do it all by yourself? Absolutely not. If you want to have a little baby in your arms, do you start with that baby, or with somebody else first? Who is that somebody else? Maybe your husband will be very ugly, mean, dumb, stupid, dirty, and smelly, but still, you have to love that husband in order to have that little baby. Women must bear babies, because God created you for that purpose. A woman should become a person that all the men of the world will applaud, saying, "She is a model woman." A man also wants to become a model man that all the women of the world will applaud. Even Satan will applaud you, because he will have been defeated.

Do you love me? You say "yes" because you want to get a good match today! Why do you love me? It is simply because I am leading a public life--for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the world, for your own sake. That is my entire life pattern. Without me, you would never get the Blessing. It is only because of me--my devotion, my giving, my service to humanity--that you are in a position to be blessed.

Do you think that when you get married you will instantly have a good life together and win the title of heavenly husband and wife? No. First you must prove to heaven and earth that nothing will deter you from walking the path of True Parents' tradition. You have to have that kind of confidence and be confirmed by God and humanity that you are eligible to be husband and wife.

You have to become committed men and women who say, "Satan, just watch me. No matter how much you try to accuse me, I am not giving you any opportunity to do so, because I am absolutely united with God's tradition. I am living the True Parents' way of life. There is no way, Satan, that you can get to me. "Throughout countless generations, there have been all kinds of immorality and misuse of love--the most wicked sins in the sight of God and heaven. All this has to be vindicated and washed away.

You, therefore, must vindicate the past generations of your ancestors. The only way to indemnify the past, the present, and even the future, is for you truly purified men and women to come together and set a new tradition. The most beautiful woman may end up with the ugliest man, because that itself is beautiful in a way. That is how historical human sin and the past can be indemnified.

If anybody says, "No, I must get a handsome man," that means you are only thinking selfishly, not giving your ancestors a chance to be forgiven nor worrying about your descendants. You shall be true sons and daughters who are born into a tradition that redeems all the past, so that you can truly become new, heavenly, model people in the present time. From now on and into the future, the blessing in your family will be abundant. Women's eyes are always looking for something beautiful, adorable, and charming to light on. Your eyes crave beauty. So I will give you something ugly to look at. You have to train your eyes that way. Why? So that you can have sinless children, so that your eyes are not just looking for external things, but internal things.

There are two kinds of husbands and wives: the ideal husband and the very worst husband; the ideal wife and the very worst wife. Where shall we begin? From the ideal? Or shall we start from the worst? Anybody would say, "I would like to start way at the top; the ideal would be fine." But that is very tragic in a way, because then you have no way to go up--the only way you can go is down. From the position of having the worst wife or the worst husband, your situation can only get better--there is always hope.

Therefore, the ideal match is when you start with the worst husband or the worst wife. From that position, you can go all the way up to the top. Then God will give you the medal of honor! That husband and wife will be winners for life. The ideal couple does not necessarily live in an ideal environment, nor have an ideal marriage. The ideal couple just overcomes any situation and goes through their course of indemnity. The ideal is the process of making the worst into the best.

So, in the Unification Church, the ideal is that we get married and then maybe we have to separate, with the husband living way up in the North Pole and the wife way down in the South Pole. But both are still happier than any married couple in the world. In most of the world, if the husband gets home one hour late in the evening, the wife is like a snake: "Why are you late? Why don't you love me anymore? " But in the Unification Church, the husband doesn't worry about the loyalty of his wife, and the wife doesn't worry about the loyalty of her husband, even if they are separated for 10 years. They say, "Yes, my dear husband," or "Yes, my darling wife," and for them, meeting once every 10 years is like heaven.

It is an entirely different standard of life. How wonderful Unification Church couples are! Which is the better thing to do when you are matched--to try to scrutinize your match from two feet away, examining him from top to bottom and trying to see what kind of eyes and nose he has? Or is it better to just look at his back, and say, "He looks fine. Thank you, Father."

All you need to say is, "Yes, Father. My husband is definitely a man," or "Father, you gave me a woman. Thank you. "There are members behind the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain who have never been able to come here. They told me, "Father, please match me by picture. " Later when they received the picture they said, "Thank you, Father, the picture is enough. When I saw the picture I was grateful, because you definitely gave me a woman. Thank you, Father. "

What a gigantic mind such a person has! His mind is like an ocean, like a mountain. Nothing can deter such people. No power. So by now, you are ready to accept anyone, right? None of you could sleep last night, and from six o'clock this morning your eyes have been open wide, and you've been thinking, "The moment is coming, the moment is coming! What should I do if I don't get the best? " After listening to me, everyone has complete peace of mind? Yes or no? In your own family, if your mom and dad tried to match even one of your brothers or sisters, it would be an ordeal. Matching takes incredible time and effort. I expect to match 1,000 couples in one day. How is it possible to do such a difficult task? It means that my eyes have to become super-eyes.

My mind has to work like tons of computers. I will be moving like lightning. That is the only way I can accomplish this task. If you really trust me 100 per cent, then everything will go smoothly, like clockwork. But if you start to resist, things won't move well. Look at my eyes. My eyes will penetrate through you to your ancestors' long history and into eternity. When I look at your face I see eternity. Oriental people generally have small eyes. That means they look at life from a long distance and way into the future.

How about me? God made my eyes so small so that I can see to a great depth, through to each individual destiny. I know that discovering the true value of your husband or wife takes at least three years. You women might say, "My husband is not good enough. " But who knows? Through your husband, you may give birth to a child who will become the President of the United States. How do you know that won't happen?

Patience is the winner. If you are patient for three years, 15 years, 20 years, God may give you the most incredible blessing through your spouse. An older person may get a much younger spouse, but you should have no complaint. Look at me. At the time I was blessed, there were all kinds of incredibly gifted Unification Church women available--women near the same age as me with master's degrees and Ph.D.'s. But through God's revelation I was given Mother, who was only in her teens.

Can you imagine all the squabbles and rumors and whisperings that went on because of that? But it was God's will. Most people cannot perceive God's will, but I am able to. How did it all turn out? The True Parents have turned out to be the perfect heavenly couple! A great age difference between a husband and wife is not a shame; it can be a great plus, particularly from the dispensational point of view.

When I match you, don't come back to me and say, "My spouse is too old. The age difference between us is incredible. " I know already. When you get together, don't ask your match, "How old are you? " If your match asks you, say, "No comment. "Don't interrogate your match. Don't ask things like, "What kind of a person were you? What did you do before you joined the church? What kind of education did you get? " Don't ask things like that of your future spouse.

Those of you who think, "Uh, oh. I'm in the wrong place," stand up and walk out. So, I see you are committed. You are about to embark upon the most incredible sacred journey. Would you rather make it a short local trip, or do you want to make a global trip? When you go to a poor family's home, there might not much to eat, but there will be a wealth of love.

Normally, a poor family has more love. I want you to understand: If you are married to an Oriental man, you may not have a wealth of food or possessions or clothes, but you will find a wealth of love. In the home, more important than a great wealth of food, material, or possessions is the wealth of love. Love is the key. If a Western person marries another Westerner, there's nothing much historic there. But when a Western woman marries a Japanese man and comes to Japan and serves devotedly as wife and mother and teacher and missionary, it will be recorded in history.

Let's say a gigantically fat Western woman is married to a Japanese man. But when she goes to Japan and works tremendously hard for the sake of her husband and his family, she will become like a chopstick! That will make history. An Oriental man and a Western woman would make a most adorable couple. When you go to Japan, everyone will look and say, "Wonderful! We welcome that beautiful Western bride to our country of Japan."

When that Western bride goes to Japan she should say, " I'm going to revitalize Japan. I'm going to become the spiritual mother of entire Japan. "This is something that you can be proud of in front of all your generations to come. Someday you will become grandparents. There you will be--a Western grandma and an Oriental grandpa, sitting down and talking to your grandchildren. You will tell them, "This is the way we were married; this is the way True Parents matched us. We were happy to serve True Parents in this way. " Then the grandchildren's tears will just start streaming down, and they'll say, "What a wonderful grandma and grandpa we have!" Then the grandchildren will go and erect a statue in your honor.

If you can open your mind and look at the long-distance vision, then you will be able to see what a wonderful opportunity I am giving you. I know that you are pledging in your hearts, "Father, we want to do your will."