Pyeong Hwa Gyeong
평화경平和經
BOOK 6
The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World
1. The True Love Movement Bringing Salvation to Asia and the
World 875
2. The Coming of the Age
of Women 881
3. The Unity of the
World and Humankind’s Responsibility
885
4. Women Will Play a Leading Role in
the Ideal World I 895
5. Women Will Play a Leading Role in the
Ideal World II 907
6. World Peace and the
Role of Women I 917
7. Women Will Play a Leading Role
in the Ideal World III 922
8. God, Women and World
Peace 930
9. The Twenty-first
Century and the Mission of Women 946
10. World Peace and the
Role of Women II 950
11. Opening, Inheriting and Fulfilling the
Era of the Victory,, Liberation and Completion of the
True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind 956
12. The Role of Women in the Era after the Coming
of Heaven and the Mission of the Women’s Federation for World Peace
964
13. Keynote Speech at the
Inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN
976
14. Let Us Become Leaders in a World of
Peace 983
15. Let Us Open a New Era of Civilization
988
16. Establishing a World of Moral Principles
995
17. The Central Role of Young People in the
Realization of True Love 1000
BOOK 6
The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World
1
The True Love Movement Bringing
Salvation to Asia and the World
September 17,1991
Tokyo Bay NK Hall, Chiba, Japan
Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia Japan Convention
(True Mother’s speech)
Distinguished
president of the rally, members of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia,
and my fellow women leaders who have gathered here from all parts of Japan:
Today we stand
at a turning point on the road marking great and historic changes. I offer my
heartfelt congratulations to the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia for its
rapid growth in the five years since its inauguration to the point that now you
are able to host this splendid rally.
In little more
than forty years since you emerged from the ruins of a devastating war, your
nation, Japan, has accomplished the greatest economic turnaround in the world.
This feat, which may well be termed a miracle of modern times, is now the envy
of people throughout the world. More laudable still is the fact that, even
while achieving such amazing industrial developments, Japan has endeavored to
sustain the traditional values particular to the East and has shown a great
commitment and effort in family and social education. Underlying such wonderful
success is what you women have done, as kind and self-sacrificing mothers and
devoted wives. It is you, more than anyone else, who made your families healthy
and strong while you nurtured and watched over them. Since it is your work as women that stands as the basis of this success, I as a woman
also feel proud.
Leaders of the
Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia! The world is now on the brink of a great
historic transition period. The wartime policies of communism caused bloodshed
ravaging millions of human beings. In the seventy years since the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917, communism came to rule more than half of the world,
plunging all humanity into the pits of fear and anguish. New leaders finally
have lowered that red flag, and we are watching it disappear into the mists of
history.
This shows that
the worldview based on atheism, with state policies that deny God, has come to
ruin. The philosophy of conflict, struggle and hatred has revealed its limits,
and the one-party dictatorial structure of communism is now faced with its own
demise. However, this event leads to an important realization: The downfall of
communism does not mean the victory of the free democratic world. Just as communism,
which went forth asserting economic equality, was brought to its end by the
collapse of its own economy, the free democratic world, which is crying out for
the ideal of freedom, also is nearing a breakdown of society through the severe
confusion of values. Corruption, sexual immorality, violence and addiction are
multiplying under the shadow of so-called freedom. They are causing the
dissolution of that free society.
The Cold War era
that lasted for more than forty years after the Second World War is drawing to
a close. It was a game with losers on both sides and no victor. It makes us
realize that now is the time for a new salvation to reach both the communist
world and the free democratic world.
Capitalism and
communism originated from the West and were based on material values. They have
revealed their limited ability to satisfy the true desires of human beings, who
are made of both a spirit and a physical body. We are living in an age when the
central role of eastern society, with its emphasis on spiritual values, has
become absolutely necessary. Historically, the Asian continent has served as
the cradle of spiritual civilization, and the time finally has arrived for the
East to fulfill its global mission as the prime mover of spirituality. That is
why this age has come to be called the Asian-Pacific era and why it is another
great historic transition period.
Most respected
women leaders! I believe that this society was able to do an excellent job of
protecting its historical values during the past half century. While the
industry of Japan developed and the nation became economically affluent, women
voluntarily declined the opportunity for special treatment. Instead, they
protected their families with devotion and sacrifice. In truth, the most important
of all traditional values is the set of values centered on the family.
There is an old
saying to the effect, “When one’s family is harmonious, all goes well.” What
this means is that the family is the basis of peace. And the most important
factor in forming such a family is true love. The word “love” has various
meanings. However, I’m speaking here about true love, which refers to the
absolute love centered on God. In other words, true love is to love even
someone who seems impossible to love, and thus, in true love you have no choice
except to love even your enemies. Furthermore, true love is the sacrificial
love of even giving one’s own life for others. Therefore, in true love the
antagonisms and conflicts among individuals and among societies or nations are
completely transcended and dispersed. With true love we can achieve true peace.
True love is the
motive and power behind creation, reproduction and development. To put it
another way, physical energy, once it is invested, is consumed and finished. In
the case of true love, however, the more you invest, the greater it grows, and
it comes back to you with even more than you gave. Only in true love can the
idea of eternal life become a reality. Families and societies that practice
true love never come to ruin; they continue to grow.
In this regard,
the teaching of my husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, to
“live for the sake of others” is the basic guiding principle in the
construction of a peaceful world. The origin of such true love is God and God
created humankind to realize this true love.
When God created
human beings, why did God create them as man and woman, each to become the
object partner of the other? It was because of true love. It was so that, in
the midst of that true love, the husband can share love with his wife and the
wife with her husband. When the husband and wife share horizontal love with one
another in this way, they come to possess the love of God, the origin of the
husband and the wife.
Simply put,
through the horizontal love between a man and a woman, human beings can form
the connection of love with God vertically. To put it another way, a man and a
woman marry, rooted in true love, in order to possess each other’s world
horizontally and to possess God’s love vertically. They own the Creator and all
created things because true love entails the right of inheritance. Human beings
attain their original desires through the horizontal connection with each other
and the vertical connection with God.
Based on this
viewpoint, only man and woman together can encounter God’s love. Man and woman have equal value in that they possess God’s
love only as a married couple that is united as one body. They stand in the
position of the object partner of God’s true love. Human beings and the Creator
thus come to have equal value centering on true love.
If the first
created man and woman had fulfilled love in this way, they would have become
true parents and the starting point for the realization of God’s love.
Unfortunately, however, humanity’s first parents never became True Parents, who
were supposed to stand in the place of God as the substantial embodiments of
true love. Still, the ideal of True Parents has to be realized, and the origin
prepared through which true families, societies, nations and the world centered
on true love can be accomplished.
Therefore,
beyond simply the age of a global village where we are geographically close,
the future world must usher in the age of the global family, where we are bound
together centered on true love. Rev. Sun Myung Moon
has lived not for his own sake; he has lived for the sake of God and humanity
because he knows the absolute way of true love. In spite of all the persecution
and hardships he endured, he ultimately laid today’s worldwide foundation of
the Unification Church.
As the wife of
the man carrying out such a global task, because I am connected to this
victorious foundation centered on true love, I shared the pain of the head of
the family together with all of my family members, engraving it even within my bone
marrow. Furthermore, no matter what hardships I faced, I did my best not to
give in to them and to keep a smile on my face, thinking of my husband who
would feel alone without me.
My life goals
naturally came to be centered on true love. I lived for the sake of others in
my effort to find true happiness through the woman’s role in the love for
parents, the love for husband, and the love for children. My life became one of
living more for others today than I did yesterday and more tomorrow than today,
being more grateful and making more effort each day. Furthermore, I believe the
reason I can successfully fulfill my role as a mother and raise my thirteen
children well, is that my entire family is united, centered on God’s true love.
This is because, in any given family, when God is with them, the parents and
the children all can share the love, life and hope of God.
Distinguished
leaders of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia! The coming era is to be
neither the age of conflict, defined by two nations, the United States and the
Soviet Union, nor the age of the confusion of many nations. Instead, it must be
the age of God’s world, centered on God’s love. This era of dominating the
world based on the survival of the fittest in terms of economic power or
military power must pass; now we need to realize one world based on Godism. Godism teaches us about
the true love of God, through which the East and West, North and South, and all
cultures, races and philosophies can be melted into one.
Godism has to start in
Asia and construct the realm of the Asian-Pacific civilization. Such things as
antagonism, conflict or struggle will disappear from Asia when it is centered
on Godism. Asians need to set an example of how to
achieve world peace through practicing true love by living more for the sake of
the whole than for oneself.
Because Japan
has received the blessing of riches from the world, it ought to follow a path,
based on the spirit of true love, of living for the world. By regarding the
pain of the world as their own pain and the problems of the world as their own
problems, the Japanese people will live for the world in self-sacrifice and
service, and they will become leading figures in establishing world peace.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon established the Interreligious Federation for
World Peace and the Federation for World Peace on August 27 and 28 of this year
in Seoul, Korea. Despite the fact that all religions on earth have the mission
of bringing humanity together centering on the one God and uniting humanity
through true love, the truth is that in the course of history they have split
into hundreds, even thousands, of sects. They have been engaged in conflicts
and struggles among themselves, and they also have confused human beings about
the path of faith that leads toward the true God.
In view of the
historical facts that innocent people have been accused in the name of
religion, and that bloody wars have broken out in the name of God, we realize
that if religions cannot unite, the world representing the internal aspect of
humanity cannot become one. A peaceful world on earth will grow more and more
distant. In light of this, the fact that organizations bringing together world
religions have been inaugurated this year is a grand, historic undertaking.
In addition, the
fact of the matter is that the League of Nations and the United Nations, which
were formed to resolve the problems that arose after the First and Second World
Wars, have been inadequate. There remain many serious problems that have not
been addressed in the past forty years of the era of the Cold War, which can be
said to have been the Third World War.
Matters such as
the resolution of racial and cultural conflicts, closing the severe gap between
the rich and the poor, conservation of nature, and establishment of true
ethical values are the challenges that need to be newly tackled and resolved by
modern humanity on a global scale. Based on this viewpoint, the founding of a
new international organization called the Federation for World Peace, focused
on the new philosophy of Godism and true love, brings
forth substantial new opportunities.
Taking it a step
further, the Interreligious Federation for World Peace and the Federation for
World Peace, which represent the mind and body of humankind, have embraced the
common goal of world peace and together have built a mutual foundation upon
which they can cooperate with one another, suggesting the imminent construction
of world peace. Rev. Sun Myung Moon has already
prepared, in the environment of the real world, all the important preconditions
for world peace.
Most esteemed
women representatives of Japan, now the time has come for you to be the people
who practice true love by giving for the sake of Asia and the world. Today we
are ushering in a great, historic transition. It will emerge as an important
opportunity for Japan and Asia to play an active role in the world.
I hope that you
will broaden your consciousness and way of life so that Japan will stand
clearly as the mother of Asia and the mother of the world, and thereby stand at
the forefront of constructing a new Asia and a new world. This is the destined
mission that history has placed in your hands to fulfill today.
When Asia
embraces the true love of God, the future of Asia is boundlessly bright.
Furthermore, this world promises a future of hope in which the eternal order of
peace can be firmly established. I pray that you will devote yourselves
earnestly for peace in the new Asia and for the future of the world.
Thank you.
2
The Coming of the Age of Women
April 10,1992
Olympic Stadium,
Seoul, Korea
Inauguration of the Women’s Federation for World Peace and
Seoul Rally of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia
Distinguished
guests, Dr. Hak Ja
Han Moon, representatives of the Women’s Federation for World Peace from
seventy countries, women leaders and members of the Women’s Federation for
Peace in Asia:
I am certain
that today we are witnessing a great event that will have a profound meaning in
the history of women in Korea, and throughout the world. Until now, men have
provided primary leadership throughout the progress of history. This rally
today, by declaring the “Beginning of the Age of Women,” marks an historic
turning point for the entire world.
The leadership
of men has brought about a world filled with struggle and evil. Human beings
continue to dream of liberation from this world of evil and struggle and the
onset of a world of goodness, peace and happiness.
God created us
as His children, and we can be assured that God had no intention of sitting by
and doing nothing while the world suffered for thousands of years through wars
and evil. God has been actively working to find ways to lead us to salvation.
This is the meaning of the salvation providence carried out through religion.
As a religious leader, I have consistently preached that God’s salvation
providence carried out through religion represents the real hope for the world.
Throughout
history, countless leaders and heroes have dedicated their lives to building a
better world yet there has never been any fundamental change in the fact that
we live in a world of wars and evil. Political and economic means are unable to
bring such fundamental change to the world. This fact is clearly illustrated by
the superpowers and developed countries of today’s world. The decline of morals
has become a global phenomenon, and presents a serious threat to the future of
humankind.
Immorality and
moral decline has reached such a point that mothers and fathers, husbands and
wives, and even children, hardly recognize each other in their respective
roles. The very foundations of the family are being destroyed. The correlation
between the increase in economic wealth and the decline in ethical conduct and
sexual morality, as well as the spread of drug abuse, has brought about a
critical situation.
Today the world
is faced with the question of how to escape from the clutches of sexual
immorality, for this is the most deeply rooted of all evils. There is no
possibility that politics and economics alone can rescue this world from the
crime and decadence that we see around us today.
Members of the
Women’s Federation, representatives from around the world, I have experienced
firsthand the pain and sorrow of a weak nation trampled upon by a powerful
neighbor. I was born seventy-two years ago during the Japanese colonial
administration of Korea. During my youth, I thought seriously about how to
bring salvation to this tragic world of war and evil. I came to the conclusion
that salvation through religion has the most fundamental effect.
This is because
God’s salvation providence through religion has a strategy to use Satan’s
persecution for the purpose of reclaiming all the ownership that was stolen by
the evil force of the devil. Religion teaches that evil brings about its own
destruction by striking out at good; the path of good is one of bringing about
the natural subjugation of evil by receiving evil’s blows.
Ever since I was
a young man in my teens, I have consistently taught the truth according to
religious revelation and devoted my entire life to putting the content of this
teaching into practice. My teachings, the Unification Principle, have spread to
one hundred sixty countries around the world. The teachings are spreading
particularly rapidly in the previously communist countries of the former Soviet
Union as well as in Eastern and Central Europe, and even in North Korea. Also,
in the Islamic countries of the Middle East region, people are coming to follow
these teachings.
The Unification
Church has received great persecution and suffering in a number of countries,
including its home country of Korea. Today, however, it has set its roots down
firmly and permanently all throughout the world. No one will ever be able to
uproot the Unification Church from any place in the world.
Religion forms
the fundamental means by which God plans to save this world, and all the
world’s major religions have at their center an expectation for some kind of
messianic figure. Christians believe in the second coming of Jesus. Muslims,
Buddhists and followers of Confucius await the reappearance of the founders of
their respective religions. All these religions believe that when the messianic
figure appears, the Messiah will judge this world of sin and struggle and establish
the ideal world, that is, the kingdom of heaven, in a short time.
Thus, all these
religions teach that this world can only be saved through the second coming of
the founder of their religion. This is referred to as the messianic ideal. Only
a leader who gives truth and true love, one who is able to unite the
fundamental teachings of the major religions and integrate the roles of the
various messianic figures, can accomplish the salvation of this world.
Such a leader will
reveal how our first ancestors committed the Fall and
brought about a history of struggle and evil. This leader will explain original
sin, the root of the world’s evil, and shed light on the truth that will
liberate humanity from evil. Because our first ancestors, Adam and Eve,
committed the original sin and became false parents, the returning Messiah will
come as the True Parents, the original ancestors of good through whom all
people will be reborn.
The True Parents
will not make their advent on the clouds from the sky. Instead, they will
appear in this age and on this earth in Korea, and lead the world into an age
of peace and unity. During my life of more than seventy years, I have received
much persecution, yet I have never been defeated. My wife, President Hak Ja
Han Moon, has walked this path of suffering together with me as the
representative of all women in the world.
In the course of
following the path of righteousness in accordance with God’s Will, when I
received persecution at the hands of unrighteous forces in the form of
imprisonment, my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, decided to gather righteous women of
good conscience and begin a movement for peace. That effort has borne fruit in
this rally today.
No one knows the
course of religious training I went through in order to receive this content of
God’s truth. During that time, I came to the realization that the key to world
peace and world unity lies in the unification of the Korean Peninsula, which
has been divided between communism and democracy. It is for this reason that I
have traveled throughout the world and devoted all my energy to the
accomplishment of this goal. This is also the reason I went to North Korea last
November and negotiated directly with Kim II Sung.
It will not be
long now before we see the unity of all the world’s major religions. Neither
will it be long before the unification of the Korean Peninsula is accomplished.
In fact, these two goals represent the reason that women from seventy countries
around the world have gathered today to attend the Seoul Rally of the Women’s
Federation for Peace in Asia, which is being held under the presidency of Mrs.
Moon. I expect you will eventually be forming a federation of families for
world peace. In God’s salvation providence, Korea is the home country of the
providence.
In each
religion, we can see that the women are far more devout and active than men.
The Bible says that true Christian faith is preparation as a bride who will
someday receive the Lord of the Second Advent as her bridegroom. This biblical
teaching means all religions have been prepared by God so that they may fulfill
a female role, that is, the role of the bride, in the presence of the coming
Messiah.
In the presence
of the True Parents who come as the Messiah, the women of this age are the true
workers who will cleanse this world of war, violence, suppression, exploitation
and crime. Women will build an ideal world filled with peace, love and freedom.
It is also up to women to see that the evil forces, led primarily by men, which
opposed and persecuted the forces of righteousness and good, are now completely
eradicated so that they cannot cause any more harm.
We live in the
age when the Messiah returns as the True Parents of humankind, when North and
South Korea are uniting through love and truth, and when all religions are to
become one. This is the age in which all people of the world will rise above
differences of race and philosophy to join in the building of a new world of
peace. I am certain that God will give boundless blessings to all the world’s
women called for these great purposes.
I pray that
God’s great blessing will be upon the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia and
the Women’s Federation for World Peace, which is to be inaugurated today.
Thank you very
much.
3
The Unity of the World and Humankind’s Responsibility
April 10,1992
Olympic Stadium,
Seoul, Korea
Inauguration of the Women’s Federation for World Peace and
Seoul Rally of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia
(True Mother’s speech)
Distinguished
guests, representatives of the Women’s Federation for World Peace from seventy
countries, women leaders and members of the Women’s Federation for Peace in
Asia:
First, let me
express my deep gratitude that such a tremendous crowd has gathered today for
this grand occasion, to establish the Women’s Federation for World Peace and to
hold the Seoul rally of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia. By your
presence, you bring blessing to our federation’s future, and inspire us to
redouble our determination to achieve world peace. This may be the first time
that women have taken the initiative by gathering in such a large number in one
place. I am certain that from this day forward, women around the world will
come to understand their noble role ordained by God and that a road will be
opened for us to build an ideal world filled with peace, happiness and freedom.
To mark this occasion, I would like to speak to you on the topic of “The Unity
of the World and Humankind’s Responsibility.”
On November 30
of last year, I accompanied my husband, Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, on a visit to North Korea. During our one-week stay, we met President Kim
II Sung and other leaders and toured a number of sites.
Throughout the
years I have been at my husband’s side, I have been a witness to the countless
sleepless nights he has spent praying for the unification of our homeland, and
to the great sacrifices he has made to bring the reality of today’s world in
line with the direction of God’s providence. His recent trip to North Korea was
another illustration of his willingness to place his life at risk whenever
necessary. Rev. Moon is a well-known religious leader, and this fact alone
makes him a person despised by communists. In addition to that, he is also the
world’s greatest leader working for victory over communism. North Korea is well
known for its rigid ideological regime. The leaders of that society long ago
identified Rev. Moon as their greatest enemy and launched thousands of
malicious attacks against him around the world. Yet, Rev. Moon visited that
country with only the spirit of God to protect him, and preached the
commandments of Heaven to its highest echelon, saying, “Unification cannot be
brought about through your Juche ideology. We must
unite through Godism.”
The purpose of our
North Korean visit was not to establish joint ventures or to seek ways to make
money. Neither did we go there hoping to visit our hometowns or to meet our
relatives. We went in accordance with the will of God, carrying with us God’s
heart of true love that seeks always to give unconditionally. Our purpose was
to testify to the commandments of Heaven, so that the leaders of that society
could realize what they must do in order to open the floodgates for true
unification. Rev. Moon was received in North Korea as a state guest of the
highest order, yet he did not rest comfortably for even one night. Every night
during our stay, he spent his time in fervent prayer so as to bring convergence
with heavenly fortune and to establish before God the conditions for
reunification. Unification of the Korean Peninsula will not be brought about
solely through political negotiations or commercial trade. Unification is
possible only by means of the fortune of Heaven together with God’s true love.
This is because
reunification is connected directly to the providence of God as a necessary
step toward world unity.
Truth from
Heaven
Today is a
historic occasion in which women leaders have gathered from around the world. I
would not want to detract from this occasion by merely giving a few words of
ceremonial greeting. Instead, I want to deliver a declaration emphasizing the
teachings of Rev. Moon, which are rooted in the heart of God that transcends
past, present and future. My words today are a declaration before heaven and earth,
with history as my witness. The words I am about to speak may seem unfamiliar
to some of you, however they deal with the truths of
heaven that all women today have to understand.
We live in a
diseased world whose destruction is inevitable. Every day we hear the ugly
sounds of its final death rattle. We can trace the origin of this disease to
our first ancestors, who lost their position in paradise. Our first ancestors
contracted a serious disease. In religious terms, this event is referred to as
the human Fall. History began in a diseased state.
Satan and this diseased state have been the central focus of human history. The
tragedy of human history is that it originated with Satan, the lord of evil who
took a position against God’s ideal of creation, and with the marriage of Adam
and Eve as the children of evil. Inevitably, human beings inherited Satan’s
love, Satan’s life and Satan’s lineage. The human reproductive organs, by which
husband and wife are intended to join together in virtue, were originally
intended to be temples of true love, true life and the true lineage. Love needs
to be an experience in which a husband and wife join in a virtuous union to
procreate children who will carry on the lineage. The center of life is love,
and the human lineage is transmitted by means of the love and life of a husband
and wife. The linkage of love, life and lineage is what gives history its
continuity.
After the Fall, the human race has been held captive by Satan’s love,
Satan’s life and Satan’s lineage. Adam and Eve were in their youth when they
sowed the seeds of false love, false life and false lineage.
Thus, when the
Last Days come, we can expect the increase of moral decadence among young
people to expand into a global phenomenon. In fact, we live in just such a time
now. Satan used fallen love as a condition to create a lair of sin in which an
eternal blow could be struck against God’s ideal of true love. With the
relaxation of standards concerning sexual behavior, the increasing moral
decadence of young people and the plague of drug addiction in our societies,
Satan has been able to work to destroy family structure and traditional values
in order to turn this world into an earthly hell.
Thus, it has become
impossible to find anywhere a true man, true woman, true brothers and sisters,
a true husband and wife or true parents. Until now, there could be no hope of
creating a true society, true nation or true world. The world has to understand
that Satan exists and that he has brought about the fallen reality we face
today. With this knowledge, we can find the cause of the disease and uncover
the origin of the Fall.
We must reveal
to the world that Satan, Adam and Eve formed a trinity of evil, and that it is
up to us to restore the original Trinity of God, Adam and Eve that is in
accordance with the ideal of creation. For this issue to be resolved, someone
must testify to the fact that Satan committed sin, and clearly explain the
fundamental truths concerning the sin committed by our first ancestors. God and
Satan have always known all the details about the Fall.
.
There were many
things that Adam did not understand, however, because he was still young at the
time. In the Last Days, the restored and completed Adam will come and make all
this information known. He will reveal the sins committed by Satan through the
course of history. When he comes, it will be possible to expel Satan from this
world. For the first time, human beings will be able to make a fundamental
change in direction toward a world of hope, peace, happiness and freedom.
Grafting
onto the true olive tree
In order for
humankind to make a total break from the false love, false life and false
lineage that derive from Satan as their false parent, it is necessary that we
be grafted onto the true olive tree. That is, all people need to be grafted
onto God and True Parents in order to recover true love, true life and the true
lineage. This will make it possible for us to build heaven on earth as well as
in the spirit world. This, in fact, is the final purpose of God’s providence of
salvation, restoration and re-creation. Thus, the appearance of the True
Parents is an event of the greatest historic importance. They represent the
conclusion and final fruit of human history. The True Parents represent the
completed form of human cultural history. They signify the victory of religion
and philosophy within history.
Prior to the
emergence of True Parents, however, there is required a period of restoration
through indemnity, that is, a period of re-creation. I would like to speak for
a while about this historical period based on the biblical record to illustrate
what a difficult process it has been. By understanding this, we can understand
how important it is that we fulfill our responsibility today.
In the record of
the Old Testament, history was a course of indemnification—an eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth and a life for a life. The responsibility for the Fall passed from Eve to Adam, with Satan at the center. As
seen from the standpoint of Eve after she had received the seed of false life,
the Fall occurred when Satan took over God’s position
as Eve’s father and became one with her to bear Adam. In the course of the Fall, Eve placed the archangel in the position of her father
and Adam in the position of her son. Consequently, women who, in the course of
the history of restoration through indemnity, have come to stand in the
position of Eve have risked their lives, when necessary, in order to assure
that God’s will is passed on to the next generation. When we study the
historical record in the Bible, we come across a number of events that seem to
defy explanation. God’s original intention in His creation was that Eve would
become one with God, her Father, and with God’s son, Adam. As a result of the Fall, however, she became one with Satan and the false son,
Adam.
Immediately
after the Fall, God began working through the family
of Adam in order to undo what had been done, that is, to accomplish restoration
through indemnity by the reverse course. He could work with Adam’s family,
because the Fall had not deprived the members of this
family of the element of eternality with which they had been endowed at their
creation.
Struggle
between good and evil
Cain, the first
fruit of the love by which Satan took Eve, was recognized as being on the side
of Satan, and Abel, who was born as the second fruit, representing Eve’s love
with her intended husband Adam, was positioned on the side of Heaven. This was
the beginning of the history of the struggle between good and evil, aimed at
fundamental restoration through indemnity. It was necessary in history that the
second son be blessed so that the second son, representing heaven, could
restore and claim the birthright of the first son, held by Satan. Exemplifying
this, Cain and Abel made offerings to God simultaneously, yet God received only
the offering of Abel, the second born, while refusing the offering of Cain. The
reason was that the second born at that time stood on the side of Heaven. Had
Cain made his offering through Abel, an orderly, reverse path could have been
established between God, Adam and the archangel, and restoration could have
been accomplished. Because Cain killed Abel, however, Heaven chose Seth and extended
the providence to the generations following.
Cain and Abel
were brothers who had been born into this world. Because of their inability to
accomplish God’s will, God’s next dispensation needed to be carried out within
a mother’s womb. Thus, when Rebekah asked God why it
was that Esau and Jacob fought within her womb, God said to her, “Two nations
are in your womb... the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23). From
that time, Rebekah came to take greater care of the
second born, Jacob. Jacob had to restore through indemnity the birthright of
his brother Esau. For this to be successful, Rebekah
had to fulfill her responsibility in the position of Eve. The blow struck at
the firstborn of Egypt during the course of the Israelites’ Exodus, and Jacob’s
crossing of his hands when he blessed Joseph’s sons Manasseh and Ephraim, both
represent the hidden will of Heaven to bring about a reversal of the rights of
the first and second sons.
In her Fall, Eve deceived God, her Father, and Adam, who was in the
position of her son. Rebekah stood on the side of
Heaven and deceived the father, Isaac, and her son, Esau, so that Jacob could
receive Isaac’s blessing. Jacob purchased the birthright of the firstborn, and
initiated the lineage of the Israelites on the foundation of a victory won
through the cooperation of a mother and her son. He conditionally claimed the
right of the first son and that of the second son for the side of Heaven, and
established the foundation of victory for the nation of Israel that was to descend
from him. Jacob, however, was more than forty years of age at the time that he
took full control over the birthright of the firstborn.
Thus, the period
of human life prior to age forty remained without the condition of having won
victory over Satan. Once again, therefore, God carried out a dispensation for
the purpose of claiming victory in the womb. Tamar, the daughter-in-law of
Judah, had in her womb the twin sons, Zerah and
Perez. Although Perez was the younger, he pushed his brother Zerah aside in order to be born first. In fact, the name
“Perez,” means, “to break through.”
Revolutionary
women and the only begotten Son At the beginning of history, the lineage of
Satan was planted in the maternal womb. With Tamar,
the womb was restored to the side of God. The side of Heaven took control over
the right of the first son and the right of the second son so that God’s
original lineage could be established. It was in this way that the tribe of
Judah came to form the foundation on which the Messiah would later be born. As
a woman, Tamar placed herself in the position of having deceived father and
son. She denied her father-in-law and his sons in order to separate the
position of Eve from Satan. As a result of Tamar successfully separating the
womb from Satan, a basic tradition was established whereby God’s children could
be conceived and given birth without Satan’s invasion. It was then up to the
Israelites and Judaism to carry on this standard of victory in the womb until
such time that the Messiah could be sent as the True Parents.
Because Satan
had already been able to establish his nations in the world at that time, the
sending of the Messiah had to wait until such time as the Israelites could
establish a national base sufficient for indemnifying the other nations of the
world. God waited nearly two thousand years until there was a sufficient
foundation and a woman who could stand in the position of Eve, to carry out His
providence. This finally took place through Mary, the mother of Jesus.
When Adam and Eve
fell, they were already engaged to marry at a later date. In the same way, Mary
and Joseph were betrothed to each other in accordance with God’s providence.
Similar to Rebekah and Tamar, Mary was a
revolutionary woman called by God to take part in the process of recreating
Adam. Mary risked her life to form an absolute unity with God, and placed
herself in the position of having deceived father and son in order to fulfill
the providential history of restoration through indemnity.
It was in this
manner that Jesus was conceived. During the time that Jesus was in Mary’s womb,
Satan could make no claim on his lineage. Jesus was born of the womb of a
victorious woman as the first fruit of the first love, which could be claimed
only by God. It was the first time in history that a child was born as God’s
only begotten Son. Even among the saints, there exists no one else whose birth
followed such a process for making a separation from Satan’s lineage. Thus, we
refer to Jesus as a saint among saints. This was the reason the Christian
cultural sphere was able to spread throughout the world.
Finally, in this
century, God has worked to use the victory of the Second World War and the
Christian cultural sphere to accomplish the unity of the world. The Second
World War had a particular meaning in the context of God’s providence. In this
war, the effects of the Fall transmitted by Eve to the
brothers Cain and Abel were magnified onto a global scale. Thus, the island
nation of Great Britain stood in the position of Eve. The United States, a
nation historically “given birth” by Britain, stood in the position of Abel.
France stood in
the position of Cain, holding the birthright of the firstborn. These three
countries formed an alliance led by the United States and cooperated together
as the Allied Powers. On Satan’s side, the Eve country, Japan, the Adam
country, Germany, and the archangelic country, Italy, formed the Axis Powers.
God’s hope was to establish a united world on the basis of the victory of the
Allies, who had been placed on the side of Heaven.
God’s fervent
hope for the postwar world was that God and the True Parent, the Adam who
brings true love, could form a central point, around which humankind could
receive the True Parents. God has carried out His historical providence of
indemnification centering on triads of countries. In the context of the
worldwide dispensation of the True Parents, Korea has been placed in the
position of the Adam country, Japan in the position of the Eve country, the United
States in the position of the Abel country and Germany in the position of the
Cain country. Japan was once an enemy country of the True Parents; the United
States and Japan were once enemies, and Germany was once an enemy of the United
States. The True Parents, in order to fulfill what Christianity and the United
States did not accomplish after the Second World War, have fostered cooperation
among these four countries at the center of the providence and walked a
twenty-one year course of re-indemnification. Through their success, they have
established the realm of victory. The Unification Church, which has
victoriously crossed over the hill of Calvary on the individual, family,
national, world and cosmic levels, has given the United States a new sense of
direction. It has given new hope to Christianity, as well as to the communist
and Islamic worlds.
On the Korean
Peninsula, the Jacob and Esau of the twentieth century are faced off against
each other in the form of the two Koreas. The True Parents, working with true
love in this conflict, confronting Kim II Sung in the position of the false
parent, have restored through indemnity the realm of the victorious parent.
Through this process, Korea was established as the Third Israel that has
accomplished history’s ultimate victory and has become the chosen nation of a
new and united world. Korea as the Third Israel is the base from which the True
Parents and their children are able to accomplish their fervent hope for a
united world of peace. It holds a central position for building heaven on earth
and in the spirit world.
It has to be
understood that, from a providential standpoint, the great prosperity
experienced by Korea, Japan, the United States and Germany in the postwar
period has been due to the fact that these countries received God’s blessing,
again, with Korea as Adam, Japan as Eve, the United States as Abel and Germany
as Cain. In the garden of Eden at the time the Fall
was perpetrated, the archangel was with Adam and Eve. In this age, when the
seed is planted on the level of the individual, it bears its fruit on the
worldwide level. Korea, the Adam country, is neighbored by Japan, the Eve
country, as well as by three archangel countries—the United States, China, and
Russia, all vying for advantage on the Korean Peninsula. With the protection of
God, however, these countries are developing an alliance among themselves
centering on Korea. Jesus was not able in his time to bring about unity among
the nations of Asia. Today we are seeing the fulfillment of God’s will to
indemnify this on a worldwide level. Similarly, the significance of the coming
of the Asia-Pacific cultural sphere is that a substantial sphere, both material
and spiritual, such as Jesus sought to accomplish in his time, can be
constructed in Asia. In other words, the countries of Asia must now establish a
united world centering on the True Parents.
Now is the time
to attend the True Father, who has established the victorious tradition in
world history, and the True Mother, the global representative of women, who has
gained victory as the representative woman in history. By doing so, we must
establish a true concept of manhood as well as the true concept of what it
means to be a mother, a wife and a daughter. In the context of new families, we
must set forth anew, toward a new society, nation and world, and become
forerunners in inheriting the tradition of the True Parents and harvesting the
victory. We women have the mission to give proper guidance to those who lead
lives of moral decadence and disorder, so that the tragedy of the Fall of Adam
and Eve may be resolved within the context of history.
Beloved women
members, the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia has gathered you here for the
important purpose of establishing the Women’s Federation for World Peace. In
the “Age of Women” that is now dawning, our members have to embrace our
husbands and properly educate our children, so that we may be a model movement
for practicing true love throughout the world. We must gain the active
cooperation of our husbands and children for the development of the Women’s
Federation for World Peace.
Our women’s
movement is not for women alone. First, a movement of true love for our
husbands and children must bear fruit in ideal families. The ideal families
formed in this manner will come together to form ideal nations and an ideal
world. For this reason, the Women’s Federation for World Peace must someday
develop into a federation of families for world peace. For the sake of world
peace, we women have to take the lead in government, finance, culture and
society. The basic values we must uphold in this federation of women are found
in Head-wing Thought and Godism. These values are
what unite left and right and overcome atheistic materialism. They are certain
to be the guiding ideas of the world in the twenty- first century.
As women, let us
remember our forebears Rebekah, Tamar and Mary, who
fulfilled major responsibilities in the history of God’s salvation providence.
Let us inherit the strength of will by which these historic women overcame
life-threatening dangers and difficulties. Let us establish our families as
homes for true parents, true husbands and wives and true children, so that we
may join in the holy cause of changing this fallen world into a heavenly world.
Let us march forward toward a world of peace centered on the True Parents, who
are the center of true love.
I pray God’s
blessing may be upon you, your families and the beautiful world to come.
Thank you.
4
Women Will Play a Leading Role
in the Ideal World I
May 11,1992
Incheon Indoor
Gymnasium, Incheon, Korea
Women’s Federation for World Peace
Rallies in twenty-one cities in Korea
(True Mother’s speech)
Most respected
guests from Korea and abroad, and members of the Women’s Federation for World
Peace:
It is my great
honor to be able to speak on my views about world peace before so many women
leaders from every field of life. The title of my speech today is “Women Will
Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World.”
In the era in
which we live today, we are ushering in a truly important transition. We can go
beyond ideological barriers, linguistic and cultural differences and racial
conflicts, and enter a world of oneness. We all yearn for the end of wars,
oppression and exploitation and for the beginning of a promising future of true
freedom, peace and prosperity.
To this day, the
system of thought called Godism, advocated by my
husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, has played a decisive
role in overcoming the unceasing human suffering of the past, caused by the
misuse of power, and in opening the door to the post-Cold War era. Now, in this
historic transitional age, we are heading toward reconciliation and
cooperation. I would like to speak once again about this system of thought
disclosed by Rev. Moon, which he also named head-wing thought. I propose that
this great formula for the construction of an eternal world of peace based on Godism will serve as the guiding principle for women who
will pioneer the future world.
God originally
created the object partner of His love in order to feel joy. To make a work of
art, sculptors work through the night. They burn up their youth, devoting all
their energy to their work. Where does this heart stem from? Wouldn’t that
heart resemble God, who created the object partner of His love in order to
taste joy? When you look at the world, you can see that the mineral kingdom,
the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and even human beings all exist in pairs.
Why do they all exist in pairs? It is so that they can interact with each
other.
In the mineral
kingdom positive ions and negative ions interact. If you bring together two
elements randomly, they will not always fuse together. If their properties are
not complementary, not even God can make them react. On the other hand, if
their properties are complementary, then not even God can keep them apart. It
is apparent that God created even the interactions in the mineral kingdom as a
model of the ideal process of creation through love, though on a lower level.
For this reason,
centering on the essence of true love, the heart of God, the heart of
humankind, all created things and even the animal kingdom are bound to
communicate with one another. When you enter such a state of mind, you can
communicate even with a rock. The problem is that you have not yet been able to
enter such a state. When you enter the deep land of mystery, everything in
nature is your friend. When you enter the state of love filled with ecstasy and
you laugh, everything in the world of creation and even God Himself will
harmonize with you.
Ladies and
gentlemen, don’t you have a husband or a wife whom you love? How much do you
love them? Would you exchange your beloved wife for money? Would there be a
wife who would exchange her husband, whom she truly loves, for all of heaven
and earth? When you come to think of it, men were born because of women, and
women were born because of men. It was all because of true love, which is
living for the sake of others. God created and empowered men and women in order
to realize the ideal of love through the harmony of yin and yang. Only true men
and women can be united in true love and, based on true love, God and human
beings can unite.
Marriage is
successful through the infusion of true love originating in the vertical,
absolute value of God, after men and women connect horizontally through their
absolute, true love. As you can see, God, the absolute Being, has established
true love in the highest and most valuable position, as the center of absolute
values.
At the place
where a true man, a true woman and God unite completely, based on true love, we
can find the key to resolving all our problems, including our view of life,
view of the universe, and view of God. God’s true love invests and invests
again, gives and gives again, and forgets having given. As long as the memory
of having given remains, love cannot circulate infinitely. Since love is an
infinite motion, you ought not to dwell on the memory of having given. Love can
flow because, even after you have given incessantly, again and again, you do
not fixate on the memory of having given.
Then, who gave
you love so valuable that you would not exchange it even for heaven and earth?
Your parents did, and when you trace it back to its root, God gave you that
love. God gives this love of infinite value from the position of the Parent,
and then He forgets. Even if the sons and daughters who have received that love
betray Heaven, He gives again. It is because of God’s endless love that you
were able to come here today and make up this audience.
For this reason
the path followed by true love is not having others live for one’s sake;
rather, it is a path of sacrifice where one lives for others. For this reason,
when God creates the object partner of His love, He desires to stand in the
position of living for their sake and invests everything He possesses 100
percent, over and over again. The original central figure possessing such a
heart is God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
In living for
the sake of others, true love gives everything 100 percent, 1,000 percent, and
creates a vacuum. It follows the same principle as when air in an area of low
pressure generates a circulatory motion from an area of high pressure.
Accordingly, when you try to live absolutely for the sake of others, you will
activate infinite power.
Esteemed members
of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, it is said, “Women are weak, yet
mothers are strong.” This means that, though women by themselves may be weak
and frail, when they stand in the subject position of love as a mother or play
a central role of love as a wife or a daughter, they become incomparably
strong. When they give 100 percent for the sake of their object partner, the
void created by their giving is filled with God’s love and the power of God’s
love is put in motion.
Therefore, even
for women, when they take after God and assume the subject position of
passionate love, the power of that love manifests as an amazing strength that
can save the family, the nation and the world. By her passionate, patriotic
heart to save her nation, a sixteen-year-old girl, Yu Gwan-soon,
miraculously engulfed the entire nation of Korea in the waves of the
independence movement.
As is apparent,
God stands in the subject position of love, of giving for the sake of human
beings, and He exists eternally because His original nature continues this
process of giving and giving again. That is why the logic of eternal life
manifests itself in the path of true love. If human beings, whom God created as
His companions of true love, had reached maturity in accordance with God’s Will
and inherited His absolute and unchanging true love, a history of fundamental
world unity would have unfolded and there would not have been this wretched
history of wars and bloodshed.
When body and
mind are united based on true love, you become the companion of God’s own
love—His eternal object partner. Not only that, you also become the heir of His
eternal love. The properties of love include the right of inheritance, the
right of cohabitation and the right of participation. If a loving husband is a
president and his wife is not even an elementary school graduate, when they
become a loving husband and wife, what belongs to the husband belongs to the
wife and they have the right to stay together always, night and day, and also
to participate in each other’s affairs.
Since love has
these three great properties—the right of inheritance, the right of
cohabitation and the right of participation—when you stand in the position of perfect
union with God’s absolute and unchanging true love, you can stand with God
wherever He may be. You have the right to live together with Him and
participate in His work at all times.
When this comes
to pass, you can see God without closing your eyes and be moved to tears. There
is a realm of experience in which a person who has encountered the sorrowful
heart of God will stop suddenly, even in the middle of going somewhere, and cry
their heart out. Even in the fallen world, there have been many cases in which
the love of a mother is such that if her child met with an unexpected accident
away from home, she knew about it intuitively. Even arousing from sleep, she
cried out her child’s name as she woke up sobbing.
When you have
prepared yourself to absorb into your body and mind 100 percent of God’s
essential true love, which will live for the sake of others for tens of
thousands of years, the roots of God’s love will be anchored in your heart. You
will feel everything that He feels, and your body automatically will resonate
with those feelings. In fact, the body is designed to be a resonator of the
mind’s world based on true love. You have to realize that, in order to achieve
the united world of body and mind, first God’s love must be restored. However this
task remains unfulfilled.
From the
viewpoint of the logic of resonating with true love, when we human beings truly
love and enter the realm of mutual oneness, we can say that God’s life is our
life, God’s lineage is our lineage, and the created world in God’s possession
is our created world. Then we will be registered in the kingdom of heaven with
the heart of the father and the mother embracing heaven and earth.
Now, which comes
first, love or life? Love comes first. The life of humankind was conceived
through love based on the ideal of love, and so it follows that the essence of
human life is love. Therefore, we can say that it is nature’s law of life,
originating from the essence of love, to live for the sake of others, and that
in fact, human beings were born for the sake of others from the very moment of
their birth. If I were born only for myself, or if everyone else had to exist
only for my sake, the concept of love never could become reality. This is
because love is real only when one desires to give to others and to sacrifice
for others. The person who sacrifices for the sake of the family can bring
about love in the family.
You may think
that if you sacrifice for the sake of others, you will lose everything. In
truth, it is the opposite. If anything, you become the subject being of love
and the owner of everything, and you also are elevated to a higher dimension. A
person who sacrifices and serves for the sake of the class becomes the class
president, and a person who sacrifices for the sake of the village becomes the
leader of the village. Furthermore, a person who sacrifices and serves for the
sake of the nation becomes the owner of the nation.
The principle of
love is that when love sacrifices for something that is greater, the level of that
love is elevated. When you sacrifice for something greater, rather than being
absorbed by it, you can stand at its center and face a new dimension. The
reason that Christianity became a religion of resurrection is that it teaches
to sacrifice for others.
Even when he
faced dying on the cross as an innocent man, Jesus prayed, “Father... not what
I want, but what You want” (Matthew 26:39). Regarding
the Roman soldiers who stabbed him with their spears, he beseeched God to
forgive their sin along with the sin of everyone else who did not know what
they were doing. Like God’s life, Jesus exemplifies a life lived and sacrificed
for the sake of others. It became the origin that created the history of
resurrection, and thus became the essential core of Christian thought and
tradition. When you sacrifice even your life for the sake of others, you gain
life of a higher dimension.
My beloved
members of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, when you think about it, my
visiting North Korea with my husband and meeting with President Kim II Sung and
various other party members on November 30,1991, was
an exceptionally high-risk endeavor.
As you well
know, Rev. Sun Myung Moon is a religious leader and
the leader of the Victory over Communism movement. The North Korean leaders
have considered him their archenemy, and they have even carried out all kinds
of schemes, both in Korea and abroad, to eliminate my husband. And yet,
depending solely on God, we were able to go to North Korea and proclaim,
“Unification cannot be brought about through Juche
ideology. Unification is possible only through Godism.”
We had a heart of love, desiring only to save them and to live for their sake,
and we had a martyrs spirit, ready to endure any
sacrifice necessary to open the gates to the reunification of the homeland. We
actually put into practice the words, “Those who are ready to die will live,
and those who seek to live will die,” similar to Jesus’ saying in Matthew
16:25.
True love can
serve as the basis for conquering even hell. When you come to possess true
love, all sorrows and pains transform into joy within that true love. In other
words, true love is the desire of the original nature of humankind, which
remains as an absolute authority that is greater than any authority asserted through
power, knowledge or money.
In this regard,
throughout history God’s strategy to save humankind and Satan’s strategy to
block Him are exactly opposite in nature. God’s strategy is to be struck first
and then to receive, whereas Satan strikes first and then is dispossessed.
Consider the history of the First and Second World Wars and the Cold War. In
all of these, the side that struck first had to surrender. However, if someone
robs God, God does not kill him and recover what was taken. Even though He has
the power to appear imposingly as the master of the universe and strike and
take things back by force, He still suffers as He receives the first blow.
By sacrificing
themselves, parents walk the path of leading their disloyal children to
repentance. To establish the high road of the law of nature, God personally
goes to Satan and teaches him to do this and that, just as when a master comes
to visit his or her pupil.
However, history
has shown us that Satan struck the master who went to teach him. Do you know
what happens after you are struck? You are eligible to receive recompense for
damages. Confucius endured much persecution. Jesus was accused of being a rebel
before the Roman Empire and was killed. Only after a long period in history
were they acknowledged as saints. Has there ever been anyone recognized as a
saint while they were alive on earth?
As is apparent,
though such saints suffered miserably in their own times, through the
progression of historical ages they were elevated. When you ask to be paid for
damages, do not ask for the payment to be completed in ten or twenty years. The
longer it takes, the more of the world you can claim.
So, when you ask for compensation, after enduring and persevering for thousands
of years, and then calculate what you are owed, you will find that the “money”
deposited in the “bank” has yielded interest that has compounded until, in the
end, you find that you have more than enough money to buy that bank.
God seeks while
waiting to recover something. He employs the strategy of being struck first and
then receives back what was taken. When the evil world persecutes you from all
quarters and oppresses you, heavenly fortune will help you to leap forward and
go beyond all opposition.
God has allowed
my husband and me many opportunities to undergo such experiences. Being
persecuted is actually a secret method of inheriting the enemy’s right of
possession. In this way, the person whom God loves is always under the
protection of heavenly fortune. Even if God has an enemy whom He wishes to
overcome, God will not punish that person because God knows that that person
has parents and a wife, as well as sons and daughters who love him. Since God
also has crossed the valley of tears, when He experiences the heart of His
enemy’s parents, wife and children, who love him more than anyone else, He
simply cannot eliminate this enemy.
When you really
come to feel God’s heart, how could you possibly seek revenge? When you come to
know God’s heart, you want to help your enemy instead. Only then can you focus
on love, which is the great road of the law of nature, and can you travel that
great road which embraces all as one. Only then will heaven and earth move in
unison, and will God shed tears. He will be delighted because you resemble Him.
Since God takes
this viewpoint, we can understand why we need to love our enemy. Such a power
comes neither from knowledge, money nor authority. Only true love has that
power. Therefore, for your beloved sons, daughters and parents, South and North
Korea must go beyond thinking of each other as enemies and yearn for
reunification in the spirit of true love, of living and sacrificing for the
sake of others.
The unification
of South and North Korea, which is our long cherished wish, is possible only
through the spirit of true love, of loving even our enemies and living and
making sacrifices for their sake. Just as parents look after their children and
siblings look out for each other, we need to be able to meet with our North
Korean brothers and sisters with God’s unchanging true love, and truly feel and
share their pain as if it were ours.
The intersection
where God, Adam and Eve can meet one another and settle down based on true love
forms a ninety-degree angle. The path of true love that connects God and humankind
vertically can only be perpendicular, since that is the shortest route. And the
path of true love that connects perfected Adam and Eve as husband and wife is a
level, horizontal line. So, the point where these vertical and horizontal paths
meet automatically forms a right angle. This point of intersection has absolute
value and becomes the one center and model that binds true love.
However, the
archangel twisted this angle before Adam and Eve could reach maturity, and this
constituted the Fall. When a carpenter builds a house,
what does he consider first, the horizontal or the vertical? If he considers
the horizontal first, that means that he already is taking the vertical into
account. Similarly, the word “woman” came to be because the man already had been
taken into account. And the word “man” is premised on the woman. The word
“above” takes “below” into account, and the word “right” implies the existence
of a “left.” In a similar way, the word “horizontal” entails the notion of
“vertical.”
In all these
examples, the fact that you recognize the implied existence of something means
that you recognize the relationship between two things that exist for each
other’s sake. Since each exists for the other, that is the basis of true love.
Then where would
the meeting point be between God and the original Adam and Eve? God’s love and
True Parents’ love, God’s life and True Parents’ life, and God’s lineage and
True Parents’ lineage come together at the right angle where the vertical meets
the horizontal, and nowhere else. This is the official point that establishes
true love.
God is the
vertical Parent of true love, and Adam and Eve are the Parents centered on the
horizontal true love. When you are born inheriting the love, life and lineage
of these two kinds of parents, your mind becomes the vertical self and your
body becomes the horizontal self; and when this vertical self and horizontal
self unite, human beings can become the eternal companions of God’s true love.
God has true
love, true life and true lineage, and because we come from Him, we ought to
have true love, true life and true lineage. Human beings were born to relate as
parents and children united in God’s true love; and so, just as God’s body and
mind unite naturally through true love, the body and mind of human beings also
are to unite naturally through true love.
However, the
body of fallen human beings, which inherited Satan’s love, life and lineage,
stands on Satan’s side and the mind stands at the forefront of God’s side, and
they are constantly fighting. As is apparent, self-centered love in today’s
societies manifests in relation to the body, not the mind. The body has become
the dance hall of the devil. The body has become a ball and chain, oppressing
all human endeavors.
The mind is in
the position of the plus in Heaven’s stead, and yet the body has established
itself wrongly as another plus and is pushing and pulling the mind. During our
lifetime we have a duty to correct this situation. Knowing this, God created
religion as a repair shop for this purpose.
For this reason,
religion teaches people to strike the body through fasting or through
sacrificing for and serving others, thereby compelling the body to submit to
the mind. In other words, the life of faith nurtures this lifestyle for a
period of three to five years, or even longer, until it becomes habitual, in
order to weaken the body’s desires until it conforms to the wishes of the mind.
Religion also emphasizes that one pray without ceasing.
Since God
remains always in the vertical position, He cannot work unless He goes through
the mind. Satan, on the other hand, can work from all directions. Because Satan
can circle us for three hundred sixty degrees, God is bound to lose out to the
work of Satan.
The mind stands
vertically, and it must be focused. The vertical does not have a horizontal
base, and it cannot proceed to establish the horizontal base. For this reason
the mind is inclined to be attracted to the environment.
Accordingly,
from a vertical position, we need to make conditions and strengthen our mind
three to four more times in order to subjugate our body. We need to do this for
three to five years to cultivate it as a habit. Other than these two ways,
there is no other alternative to bring us back to our original state.
Unless we human
beings go through the gate of religion, which helps us to cultivate ourselves,
we cannot find the path to our original hometown. We cannot do this only
through the paths of philosophy, knowledge, or even the conscience. Our
vertical mind and horizontal mind must unite as one.
Then what was
the origin of the Fall that led our mind and body to
disunite with God’s ideal? The Bible states that it was because our first
ancestors ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When this
happened, what part of the body did they cover? Was it their mouths? Was it
their hands? No, it was neither one of those. They hid their lower parts. This
means that they had a love relationship with Satan as their center. This is the
origin from which the lineage of evil was multiplied.
It was through
the reproductive organs that true love, true life and the true lineage of human
beings was to have come. Nevertheless, these reproductive organs, which were to
have been so holy, turned into the terrible place that destroyed heavenly law;
they became the den of evil. In this way false love, false life and false
lineage were sown instead.
The first
ancestors, Adam and Eve, fell during their teens, before they had reached maturity.
Since evil was realized in this way, the lineage of evil multiplied throughout
the history of the human world. Therefore, in the Last Days, which is the
harvest time, young people in all parts of the world will act out the
destruction of the ethics of love similar to the way Adam and Eve did, thereby
following the trend of degeneration. When you witness this phenomenon, you need
to understand that the era of Satan’s full authority has come upon this earth.
That moment in time is the Day of Judgment during which God will wield the iron
rod.
As is recorded
in biblical history, the cities and nations that were immoral in the sight of
God were destroyed. There was no more compelling reason for the burning of
Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone or, later, the destruction of Rome.
They were destroyed because the people did not cherish their chastity. They did
not honor the ideal of the purity of love and instead immersed themselves in
obscene acts.
Look at the
world’s advanced nations today—for instance, the United States, the European
countries and Japan. Who can stop the tidal wave of free sex and immorality
engulfing the East and the West? As if hedonism, stimulating only the
peripheral nerves, and confused love were not enough, the world is now also
full of empty people clamoring for mind- altering drugs.
All of these
paths that dominate the body lead toward death. The mind does not desire them.
The mind holds up its hands and weeps. The conscience has not fulfilled its
mission to guide humankind on the noble road of the law of nature to God’s
bosom, the original starting point.
Someone has to
come forward and lead humanity from this fallen environment to the path of
salvation. Humanity, which has fallen and gone over to Satan’s side, resembles
wild olive trees. Among them are wild olive trees of the religious realm—the
human beings whom God has found and set apart—and they are the wild olive trees
under God’s ownership.
For this reason
God can lead them without reservation. He has prepared them so that, when the
Lord of the Second Advent appears, it will be easy to cut and engraft them all
at once. These wild olive trees then will become true olive trees and return to
their original state.
For this reason,
religious believers also need to find the original True Father. This is because
they were born without having received the seed of life from the original True
Father. To put it another way, they did not achieve the ideal of oneness as the
true sons and daughters connected to the lineage of God centering on original
true love. It is for this reason that the Messiah has to come.
Ladies and
gentlemen, do you know who the Messiah is? The Messiah comes as the True
Parents to pull out the false roots that the false parents planted, and to
return false parenthood to its original true form. They fulfill thereby the
important responsibility of banishing Satan and constructing the kingdom of
heaven, the world of freedom and liberation welcomed by all.
Ladies and
gentlemen, when you become sons and daughters who have inherited God’s love,
life and lineage, as well as True Parents’ love, life and lineage, the origin
of true peace in which the mind and the body do not fight each other will
blossom within you, just as it does in God. The world of eternal peace will
begin from where your mind and body are united.
Respected
members of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, let us all fulfill our
duties as servants with the heart of parents. Let us shed sweat for earth,
tears for humanity and blood for heaven, appease the sorrows of our Heavenly
Parent, the marvelous master who created the universe, shouldering the cross of
constructing one world of peace, and let us march forward on the path of world
salvation.
Let us not
forget that, though our destination seems as far as the other end of the world,
our starting point is that reality where our mind and body are united based on
true love. We need to bear in mind that when our families become the settlement
of eternal happiness and true love, they can realize our desired ideal nation
and world.
Our Women’s
Federation for World Peace movement will help start the Family Federation for
World Peace movement, in which all peoples of the world can participate. It
will lead the five races to construct a world of true love where generation
after generation will live and give for the sake of others while enjoying
eternal life. Let us all resolve to challenge ourselves to act and take the
lead in this historic enterprise.
Praying that
God’s blessings will be with you and your families, I would like to conclude my
speech.
Thank you.
5
Women Will Play a Leading Role in
the Ideal World II
June 10,1992
Little Angels
Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Speaking tour of forty cities, counties and districts of Korea
(True Mother’s speech)
Women members
and dear friends in the audience! It is a great pleasure and honor for me to
stand before you as founder of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. I would
like to express my deepest gratitude to all the members who have come from
Japan and for your hard work in preparing this rally.
The title of the
speech I will give today is “Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal
World.” Ladies and gentlemen, if someone were to ask whether this world is a
world of good or a world of evil, what would you reply? You undoubtedly would
answer that it is a world of evil. You would have no choice except to say that
the world of this age in which we live is evil and that the nations and the
world of all past historical ages have been evil when judged by the original
ideal of goodness.
It has become a
world in which people express sin rather than goodness, war rather than peace,
injustice rather than justice, and hatred rather than love. Division and
conflict, rather than unity and harmony, have become the rule.
No one desires
to experience the pain of this sinful world. Human beings seek the way to end
this sinful world and construct an ideal world of true love, overflowing with
peace, freedom and happiness. Members and leaders on all levels of the
individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world share that one common
desire. For thousands of years, since the beginning of human history, humanity
has struggled toward this dream and this ideal; yet the ideal world desired by
humanity has yet to be realized.
Today I would
like to reveal to you the fundamental cause of this problem; and at the same
time, I would like to suggest the solution to realizing the ideal world, for
which we yearn with all of our hearts. This is not something that comes from
human knowledge or thought.
As you may know
already, my husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, has devoted
his whole life to solving these issues. Living by his side and attending him, I
have been deeply moved and inspired by his teachings and his life of practicing
love for God and humanity.
When a wife has
attained such deep enlightenment about the truth, and when she has been
inspired and moved constantly by her husband’s character and his life, I
believe that it is her task to make it known. This is because breakdown and disharmony
in the relationship between husband and wife are the fundamental cause of
problems in humanity and are reflected in todays
troubled world.
When you think
about it, there are only two types of people living on this earth today. These
two types are men and women, that is, husbands and wives. Though innumerable
people are living together and all kinds of relationships and problems are
arising, the core of all those problems is the relationship between these two
types of people, men and women. Therefore, we need to examine the original
heavenly way that God established to be followed by the first man and the first
woman.
God gave three great blessings
According to the
Book of Genesis, after God created heaven and earth, He created the ancestors
of humanity, Adam the man and Eve the woman. God gave them the three great
blessings and simultaneously their own portion of responsibility. These
blessings were “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and
have dominion over every living thing in the sea, on the earth, and in the
air.” And at the same time, God gave the man and the woman their
responsibility, telling them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.
This teaches us what
God’s purpose was in creating human beings and the universe, and at the same
time it reveals the fundamentals of life. The blessing that they be fruitful
means that all human beings are to develop their character and perfect their
ability to love. The second blessing of life means the mature man and the
mature woman should form a relationship of husband and wife, and have children
and raise them, thus walking the path of parents. It is God’s purpose of
creation for the husband and the wife, leading the family and fulfilling the
duties of father and mother, to make this world into the blessed land of
comfort and riches, thereby establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth.
This purpose of
creation could have been attained only if our ancestors had upheld God’s
commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. However, Adam and Eve broke this commandment of God. This happened before
they had completed their growth, while they were still in their adolescence.
Our first ancestors fell because of Satan, thus making all humanity inherit a
lineage of evil.
Misery and tragedy borne by humanity
Ladies and
gentlemen, what was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that
God told Adam and Eve not to eat? It was not the fruit of an actual tree. The
fruit signified the love that would bring the ancestors of humanity together as
husband and wife in the future. While they were still immature, God gave the
commandment so that they would not be seduced into an illicit sexual relationship
with a third party or a premature sexual relationship with each other.
As a matter of
fact, there was a third party in the garden of Eden.
Besides Adam and Eve, there was the archangel. The Bible reveals that the
archangel that seduced Eve and made her commit the sin of illicit love was
named Lucifer. This was the Fall, and this is the
original sin that set down the roots of evil in the human world. In the garden,
human beings committed a sexual crime before God, their Heavenly Parent and the
Lord of heaven and earth. Beginning with our first ancestors, we have continued
to make a world of evil in which we give birth to descendants through illicit
love. Expanding from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation and
world, the lineage of evil brought about by this illicit relationship between
man and woman has spread, making this world a hell on earth filled with crimes,
wars and fear. The fallen ancestors, Adam and Eve, who were to have firmly
established the position of true parents as the eternal human ancestors of
goodness, instead were degraded and became false parents who left behind a
lineage of evil. This is the first cause of the misery and tragedy borne by all
humanity.
What could be
more miserable and more mortifying than for all humanity to lose the true
parents and be born as descendants of the false parents?
How great would
be the sorrow and anguish of God, the Parent of humanity? God’s original
purpose of creation was to establish the true ancestors of humanity and
multiply human beings of goodness. However, all humanity was swallowed up by
the illicit lineage of evil because of the Fall of our
first ancestors.
To cure a
disease you need to know the cause To save someone
suffering from an illness, you need to discover the cause of that illness.
Similarly, for human society to be liberated from the anguish of sin and
misery, we need to discover the fundamental cause of this sin and misery. The
fundamental cause is the original sin, which came from the Fall
of our first ancestors. Unless the cause of the original sin is eliminated, the
roots of sin and misery cannot be uprooted from the human world. No matter how
many prominent figures, heroes, sages, scholars and politicians appear with
methods such as reforming the constitution or implementing morality education,
without clarifying the human Fall, it will be
impossible for them to right this world. These treatments will prove useless,
because the fundamental roots of sin and misery will be left untouched and will
continue to sprout.
Religion teaches
us that human beings have fallen and discloses the details of this Fall, thereby letting us know both directly and indirectly
about God’s providence to save humankind completely from sinfulness. That is
why religions are the most constructive method for transforming this sinful
world into a world of goodness and saving it.
The Chinese
characters for the word “religion” (宗教) are jong (宗)
meaning “the top,” and gyo (教) meaning “to
teach.” This means that the word “religion” signifies the highest thought of
all education and teachings. Transcending age and environment, the teachings of
all religious founders have served as the driving force for protecting the
conscience and morality and developing culture. Accordingly, all religions are
co-workers and collaborators in ending the world of sinfulness and constructing
the ideal world desired by God and humankind. Among the scriptures that reveal
God’s providence of salvation most plainly is the Christian Bible.
The providence of
restoration to end the lineage of sin
The Bible makes
it clear that the core of human history is the providence of restoration,
through which God is trying to achieve the purpose of creation lost when Adam
and Eve committed the original sin and became false parents. The Messiah is the
True Parents who give rebirth to all humanity on behalf of Adam and Eve.
God’s original
purpose of creation was for Adam to become the true father of humanity and for
Eve to become the true mother of humanity. In order to restore this purpose of
creation to its original state, God has no choice except to carry out the
providence of re-creating Adam. That is the basis of the providence behind
preparing the chosen people of Israel for the birth of Jesus.
From the moment
that Adam and Eve fell and humanity began to multiply centered on Satan, God
began the work of separating the lineage of good and evil. In Adam’s family God
separated Abel, the second son who was in the position of God’s object partner,
and Cain, the first son who was in the position of Satan’s object partner. God
set the conditions for Cain to submit voluntarily to Abel, thus restoring the
order of creation to its original state. Instead, Cain murdered Abel and the
history of the struggle to separate goodness from evil was prolonged.
God’s attempts
to bring the lineage back under God passed through Noah, Abraham and Isaac and
reached the generation of Jacob. With the help of his mother, Rebekah, Jacob brought his twin elder brother, Esau, to
voluntary submission. Jacob thus played a decisive role in establishing the
chosen people of Israel. Jacob’s son Judah had twin sons, Perez and Zerah, through his daughter-in-law Tamar. Perez fought with
Zerah while they were in Tamar’s womb. Zerah, who was about to be born first, was pushed out of
the way by Perez, who then was born in the position of the eldest son. This
fight between the firstborn son and the second son is the struggle between good
and evil. Restoration was achieved when the younger brother, Perez, won over his
elder brother within the womb. Thus Perez, the younger twin, was born as the
firstborn son.
Because of that
restoration within the womb, Jesus, who came as the Messiah, was born forty
generations later in the family line of Perez. To conceive and give birth to
Jesus, his mother, Mary, risked her life with devotion. God’s providence of
salvation is the providence of restoration. God carried out the providence of
restoration to bring an end to the lineage of sin that humanity inherited
through the illicit sexual relationship between Adam and Eve, brought about by
the seduction by Lucifer. Such was the course of restoration and the history of
the chosen people of Israel from the time of Cain and Abel to the birth of
Jesus.
Jesus came as
the True Parent of humanity, the second Adam, passing through the course of
struggle to separate good and evil and restore Adam’s becoming the false father
due to the Fall. That is why Jesus needed to restore a
woman in the position of Eve, who would be his object partner, and become a
husband with her as his wife. They were to have children and ascend to the
position of having dominion over all living things. This was the purpose of
Jesus’ coming as the Messiah.
In other words,
Jesus came as the Messiah to restore the three great blessings bestowed by God
after creating Adam and Eve: to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion over
all things. However, the chosen people of Israel disbelieved the one who came
as their father, said he was not the Messiah, and watched him killed on the
cross.
What astounding,
unfilial conduct and what an outrageous sin this was!
Jesus promised his Second Advent, that he would come to the earth again. He
said that when he returned, he would come as the bridegroom and so humanity on
earth needed to prepare itself as his bride and wait for him.
Chapter
nineteen of the Book of Revelation records that Jesus at the Second Advent will
come to earth and hold the Marriage Supper of the Lamb to celebrate his
wedding.
This signifies restoring the position of the true husband and wife and True
Parents, as if Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden had
formed an unfallen family.
The Messiah
comes to Korea
Dear WFWP
members and friends who are attending this rally! The question we face today is
how we can guide this society, in which all kinds of sexual crimes, immorality
and corruption that threaten to destroy our families are rampant. If we cannot
resolve the problem of unprincipled sexual relations, human society will bring
destruction upon itself. We can already see the beginnings of that. A natural
consequence of the disorder of sexual morality, about which Heaven has warned
humankind, is the often fatal disease known as AIDS, among other sexually
transmitted diseases.
Jesus said he
would return in the Last Days of this sinful world. Jesus at the Second Advent
will come as the True Father of humanity and show the path of the true
children, true couples and true parents, which all men and women in the world
need to follow. Only then can the fundamental problems of all
humankind—fornication and sexual corruption that originated from original
sin—finally be resolved. This is truly the ultimate Gospel that will save
humanity from this world of sinfulness.
It is the
mission of the Messiah and Savior to teach humanity the way to bring an end to
the history of sin, which became twisted when humanity lost the path of the
true parents, true couple and true children. I declare today before the entire
world that my husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is the
man who pioneered this path of the Messiah and the True Parents for his entire
life. My husband continued to pioneer the future of humanity by disclosing
God’s purpose of creation and revealing the original sin committed by our first
ancestors, even while he was subjected to the ruthless persecution and
oppression of the evil world.
According to the
Unification Principle, all religious believers uphold the ideal of the Second
Advent of their founder. The second advent of Maitreya
Buddha, the True Man, the New Confucius, as well as the Second Coming of Jesus
are all realized through the second coming of the one Messiah, the True Parent
of humanity, and through that one Messiah all religions are bound to become
united as well.
However, the
Messiah and True Parent who comes again is not Jesus. Jesus died two thousand
years ago; he will not come again, riding in the sky on the clouds. Rather, a
new person who has inherited the mission of Jesus will be born on this earth.
The nation in which that man will be born is Korea. Though it may be astonishing,
the Messiah who is the True Parent of humanity will come as a Korean who speaks
the same language as we do.
Then when will
the Messiah come? According to the Unification Principle, the time when this
sinful world is brought to an end is the Last Days, and the Messiah of the
Second Advent is supposed to come in the Last Days. The Last Days correspond to
the period of about eighty years from the end of the First World War to the
year 2000. This period corresponds to the transition period of world history in
which the Lord of the Second Coming and the True Parents of humanity will be
born in this land of Korea. The Last Days are a time when the world filled with
sin, war and conflict will be transformed into the ideal world of goodness
overflowing with freedom and peace.
Therefore, this
will be an age of great chaos, when conflict and struggle between good and evil
take place on all the levels from the individual to the family, tribe, people,
nation and world. During this period humanity went through the First and Second
World Wars. Even after the Second World War there was unceasing conflict and
struggle between the two camps of democracy and communism. Meanwhile Korea
suffered for forty years as a colony under Japanese rule followed by the Korean
War and the division of South and North Korea. Even now it remains the last
divided nation in the world.
The unification of North and South Korea will lead the world toward
peace and unity
A divided Korean
Peninsula is the manifestation at the global level of the original seed of good
and evil planted by the separation between Abel and Cain and brought about
through the Fall of our first ancestors. In other
words, communism in North Korea is the global fruit of the Cain-type worldviews
and systems that have appeared in the course of history. It has formed an
atheistic, communist nation that denies religious values; it is the stronghold
of worldwide communism.
In contrast,
South Korea, the fruit of all Abel-type worldviews and systems that have
appeared in the course of history, is a nation where religions flourish, second
to none in the world. It has become a representative nation of the free world.
In other words, the Korean Peninsula is an encapsulation representing the
entire world. The entire world has been divided into good and evil, and Korea
is the final battleground between the South, separated to stand on the side of
goodness, and the North, separated to stand on the side of evil. Therefore, the
unification of the South and the North on the Korean Peninsula is the key to
world peace and unity. For this reason, the reunification of South and North
Korea is not just a political agenda. It assumes the providential historical
aspect of being the gateway to restoring the kingdom of heaven on earth, which
is the ultimate goal of the history of God’s providence of salvation. In other
words, Korean reunification stands as the gateway to realizing the ideal world
of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. This is a
multidimensional task, as it relates to innumerable spirits who have passed
through the physical world.
Accordingly, the
unification of Korea is not a problem that can be solved by politicians alone.
That is why my husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who
knows all too well about this Will of Heaven concerning the Korean Peninsula,
took decisive action by visiting North Korea for seven days in early December
of 1991. He met with President Kim II Sung, ruler of North Korea, and notified
him of the Will of Heaven in regard to the matter of the reunification of the
Korean Peninsula.
My husband clearly said, “The unification
of South and North Korea cannot be brought about through Juche
ideology. The unification of South and North Korea can be brought about only
through Godism and Unification Thought, which is the head-wing thought proposed by
Rev. Moon. This nation then will become a unified Korea that can lead the
entire world.” In regard to their constant refrain that the Korean War started
when the South attacked the North, my husband directly told President Kim that
the war was caused when the North first attacked
the South.
I have
accompanied my husband as he visited nations worldwide and met with many heads
of state. However, on our visit to Pyongyang, we could not help our feelings of
unprecedented grim resolution and serious determination. Our visit was similar
to the story in the Bible of when Jacob impressed his brother, Esau, who had
intended to kill him. Through his indescribable hardships, wisdom and devotion,
Jacob moved his brother’s heart to such an extent that they finally were able
to make peace with one another. My husband and I similarly concluded our
conference with Kim II Sung of North Korea with a successful reconciliation.
Now the
unification of South and North Korea has not been left in the hands of
politicians alone. It has become a matter in which God can intervene. Rev. Moon
is working hard, day and night, to have his worldwide foundation help achieve
the unification of South and North Korea in accordance with the Will of God and
construct the ideal world of peace free from immorality and corruption.
The words I have
spoken today are not contents believed by only a few Unification Church members
who follow my husband and me. Leading figures of every field of life and young
men and women in more than one hundred sixty nations are working hard to
realize a new world of unity filled with freedom and peace, in accordance with
these teachings. In various parts of the
world Korea is already revered as the nation to which the True Parents of
humanity have come. The number of people coming to Korea to learn its language,
culture and customs is rapidly increasing.
Women must fight to realize a united world
The Women’s
Federation for World Peace is a global women’s organization inaugurated by
representatives of more than seventy nations and one hundred fifty thousand
Korean mothers. On April 10 at the Seoul Olympic Stadium we launched this
organization as the fundamental cure to address and remedy the reality of our
families threatened by the degeneration of sexual morality, the spread of drug
use, and all kinds of depraved and disordered sexual relationships.
Our task is
urgent. We need to redirect the future of human society, now corrupted by all
sorts of lewd and degenerate behavior, and the fallen social climate in which
men have oppressed women. Our march to learn and practice the duties of true
parents, true couples and true children finally has taken form in the Family
Federation for World Peace. We need to make certain that immorality and
corruption cannot take root anywhere across the five oceans and six continents
of this planet. We must quickly prepare to usher in the new world that will
bring an end to the lineage of evil that has plagued humanity ever since our
ancestors committed the original sin of immorality in the garden
of Eden.
Until now, no
one has been able to do anything about immorality and illicit love, which
continues to bring ruin to humanity. The new expression of truth that brings hope to resolve this problem completely and faultlessly has
sprung up in the land of Korea in this age in which we live. This new teaching
revealed by True Parents will become the light of humanity, which will unify
South and North Korea and construct the world of peace. Let us all stand up
together to become the women warriors who can build a world of unity
overflowing with freedom, peace and happiness, by learning this new principle
and rejecting this world of sinfulness that has tormented us since the onset of
history.
Let us walk the
path of the true mother. Let us walk the path of the true wife. Let us walk the
path of the true daughter.
Thank you.
6
World Peace and the
Role of Women I
August 26,1992
Sheraton Grand Walker Hill Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Women’s Federation for World Peace global speaking tour
(True Mother’s speech)
Leaders of the
Women’s Federation for World Peace who have come to
Korea from the nations of the world, and of women’s associations in Korea:
I consider it a
great honor to be able to share some of my beliefs about world peace with all
of you women leaders from around the world and from every segment of Korean
society.
We are arriving
at an important era of transition into a world of oneness in which we can
transcend the barriers of ideologies, the differences between languages and
cultures, and racial conflicts. It is not by chance that we women are holding
this conference for the sake of a new world of love and peace today. It is the
providence of God. It is predestined, necessitated by the rushing flow of
history.
Until now in
history, the role of men has been emphasized. The institutions of society and
the world have centered on men. Unfortunately, we have to conclude that the
reality of the world led by men has been, in short, a history of conflict and
sin. Is it not because this world is one of conflict and sin that a world of
happiness overflowing with peace and goodness has existed only in our dreams?
Because most of
human history was filled with war, revolution, fighting, oppression,
domination, conflict and violence, the masculine logic of power made sense and
masculine ideologies dominated. The present age is different. The world today
is calling for peace, reconciliation, compassion, love, service and sacrifice.
It is an age in which our current problems cannot be solved by the masculine
logic of power. There is no longer any need for ideologies that oppress
humanity. In this age we need to solve problems and straighten out the
direction of history by the feminine logic of love.
The twenty-first
century is less than ten years away. Now communism, which has trampled upon
humankind mercilessly while insisting on violent revolution and class struggle,
is uttering its last words. World opinion has united into one voice saying that
there must be no more war. These are signs that the curtain is rising to reveal
a new age of women and that an age of liberation of women around the world has
arrived.
Leaders of the
Women’s Federation who have gathered from around the world, at this historic
convention I do not wish to offer mere ceremonial greetings. I wish to proclaim
before history the meaning of the past, present and future.
In this era of
historic transition, as we head toward cooperation and understanding, I want to
present the great principle for the construction of an eternal world of peace
based on Godism. To establish a goal for the women
who will pioneer the future world, in this address, “World Peace and the Role
of Women,” I would like to present to you the principle of Godism
and head-wing thought that my husband, Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, has been teaching.
Originally God
created an object partner of love in order to feel joy. To create one masterpiece,
a sculptor works day and night, investing his or her youth and strength. From
where does the heart of such a sculptor come? Does it not resemble the heart of
God, who created an object partner of love in order to feel joy?
If we look at
the world of existence, we can see that everything has an inherent duality.
Minerals, plants, animals and people all exist in complementary pairs. In the
world of human beings there are men and women; in the animal kingdom there are
male and female animals; and in the plant kingdom the stamens and pistils have
male and female reproductive parts. On the level of chemical compounds there
are positive ions and negative ions. On the atomic level there are protons and
electrons. The whole world of existence consists of complementary pairs. To say
that all things exist in complementary pairs means
that they exist in reciprocal relationships and that existence is based on
love. It means that without a reciprocal partner to live for and to love, no
being can exist.
Do you know why
all beings exist in complementary pairs? It is in order to have an ideal
relationship founded on loving each other. Anywhere in this world, if one does
not have a reciprocal partner with whom to have a relationship of giving and
receiving love, there can be no interaction. Without interaction, there can be
no existence or multiplication.
A being without
interactions is as good as dead. The reason God created humankind is that He
absolutely needs an object partner to love. In human society, the heart of
parents who want their children to become better than themselves has its roots
in the heart of true love that God had when He created human beings.
The heart of
wanting one’s reciprocal object partner to be better than oneself
is originally derived from the true love of God. If, for example, God invests
an amount of one hundred, the created being has a value of only one hundred.
Then if God wants to invest more than one hundred, He forgets what He has
invested already and invests again. Finally, one’s reciprocal object partner
becomes larger than the subject partner; yet one continues to forget until one
has invested one’s life. This is where true love begins.
God’s true love
is love that forgets it has invested, so it invests again and again and again.
If the memory of giving remains, then love cannot flow freely and endlessly.
Because love moves endlessly, one cannot hold onto the memory of having given.
Even if one gives again, love continues to flow because the memory of giving
does not remain.
In essence, true
love signifies God’s absolute love. Included in love is the right of
inheritance. By becoming one with God, the logic of eternal life is proven; the
family and society that practice true love will not be destroyed and will
develop throughout eternity. If our first ancestors, who were created as God’s
object partners, had not disobeyed God’s words and had grown according to God’s
Will and had inherited unchanging true love from God, our human world would
have begun as a history of peace. There would not have been the miserable
history of the bloodshed of war. In that true love, the confrontation and
conflict between nations, societies and, of course, individuals would have
melted away and a world of true peace would have been realized. Because of the Fall of our ancestors, humankind could not completely
inherit true love. Unfortunately, because humans were not able to become
perfect as the reciprocal object partners of God’s true love, the position of
True Parents, who were to have been the substantial representatives of the true
love of God, was not established either.
What was the
fundamental cause of the Fall of our first ancestors?
The Bible says
it took place when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. After they ate the fruit, what did they cover? They might have
covered their mouths, yet they covered the “lower parts” of their bodies. This
suggests that they had entered into an immoral sexual relationship with the
serpent, Satan. This was the fundamental cause for the multiplication of the
evil lineage.
The origin of
true love, true life and true lineage is in the reproductive organs. Through
the Fall, these reproductive organs of love, which
were holy, became the wicked place that destroyed Heaven’s principle. They
became the headquarters of evil. Thus the seeds of false love, false life and
false lineage were sown. Adam and Eve, the ancestors of humankind, fell while
still immature; as teenagers. Because they fostered evil in that way, the
lineage of evil spread from there into history throughout the human world.
When the time of
harvest in the Last Days comes, the world’s young people, like Adam and Eve,
will reject the ethics of love and slide toward corruption. When we see this
phenomenon occurring, we will know that the age of Satan’s authority has
reached its climax. The present time is the judgment day, when God’s rod of
iron will come down. Throughout history, the cities and countries that were
sexually immoral in God’s eyes were destroyed.
Look at the advanced
countries of the world today: America, the European nations, and Japan. Who can
stop the tide of sexual immorality and free sex, which is pouring in from all
directions? Humankind, which fell and went to Satan’s side, can be symbolized
as wild olive trees. Fortunately, among them, God separated out some people to
be wild olive trees in the realm of religion. They are the wild olive trees
that belong to God, so God can freely dominate them. They were prepared so that
at the coming of the Lord of the Second Advent, they could be separated easily
and grafted all at once. At that time, the wild olive trees will become true
olive trees and finally return to their original state. Therefore, people who
believe in religion need to find the original True Father. This is because they
were born without receiving the original seed of life from him.
The ideal of
goodness manifested by sons and daughters linked to the lineage of God, with
true love at the center, could not be realized. Therefore, the Messiah has to come.
The Messiah is a person who takes a bride to form a couple that stands in the
position of the True Parents. As True Father and
True Mother, the
True Parents come, cast out Satan, and bear the serious responsibility of
establishing the world of peace and the heavenly world of freedom and
liberation. Of course, we need to define the image of the True Man, and also
the images of the True Mother, True Wife and True Daughter. Moreover, we need
to attend the True Father, who has established the tradition of historic
worldwide victory, and the True Mother, who has become the world-level
victorious representative of women.
We women have
the responsibility to solve the tragedy of Adam and Eve’s destruction by
properly guiding people who are leading disorderly and chaotic lives.
Distinguished leaders of all chapters of the Women’s Federation here and
abroad: In the era of women that has now arrived, we need to establish a model
for the whole world through a movement for the realization of true love in
which we embrace our husbands and raise our children properly. By doing so, we
need to develop the Family Federation for World Peace with the active support
of our husbands and children. The Women’s Federation for World Peace is not a
movement for women alone. It will bear the fruit of ideal families through a
movement of true love for our husbands and children.
Ideal families
established in this manner will join together and create the ideal nation and
world. That is the reason the Women’s Federation for World Peace has to develop
into the Family Federation for World Peace. Thus, women need to take a leading
role in politics, economics, culture and each area of society, in order to
realize world peace. Godism and Head-wing Thought
offer the fundamental system of values that our Women’s Federation needs to
espouse to unite the left and right wings, to overcome atheistic materialism,
and to guide the twenty-first century.
Let us go
forward together into the world of peace guided by the True Parents who have
the leading role in demonstrating true love. Let us thus cultivate our families
as the dwelling place of true parents, true couples and true children.
Let me close by
wishing God’s blessings upon all of you, your families and your nations.
Thank you very
much.
7
Women Will Play a Leading
Role in the Ideal World III
September 24,1992
Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
Women’s
Federation for World Peace Japan Conference
(True Mother’s speech)
Respected
guests, members of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia, ladies and gentlemen:
On this occasion, as we approach the Women’s Federation for World Peace
seven-city speaking tour, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of
you who have helped make this evening a success.
On September 17
of last year I came to Tokyo as the principal speaker at the national rally
held by the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia. Since that rally, this
organization has received tremendous support in Japan and around the world and
has accomplished remarkable growth. On November 20, the first Women’s
Federation for Peace in Asia rally was held in Seoul, with fifteen thousand
representative Korean women in attendance.
Then, on April
10 of this year, more than one hundred fifty thousand women from seventy-two
countries filled the Seoul Olympic Stadium beyond capacity to express their
strong desire for world peace. That rally, the largest women’s rally ever held,
inaugurated the Women’s Federation for World Peace. I have nothing except the
highest words of praise for your strong dedication and hard work in bringing
about such remarkable growth in this movement.
Following that
international rally, I toured eighty-one cities in Korea and continued my
lectures on the topic of “Women’s Role in the Ideal World.” Everywhere I went, people
gathered in numbers so large as to resemble the clouds of heaven. In all, I
received the welcome and support of more than a million Korean women. The
enthusiasm of these women clearly illustrated that women possess an unlimited
capacity to contribute to future world peace.
In only eight
years we will enter the twenty-first century. We are witnessing the passing of
the era of brute force, in which men have held almost exclusive sway. This era
has been tainted by war, violence, exploitation and destruction. In the new era
we are about to enter, women will have the central role in leading humanity
into love, forgiveness, harmony and cooperation. My tour was an opportunity to
bring this important realization to the people of Korea.
Women need to
come to a new realization of their original, God-given role and become
cornerstones for peace, happiness and freedom. The only way for us to build
peace in each of our nations and in the world is to build true families, that
is, families confirmed in true love.
The
International Wedding Ceremony of thirty thousand couples in Seoul on August 25
of this year validated the fact that world peace can be brought into reality
through ideal families. This ceremony, held as a part of the first World
Culture and Sports Festival, was a historic declaration opening the gate to
world peace. It was a giant panorama of love testifying that humanity is one
family, and that a kindred tie centering on God’s love unites the world as one.
On that day, my
husband and I, in our capacity as the True Parents, gave the Blessing of
eternal love to some sixty thousand brides and grooms from one hundred
thirty-one countries. At this magnificent festival of love held under the
bright sunshine and azure sky, each bride and groom made his or her pledge to
establish true families and a world of true peace before God, True Parents and
all humanity. The covenants of love formed that day centering on God’s true
love are eternal and absolute. Such marriage bonds can never be seen as
conditional or limited, because true love seeks to give perpetually. When two
people come together in such love, they form an eternal association that no
force can sunder. Thus, for these brides and grooms there can never be even the
slightest thought of divorce or the corruption of sexual morality—two problems
that have become so widespread in today’s society.
Because these
people come together in an environment of God’s true love, differences of
nationality, race, language and customs do not become obstacles. God’s true
love melts down all obstacles, and these husbands and wives will discover in
His bosom a common language of true love. They will come together in the common
arena of true love. Their unions transcend nations, race and religion. They will
grow to become citizens of the future world who will serve and embrace the
world. When these people set down their roots of sacrificial true love around
the world, the world will be swept clean of all the philosophies of hatred and
conflict. There will be an end to the tragedies of war and genocide. There will
be only true, ideal families and a true world.
Peace through international marriage
Already, in
1988, my husband and I had built a bridge of eternal peace between Korea and Japan
by joining in the Blessing of marriage more than six thousand Korean-Japanese
couples. As husbands and wives centered on God’s true love, they formed
families that, by virtue of their connection by lineage, have a greater love
than anyone for the peoples, traditions and cultures of both countries. Peace
in northeast Asia, at least, is now guaranteed forever through these
Korean-Japanese couples.
Traditionally,
the task of protecting and nurturing the family has been the special right and
mission given to women. In our society today, however, there are innumerable
fundamental problems that threaten to undermine our families. Certainly the
problems faced by the world today cannot be resolved by developing military
might or economic power. In contemporary society the amplification of problems
of an internal nature, such as the collapse of traditional values and the
breakdown of social order, is undermining our external growth and development.
Even now, tens
of millions of people on this earth are dying of starvation. Underlying the
challenges of adequate production and distribution of food is the more
fundamental problem of the dearth of the love by which we would see these
suffering people as our own sons and daughters, our own brothers and sisters,
our own mothers and fathers. Societies today are increasingly afflicted with
crime and drug abuse. It is said that humanity has escaped the threat of
nuclear war. Yet, our future appears more shrouded by the clouds of despair
than lit up by the sunshine of hope.
Such crises
faced by the world today reflect deeper, more fundamental problems, which will
not be resolved by fragmentary or superficial means. Any effort to pursue the
solutions to such problems solely through human means, while excluding God who
has been working His providence in the background of human history, is certain
to end in failure.
This is the
reason that Rev. Moon teaches Godism, which is also
referred to as Head-wing Thought. Despite having had to undergo every
imaginable form of suffering, he has opened a new horizon of victory, one that
enables humanity to find solutions to the problems of the world. His message is
that the gates to a peaceful world will be opened only when humanity recovers
its relationship with God and re-establishes original, ideal families. I’m not
talking only about the United States; I’m also talking about Russia, which has
been controlled by atheistic communism. There, large numbers of young people
and intellectuals are studying Head-wing Thought, which is opening their eyes
to the existence of God and the ideal of a true family.
Whether we are
concerned with racial discord, violence, conflict between the rich and the
poor, destruction of the environment, or even the selfishness exhibited by
countries and peoples, we can begin to work out the solutions to the world’s
problems only after we have been trained within the environment of the ideal
family in the practice of true love—that is, the love that seeks to sacrifice
oneself for the sake of others.
To bring Godism into reality, Rev. Moon has made efforts in a wide
variety of fields. Using the Unification Church as a foundation, he has
established the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the
Professors World Peace Academy, the World Media Conference, the Summit Council
for World Peace, the Global Congress of Religions, the Federation for World
Peace, the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, the World Collegiate
Association for the Research of Principles, the World University Federation,
various international performing arts groups and many other organizations. Each
of these organizations holds as its ideal and purpose the building of a world
of peace centered on God.
Rev. Moon, who
has devoted his heart and soul to the realization of world peace through the
establishment of ideal families, was also the central figure in the
establishment of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia and the Women’s
Federation for World Peace. In addition, he has founded the House of
Unification for World Peace in order to bring together the efforts that are
already in existence in each country around the world.
No one can deny
that Rev. Moon has established the most expansive foundation in the world,
extending into religion, philosophy, academia, media, education, science and
culture. When all these different fields join forces and begin to step forward
as one, the world of peace that has been the object of our desires surely will
appear before our eyes.
True love, by
its nature, perpetually seeks to give and to sacrifice for the sake of others.
True love allows no concept of an enemy. In his practice of Godism
centered on true love, Rev. Moon has received all sorts of misunderstanding,
persecution, slander and innumerable hardships. Rev. Moon, however, would never
even think of considering anyone his enemy. In keeping with this spirit, even
though for almost a century the Soviet Union had been considered the enemy of
the free world, Rev. Moon visited Mikhail Gorbachev when he was president of
the Soviet Union. Rev. Moon also went to North Korea and met with President Kim
II Sung. There he expounded on Headwing Thought,
which is the principle of peace centered on God’s true love. Rev. Moon has
shown that he is willing to go to the ends of the earth for the purpose of
practicing the true love that perpetually gives to others.
Even at this
moment, Rev. Moon is working harder than anyone to lay the foundation for Japan
to become a nation most respected in Asia and the world. He is also working day
and night to ensure that his teachings reach the young people of Japan so that
they can follow a properly moral path. Look at those young people working in a
pure and healthy manner! Already many Japanese young people have gone out
across the world. As a result of their activities, they are experiencing
overflowing love, esteem and respect from the people of the world.
Rev. Moon would
have had much to say to each one of you regarding the true way to save Japan. I
know very well how much love my husband holds for this country and for its
people. Unfortunately, however, I must appear on this stage alone tonight, even
though I am not really qualified to give to you the full message of his deep
love. Certain persons who are ignorant and caught up in their own prejudices
continue to persecute and oppose our work. I hope that they will come as
quickly as possible to a true understanding of Rev. Moon’s love and his true
will.
Ladies and
gentlemen, in order for Japan to strengthen its relations with other Asian
countries, it needs to establish a position of unity with Korea. This will give
Japan more friends and a larger foundation. Koreans and Japanese each refer to
the others’ country as “the country that is so close and yet so distant.” Now
it is time for our two countries to become close to each other in every meaning
of that word and to stand side by side in shouldering the future of Asia. More
than anything else, I believe that Japan has to devote its full energies to the
unification of Korea.
Japan’s rule
over Korea culminated in a division of the peninsula. The deep pain that comes
from this division can be relieved completely by efforts on your part for
Korean reunification. A first step would be to unite the two organizations of
Korean residents in Japan, one of which is pro-Seoul and the other
pro-Pyongyang. These two organizations can be brought together by means of
Head-wing Thought, centered on true love. If Korea and Japan oppose each other,
they will both lose all that they have. If these two countries combine their strengths,
they will provide the strongest energy to build Asia’s future and accomplish
world peace.
Historically
Asia has been the leader in developing the spiritual aspect of world
civilization. It is inevitable that a new movement of women, a new movement of
families, and a new movement for peace begin here in Asia.
The women’s
movement that I have been directing has a character that is fundamentally
different from the women’s rights movements that challenge male authority and assert
our rights exclusively. The women’s rights movements that have developed in
western societies until now reflect the antagonism and animosity that have been
an integral part of western civilization’s culture of struggle. Ours, by
contrast, is a movement based on the East Asian principles of harmony that
stress mutual accord and complementarity. Our
movement’s ideal is to seek out tasks that men cannot perform, that is, tasks
that can be performed only by women, so that we can join men in complementarity in order to establish true families.
The destruction
of families is becoming the most serious problem in our societies, and yet no
one is able to propose an effective solution. The very foundation of human
existence is being shaken. Thus, in the United States, family values and issues
of social morality are becoming major issues in the ongoing presidential
election campaign. Such issues are not the concern of America and Western
Europe alone, however. They represent a serious crisis for all humankind.
Japan and Korea
are also affected by such problems. We are at a stage in which we must
seriously concern ourselves with the moral crisis that supersedes our economic
development. The only way to resolve this crisis is to teach Godism and Head-wing Thought, which approach the problem
from the perspective of providential history.
We have a
particularly urgent need for the moral education of our young people. In this
regard, i was surprised to hear that many Japanese
people responded positively to the recent series of rallies upholding the
spirit of Yu Gwan-soon. Certainly Yu Gwan-soon, who is known as “the Joan of Arc of Asia,” is a
most appropriate role model for instilling patriotism in young people. What
surprised and moved me, though, was the progressive and broad-minded attitude
of the Japanese people in their search to transcend the historically unpleasant
relations between Korea and Japan and open a new avenue of understanding.
World peace through ideal families
I would like to ask
the women of Japan, in particular, to take your stand at the forefront of the
effort to resolve the serious issues in our world related to the family. You
possess the most admirable tradition of women in the world because, through
your country’s long history, you have protected your families and nation in a
spirit of love and sacrifice. Also, I know that you women were the hidden force
behind your country’s recovery after the total destruction of World War II. You
enabled Japan to become one of the strongest economic powers in the world. You
need to take the foremost position in our movement, because the virtues of
sacrifice and service that you have cherished through your tradition now must
be applied on the worldwide level in the form of true love and perpetual giving
for all of humankind.
Men have tried
for the past twenty centuries to build a world of peace, and now the task has
been entrusted to us women. It is the decree of Heaven that we take up the task
of building world peace through ideal families. In general, men tend to center
on themselves, whereas women tend to be more willing to sacrifice themselves.
With the coming of the age of women, we are entering a new history in which,
instead of sacrificing the whole for the benefit of each individual, we are to
sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of the whole and, in this way, exercise
true love.
Let us
strengthen our spirits with Head-wing Thought and become leading figures in
building a world of peace. We need to correct deteriorating family morals. We
must stand up against drug abuse and the spread of AIDS. We need to give proper
guidance to our young people, who are wandering aimlessly along
self-destructive paths.
We are in a new
age of transition in which women have to take a firm stand and contribute to
world peace. I hope all of you will stand proudly at the frontline of peace.
Once again, I thank you for your support for this upcoming nationwide speaking
tour.
I pray that
God’s blessing will be upon you and your families.
Thank you.
8
September 7,1993
United Nations
Headquarters, New York, USA
Invitational
address
(True Mother’s
speech)
Honorable
president, your excellencies, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen:
I want to
express my heartfelt gratitude to you for coming here today. As leaders of the
United Nations, you bear the responsibility of guiding this world into the next
millennium. The promise of a peaceful and prosperous future depends directly
upon the collective actions we take today.
As we all know,
our contemporary world is not a world of peace and happiness. It is a world of
conflict and despair. We are confronted by the breakdown of our families and
the moral decline of our societies.
We debate issues
over and over again and yet find no solutions. Why is this? It is because a
true solution has to include God and deal with the root of the problem and not
only the symptoms. To find this root, we first need to understand God’s purpose
of creation and realize that today we face the most critical turning point in
the history of God’s providence.
At this crucial
time in history, God has asked my husband, Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, to bring a new revelation to the people of the world. I have been
supporting him in his work and I recently concluded a yearlong tour that took
me to twelve countries, where I spoke on the topic, “True Parents and the
Completed Testament Age.”
A few weeks ago,
toward the end of a speaking schedule that took me to all fifty states of the
United States, I addressed members of the United States Congress in Washington,
DC on this same theme. I would like to take this opportunity to convey this
important message to you, assembled delegates of the United Nations and other
distinguished guests.
God’s ideal in
creating Adam and Eve was that they would perfect themselves through true love
so that, as True Parents, they could then create a good family of true love,
true life and true lineage. Such a good family would have formed on the basis
of hearts and minds united among the family members before God.
When God created
Adam and Eve, His first son and daughter, God wanted them to be better than Himself. Conventional thinking would say that this is
absurd. However please take a moment to think about it. When we as parents look
into the faces of our children, we wish upon them an infinite amount of love
and hope. We want them to grow and achieve things we ourselves only dreamed of.
Similarly, God
wants to give limitlessly to His children. God is not content in giving just
one hundred percent. God’s desire is to give a thousand times more than what He
has. The nature of God’s love is to give completely and then forget what He has
given. Unlike some, who calculate how much they have given and decide that it
is enough, for God enough is never enough.
Moreover, God’s
purpose in creating the world was to have an object partner of love. His
purpose in creating parents and children, husbands and wives, and all things in
this world in complementary pairs was to substantiate true love throughout His
creation. Likewise, parents are to live for their children, and children for
their parents. Husbands are to live for their wives, and wives for their
husbands. All beings in creation are to live for, and give to others.
If
God’s ideal of true love had been realized through Adam’s family, that family
would have become the beginning of the heavenly kingdom. It would have
expanded throughout history to the clan, the nation and the world. This would
have been the world of true love, the kingdom of heaven on earth. Furthermore,
there would have been a parallel expansion of the heavenly kingdom in the
spiritual world.
Human history’s
false start and the providence of salvation If God’s original ideal had been
realized, there would have been no need for a Messiah or for God’s providence
to save humanity. Adam’s family, though it was merely a single family, would
have been the center of the clan, the nation and the world. It would have been
the blueprint for all future families and the model for the realization of
God’s ideal world.
Because of the Fall of our first ancestors, God’s work of salvation had to
begin. Salvation history had to be extended repeatedly through the complicated
and suffering courses of the Old and New Testament Ages, culminating in today’s
Completed Testament Age.
God’s ideal of
the true family and the heavenly kingdom, which He wanted to realize through
Adam’s family, was destroyed because Adam and Eve fell away from God. Due to
the Fall, this present world is far from the good
world of God’s ideal. In fact, today’s world is a false world, in that it is
flooded with self-centered love.
This came about
because Adam and Eve became false parents based on the false and self-centered
love of Satan. They multiplied evil rather than goodness, creating a false
family and passing on false life and a false lineage to their descendants.
Thus, false clans, false nations and a false world came into being.
Therefore, the
goal in God’s dispensation of salvation is for a man and a woman, representing
Adam and Eve, to be restored as True Parents centered on God’s true love, so
that they can form a true family. From them eventually would flow the true
clan, the true nation and the true world that God originally planned. In other
words, the seed from which God’s true love, true life and true lineage can grow
has to be created.
My dear friends,
have you ever wondered how a world filled with such evil and corruption could
come from a God of love and goodness?
If you read the
Bible carefully, you will see that the Fall involved
the loss of Adam’s entire family. First, the position of parents was lost
through the Fall of Adam and Eve. Second, the position of children was lost as
Cain murdered Abel. God’s blueprint for an ideal family and world perfection
was lost.
Therefore, to
restore the original family, God works in reverse to reclaim the positions of
Cain and Abel, and then the positions of True Mother and True Father. This
pattern requiring the reconciliation of Cain and Abel as the foundation for
restoring the True Parents has been God’s consistent formula throughout the
history of restoration.
The separation
of fallen humankind into a Cain-Abel division occurred over and over again in
Judeo-Christian history. God first of all separated fallen humankind into two
brotherly sides of Cain, representing Satan, and Abel, representing God, to
resolve the emotions that resulted from the Fall.
God used the
method of having the Abel side be attacked first and sacrificed. As a result,
the Abel side could stand on that very foundation to embrace the Cain side and
receive the blessing that Cain, in the elder son position, had received.
For example, the
religion that advances the purpose of salvation always receives Satan’s severe
persecution. It walks the path of receiving constant opposition, yet it
continues its sacrificial efforts to save the sinful world. Likewise, good
people always stand in the position of being struck first and sacrificed.
Looking almost
anywhere in our fallen world, we observe struggle between good and evil,
similar to the struggle between Cain and Abel. These struggles start in the
conflict between mind and body in each of us. The mind, which represents the
Abel side, struggles to overcome the body, which represents the Cain side. The
struggle within individuals has expanded to the family, nation and world.
As a result,
humankind always has been divided into two opposing camps, one good, or
Abel-like, and the other evil, or Cain-like, locked in struggle at every level.
Always it has been God’s intention, however, that both sides be restored, not
that one triumph over and destroy the other.
An example of
this division is the thief on the right side of Jesus’ cross, who represented
Abel, and the thief on the left, who represented Cain. So the key to God’s work
of salvation always has been to unite such divided sides, based on His ideal,
in order to build a foundation on which to reclaim the True Mother and True
Father.
Self-centered
love and the breakdown of the family Ladies and gentlemen, if a family is not
centered on God’s ideal of love, there will be conflict among the members of
that family. Without God’s love as an absolute center, the family will
ultimately break down. Moreover, a nation of such families will also decline.
Because illicit,
self-centered love invaded the family of our first ancestors, selfishness and
greed have continued to dominate human history from the individual to the
family, society, nation and world. For this reason, God’s work of restoration
begins at the individual level. Since Satan knows this, he also focuses his
efforts on the individual level.
It is not by
chance that selfish individualism has become the dominant way of life in these
Last Days. People feel increasingly alienated from those around them and bear
little sense of responsibility for the well-being of their country, community,
or even their own family.
Rising divorce
statistics indicate that husbands and wives feel little responsibility toward
their marriage; parents do not take proper responsibility for their children;
and individuals, devoid of any sense of human dignity, reject accountability
for their own lives.
The United
States and many other countries of the world have seen such phenomena,
beginning with the youth movement of the 1960s. Idealistic youth rejected the
materialism around them in order to seek love and peace, although in the
process they also abandoned morality and responsibility. Unable to attain the
true love they sought, many disillusioned young people resorted to drug use and
free sex, leading to self-destruction, including suicide.
Of all these,
what pains God most is free sex. A world of free sex is absolutely contrary to
the Will of God and the ideal of the family. Love comes from the stimulation of
unblemished emotion, however free sex is totally devoid of purity or true
emotion.
How many of us
have been touched by the cruelty of infidelity and divorce? Where is God in all
the one-night stands? What about the nightmare of children who are sexually
abused by a parent? Is free sex worth the price of a broken child?
Indeed, in the
domains of homosexuality, free sex, drugs and alcoholism, the world of true
love is far away. It is a world in which Satan openly tells people, “Drink!
Take drugs! Have sex!” Those who do God’s Will, on the
other hand, live a lifestyle that is 180 degrees different from this.
Throughout history, those who chose to walk a spiritual path of self-sacrifice
have been bitterly opposed and persecuted by the rest of the world.
For example, it
is only God’s love and blessing that have allowed the Unification Church to
prosper, despite worldwide opposition. The fact that our church has risen from
obscurity in war-torn Korea to become a world- level religious movement in only
thirty-eight years testifies to God’s continued guidance and support.
There are those
who continue to oppose the Unification Church, whispering rumors to prevent our
teachings from being heard. Again, Satan’s way is always to attack that which
is most precious to God. Yet those who go against the Will of God can never
prosper. The principle holds true that those on God’s side who can endure
unjust persecution will win the right to take back the blessing. God’s strategy
is always to be struck first and then take back what is rightfully His.
Ladies and
gentlemen, the Bible teaches that Eve was the first to disobey God and enter
into a relationship with Satan. Due to the Fall, Eve
and Adam and also their sons Cain and Abel inherited Satan’s lineage, based
upon selfishness and false love. As the descendants of the first couple, which
was compromised by Satan, we have all inherited Satan’s lineage. For this
reason, Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are from your father, the devil...”
The Old
Testament describes a process of restitution according to the formula “an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Ex. 21:24) In the Divine Principle we
refer to making restitution for a wrong as “paying indemnity.” To make
restitution for her wrong actions, fallen Eve needed to take on the entire
responsibility. She needed to have reversed the actions of the Fall and made spiritual and physical restitution for each
step of the Fall.
It was God’s
Will that Eve assist her younger son, Abel, to unite with the Will of God. We
know from Genesis that God accepted Abel’s offering. However, this was not all
that was expected of Abel. Abel’s love was supposed to bring Cain to recognize
Abel as God’s chosen person and unite with him, and Eve was supposed to help
them achieve that unity.
If Cain and Abel
had united, the second problem of the Fall would have
been solved. The unity between Cain and Abel, centering on Eve, would have been
the foundation to restore the whole of Adam’s family. Throughout providential
history, we see God calling special women to play this exact role, to help
unite the positions of Cain and Abel as restitution for fallen Eve’s role.
Rebekah as a model of restoration
In the Bible,
one of these special women is Rebekah, Isaac’s wife.
As the mother of Jacob and Esau, Rebekah held the
same position in Isaac’s family that Eve held in Adam’s family. Unlike Eve,
however, Rebekah understood God’s providence and
helped her second son, Jacob, representing Abel’s position, to gain the
blessing intended for the first son, Esau.
Just as Cain killed Abel, Esau wanted to kill Jacob when the blessing
went to his younger brother. However with Rebekah’s
help, as recorded in Genesis, these brothers eventually reconciled in a warm
embrace, rather than resorting to violence.
This
reconciliation was a major victory for God. This victory, nevertheless, was not
complete, since the reconciliation was only a symbolic purification of the
lineage. The substantial purification of the lineage had to be accomplished in
the womb. This is the reason for the paradoxical story of Tamar.
By understanding
that Tamar, like Rebekah, was in the position of
fallen Eve, it becomes possible to understand why Jesus was born of her
lineage, the tribe of Judah. I am sure that many of you have read the story
about the birth of her twins. She conceived with Judah, her father-in-law, the
twins Perez and Zerah. The Bible tells us that the
two sons struggled even in the womb for the position of firstborn.
During Tamar’s
labor, Zerah’s hand was the first to emerge and the
midwife tied a red string around his wrist. Then Zerah’s
hand disappeared back into the womb and Perez, the younger, was born as the
elder. Thus, the positions of Cain and Abel were restored before birth took
place. It was on this foundation that the nation of Israel was chosen to
receive the Messiah.
In terms of
conventional morality, the actions of Rebekah and
Tamar are questionable at best. Why God blessed them has been a theological
mystery until today. As we now see, through these women, God could reclaim His
lineage from Satan so that Jesus could be born. Their lineage was the point
from which the Israelite nation started expanding. The word “Israel” means
victory. Their victory was the reversal of Cain and Abel in the womb, the
purification of the lineage.
Mary’s life and her dangerous course
The lineage of
Judah developed for generations, expanding to the levels of the tribe, society
and nation. From this lineage, Mary was born in Israel two thousand years
later.
Mary had the
responsibility of uniting the Cain and Abel figures on the family, clan and
national levels through paying appropriate indemnity and restoring elder
son-ship. Mary responded to God’s call and conceived Jesus, even though, in the
eyes of others, she had betrayed her parents and Joseph, to whom she was engaged.
At that time it
was customary to stone to death a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock.
However, Joseph, standing in the position of Adam, courageously protected his fiancee and would not abandon her.
Because of
Mary’s faith, and the victories of Rebekah and Tamar,
Satan could not claim sovereignty over Jesus in Mary’s womb. Jesus was born in
the position of a true Son under God’s complete, direct lineage. He is the
first true Son of God, based upon the purification of the fallen lineage.
That is why
Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, is the saint of all saints and the
ancestor of God’s true lineage. His birth represented the conclusion of the Old
Testament Age at the national level and the dawn of the New Testament Age at
the worldwide level.
Mary, in the
position to restore fallen Eve, had to build unity between Jesus, who was in
the position of Abel, and his elder cousin, John the Baptist, who was in the
position of Cain. This unity was essential if the people of Israel were to
recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
John was the
elder. He had a great following and was widely respected. He described his own
role by saying, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, and ‘Make
straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23) Also,
Jesus explained to his disciples that the ministry of John was the fulfillment
of the Old Testament prophecy that says, “I will send you the prophet Elijah
before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” (Mai. 4:5)
However did John
fulfill his responsibility in God’s providence? The Gospel of Luke tells us
that John came “with the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17) John,
however, denied that he was Elijah and doubted the Messiah-ship of Jesus, even
after he had received a clear revelation at the Jordan River at the time of
Jesus’ baptism.
John was a
well-respected religious figure, while Jesus was seen as only the illegitimate
son of a poor carpenter. Without the support of John, it was unlikely the
Jewish people would believe in and follow Jesus. Alone, Jesus undertook the
difficult path of self-proclamation.
John the Baptist
was supposed to have helped Jesus reach the religious leadership of Israel. If
John had fulfilled his role, then the religion of Judaism, in the position of
Abel, and the nation of Israel, in the position of Cain, could have united with
Jesus.
This Cain-Abel
unity would have laid the foundation for the marriage of the Lamb. Jesus would
have stood as the True Father of humanity, and his bride would have stood as
the True Mother.
In less than
seven years his teachings would have expanded rapidly to the worldwide level,
winning Asia and Rome to his side before he reached the age of forty.
Eventually, as True Parents, Jesus and his bride would have achieved the
individual heavenly kingdom, family heavenly kingdom, clan heavenly kingdom and
national heavenly kingdom.
However, this
glorious destiny could not be realized. It was the religious people themselves
who rejected Jesus’ words and called for his crucifixion.
Confronted by
the disbelief in Israel, Jesus determined to give his life to achieve spiritual
salvation for humankind. However, he knew that Christ would have to come again
in order to bring physical salvation on earth in addition to spiritual
salvation.
As a result of
Jesus’ death on the cross, the conflict between supporters of left-wing and
right-wing ideologies appeared, symbolizing the two thieves who were crucified
with him. This is similar to the separation between Cain and Abel that resulted
from Adam’s Fall. Likewise, Islam and Christianity
appeared and began struggling. Because such separation was caused by the
crucifixion of Jesus, Christ will work for the unity of these divisions at the
time of the Second Coming.
God’s
preparation for the Second Advent required a world-level foundation of
successful Cain-Abel reconciliation. This dispensation was carried out through
the events surrounding World War II. The Allied countries of Britain, the
United States and France represented Christianity and were in the position of
Abel. The Axis countries of Germany, Japan and Italy practiced nationalistic
militarism and stood in the position of Cain. This war represented the
expansion of the conflict between Cain and Abel to the world level.
Immediately
after the Allied victory, great strides were made toward creating a world of
peace, guided by Christianity. With Britain in the position of Eve on the world
level, and the United States and France representing Abel and Cain
respectively, the Allied nations stood united in the position ready to receive
the Lord of the Second Advent.
Despite this preparation,
God’s dispensation was not fulfilled at that time. God’s representative came to
bring God’s Word, yet he was met with tremendous persecution and almost
universal misunderstanding. This paralleled Jesus’ situation two thousand years
earlier. Just as the people of Israel in Jesus’ time were awaiting the coming
of Elijah on a chariot in the clouds, Christians awaited the Second Coming by
expecting Jesus himself to come on the clouds.
In the Book of
Revelation, Jesus reveals to John the Divine that he will come with a new name.
(Rev. 3:12) This foreshadowed that Jesus would come again through another man,
just as Elijah returned through the person of John the Baptist.
At this crucial
time after World War II, God instructed my husband to bring a new message of
truth to Christians in Korea. Korean Christian leaders, however, rejected the
possibility that he, a humble young man, had been chosen to bring this new
message. They could not believe that the Second Coming would be born as a man
on earth any more than the people could believe it at the time of Jesus.
If the Christian
churches had united with my husband, the heavenly kingdom already would have
been established on earth as well as in the spiritual realm. During the
seven-year period from 1945 to 1952, which marked the end of World War II and
of the New Testament Age, the entire world could have united in accordance with
the providence of God.
Instead of
uniting with him, however, these religious leaders were jealous as they saw the
number of his followers growing. They blindly opposed my husband without
hearing him out. They even spread lies about him. Rumors of sexual misconduct
and greed, the very antithesis of his teachings, were used to assassinate his
character.
God had expanded
Christianity and had lifted up a mighty Christian nation like the United States
for the purpose of preparing the way for the Second Coming. Whether they
realized it or not, those ministers in Korea represented all of Christianity.
Because these representatives did not unite with my husband after World War II,
worldwide Christianity and America began to decline in power and moral
authority.
After World War
II, the nation of the United States and the religion of Christianity stood on a
victorious foundation of Cain-Abel unity. The time was ripe to receive the
Second Coming. However, the whole world opposed my husband’s work and missed
this opportunity. He was expelled into the wilderness. He was forced to the
bottom and has been climbing back up ever since.
Thus, the Cold
War began. The world separated again into two worldwide spheres of Cain and
Abel, just as it had during World War II. Denying God, just as the thief on the
left denied Jesus, communism represented the Cain- type world. Christian
democracies, which affirmed the existence of God, represented the thief on the
right and the Abel-type world.
It was God’s
Will that the Messiah of the Second Coming unite these two hostile blocs. That
is why we mobilized our church to help settle conflicts between the right wing,
represented by the free world, and the left wing, represented by communism. We
also have been working as a peacemaker on behalf of Christianity, Judaism and
our Islamic brothers and sisters.
During the
forty-year Cold War period, my husband fought to break down barriers on the
individual, family, clan, national, worldwide and cosmic levels in order to
rebuild the lost four thousand-year foundation to receive the Messiah. Since my
husband cannot live that long, he knew that he would have to indemnify all of
history in just forty years.
During this
period of four decades, he restored the four-thousand-year history before Jesus
and the six-thousand-year biblical history since the Creation. After this
indemnity was paid, unity of the Cain and Abel blocs brought the Cold War to a
close. The Unification Church accomplished this internally at the 1988 Seoul
Olympics, when athletes from one hundred sixty nations came to Korea.
For decades, my
husband has been completely misunderstood. For three years, he was imprisoned
in a communist concentration camp. Altogether, he has been wrongfully
imprisoned six times for doing God’s work. Moreover, the media have mocked him
as a monster who brainwashes the young for self-benefit.
Can anyone
disagree when I say that Rev. Moon is the most persecuted religious leader in
the world? My heart is broken when I think of how my husband has suffered.
However he always comforts me, reassuring me that God has deep compassion for
those persecuted for doing His work.
My husband and I
have purposefully walked a path of indemnity, or restitution, in order to
restore the failures of the past, including those of the Old and New Testament
Ages. Korea connects to the Old Testament Age, while America, a mostly
Christian civilization, connects to the New Testament Age.
For the first
twenty years, my husband walked the road of indemnity for the Old Testament
Age, focusing on the Korean nation and the Unification Church, representing the
positions of the nation of Israel and Judaism, respectively. On the foundation
of this work in 1960, we established the Holy Wedding of True Parents on the
national level.
Then, in 1971,
my husband and I came to America. During the next twenty years in the United
States, we walked the path of indemnity to fulfill the New Testament Age and
begin the Completed Testament Age. Thus, we established the True Parents’
family, the origin of true love, true life and true lineage, based on God.
What the Unification Church offers
The truth that
God revealed to my husband is contained in the Divine Principle. Interpreting
the history of humankind and the stories of the Bible from the providential
viewpoint, the Divine Principle unlocks the answers to questions unsolved for
thousands of years. Those who have sincerely studied its contents have found it
to be a true gift from God, providing the solutions to the problems facing our
society today.
Even in the
former communist Soviet Union, government leaders and thousands of young people
have found their lives renewed through their studies of our teaching, known as Godism or head-wing thought. Finally free from the
oppression of communist ideology, they are seeking spiritual truth to guide
their nations.
There are
countless other testimonies to the power of the Divine Principle to give hope
and new life to young people. Last year, in Korea, we held a wedding
celebration for thirty thousand couples, all dedicating their lives to one
another, to God and to the world. In most families today, parents cannot
effectively guide their children, especially in such intimate matters as love
and marriage. Yet, my husband and I brought together young people from one
hundred thirty one nations and realized their most cherished dreams of love in
a historic way.
This was indeed
a great miracle of the modern world. In the future, as people come to
understand the value and quality of these precious families, millions will seek
such marriages. Through them, God can restore the family that Satan destroyed.
Such restored, God-centered families are the very building blocks of an ideal
nation and world.
World-level
foundation to receive True Parents
My dear friends,
when Jesus taught about the coming of the Messiah, he told the parable of the
virgins who were awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. This signifies the
restoration of the original positions of man and woman, restored Adam and Eve,
to the realm of true equality.
When
Christianity failed to meet her bridegroom the first time, God’s dispensation
had to be delayed by forty years until 1992. At this turning point in the
history of restoration, a woman in the position of True Mother has to prepare
the world to receive the True Father.
That is why, in
April 1992, my husband and I founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace.
Last year, with the heart of a True Mother, I visited Korea, Great Britain, the
United States, France, Japan, Germany and Italy, as well as Russia, China and
Oceania.
I gathered
together the women of these nations to form chapters of the Women’s Federation
for World Peace. With these events, the nations that had been the worldwide
Cain and Abel countries since World War II and the Cold War united to receive
the True Mother and prepare again the foundation to meet the True Father.
Based on this
foundation, my husband and I can now stand on a worldwide level as the first
True Parents. As True Parents, we are ushering in the Completed Testament Age.
At this historic
turning point, we have to practice on the worldwide level the principle that an
individual’s mind and body have to be united, with God in the central position.
To facilitate this, we have founded two organizations working for world peace.
The
Interreligious Federation for World Peace represents the mind on the worldwide
level. It carries out the internal mission of uniting all the worlds religions on the foundation
of God’s love. The Federation for World Peace, on the other hand, represents
the body on the worldwide level. It pursues the external mission of building
ideal societies with leaders in every field of human endeavor, including
politics, economics, media, academia, science and the arts.
Looking at the
vertical perspective of love, Adam and Eve could have related directly with God
by developing in themselves the four types of love: children’s love, sibling’s
love, conjugal love and parental love. Therefore, Adam and Eve originally would
have grown through four realms of heart, based on God’s true love, achieving
the completion of the levels of children, siblings, couple, and parents. In
this manner, they would have achieved what we may call the perfected,
or true family.
Adam and Eve
were to have become role models for the members of their family. Their children
would have looked to their parents as ideal role models. They would have become
brothers and sisters who loved each other as their parents loved them. They
would have become married couples resembling the husband-wife relationship of
their parents.
Finally, with
the birth of children, they would have established more true families,
resembling that of their parents.
In such a
fashion, by establishing ideal, unbreakable families that fulfill the vertical
and horizontal unity between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and
husbands and wives, we can finally build the eternal basis for God’s Kingdom on
earth as well as in heaven. Thus, all families in the world originating from
the same God-centered ancestors, Adam and Eve, will have equal, divine value.
In every true
family, grandparents will be in the position of kings and queens representing
God and good ancestors. Parents will be in the position of kings and queens
representing present-day humanity, and children will be in the position of
princes and princesses representing all future descendants. When all three
generations are united, past, present and future will live together in harmony.
Ladies and
gentlemen, it is my great privilege to announce to you the establishment of the
first perfected True Family. My husband and I, together with our thirteen
children and twenty grandchildren, are absolutely dedicated to serving God and
humanity. With three generations in one family, we have achieved on the family
level the central root of grandparents, the central trunk of parents and the
central bud, children of the biblical tree of life. It is our sincere hope that
you will symbolically graft into this tree of life by joining us in our efforts
to create an ideal nation and world. This marks the beginning of the Completed
Testament Age.
The process of
tribal messiahship
Ladies and
gentlemen, at the dawn of the Completed Testament Age, the time has come for
each family to take up the messianic mission of completing the work of
salvation throughout the world. After restoring your family, the next step is
to restore your tribe, nation and the world. We call this process tribal messiahship.
In the Completed
Testament Age, the mother’s role will be crucial. She has to unite her children
and her husband, and link her family with the True Parents. Already we have
sent thousands of tribal messiah missionaries around the world. Soon the
original ideal of the family will be achieved worldwide.
As the world
enters the Completed Testament Age, we will live with God again. Realizing
this, we have to accomplish the unity of our minds and bodies, husbands and
wives, and parents and children. We can then establish ideal families, based on
God’s love.
With such
families, the symptoms of our decaying society will vanish. As confident
children of God, we no longer will be enslaved by the temptations of alcohol
and drug abuse. Moreover, by understanding the holiness of love between husband
and wife, we will possess the moral strength to stand strong against infidelity
and promiscuity. Finally, we will work as a whole to eliminate war, racial and
religious prejudice and world hunger.
Based on this
foundation, we can realize a world of true happiness, freedom and peace. In
such a world there will be heartfelt compassion for the needs of others, and
the nations of the world naturally will cooperate to preserve peace and
justice. A situation such as the tragedy we are witnessing in Bosnia today
would evoke a resolute and united determination among the world’s nations to
provide both effective material relief and a swift peaceful solution.
Therefore,
understanding that this is God’s vision for humanity, let us join together; all
nations as one, under God, to bring peace and reconciliation to every corner of
the world afflicted with suffering and conflict.
Honored guests,
ladies and gentlemen, it is my hope that people of all faiths and nationalities
gathered here this afternoon will understand this message with a deep heart and
an open mind. I sincerely pray that by upholding the Will of God, we all can
reach the place of God’s blessing.
May God bless
you, your families and your nations.
Thank you very
much.
9
The Twenty-first
Century and
the Mission of Women
October 12,1994
Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Seminar for Korean and Chinese Women Leaders
(True Mother’s speech)
Women leaders
from China and from various associations here in Korea, and leaders of the
Women’s Federation for World Peace:
It is a great
honor for me to speak at this event and encourage women leaders from two
nations, Korea and China, who have come together to seek the way to bring a
world of peace and to affirm the coming of the global age of women.
With the
twenty-first century only a few years away, we stand in a position to
experience the upheavals of the twentieth century along with a new and
different century in our lifetime. This does not mean simply that we will span
two centuries. Since the providence that permeates human history is carried out
in units of two thousand years, there is great significance in concluding the
twentieth century and preparing for the twenty-first century.
Though history
is apt to change, the rate and extent of recent changes have been so wide and
unpredictable that we have come to fear change. In the society of the future,
in which science and technology will have been developed to a high degree, will
humankind find happiness? In the information society of the twenty-first
century what kind of lifestyle will people lead? How will the pressing problems
of humanity that darken our future be resolved? What will be done about such
issues as the establishment of a principled morality and new values, and the
problems adolescents face, crimes, drugs, AIDS and other diseases, war and
starvation, and religious conflict? Without finding a fundamental answer, the
hopes of humanity for the twenty-first century will never be realized. We need
to address these problems not as problems of individual nations; instead we
need to address them as those of humanity. The time has come to resolve our
problems and bring clarity to our future through the new expression of truth
revealed by Heaven.
On the verge of
entering the twenty-first century, when we examine history we see that men have
been ignorant of the true value of women and have not treated women fairly. The
women’s movement of modern times, which began with the nineteenth-century
campaign of Western women to gain suffrage, has continued to develop under the
banner of women’s liberation. In general, it has been a movement carried out
against men to restore women’s rights, including the extension of women’s
rights, gender equality, and the women’s labor movement. Therefore, the
mainstream of the women’s movement generally took the form of opposing men only
for the sake of women. The movement I am carrying out through the Womens Federation for World Peace is different from the
American women’s movement. It is a women’s movement not only for women. It is
for everyone, carried out on the foundation of the new teaching centered on
God’s ideal of creation.
Chauvinists
assert that men are destined naturally to assume the superior position and men
and women are designed for certain roles they are meant to play. Their theory
is that men and women are born with different natures and that accordingly
their roles also differ. They believe that men and women naturally assume the
superior and the inferior positions, respectively, in terms of identity and
status and that men are established as the superior. I
believe that feminists until now primarily have been responding to this view.
They have tried to secure an equal status with men in all respects, by
imitating them and assuming the same roles as men.
In spite of
their efforts, complete gender equity could not be achieved. This was because
they did not know the essence of the problem. The fact that the role of women
and their inborn nature differ from those of men does not mean that the value
of women is less than that of men and that their status is inferior. The
unhappiness of women stemmed from not realizing the preciousness of their
God-given original nature and role. Problems arose from the fact that many
women forgot what they possessed and tried to imitate the nature and role of
men, as if men were the exemplars for women.
My esteemed
women leaders! Women are the individual embodiments of truth representing one
of the two natures of the incorporeal God, who possesses yin and yang in both
external form and internal nature. Therefore, women are not in a competitive
relationship with men, who represent the other side of God. Women are not the
assistants of men; they are the interdependent object partners who make the
world whole. When God created men and women, God established them as the ideal
object partners of each other and made it so that they can become one through
true love.
From the
perspective of true love, women are the perfect object partners of the love of
men, and in regard to their value, men and women are absolutely equal. The fact
that the natures of men and women are different does not pose a problem. Those
differences are factors that bring on the stimulation of love. In the original
ideal, a man and a woman united in true love have the right of equal position
and equal status. Moreover, a man and a woman united in true love have the
right to participate as equals, and through their love they can always be
together. A man and a woman united in true love have the right of inheritance
through which each shares what belongs to the other as
the second owner. As you can see, a man and a woman united through God’s ideal
of true love are created as completely equal beings in terms of value. They
have the right of equal position and participation and mutual ownership.
Therefore, men
and women are not in an antagonistic relationship, in which they need to
imitate, covet or somehow acquire the other’s nature and role. Instead, they
are in a relationship in which they share with one another, by giving what is
theirs to the other through true love. Thus each perfects the other and becomes
one with the other.
My fellow women
leaders! Women have a precious original nature and affection that God has made
unique to us. We also have the central role of bearing and nurturing children
and leading our families. Through the self- sacrifice of bearing and nurturing
the fruit of love, women continue clans and generations of human beings. While
the external work of mothers is important, the role and responsibility of
mothers in nurturing their children to become righteous, cultivating their
character even while the children are in the womb, are just as noble.
From now,
humankind has no choice except to live in an increasingly globalized and
pluralized society. In the future world, women will have a noble role in the
family unit and in the entire society as well. We could even say that the role
of the mother shapes history by bearing, giving birth to and nurturing the
future of humanity. Without this maternal nature, where can the hopes and bright
future of human beings be conceived? Where can good men and women, our future
leaders, be born, and from whom can they receive their basic education?
Respected
women representatives, traditionally history has continued under
the leadership of men. Most men have misled humanity using brute force, and
they have created conflict and division in irrational societies. Consequently,
there is a mountainous pile of historical legacies that need to be dispensed
with, as well as many pressing problems. For humanity to usher in the
twenty-first century with hope, the contribution of women is absolutely
necessary. Now that the age of women has come together with heavenly fortune,
centering on True Parents, the women of the world can create a movement of
magnanimous true love as part of their lives and make new families and new
societies. The trend of internationalization and globalization leads toward the
twenty-first century, wherein we need to live together as one global family.
Extreme individualism and egoism are major deterrents to achieving this goal.
Only true love can affect the hearts of the people who are inclined in that
direction.
Women, united
with True Mother, need to raise their children to create the heavenly way,
through their influence of love, and perfect their husband’s maturation through
mother-child cooperation, thus forming ideal families. This is the movement to
inherit the True Parents’ true love, true life and true lineage. Through ideal
families thus established, we are to construct ideal societies, ideal nations
and an ideal world. I hope you women leaders will become central figures in
this movement.
To achieve this
goal requires the cooperation and international activities of enlightened women
from various nations. A time will come when the leaders of nations will realize
keenly their international relations and the conditions of this planet’s
environment. On this basis they will have no choice except to prioritize the
common good of the world above their national interests and to translate this
realization into action.
I hope that this
meeting and exchange of Korean and Chinese women leaders will set an example of
women’s international cooperation for constructing an ideal world. I encourage
cooperation of women leaders from both nations that will serve as a turning
point in achieving peace in Asia and the whole world, marking the progress of
history toward one world of peace transcending the walls of nationality, race
and religious belief.
Thank you so
much for listening, and may God’s blessings be with you and your families.
10
World Peace and the
Role of Women II
April 10, 2002
Little Angels
Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Tenth Anniversary of the Women’s Federation for World Peace
(True Mother’s speech)
Distinguished
guests, leaders of women’s organizations, and members of the Women’s Federation
for World Peace:
Today, as I
stand here before you, I am filled with many deep emotions.
In particular, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to God, who has guided our
federation with true love for the ten years that have passed since it was
founded.
My husband, Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, and I jointly founded the Women’s
Federation for World Peace (WFWP) with the purpose that it would proclaim the
arrival of the era of women and function as a pivotal organization for the
women’s peace movement.
This federation
was not founded simply as one among the many women’s organizations that already
exist. Rather, the first and foremost characteristic of WFWP is that it was
founded for the providential purpose of realizing God’s ideal world, a world
centered on the ideal of True Parents.
Moreover, WFWP
is not organized to recover women’s rights. It is fundamentally different from
such women’s organizations, which exist chiefly to influence men. Such
organizations seek primarily to expand women’s rights, promote equality of the
sexes and improve working conditions for women. They are, for the most part,
external, political and confrontational in nature.
According to
Rev. Moon’s teachings, women do not exist to confront or struggle against men.
Rather, we exist as individual embodiments of truth, representing one side of
the two aspects or dual characteristics of the invisible Creator, God. In other
words, women represent one half of God’s internal and external characteristics,
and one half of God’s original nature.
According to the
Principle, through which God created the universe, all things exist as pairs,
as an initiating subject partner and a responsive object partner team. A woman
is thus a whole and perfect partner with whom a man can achieve harmonious
unity in the ideal of God.
Furthermore, a
woman is not made to be a man’s assistant or simply an object of his
protection. Rather, a woman is an interdependent entity who completes a man by
standing in a position that represents half of God. In the ideal of true love,
a woman exists as a man’s noble partner, as the recipient who can reciprocate
his love. In terms of value, man and woman are equal.
A man and woman
who are united through the power of original, true love acquire entitlement to
the same status. They also share entitlement to participate together and be
with each other, whatever the situation or location. Moreover, a man and woman
united in true love also share an ideal right of inheritance; they share ownership
with each other, for she is his second self just as he is hers.
Thus, a man and
woman united in God’s true love ideal share fully and totally the entirety of
rank and position, rights of participation, and rights of possession. Men and
women were created to be equal in terms of value when they live in true love.
Naturally then,
a man and woman are not born to exist in a relationship of hostility or
opposition, where they covet or attempt to mimic the characteristics and
qualities of the other. There is no need for that, because man and woman belong
to each other. Their relationship is originally designed to be one where all
their qualities as well as possessions are shared with each other so that both
can achieve completion and perfection, and thus together become a whole greater
than the sum of the parts.
Women have the
important role of bearing children, raising them, and guiding the family as
God’s representatives, with the uniquely feminine sense of affection and love
that God has granted to women. God endowed each woman with this essential
feminine nature.
By nurturing the
fruits of love and investing in her children’s upbringing, a woman connects and
extends the traditions and lineage of her family. For this reason, although her
external efforts are important, her role as a mother in cultivating character
and raising her children to have healthy, wholesome natures is the highest
function of womanhood. In fulfilling this role, women truly represent the heart
of God.
As the future
unfolds, humanity will have no option except to live inter- dependently in a
pluralistic, global society. A culture of peace will be established across the
globe. When this happens, the precious role of women who are grounded in the
love of God will be recognized as absolutely essential to the family and,
hence, to the society, nation and world.
That is because
women play a sacred role that is both civic and lineal. We carry the future of
humanity in our wombs; we give birth to and nurture the unlimited potential of
human beings. If the role of mothers is ignored, where will we find human hope
and prospects for the future?
In the worldwide
peace movement led by WFWP, women play the central role. Members of WFWP ought
to feel proud that the work we are doing across the globe deals with such a
unique area and has such providential significance. We also have to be grateful
that WFWP can carry out its work under the direct guidance of the True Parents.
During the past
ten years, I have been privileged to give talks and keynote addresses in the
parliamentary halls of many nations across the globe, from the United Nations
headquarters to the United States Congress and Japanese Diet. We have held
hundreds of international meetings where I delivered the message of the Women’s
Federation. Sometimes the audience comprised several hundred people, sometimes
ten thousand, and sometimes more than a hundred thousand people.
I have been
fortunate to be able to carry out global tours embracing North and South
America, Europe, Asia, including Russia and China, Africa and Oceania. During
these tours, my message has always been the proclamation of the era of women
and our role in bringing about world peace.
We have
addressed the serious crises facing modern civilization, including decadence
among young people, family breakdown, teenage and single parenthood, AIDS, drug
abuse, crime and national instability. Moreover, we have raised the issue of
ethics and morality in the family, and shown the need for the establishment of
a new value system aligned with God’s truth. In short, we have rung the warning
bell.
Consequently,
inspired and enlightened women motivated from within are leading movements for
national reformation and social restoration in each nation across the globe. These
movements are creating a foundation of hope throughout the world.
So once again, I
would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the members of
the Women’s Federation for World Peace. In more than one hundred eighty nations
around the world, and particularly in South Korea, Japan and America, you have
participated with fervor and accomplished many tangible results for our cause.
Beloved
leaders of women everywhere, what are the central direction and activities of
the women’s peace movement going to be for the coming ten years? Rev. Moon has
focused on the year 2012 as the year in which the ideal world of peace, the
hope of humanity and God alike, needs to be substantially realized. To that
end, he is at this time heading up a global movement for the practice of true
love. Likewise, for the Women’s Federation for World Peace, the next ten years
will be a very important period.
The world of
peace is not initiated on the global or even national level. Peace must first
be realized in the individual and in the family, because these form the basis
for all human organizations and systems. Central issues of world peace
essentially depend on the question of how peace can be realized within the
individual and the family.
The original
ideal of God’s creation was the kingdom of heaven on earth and, beyond that, a
world in which the ideal of love also embraces the spiritual dimension. Thus, a
kingdom of heaven was to be formed in both the spiritual and physical worlds.
This ideal was to be achieved by expanding the model
of an ideal family to the world level and then to the cosmic level. For this
reason, a family of true love is the fundamental unit and basis of an ideal
world of peace.
When true
parents, a true husband and wife, and true children all attend God and form a
true family of peace, and when that family expands to form a clan, nation and
world, true world peace will be realized. For this, the role of the mother and
wife in creating family peace is absolute and eternal.
Today,
immorality and decadence are spreading throughout the world. The family is
crumbling under the burden of soaring divorce rates and increasing
self-indulgence. In these circumstances, the true family Blessing movement and
the pure love education that WFWP is promoting worldwide are, in the
fundamental sense, movements for peace. They are movements that can save the
nation and save the world. They are unique peace movements of the highest
dimension driven by the power of God’s true love.
I believe that we members of WFWP need to have a special sense of
mission in our work. Based on the moral laws and principles of the universe, we
are to make our families whole and sound in accordance with the heavenly way of
life. We have to point our societies in the right direction and make our
nations righteous and strong.
Thus, we need
women to participate in all aspects of society, from diplomacy and politics to
the economy and legal system reform. Women also have to be active in education
and culture, and in sports and the arts, not to mention the diverse activities
of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
However, I want
to emphasize that before all these things, the highest priority for our
activity is the inculcation of a righteous value system, and the True Love and
True Family movement. We need to encourage and foster the practice of living
for the sake of others.
Moreover, we
women ought to be the vanguard of the movement for unity. It has always been a
clear objective of our federation to carry out a number of activities that will
aid the reunification of the Korean Peninsula, for example. Women must take the
lead in both national and global unity by experiential education based on a
true family values system and true love.
War and conflict
arise when we attempt, from selfish motives, to acquire land or possessions
that belong to others. Conversely, peace is realized when we invest ourselves
for the sake of others, in other words, when we practice true love.
For some time
now, our federation has invested its heart and soul in developing our service
and sharing for neighborhood and community activities. These activities will
surely become a precious foundation for peace in the future.
This year, we
initiated the 1% Love Share Project to practice true love and help our
compatriots in North Korea, particularly women and children. In my view, this
campaign exemplifies the spirit with which WFWP was founded. It is a campaign
that emphasizes the practice of true love and sharing, and it is being
developed in many nations around the world. Transcending religion, race and
nationality, it is rising above the established, conflict-centered framework to
bring peace in a tangible way.
In recent years,
under Rev. Moon’s guidance, WFWP has worked hard to build bridges of peace
between nations in many parts of the world. An example of this is the creation
of sisterhood relationships between three hundred twenty thousand South Korean
and Japanese women. Sisterhood ceremonies between women of different nations
are an integral part of many international conferences. They are a simple yet
concrete practice for the realization of peace.
In the future,
WFWP will expand its active efforts for peace by developing a joint platform
embracing many different fields, including education, culture, sports and the
arts. This will be achieved through cooperation that transcends nationality,
race, religion and different NGOs.
Moreover,
bringing together women from the entire world in harmony and cooperation, we
will promote volunteer activities based on true love, so that more and more
people can receive love expressed in a tangible way.
My dear members
of the Women’s Federation, in the twenty-first century, men and women together
will shape world history, cooperating as the driving force for the realization
of a world of peace. The central role of women is all the more vital if the
unfolding century is to be characterized by family-centered culture and by love
and not by power and technology.
It is my fervent
hope and expectation that the members of WFWP will take the lead in guiding the
movement for restoring true families. That movement is the basis and foundation
for the realization of a world of peace.
A sound, healthy
family is the school of love and virtue, and enlightened women are the center
of the love, peace and service that preserves the family. The starting point of
world peace lies with the mothers at the center of such families, families that
perfect and bring God’s true love to fruition.
We must push
ahead in the conviction that no matter how wounded and scarred this world is,
it can be healed and cleansed by the substantial work of a women’s federation
united in the vision of God’s true love. If we have that
determination and if we make that effort, then God’s absolute authority, as
well as the blessing and guidance of the entire spiritual realm, will be with
us.
Let us all stand
up and be counted. Let us complete the building of an ideal world of peace both
on earth and in the spiritual world. In conclusion, let me thank you once
again, both our distinguished guests and federation members, for taking the
time from your busy schedules to allow us the pleasure of your presence today.
Thank you.
11
Opening, Inheriting and Fulfilling the Era of the
Victory, Liberation and Completion of the True
Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind
March 4, 2012
Convention
Center, Daejeon, Korea
Women’s Federation for World Peace Convention
(True Mother’s speech)
My beloved
Women’s Federation for World Peace members and most honorable women leaders for
peace:
First of all, I would
like to express my deepest gratitude to God and Rev. Moon for the great success
of this Convention to Open, Inherit and Fulfill the Era of the Victory,
Liberation and Completion of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind,
held today in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the
Women’s Federation for World Peace. At the same time, I would like to convey my
grateful heart to all of you.
The Women’s
Federation for World Peace was founded in April of 1992 as a central
organization of the women’s peace movement, in accordance with the Will of
Heaven, by Rev. Sun Myung Moon and me at the Seoul
Olympic Stadium in Jamshil. It accompanied the
declaration of the Advent of the Global Era of Women, attended by
representative women from over seventy nations and one hundred and fifty
thousand Korean woman leaders.
We did not
intend this Federation to be a women’s organization typical of this world. It
does not aim to be an external, political and combative women’s rights movement
mainly targeting men, advocating expansion of women’s rights, gender equality,
and working place rights. Rather, it is oriented by providence and designed to
realize God’s ideal of creation. During the past twenty years, the Women’s Federation
for World Peace, founded with such providential significance and guided by
maternal love, has carried out various services and educational programs in all
parts of the global village. These are to firmly establish families of true
love that elevate women’s value. Consequently we have achieved amazing growth
and development in the world.
From the early
days of the Federation, I have conducted speaking tours across continents and
nations to prepare the ground for the global activities of WFWP. Moreover, I
mobilized all WFWP members around the world, including one thousand six hundred
Japanese members who went to one hundred sixty nations as volunteers. At the
founding rally of WFWP, Rev. Moon gave a founding message, the gist of which
was, “Now, under True Mother who has triumphed as the historic representative
of women in the world, women need to establish the model of true mother and
true wife and form ideal families through the true love movement. Furthermore,
women have to carry out the model of true love in a campaign of living for the
sake of others in all fields of endeavor, including government, economy,
culture, and social service.” Accordingly, we have carried out volunteer
activities and educational programs as well as campaigns to bring about the
resolution of international conflicts and reconciliation transcending the
barriers of race, religion, language and nationality.
After three
years of hard work, capped by an address I gave in the United Nations
Headquarters, New York, in September 1993, led the United Nations Economic and
Social Council to grant WFWP general consultative status, the highest
recognition given nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). I am delighted to tell
you that, since then, the re-evaluations held every four years, which entail a
strict assessment of activities and achievements, regularly confirm our status.
I believe it is clear that the UN recognizes our true value. Of the more than
three thousand four hundred UN NGOs, only one hundred forty are awarded this
highest status.
In particular,
WFWP has carried out various local projects in all parts of the world to
realize the UN’s Millennium Development Goals instituted at the beginning of
the new millennium. Those projects have taken root and are bearing fruit in
nations and communities. Consequently, governments are recognizing and
supporting WFWP, and this is truly encouraging.
The Middle East
Women Leaders Peace Council, which has been hosted every year since 1997 under
my guidance, has attracted interest and participation from woman leaders of the
nations in the Middle East. Now it has expanded and developed into a more
concrete, wide ranging WFWP campaign. Moreover, bringing woman leaders of the
Middle East to the center of activities carried out for human rights and peace,
going beyond religious barriers, is a truly remarkable achievement.
Construction of a peaceful world
Each year from
the year 2000, we have hosted the World Women Leaders Workshop at beautiful
meeting places in different continents. Here, participants share their
firsthand experience from all corners of the global village, their wisdom, and
their vision for the future, including ways to proceed in healthy cooperation.
Taking it a step further, the different continents and countries including
Korea, the WFWP International Headquarters, Japan, the United States, the UN
Secretariat, Asia, Europe, Canada, Central and South America, Africa and
Oceania are developing and carrying out various projects adapted to the needs
of their locale. I am proud of and grateful to them all.
Furthermore, we
are actively conducting relief aid work to resolve the problems of natural
calamities and poverty in various parts of the globe. In particular, under the
slogan, “Let us share a little of what we have,” we are carrying out the “1%
Love Share Project” to help the children and women in North Korea with good
results. Moreover, through several effective enterprises, including specialized
local businesses to support WFWP in their communities, we are keenly realizing
that the power of women is changing societies and achieving amazing results in
the creation of a peaceful world.
Above all, the
Peace Leaders Invitational Divine Principle Seminar, held more than thirty
times, helps woman leaders realize their divinity. It presents them with vital
insights regarding the proper direction for their lives. The program has deeply
moved many leaders and helped them fulfill their potential.
As can be seen,
our members have maintained their determination, pioneering the path of women’s
peace with quiet forbearance and an unchanging heart from the federation’s
founding in Seoul to the highest level of the UN. Therefore, I would like to
give a big round of applause to express my infinite gratitude and love to the
woman leaders who have never failed to offer their encouragement and
participation.
Beloved Women’s
Federation for World Peace members and women leaders for peace!
What is the path
that people must take today? Even now tens of millions of innocent lives are
being lost each year to war, disease, starvation and natural disasters that
arise in all parts of the world. In every field you observe, whether religion,
politics, education, culture or philosophy, from the individual to the world,
people are deeply mired in the swamps of self-centered egoism, isolated by
impenetrable barriers. We now live on a planet brought to ruin, where genuine
communication has broken down.
Ultimately, the
problems afflicting humanity can only be resolved through the worldview of “One
Family Under God,” in other words, a teaching based on true love, which my
husband and I, the True Parents, learned from Heaven and have championed and
taught throughout our lives. This is because it is the only way for people to
find the path toward peace and happiness.
Korean Peninsula prepared by God
We are now
living in the historic time of a great cosmic revolution that will change
history, unite the spiritual and physical worlds, and create the ideal kingdom
of heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer
postpone or prolong it. Heaven has already proclaimed that January 13, 2013
will be “Foundation Day.” That day will mark the beginning and genesis of the
substantial Cheon II Guk.
That day is now less than a year away.
Therefore, it is
time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven’s decree. The fateful
moment awaits us on this day. We need to devote ourselves completely with a
life or death commitment for this remaining year under the guidance of True
Parents, who are carrying out the providence on earth as the substantial
representatives of God, the King of peace.
Do you have any
idea how much pain God suffered the moment our first
ancestors fell, inherited Satan’s lineage, and disappeared into darkness? He
had created them as His children, investing unreserved devotion for eons. Have
you ever even thought about the long, dark tunnel of indemnification our
Heavenly Parent has had to go through as He waited and endured tens of
thousands of years of heartache so excruciating that His bones cried and His
flesh quivered? Have you ever shed even one teardrop for our forlorn Heavenly
Parent?
Ladies and
gentlemen, in silence God has raised and prepared the Korean people for
thousands of years. As you well know, God sent His true son Jesus Christ to
earth two thousand years ago to save humankind.
The outcome,
however, was truly a wretched one. The religious leaders and people of the
nation, who were supposed to receive Jesus as the Messiah and follow him with
absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, instead allowed him to
die on the cross, didn’t they? In the end, Jesus accomplished our spiritual
salvation, cried out the words, “It is finished,” and left this world. (John
19:30) Sadly, it took two thousand years of preparation for his Second Coming
to finally take place, on the Korean Peninsula.
Throughout their
history, the Korean people have worshiped God as the highest and primal
ancestor of their forefathers. They called that single being and progenitor of
all people “the One,” meaning God, and served Him as the Lord, the Creator of
night and day. This is why all creation begins from the numbers one and two.
Because the Korean people have served God as their original ancestor,
interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values are alive in
their spirit and tradition, and thus they continue to this day.
They have
continued as a people for more than five thousand years of history, not once
invading or plundering another nation or people. The spirit of benefiting all
humanity flows in the veins of the Korean people. Furthermore, the spirit of
filial piety, fidelity and loyalty, the fundamental virtues of human life, are
alive and moving in the people of Korea today.
The true filial
piety shown by Shim Cheong who, when she was still in
the flower of youth, threw herself into the sea, enabling her blind father to
regain his sight, is the standard of filial piety for the Korean people, who
serve and attend their parents. The profound love and fidelity displayed by Choonhyang, who risked death rather than break the promise
she had made to her husband, is the signpost for the lives of all Korean women.
The unbreakable loyalty exhibited by Admiral Yi Soon-shin, who gave his life to
save his nation and people despite being forsaken by his king and other
leaders, is indeed the pride of the Korean noble spirit.
These treasured
Korean traditional values are not just matters of historical accident. Based on
them, God prepared the Korean people and laid the foundation for the providence
to establish the Messiah. Thus, riding on the energy of the Korean Peninsula,
the True Parents of humankind and the King of kings could finally appear after
receiving the seal of Heaven.
The era of substantial Cheon II Guk
Beloved WFWP members,
my fellow woman leaders! The path that humanity needs to take now is clear. Why
would you hesitate in the face of the D- Day that Heaven has revealed through
True Parents? Only a year remains; Heaven’s blessings will be with you on your
ambitious and busy course.
If you view the
flow of history from the viewpoint of God’s providence, you can see that the
changes can be broadly classified into three stages. First is the “era of
worldly matters” that is, a time when materialism took precedence. Next came
the “era of human affairs,” a period dominated by humanism and knowledge, with
the assumption that God is an aloof Creator.
However, these
eras were transitional. They were eras we needed to undergo in the process of
entering the era in which people can rid themselves of their fallen nature,
return to their original selves, and live as one united family under God as
their Father.
The final stage
is the “era of heavenly affairs.” Here, people follow the path of living for
the sake of others. Each establishes an absolute standard beginning with the
marriage Blessing ceremony, an internal and external purification. In other
words, this is the time of opening the era of Cheon
II Guk, when we can return to the heart of the one
true God. Please engrave this in your heart.
Once the era of
the substantial Cheon II Guk
begins, we will establish the Association Connecting the Spiritual and Physical
Worlds, the central axial position that governs all creation. To put it another
way, the spiritual and physical worlds will connect and substantially unite and
the providence will proceed according to heavenly law and the heavenly way.
Elections
conducted in a purely secular fashion will disappear from the face of the
earth. All people will become one family through cross-cultural and
inter-racial marriages, and we will live in tranquility and prosperity,
enjoying true love, peace and happiness.
This day is now
right before our eyes.
Teaching values and building true families
All of you need
to engrave True Parents’ teachings onto your bones and practice them in your
lives. We have no choice. All that is left for us to do is to inherit, succeed
and accomplish the blessing of the opening of the gates to the era of the
victorious liberation and perfection of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and
Humankind.
If we do not
prepare now, we will surely be left behind. We need to learn from the courage
and fortitude of the white-necked cranes that in preparation for winter fly
across the Himalayas, which are more than seven thousand meters high.
I believe that,
based on the public laws and principles of the universe, our WFWP members need
to form sound families in accordance with the heavenly way and rightly endow
their communities and nations with a special sense of mission.
However, I would
like to emphasize once again that the movement we must prioritize before
anything else is the true family movement, based on true love through living
for the sake of others, carried out in conjunction with educating for the
highest values.
Women also have
to become standard-bearers of the peace movement. Included in the essential
mission of this federation are various activities for the reunification of
South and North Korea. Women have to play a leading role in bringing about
Korea’s unification and world peace. This will come by means of education in
the thought and practice of true love.
Wars and
conflicts arise from selfish motives from which emerge the desire to take
others’ land, possessions and the like by force. On the other hand, peace arises
from investing oneself for others by giving true love. In the final stage, the
“era of heavenly affairs,” in which we are to follow the path of living for the
sake of others, the Cold War has ended and new hopes for peace and social
justice are spreading across the entire globe at an amazing pace.
Those leaders
who turn their faces away from the new realities of the world, or who refuse to
see them, will be wiped away by the changes that are sweeping in like a tidal
wave. I believe the time has now come for us to step forward boldly, embrace
our new opportunities and model the highest values.
Beloved WFWP
members and my fellow woman leaders! Women are not born just to help or to be
protected by men; rather, we are interdependent individuals who, as the representative
of the other half of God’s nature, are meant to make men more complete and
manly. Centered on the ideal of true love, women are the precious object
partners of men’s love. In terms of value, men and women are absolute equals.
Thus men and women,
united through the original true love of God’s ideal, are created to become
completely equal in terms of value. Based on true love, they are to share the
right of equal participation, the right to the same rank and the right of
mutual ownership of their possessions. Therefore, men and women do not need to
confront or contend with each other, imitate the characteristics, dispositions
or roles of the other, or covet them and try to take them by force. Instead, we
are to unite as a larger whole, sharing ourselves one with another, by giving
to the other what we have, with true love, and thereby completing each other.
Now is the moment to rise to the next level
In the
twenty-first century, women, together with men, have to play a major role in
world events by serving as the wheels of progress advancing the construction of
a peaceful world. Going beyond the century of power and technology, women will
be the central axis in building the century of love and a culture of peace,
with our role more important than ever before.
Even though the
world of today is filled with confusion and chaos, the women’s peace movement
of this federation, united under God’s vision of true love, will soar up to a
whole new level based on our achievements of the past twenty years. We need to
strengthen our network with global woman leaders for the expansion of the
worldwide women’s peace movement and dedicate ourselves with the conviction
that we can purify this world into a beautiful haven of peace wherein God’s
ideal of creation is realized. If we can do so, God’s absolute authority and
the divine protection and great blessings of the spiritual world will be with
us.
Let us all walk
the path of the true mother, true wife, true daughter and true woman leader,
who can construct a united world overflowing with true freedom, peace and
happiness.
Thank you for
listening attentively, and may God’s blessings be with you and your families in
all of your endeavors.
Thank you.
12
The Role of Women in the Era after the
Coming of Heaven and the Mission of
the Women’s Federation for World Peace
March 5, 2012
ANA
Intercontinental Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Commemoration of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Women’s
Federation for World Peace
(True Mother’s
speech)
Distinguished guests
from Japan and abroad and Japanese members of the Women’s Federation for World
Peace:
This year marks
the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Women’s Federation for World
Peace. I look at our footsteps during the past nineteen years and return glory
to God and the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, who have worked in
the background to help WFWP to develop and grow worldwide. I would also like to
express my deepest gratitude to the WFWP members who are working hard in
various parts of the world, and especially to the Japanese members for your
endeavors.
The background of the founding of WFWP
The message I am
presenting today is titled, “The Role of Women in the Era after the Coming of Heaven
and the Mission of WFWP” It is based on the words given at the “Cosmic Assembly
for the Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind who, as
God’s Embodiment, Proclaim the Word.”
My husband, Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, declared the “Advent of the Global
Era of Women” at the Inaugural Assembly of the Women’s Federation for World
Peace held in April 1992 in Seoul, Korea, which was attended by women
representatives from some seventy nations and by one hundred fifty thousand
Korean women. That day marked the beginning of great strides that will be of
huge significance for women in world history. It was the start of a global
transition in which the primary role of developing and leading history is
shifting from men to women.
On that day Rev.
Moon emphasized, “The true workers who will bring an end to the world of war
and violence, oppression, exploitation and crime, a world led by men until now,
are the women of this era, who will realize an ideal world overflowing with
peace, love and freedom.” He also encouraged women to become leaders who can
equip themselves with the headwing thought and Godism, the basic worldviews of WFWP, and take the lead in
a new peace movement.
Through the
years, I shared the bitter pain and anguish experienced by my husband who was
persecuted and imprisoned by the forces of injustice as he walked the path of
righteousness in accordance with Heaven’s Will. As time passed, I strengthened
my resolution to start a new peace movement founded on conscientious and
righteous women. Through my keynote address on that inaugural day, I emphasized
that we must now establish the model of a true mother, the model of a true
wife, and the model of a true daughter and that we need to form ideal families
through the true love movement of living first for the sake of our husbands and
our children.
I stated
emphatically that WFWP is not just a movement for women,
rather it is the movement for bringing ideal families together to form ideal
nations and an ideal world. After the inaugural assembly, I went on a speaking
tour around the world, starting with the major cities in Korea, passing through
eight cities in Japan, the United States and Europe, going all the way to
Moscow, and then on to Africa, Oceania and Asia, including China, to set the foundation
for the global organization and expansion of WFWP.
I,
who had been in the position of following Rev. Sun Myung
Moon as he established the victorious tradition of the True Father, now stood
on an equal footing with him. The True Mother appeared for the first time in history. Thus I
proclaimed the liberation of women worldwide.
In addition, I
played a decisive role in opening the gates to the post-Cold War era. I
proposed Rev. Moon’s head-wing thought based on Godism
as the grand principle for the construction of an eternal world of peace. It is
the mission of the Messiah and the Savior to teach humanity the way to end the
history of sin, which came about because we lost the way of true parents, true
husband and wife, and true children. Wherever I went, I declared before all
heaven and earth that my husband Rev. Moon is the man whose life has pioneered
the path of the Messiah and the True Parents.
Because Adam and
Eve fell on the family level, restoration needs to be achieved in the family.
By becoming one with the family of True Parents, the redemption of the family
becomes possible and we can achieve perfection. Furthermore, we can go beyond
tribes and nations and attain the unity of the world and the unity of earth and
heaven. Thus the era of peace and prosperity centered on God can finally unfold
before us.
The Era after the Coming of Heaven and the declaration of True Parents
Rev. Moon
established me as the representative of Eve, and revealed the origin of the
human Fall as well as the meaning of related parables
in the Bible and patterns of history. This was because the providence of God
mandated that I personally announce worldwide every wrong committed by Eve.
The
fact that I was able to visit one hundred thirteen cities in every corner of
the globe and successfully hold WFWP assemblies in each one, in the short
period of three months, was a miracle. Upon reflection, it shows how providentially
significant the inauguration of WFWP was, and how history was ready for it.
Through such
devoted efforts, WFWP became an international organization and a foundation for
worldwide activities in its inaugural year. Now all WFWP members worldwide are
working hard with our organization’s founding spirit of “Let us form families
of true love and construct sound societies and a world of peace based on the
maternal love of women.”
Ladies and
gentlemen, the Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of the True Parents of
Heaven, Earth and Humankind who, as God’s Embodiment, Proclaim the Word’ was
held last year, starting in Korea and proceeding to eight nations in Europe,
the United States and Nigeria. This was a tour to declare the final completion
and conclusion of the history of the providence of restoration in its entirety
in the lifetime of True Parents.
The path taken by
the True Parents will serve as a tradition and historic example. Thus, I am
proclaiming that you need to model your life course on this path, become
families that pledge to inherit and fulfill the Will of God that True Parents
have already accomplished, and be true to this pledge.
On April 29,2010, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of our
Holy Wedding, Rev. Moon brought to a close the Era before the Coming of Heaven,
which was marked by sin and indemnity, and proclaimed the Era after the Coming
of Heaven, through which true love will realize a new heaven and new earth. You
must bear in mind that the speaking tour he undertook at that time inaugurated
the Era after the Coming of Heaven.
The details of
True Parents’ life course have already been conveyed to you through Rev. Moon’s
autobiography. I pray that you will all become the representatives and heirs of
True Parents before the conclusion of the Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of
the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind who, as God’s Embodiment,
Proclaim the Word. I also pray that you will inherit his vision, including the
vision revealed in his autobiography, which is a record of True Father’s
unfailing triumphs as he worked to establish his supreme victory, his
achievements and the words he has given while he is still living on this earth,
so you can also be triumphant in your course of life. As True Parents have
done, you too need to become vertical ladders that can lead your relatives and
the members of your clan to God’s kingdom. I ask that you take this
proclamation of True Parents to heart and pledge to put it into practice.
Together with
the declaration of the advent of the new era of women, Rev. Moon has supported
this new women’s movement centered on God’s true love. The Women’s Federation
for World Peace chapters around the world are carrying
out diverse social education activities for the establishment of true family
ethics. They have launched activities for women to practice service and sharing
with neighbors and communities. Other activities focus on reforming the United
Nations, helping that world body attain its Millennium Development Goals,
bringing about exchanges between nations and solidarity among them, and
pursuing the 1% Love Share Project for North Korea as part of the movement for
the reconciliation and reunification of South and North Korea. In addition,
chapters in all nations are carrying out various projects adapted to the
circumstances and conditions of their respective countries.
In 1994, WFWP
established one hundred sixty thousand sisterhood pairs, one hundred sixty
thousand Korean women with the same number of Japanese women in thirty-eight
conferences. In 1995, we commemorated the fifty years since the end of World
War II with a sisterhood ceremony between American and Japanese women, giving
birth to twenty thousand American-Japanese sister couples. Afterward, this
ceremony was extended to women of different races in the United States. The
sight of women from enemy nations embracing each other and making peace,
centering on God’s true love, was truly beautiful and heartwarming.
This
reconciliation tradition developed on different levels. Last year, through the
Registration for God’s Kingdom and the Fatherland, one hundred seventy-two
American clergymen were given Korean surnames as they formed fraternal ties
with Koreans of those surnames. In short, they were registered in God’s
kingdom, realizing the ideal of One Family under God. Based on such activities,
members of WFWP Japan are carrying out volunteer work, building schools, and
imparting teaching skills with love, devotion and dedication in difficult
regions of the world, including Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and South
America. By thus transcending the barriers of race, religion and nationality,
they have expanded the global foundation for WFWP.
All WFWP
chapters in the world are participating in the 1% Love Share Project for North
Korea, which signifies the heart of wishing to share a little of what we have.
To broaden the program’s field of support, it has now been expanded to be the
global 1% Love Share Project.
While carrying
out such diverse activities, WFWP members have come to have a strong sense of
solidarity, truly feeling that “The world is one, and humanity is one family.”
Women leaders of all races from nations across the world have participated in
its work and shared their experiences and wisdom in regard to the role of women
in constructing a world of peace. In the process, WFWP has formed close
friendships with women leaders of global prominence.
Our serious
situation as Foundation Day approaches
Respected
members of WFWP, throughout our lives my husband and I have established and
managed a variety of international organizations and institutions to promote
world peace. We have invested unreservedly in many fields, including religion,
society, culture, sports, education and the media, and we are developing these
organizations with the aim of promoting peace and bringing salvation to
humanity.
Many people
commend us and tell us that, after achieving so much, we deserve to comfortably
enjoy the rest of our lives, reflecting upon our course with satisfaction amid
the adulation of all people. They encourage us to put down our burdens and live
our remaining life with Heaven, content with the successes achieved during a
lifetime of ninety years.
However, my
husband and I cannot look at the lives we have led in such a way. Why not?
Because we have received the anointing of God, who is the vertical True Parent
of all human beings, and we need to complete the mission of the substantial
True Parents. Therefore we are leading each day of our lives with more
seriousness than ever before, especially now that only a year remains until the
completion of the substantial Cheon II Guk. The ninety years of Rev. Moon’s life have been
dedicated to liberate God, the True Parent of heaven and earth, to restore to
Him the position of the Parent, to save all human beings who suffer in the
realm of death, and to return them to God’s bosom. For this purpose Rev. Moon
has persevered and triumphed over countless tribulations while driving toward
the goal of global salvation, leading the lost people of the world who have
been reduced to the lot of orphans ignorant of their parents.
And has not
every human being inherited the false lineage due to the Fall
of the first ancestors? Is not each person wandering in darkness even now,
unable to break free of Satan’s bondage? Under such circumstances, how could
our lives be anything less than completely desperate as we try to guide the
almost seven billion people of the world along the path toward the building of
God’s kingdom on earth?
Ladies and
gentlemen, we are living in a time of great cosmic transition in history. It is
a time for a great cosmic revolution to change history, to unite the spiritual
and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that God has
longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or prolong
the fulfillment of His wish. Heaven has already proclaimed that January 13,2013 will be Foundation Day.
That day will be
the actual beginning of God’s kingdom of Cheon II Guk. Yet only a year remains.
Therefore it is
time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven’s decree. The fateful time
is upon us. We must invest ourselves completely with a life-or-death commitment
during this final year before Foundation Day under the guidance of the True
Parents, who carry out the providence on earth as the substantial
representatives of God, the King of peace. All the good spirits in the spirit
world are roused and are already moving forward a step ahead of you.
Beloved members
of WFWP Japan, we are presently in the era of the Pacific civilization realm.
The central nations of this era are Korea and Japan. The Adam nation is Korea
and the Eve nation is Japan, and the archangel nations are the peripheral
nations of the United States, China and Russia. Each was chosen by God.
For Japan to
fulfill its mission as the Eve nation, it has to connect the new tradition of the
Eve nation to the world of Korean women. This was made possible through the
inauguration of WFWP. Going beyond the role of Eve nation, Japan has the
providential status of the mother nation. Until now, it has played the role of
daughter and the role of wife in the course of restoration through indemnity
and has taken the lead to fulfill its given responsibilities and duties.
However, though
Japan as the Eve nation ought to fulfill its mission in accordance with
Heaven’s Will, far from doing so, it is opposing the entry of Rev. Moon into
Japan and persecuting us. Though Japan is acting in such a manner, I have
worked to enlighten it about the heart and the circumstances of Heaven and what
God desires of Japan, with the heart of love that is one in heart and body with
my husband.
Rev. Moon is
putting his heart and soul into establishing Japan as the mother nation, as the
providentially restored original Eve nation, bringing Japan beyond the position
of the daughter to the father, beyond the position of the bride who can receive
her bridegroom, and beyond the position of the wife to her husband. You need to
bear in mind that this is the course of sacrifice that incorporates the
boundless love and devotion of True Parents, who are trying to resurrect you
and save you by breathing new life and love into you at all times. Herein lies the reason why the Japanese members have to take the
lead and work even harder than WFWP members of other nations.
The eight great
textbooks and teaching materials
Ladies and
gentlemen! True Parents have already prepared the last words for all people.
These he uttered in the course of triumphs over the life-or- death situations
endured during six unjust imprisonments. He is leaving behind eight textbooks
and teaching materials for humanity to use for all eternity. Altogether, these
are published in almost a thousand volumes. They are The Sermons of the Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, Exposition of the Divine Principle, Cheon Seong Gyeong
(Heavenly Scripture), The Family Pledge, Pyeong Hwa Shin Gyeong (Peace Messages),
True Families: Gateway to Heaven, Owner of Peace and
Owner of Lineage, and World Scripture.
These are
textbooks you will have to read and study even after you go to the spirit
world. They are not just teachings that come from human intellect. Instead,
they are textbooks and teaching materials that God has granted to His suffering
children that teach the heavenly way for their salvation.
You now have to
set up the hoondokhae study tradition in your
families using these books. This is the tradition in which three generations of
a family start each day by reading Heaven’s Word and then practice what they
read, with a new heart.
Let us create a
world in which people in both the spirit world and the earthly world can attend
True Parents at the same time and read the Word on the heavenly path together
every day.
When you make
this a part of your life, no matter how hard Satan may try to worm his way in
to infest your lineage, once he encounters the hoondokhae
tradition he will find no place to stand. If a family is aligned with God as at
high noon, when no shadow is cast, and still does not
receive God’s blessings, then who could ever be deserving of them? When such
heavenly families fill the earth, the world will naturally become the kingdom of
heaven on earth and the kingdom of heaven in heaven, fulfilling the vision of
“One Family under God.”
Ladies and
gentlemen, the autobiography of Rev. Moon, a forthright account of his life,
was published in 2009. Through this book he shares how he discovered God’s Will
for humanity and the path that we, as God’s children, need to follow. His life
embodies the saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.” I
can confidently say this book is also a textbook every bit as valuable as the hoondokhae textbooks and teaching materials I have
mentioned, for it portrays a life lived adhering to absolute truth, with vivid
examples, and I recommend it to you. It does not subtract from or add anything
to the ninety years of Rev. Moon’s life lived in accordance with Heaven’s
decree, and I once again pray you will carefully read this articulation of true
love and find great inspiration from it.
I have mentioned
already that a life of vertical, high noon, God-centered alignment casts no
shadow. If we can all shine as we live such glowing lives, there will be no
shadows cast. However, since up until now you have received far more than you
have given, you have become indebted. Therefore I pray that, in order to pay
off that debt, you will now wipe away the tears of people in misery and poverty
and lead an illuminated life of eternal true love that dissipates darkness.
Distinguished
guests, at this serious and pivotal time, a revolutionary and cosmic change
must now take place in your lives. In light of this let us summarize the
message Heaven is giving to us today.
First, all
blessed families need to attend God at the center of their families and every
day carry out hoondokhae education, which can
completely unite parents and children. In other words, parents have to
thoroughly teach the Divine Principle, the textbooks and teaching materials
True Parents have bequeathed, True Father’s autobiography, and absolute marital
fidelity taught through the Original Divine Principle.
Second, Heaven
has permitted the grace of the Seonghwa for rebirth
and resurrection to be bestowed on the family unit. Here a requisite condition
is the complete unity between parents and children. In other words, you must
establish the standard for absolute parents and absolute children and thus
naturally establish an absolute family.
Third, humanity
has moved out of the realm of the era of restoration through indemnity, thanks
to the grace of True Parents who have suffered hardships through which they
have shed blood and sweat to an unimaginable extent. Therefore do not forget
the fact that during True Parents’ lifetimes we all have the responsibility to
liberate families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world so that God can dwell
everywhere. Now that the era of restoration through indemnity has ended, what
kind of age is dawning? Only the reign of tranquility and prosperity in the
victorious realm centered on God and True Parents shall be eternal.
Fourth, we are
now entering the era of the realm of God’s direct dominion. Ladies and
gentlemen, I have said that only a year remains until the “D-Day” proclaimed by
Heaven. I beg that you inscribe in your hearts the fact that we have entered
the era of the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath in which your direct family members
in the spirit world shall return to the earth to receive the Original Divine
Principle education, and in which eight generations will live together in a
single family.
Ladies and
gentlemen, I would now like to share with you the conclusion of the efforts
made by Rev. Moon, the teacher and the trainer of the physical and spiritual
worlds. He worked devotedly throughout his lifetime to reach this ultimate
conclusion, to conclude and complete the unification of the religious world and
the earthly world, the spirit world and the physical world, and the world of
Cain and Abel.
Such results
could not be seen before in the course of history. We are now living at a time
when God is concluding the final stages of the providence and harvesting its
fruits. In Nepal at this very hour, for example, a national television station
is broadcasting the Original Divine Principle lectures received from True
Parents to educate the entire nation’s people. In addition, activities centered
on the United Nations are now on track and gaining speed.
The Women’s
Federation for World Peace, which my husband and I founded, has been recognized
for initiating activities aligned with the UN’s founding purpose and goals.
Thus, it is now recognized as one of the top- tier organizations among the some
thirty-four hundred NGOs registered with the UN. Furthermore, WFWP has achieved
outstanding results in its activities promoting women’s rights and solving
problems of poverty and children’s education.
WFWP has already
been honored for its work on a number of occasions. In addition, WFWP carried
out activities both in Korea and abroad conforming to the UN’s Millennium
Development Goals. In 2010 WFWP submitted its four-year assessment report and
was re-accredited by the UN for the third time since its initial approval in
1997.1 consider this a great achievement.
Beloved WFWP
Japan members, henceforth WFWP Japan needs to give impetus to the education of
members centering on Rev. Moon’s thought and teaching on peace and unity. It
has to nurture women leaders toward establishing true family ethics and
realizing a world of peace. We can spare no effort in creating an international
network of women leaders for the realization of the ideal of a world of peace,
with humanity as one family.
Moreover, each
of us needs to fundamentally nurture or value and train, with great care, our
precious original nature, which God has given. Each and every one of our
members needs to make effort to lead with feminine grace, motherly love and
maternal heart. By so doing, we will plant love and peace in our families and
societies. Furthermore, we must stand at the forefront in constructing a
peaceful global village and do our utmost to build a world of peace, with
humanity as one family.
Providentially,
Japan has been given the mission of the Eve nation. That is why Japan has two
very different sons: the pro-Pyongyang Federation of Resident Koreans in Japan
and the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union of Japan. Unless the two are united,
Japan cannot stand as the Eve nation. Eve must embrace the pro-Pyongyang and
pro-Seoul groups, which are like Cain and Abel, unite them, and then connect
them as one to the Korean Peninsula.
The members of WFWP
in Korea and Japan need to become one, focusing on the goal of the restoration
of a unified Korea, and press forward together until the nation sought by God
is restored.
Ladies and
gentlemen, now the world’s progress centers on True Parents. Former historical
enemies like Korea and Japan, Japan and the United States, and the United
States and Russia will come to participate in inter- cultural marriage
Blessings on a supranational scale to sever the fallen lineage they have
inherited from Satan and to inherit the new lineage of Heaven.
The Korea-Japan
Undersea Tunnel project and the Bering Strait Bridge Tunnel project, which Rev.
Moon has declared before all heaven and earth and is
carrying forward even as we speak, will be completed under the guidance of the
liberated God with religious believers working at the forefront on a global
scale. Communism, the ideology of atheism that denies the existence of God,
will vanish and the world where all peoples can communicate and live in harmony
as originally envisioned by God will be realized.
Though our
destination is beyond the horizon, do not forget that we must begin by uniting
our mind and body, centered on true love. We have to bear in mind that when our
families become the settlement of eternal happiness and true love, our desired
ideal nation and ideal world can be brought to fruition.
I pray that all
of you will become victors who are part of this historic and providential
revolution. The heavenly fortune that flows through the True Parents of Heaven,
Earth and Humankind will be with you all.
God, True
Parents and our neighbors and societies can love the Women’s Federation for
World Peace, and you can feel authentic value and happiness in life because you
are walking the path of the true mother.
Let us walk the
path of the true mother.
Let us walk the
path of the true wife.
Let us walk the
path of the true daughter.
I pray in the
name of True Parents that God’s blessings be with you, your family and your
nation.
Thank you.
13
Keynote Speech at the Inauguration
of the Abel Women’s UN
July 16, 2012
Cheongshim Peace World
Center, Korea Inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN
I would like to
extend my warmest welcome to the woman leaders, peace leaders and members of
the Women’s Federation of World Peace (WFWP) from one hundred ninety-four
nations, who have come to the Cheongshim Peace World
Center in Korea to take part in the historic Abel Women’s UN Inauguration
Assembly.
From our early
days, my wife and I have upheld Heaven’s will and proclaimed the vision of the
peaceful world originally envisioned at the time of the Creation. We have come
here today, having returned from America after completing our busy providential
schedule there, in order to establish the Abel Women’s UN. It has the mission
of realizing the providential goal of creating, on earth, a world of lasting
peace, without conflict or war.
As my wife and I
have already proclaimed, Korea is God’s homeland. Therefore, this inaugural
assembly for the Abel Women’s UN, which will play the providential role of
leading the establishment of a new world of peace, had to take place here in
Korea in accordance with God’s will.
Beloved woman
leaders from around the world, as you are well aware, representatives of all
the world’s peoples, who had been suffering from the aftermath of the Second
World War, founded the United Nations according to God’s will and with a
yearning for peace. In June 1945, representatives from fifty nations met in San
Francisco in the United States of America to sign the United Nations Charter.
Today, with one hundred ninety three member nations, the United Nations has
developed into a unique organization in the world with the purpose of
maintaining global peace.
Respected
peace-seeking leaders from around the world, what is today’s reality? During
the sixty years of the United Nations’ existence, it has been unable to prevent
wars from breaking out, including the Korean War. Even though the Cold War has
ended, the world is not free from wars, both large and small, that originate
from conflicts between rich and poor, between races, and between people of
different faiths. Hasn’t the UN experienced repeated breakdowns of its efforts
to fulfill its original purpose and mission to maintain global peace?
At the time of
its inauguration, the UN was shaped by a compromise between the United States
and the former Soviet Union produced under the confrontational structure of the
Cold War. From the outset, its ability to transcend individual nations’
interests and to bring about lasting world peace was limited. For this reason I
have proclaimed that in terms of God’s will, the UN has been unable to emerge
from the position of Cain. Therefore we emphasize that the renewal of the UN is
absolutely critical to building a world of lasting peace as originally envisioned
at the time of the Creation.
To realize this
renewal in a concrete form, I maintain that an Abel-type interreligious and
international peace council needs to be organized within the United Nations. I
propose a reorganization of the UN into a bicameral system within the present
UN General Assembly. The arena of individual nations with their competing
interests can serve as the lower house, and the interreligious and
international peace council consisting of global religious leaders can serve as
the upper house. I already have presented this proposal of renewal to the UN,
and the Philippines, as a co-sponsoring nation, has
done so as well.
Respected
peace leaders, the UN has run into a brick wall. It is unable to move beyond balancing the
various interests of individual nations. Isn’t that the case? In history up to
now, we have depended on governmental organizations mostly managed by men to
bring about global peace. Now, however, to surmount the limitations they have
demonstrated, I believe that a women’s peace movement based on nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) needs to take root as a new system to resolve problems
that arise in the field. One individual or one NGO alone cannot carry out this
women’s peace movement; rather, it is only possible through a global
organization exercising global solidarity. For this reason today’s inauguration
of the Abel Women’s UN is absolutely necessary.
Today’s
historic, inaugural assembly of the Abel Women’s UN was made possible by the
foundation of the declaration of the coming of the global era of women. Twenty
years ago, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon and I declared this era, when we founded
the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) in April 1992 as a central
organization of the women’s peace movement, in accordance with Heaven’s decree.
The event took place at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in Jamshil,
and woman representatives from more than seventy nations and one hundred fifty
thousand Korean woman leaders attended. Since then, WFWP, which this year
celebrates its twentieth anniversary, has established local chapters and has
been active in more than one hundred sixty nations. It has continuously
participated in the global peace movement by creating networks that carry out
peace efforts.
Furthermore, the
Women’s Federation for World Peace does not intend to be an ordinary women’s
organization. It does not aim to be an external, political and aggressive
women’s rights movement mainly targeting men, which advocates the expansion of
women’s rights, gender equality and reform of the workplace. Rather, it is a
global peace movement on a whole new level with the providential significance
of realizing the ideal world as God envisioned it at the Creation.
In the context
of such providential significance, during the past twenty years, WFWP has
carried out service projects and education programs based on true motherly
love. It has been active in all parts of the globe, establishing families that
embody true love and elevate the status of mothers, wives, sisters and
daughters. It has achieved amazing growth and development throughout the world.
From the moment
of its inauguration, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon and I have worked together as co-founders
to prepare the ground for WFWP’s global organization and the foundation for
WFWP activities. WFWP members, including the
sixteen hundred Japanese members who went to one hundred sixty nations as
volunteer workers in its early days, have carried forth a peace movement around
the world.
At WFWP’s
inaugural assembly, my wife said in her inaugural message that, under True
Mother as the victorious representative of the world’s women, women can now
establish the model of a true mother and true wife and form ideal families
through a true love movement. Furthermore, women can carry out a campaign to
exemplify the practice of true love by living for the sake of others in all
walks of life, including politics, economics, culture and social work.
Accordingly, we
have carried out a variety of volunteer projects and educational programs, as
well as campaigns to bring about the resolution and reconciliation of
international conflicts, transcending the barriers of race, religion, language
and nationality.
In addition,
after the special address my wife gave at the UN headquarters in New York in
September 1993, and based on three years of hard work, the United Nations
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) approved the Women’s Federation for World
Peace as an NGO in general consultative status, which is the highest status given to an NGO. Since then, every four years after
our approval, our status has been re-approved. This ECOSOC re-evaluation
entails a strict assessment of activities and achievements. It is safe to say
that ECOSOC recognizes our true value, because among the more than three
thousand nine hundred NGOs affiliated with the United Nations, only one hundred
forty have this highest status.
Our WFWP Women’s
Conference for Peace in the Middle East, which has been held every year since
1997, has attracted widespread interest and participation from woman leaders of
the Middle East nations. Over the years, it has expanded and recently given
birth to more concrete activities in the field, about which I am glad to be
able to report. At the end of June this year 2012, WFWP sponsored the sixteenth
annual Middle East conference, held as a session of the Human Rights Council at
the United Nations Office at Geneva. The subject was Children Affected by
Conflict and Disaster: Prevention, Protection, Healing and Empowerment. Women
leaders from eighteen nations in the Middle East, diplomatic officials,
including ambassadors to the United Nations in Geneva from around the world,
and representatives from UN agencies and global NGOs attended the conference.
About one hundred eighty participants came together, discussed this serious,
contemporaneous problem, and resolved to apply the results of their discussions
in the field.
Furthermore,
each WFWP chapter is also providing relief aid to address problems caused by
natural calamities and poverty in various parts of the global village. In
particular, under the slogan, “Let us share a little of what we have,” they are
carrying out the 1% Love Share Project to help children and women in North
Korea. I am very happy to tell you that they have achieved wonderful results.
As can be seen,
from WFWP’s founding to its reaching the highest consultative status as an NGO
at the United Nations, our members have never lost their founding spirit and
have quietly pioneered the path of a woman’s peace movement with an unwavering
heart. Therefore, I would like to offer a big round of applause to express my
utmost gratitude to them, and also to the woman leaders who have never held
back in their encouragement and participation.
However, the
work for world peace WFWP carried out until now need not remain at its current
stage. It has the potential to expand and develop to the next stage, so that it
can work together in solidarity and cooperation with woman leaders and NGOs
from all parts of the world, and strive to follow the path of the ultimate
establishment of the world of peace.
In order to do
that, WFWP has to go beyond the level of a women’s NGO, bring together the
governments, organizations and individuals across the world and march forward.
The establishment of a great organization under the name Abel Women’s UN is
absolutely necessary to bring this about. It is, in fact, the absolute decree
of God’s providence.
As we usher in
such a cosmically historic and revolutionary era of changes, my wife and I
solemnly declare the inauguration of the Abel Women’s UN. We urge all women in
the world, who make up half of its population, to recognize their historic
mission as stated above and to expand their work to all parts of the globe.
Beloved woman
leaders who seek peace, what path does humankind need to take today? In the
end, the problems afflicting humanity can only be resolved through the
worldview of one family under God, which is the system of thought based on true
love that my wife and I, the True Parents, have learned from Heaven and have
championed and taught throughout our lives. These ideals alone represent the
path that will lead humanity to a world of everlasting peace and happiness.
We are living in
a historic time of a great cosmic revolution to change history, to unite the
spiritual and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that
God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or
delay it. Heaven has already proclaimed that the thirteenth day of the first
month in 2013 by the lunar calendar will be its Foundation Day.
Therefore, it is
a time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven’s decree. I hope you will
bear in mind that a fateful time is approaching, and that we need to devote ourselves
completely with a life or death commitment for the remaining time under the
guidance of True Parents, who are carrying out the providence on earth as the
substantial selves of God, the King of peace.
Beloved woman
leaders, the course for humanity is set. Now that we have Foundation Day, the
“D-Day” that Heaven has given us through True Parents, what reason is there to
hesitate? We now have less than a year. Heaven will bless your endeavors to
establish a world of peace based on the Abel Women’s UN.
However, I would
like to emphasize again that the priority of the Abel Women’s UN needs to be
creating a true family movement that emphasizes living for the sake of others
based on true love and carried out in conjunction with education in proper
values. War and conflict arise from selfish motives, desiring to take others’
land, others’ possessions and the like by force. On the other hand, peace
arises from investing oneself for the sake of others, that is, giving based on
true love.
Those leaders
who turn their faces away from the new realities of the world, or who refuse to
see them, will be cast aside by the changes coming upon us like a tsunami. I
believe the time has now come for us to step forward boldly and seize new
opportunities and values.
Beloved woman
leaders, you are not here merely to help or to be protected by men; rather,
women are interdependent individuals who, as representatives of the feminine
aspect of God’s nature, are meant to make men more complete and manly.
Centering on true love, women are men’s precious love partners. Men and women
are absolutely equal in terms of value.
Men and women
who unite through the true love inherent in the original ideal share the same
position. Also, they attain the right to accompany each other wherever they may
be. Furthermore, they attain the ideal right of inheritance, where all their
property belongs to each equally. Thus, when the original love unites men and
women in God’s ideal of true love, they become completely equal beings, focused
on true love, by sharing the same rank and the right of participation and their
possessions with one another.
Therefore, men
and women do not need to confront or contend with each other, because they do
not need to imitate the characteristics, dispositions or roles of the other or
to covet those things and take them by force. Instead, by giving what they have
to the other with true love, and completing the other, they can unite in a
greater whole and share in a relationship of joint ownership.
In the
twenty-first century, women need to play a major role in world history by
serving, together with men, as the wheels of the vehicle advancing the
construction of a peaceful world. Transitioning beyond a century of power and
technology, women will be the central axis in building a new century
characterized by its loving, peaceful culture, and their role will be more
important than ever before.
I sincerely ask
you to choose the path of a true mother, the path of a true wife, of a true
daughter and of a true woman leader who will build a united world where
freedom, peace and happiness overflow in its truest form.
Ladies and
gentlemen, thank you for having listened closely right to the end of my speech.
I pray that God’s blessing will be with you, your families and your work.
Thank you.
14
Let Us Become Leaders in a
World of Peace
November 3,1984
Little Angels
Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
First Student Convention of the World Collegiate Association
for the Research of Principles (W-CARP)
(Given on True
Father’s behalf)
Distinguished
guests, leaders of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles
(CARP), and representatives from every nation:
I would like to
welcome you to this World CARP Student Convention. I would have liked to see
your fresh, hope-filled faces directly, and I regret that circumstances prevent
me from doing so. Although I cannot be here physically, I will be with you in
heart and spirit throughout this period, and let’s promise to have an even more
moving meeting again in the future. Although my body is imprisoned at Danbury,
my ideal and work for history and the world are progressing without faltering.
Many famous people and great scholars have come to comfort me from around the
world and have listened to God’s plan, and recently leaders from mainstream
Christian chinches in America have been cooperating with and supporting us
actively. These developments are enormously encouraging for us all.
The fact that
this first World CARP Student Convention is being held in Korea is very
meaningful. Korea is not merely the place where I was born and where the Divine
Principle movement originated. It is the place where, from a young age, I led a
life of deep prayer and, through incredible struggles and searching through
unexplored parts of the spirit world, I organized
God’s teachings into the Divine Principle, sacrificing my youth while planning
for the future.
Dear CARP
leaders and CARP representatives from every nation, I would like to show my
appreciation for your hard work. Alongside your course of research, you are
doing splendid work in a practical movement to fulfill God’s Will. I am well
aware that on university campuses and on the streets, you have stood against
and overcome forces of unrighteousness, injustice and corruption. Your
honorable endeavors to bring down the Berlin Wall, as well as your unyielding
efforts, with the heart of martyrs, to fight against and overcome the forces of
evil in Japan and the United States, are monumental achievements in CARP
history.
I view the CARP
.movement with great hope. Throughout the course of many years it has put down
roots in more than seventy nations. On this foundation it saddens our hearts
that our CARP members who are working in various communist nations have been
unable to attend this first World CARP Student Convention.
One of my
motives for establishing CARP lies in the youth and passion of university
students. You do not live dwelling on the past; you live with endless hope for
the future. You respect righteousness and long for truth and beauty. The
innocent heart of youth has within it the most appropriate foundation to
receive God’s Will.
In obedience to
the Will of God, I established the goal of reforming the chosen people. I want
to educate young intellectuals and nurture them to become people who adopt the
motto, “Love Heaven, Love Humankind, Love Your Country,” and have them take the
leading role in the new history. God’s ultimate providence is not restricted to
any particular race, culture, district, church or denomination. For this
purpose, you have to become a young generation that is forward-looking,
open-minded and future-oriented, and become the driving force of the world.
That is another reason I am placing my hope in CARP.
It is God’s Will
for all people to jump across theological and doctrinal fences. For His Will to
be fulfilled in every aspect of culture, it needs to be introduced first to
college students as the new inheritors of culture and spread from there
academically, philosophically and in practice. I know especially well that the
red movement of international communism, standing in opposition to God, plans
to use university campuses as a strategic base. I therefore wish to ensure that
the youth of the world no longer are seduced by its falsehoods.
Thus, to
overcome communism, I established CARP as a movement with a new philosophy and
practice. This movement already has been tested on university campuses in
Japan. In various parts of the world CARP is currently leading young people in
a confrontation with communist ideology, and it is setting a good example of
living a life of practice and service based on God’s love.
Communism is not
the only problem in today’s world. Having gone through the Industrial
Revolution and two world wars, humankind has witnessed the collapse of its prevailing
worldview. It has not been able to find a new worldview that can digest the
rapid progress of modern science and technology, and it is drifting along,
unable to check the confusion of our human values. God already has brought an
answer today, and He wants to say many things to the world’s youth, as they
easily can be sucked in and hurt by the whirlpools that arise from this
confusion.
Both God and
humankind hope to build a united, ideal world of peace. An ideal world of peace
is a united world where there are no conflicts. However, before we seek a
united world, we first have to seek a unified nation. Likewise, before there
can be a unified nation, there has to be a united tribe, which in turn needs to
be preceded by a united family. Furthermore, before there can be a united,
ideal family, there need to be ideal individuals without any conflicts or
contradictions within them.
In this manner,
the solution to the problem, from the individual level to the worldwide level,
is possible only when the conflict between the incompatible forces of good and
evil is overcome. The historical teaching to achieve this goal has come through
religion, and the Messiah is the central figure and model for this providence.
When the true world of peace is realized, that world will last for eternity and
inevitably will transcend nations, races and religions. It will become a
society of one family under God as our common Parent, a society in which all
people are linked as brothers and sisters.
Although this is
the burning desire of God and humankind, what is the world’s situation today?
We talk about the global village and one world. However, individualism plays
the dominant role in diversification and specialization. The trend of
individualism is fanning the flames and has reached its peak, greatly damaging
the order of existence in the world. Environmental pollution and the
destruction of nature have brought about an ecological crisis for the whole
world, and the manufacture of computer-controlled weapons of mass destruction has
forced the people who created them to be like slaves trembling in fear.
What is the
reason for the collapse of the basic value systems that have been guided by
religions at their core? The reason is that religions have cast off their
original responsibility and have lost their ability to lead because of
perpetual disputes and divisions. Religions have not been able to explain
clearly about God, life and the universe, and are unable to distinguish clearly
between good and evil or righteousness and unrighteousness. They especially
have been unable to give lucid answers to questions about the existence of God.
As religions lost their traditional authority, material things ceased to be the
means and became the goal, and pleasure seeking became our life’s ideal. Human
nature became animal-like, captivated by physical and worldly desires. In this
type of situation, the basic values of true love, service, righteousness and
rebirth cannot continue.
Furthermore, the
systematic expansion of machine-controlled operations into human relationships
is accelerating the phenomena of dehumanization and human alienation, and is
increasing the tendency toward human insignificance and compartmentalization.
All of us ardently seek a new value system that can liberate us from this
situation, which is suffocating our original human nature.
The new value
system must originate from a new religion that has the power to convince people
in the modern world and offer solutions to modern-day problems. It must teach
people that God is the Parent of humankind and establish that the universe does
not originate from matter. Regarding human spirituality and character, it has
to reveal that human beings, as God’s heirs, have the authority to rule over
the universe. In addition, it must teach about the ideal love that was part of
the original creation and about the dual purpose of everything in the universe.
It must reveal that within the great order of the universe, the original ideal
was for everything to exist in harmony. The new value system has to encompass
all these areas.
The Collegiate
Association for the Research of Principles is a movement to spread the Divine
Principle. It is the practical movement of university students testifying to
God. If we do not reveal the truth, we cannot unite the will of people in
society, and without a movement that can actualize God’s Will,
there can be no fruit of His Will in the world. The Divine Principle movement
we are advancing is not for the purpose of curing parts of the old, sick
established culture. This movement intends to make a new beginning, starting
from the origin.
Each of you, as
individual truth bodies created by God, needs to cultivate your own character
through applying the Principle and, with a fervent, passionate and pure mind,
clear up and overthrow unrighteousness and evil. Although your body may be
living in this fallen world, don’t allow Satan to influence you. Transcending
the sorrows of the past, you have to become a model of hope. Don’t be depressed
when you experience hardships; instead, look toward the future with a vision of
hope. God does not need your particular skills or knowledge. God needs you;
your mind, your will and your devotion.
From a young age
I did not lose hope, even when faced with death, because I could feel God’s Will
and heart at every moment. There was not a single instant when I was not aware
of the world, the universe, humankind and history. That was because I didn’t
have time even to feel my body’s fatigue. At every major turning point in
history the power responsible for a new culture originated with young people. I
do not need to mention the well-known examples of the young Buddha or the young
Jesus. I too started my public life by founding the Unification movement in my
mid-twenties.
CARP leaders and
CARP members, who have gathered here today representing the youth of the world,
we, the people of the Divine Principle movement, have to stand at the vanguard
on the road toward the new world for which all people are longing. We have to
take the leading role to bring about God’s ideal world of peace. You have to
inherit my tradition and move ever forward, preparing the external foundation
and also inheriting the internal world of God’s heart and tradition of faith.
You are now at the steering wheel of a ship that more than four billion people
have boarded.
Through our
proper attitude, service and sacrifice, let us give hope to all people and be
the flag-bearers in creating a new culture at the dawn of the new age of the
twenty-first century. May the blessings and grace of the living God be upon the
worldwide CARP movement.
Thank you.
15
Let Us Open a New Era of Civilization
August 20,1995
Jangchung Gymnasium,
Seoul, Korea
Youth Federation for World Peace Korean National Delegates
General Assembly
(True Mother’s speech)
My dear members
of the Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP), representatives from nations
across the world, and guests from home and abroad:
I would like to
take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude for your support and
encouragement.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon proposed the establishment of YFWP in October
1993, and it set out on its great quest on July 26,1994,
at a rally in Washington, DC. In Korea it began with the organization of the
South Jeolla Province branch on December 15. By February
1995, the organization of thirty-seven branches in cities and provinces across
the nation was completed, and by the end of June there were two hundred
seventy-three branches in cities, counties and districts. To my knowledge, at
present there are more than three thousand seven hundred branches at the level
of town, township and neighborhood. This rapid development in such a short time
is the result of the passionate support and interest you have shown in YFWP.
Once again, I would like to offer a hearty round of applause for your hard work
and the steadily mounting reputation of YFWP.
My beloved YFWP
members, we need to show at least as much, if not greater, interest in our
internal improvement and practice as in our external achievements. No longer
can we repeat the past generation’s conflicts and indiscretions, caused by
confusion and chaos. This is because we are the conscience of this generation
of young people and we need to take central leadership in the world.
Proper ethics
and moral values disappeared from today’s youth a long time ago. Young people
cannot even distinguish whether their current values or degenerate actions are
right or wrong. The prevailing hedonistic culture and distorted views of life
have led to evils that have paralyzed the judgment of young people in finding
the right direction for their lives. Unless they go out of their way to seek a
life of value, such things as true love, head-wing thought and the concept of
God will be beyond their reach.
Beloved YFWP
members, do you know your own value? Can you feel the preciousness and value of
the ideals that you hold in your heart and your determination to realize them?
You need to know that when those ideals are accompanied by practical actions,
they can become the source of energy that can even move mountains. It would be
natural not to act when you don’t know what to do. However, the people who are
meant to lead this world and become its central figures have to be people who
can look squarely at the world without wavering and know how to put their faith
into action.
What kind of
people do you want to be? Would you become the courageous center, or would you
rather be insignificant people who are driven and dragged around from here to
there? It is said that long ago our wise Korean ancestors sent their youths for
years and even decades to the training grounds of such schools as Hwarang-Do, Gookseon-Do and Gyeong- Dang. Illustrious leaders such as Admiral Lee
Soon-shin and General Kim Yoo-shin are representative
graduates of such schools.
Through
seminars, workshops and youth education the Youth Federation for World Peace is
developing a movement for the establishment of true values in a world where
traditional values are increasingly forgotten while ethics and morality have
become more and more confused. Through this movement we will awaken young
people to the preciousness of true love and true life and head toward the
original form of humanity. Then they can begin to build the societal structures
for the coming ideal world, a world based on the unchanging, absolute values of
God and the young people who embody them. These values will form the center of
the youth movement of this era. Throughout history, regardless of place or
time, God valued young people and made them stand at the center of history.
When they march forward, training and cultivating themselves by leading the
right kind of life, God will manifest Himself vividly in their daily lives.
Although
cultivating your body and mind is something you need to do throughout your
life, its importance is truly incalculable during your youth.
This is because
adolescence was the period in which the Fall occurred,
and also because adolescence signifies the beginning of the awakening of your
mind, marking the second stage of your life.
As young people
going through such an important period, you need to become the pioneers who
have the exceptional courage and vigor to open the gates of a new era. To
translate this important task into action, the Youth Federation for World Peace
will work, under the principle of mutual benefits, in reciprocal solidarity
with all organizations that are in philosophical agreement. These include the
Federation for World Peace, the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, the
Women’s Federation for World Peace, and the Family Federation for World Peace
and Unification. Presently countless young people in nations around the world,
including those in Central and South America, are participating in our
movement. In particular, the YFWP is actively taking part in efforts to unite
Protestantism and Catholicism and to unite North and South America. I believe
that these efforts will play constructive roles in bringing about the
reunification of our homeland on the Korean Peninsula.
In addition,
through the Unification movement and fraternal exchanges and cooperation with
international youths and students, the YFWP will fulfill the mission of a
“Youth UN” to realize a world of peace and true unity and organize all
structures to prepare for the era of a new civilization in the twenty-first
century. YFWP will engage in a movement that builds the ideal world of
interdependent living, mutual prosperity and shared goodwill, where everyone
can live in affluence through the democratization of societies and nations and
equitable economic distribution. In such a world all people will be able to
enjoy freedom and equality based on the true love of God and will lead lives
befitting humankind. Even as we speak, countless people in many developing
nations are in miserable circumstances and are dying of starvation and disease.
This is not just the business of others, for it concerns us all. Rather than
viewing with pity the tragedy of our dying brothers and sisters in the global
village, we must carry out the ultimate, global salvation movement to help them
substantially.
At present, Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, the founder of YFWP, is continuing to
educate many young people in Africa and have them participate in the
Unification movement in order to liberate their countries from the sufferings
of starvation and poverty. Moreover, to take care of the nations in Central and
South America, whose development is stagnant and which are second only to
African nations in terms of underdevelopment, he is promoting various projects
in conjunction with the Association for the Unity of Latin America. To
successfully realize these plans, we visited dozens of nations in Central and
South America and met with their heads of state. He promised to make joint
efforts for the bright future of Latin America before his return.
Now the
Unification movement, centered on YFWP, is taking root in more than one hundred
sixty nations around the world. In particular it is brightening the future of
the youths and intellectuals of Russia and Eastern European nations, who lost
their ideological coordinates with the downfall of communism. At 5:00 in the
morning, April 3 of this year, in the presence of leaders representing one
hundred sixty nations around the world, my husband and I announced the New Hope
Farm Declaration. Prior to that, on March 31 of this year, we announced the Sao
Paulo Declaration. We then set out on our long, historic march to establish an
ideal society and an ideal, model nation. The current crises of humanity and
environmental pollution, resulting from problems such as the spread of sexual
immorality, greed, starvation and poverty, and misguided applications of
science, have reached a stage where we can no longer turn a blind eye toward
them. As a means of overcoming such crises, we are cultivating vast areas of
land under the name New Hope Farm, to create a model of an ideal society and
ideal nation. This land, totaling more than a million acres,
lies in South and Central America, including parts of Brazil and Argentina.
We then can
expand this model of an ideal society to the rest of the world. In my opinion,
this movement is the most important enterprise that our YFWP members need to
promote as they stand in the central position. It is also the hope of God and
the dream of the founder and the substantial, ideal society that YFWP is aiming
for. Modeling yourselves after this pioneering spirit of the founder, you too
need to show your revolutionary spirit in your own way.
Just as many
conscientious ancestors have fought against the crises of humanity and the
chaos of the Last Days in every period of transition of the ages, likewise you
members of YFWP have to fulfill your mission with your own clear conviction and
effort. This mission is the task you are to accomplish at all costs in order to
build a peaceful global community in the coming twenty-first century, and we
need to do all we can to encourage united efforts on a worldwide scale.
Members of the
Youth Federation for World Peace, you need to sow the substantial, ripe seed of
God’s Will and ideal in your hearts. By doing so, you are to resemble Him more
than anyone else, and you are to become youths who can set down deep roots in
the new era and the coming future. Now is the moment when you need to act with
the passion and culture of your hearts. We have to develop cultural programs
that can reform this chaotic world and create art that all can enjoy with
pleasure.
In accordance
with the founder’s teaching, let us make YFWP an organization with a noble
spirit that can establish new values aligned with God. Let us help this fallen
world, which denies God, to understand the providence of God. Let us lead the
way in a human revolution through which God and humankind can become one. When
we achieve individual perfection, that is maturity of our own character guided
by God, followed by the family and tribe restored to God, and lead the nation
and people to Him, at the same time the world and cosmos will come naturally to
the presence of God. Only when we place God at the center of all our thoughts
and actions, can the results stemming from them be good and can we become
leading figures in the establishment of a new history.
My dear YFWP
members and national representatives and guests from home and abroad, let us
all become organizers who can lead the new, moral world with burning desire.
Let us become youths who can find and establish the right values and morality
in the lost conscience of humanity and march forward
as the vanguard.
You have the
infinite energy and conviction of God and the. undaunted
spirit that makes you get up again in the face of any difficulty. It is said
that Heaven helps those who help themselves. Your spirit is stronger and redder
than the morning sun. Whenever I see you filled with aspiration and hope, I can
only think of my husband, the founder of YFWP, Rev. Sun Myung
Moon. In his youth, my husband received the mission from God to save humanity,
and since then he has dedicated his entire life, investing his efforts
ceaselessly, to resolve the sorrows of God’s providential history. The world
has misunderstood and persecuted him in all kinds of ways, and yet he has clung
to the heart of God and prayed in tears and fought against the forces of evil.
Ultimately he was able to proclaim the coming of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age and thus win an historic victory.
In his long
course of life he has undergone many hardships. They include his suffering in
prison under communist rule in North Korea, where he hovered between life and
death, imprisonment under the authoritarian regime of Syngman
Rhee in South Korea, and suffering in Danbury prison in the United States,
where he was oppressed because of racial and religious bigotry. Nonetheless, he
did not forsake the Will of God and won by his own efforts with his indomitable
fighting spirit. Today he has established a worldwide foundation that he can be
proud of before God and all peoples of the world.
Standing by his
side, I see my husband living his life solely to resolve the sorrows of God’s
providence of salvation, unable to rest in comfort even for a minute. I can
feel how his whole being is filled with the Will of God. Despite the fact that
he is an older man nearing his eighties, he continues to promote the work for
world peace and the salvation of humanity with passion and efforts that exceed
those of young people. As youths, you need to inherit this spirit of the
founder and take part in the heavenly march toward building the ideal world.
Dear YFWP
members who will lead the future of humanity, the hand of salvation headed
toward the new world of the twenty-first century is waiting for us. You need to
establish the unchanging center of God in your hearts and inherit the shining
tradition of the life course of True Parents. You have to become the leading
figures in constructing a united world of peace, where the world is one family
and all people live as brothers and sisters, transcending ethnicity,
nationality and race, which is God’s ideal of creation. I welcome all of you,
who have rolled up your sleeves to lead the way in working to achieve
prosperity and happiness for humankind. Let us all participate in the movement
that practices true love for the reunification of the homeland and world peace
guided by Godism. Let us become the axis of the youth
of this age, going beyond mere thinking and translating our thoughts into
actions, and light the flame of the culture of the heart. Attending God and
True Parents, let us become the center of the true youth movement as the proud
young people who can expand our energies from the individual level to the
levels of the family, tribe, people, nation and world, thereby building the
ideal world.
Young people who
will open the new century: The twenty-first century is yours. Let us become the
enlightened youth who can pioneer the age of the new civilization, open a
twenty-first century filled with love and peace, and brighten the future of
humanity. Once again, I thank you all for your hard work and warm support. I
also would like to express my deep gratitude to the guests from home and abroad
and the representatives of nations who have graced us with your presence. As
the head of the Youth Federation for World Peace, I love you all from the
bottom of my heart.
Finally, I pray
that the abundant blessings and grace of God will be with you, the YFWP members
and guests from Korea and abroad.
Thank you.
16
Establishing a World of
Moral Principles
August 20,1995
Jangchung Gymnasium,
Seoul, Korea
Youth Federation for World Peace Korea Rally
Distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen, Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP) members
and representatives from each nation who have filled our stadium! As the
founder of this federation, I am overjoyed with the opportunity to extend my
gratitude to you on this significant occasion.
I would like to
take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all of you, as members of
YFWP who have exerted great efforts to develop the federation since its
establishment on July 26 of last year. I believe that your hard work assuredly
will not be in vain. Now YFWP is becoming a base for the unity and coordination
of young people who will stand at the forefront of world peace and the building
of an ideal society for humankind. I am hoping for your support and backing as
the conscientious youth of the twenty-first century who, gathered together
within YFWP, will bring peace to humankind and open up a united world.
Dear members of
YFWP! I would like to speak about the future direction of YFWP through today’s
speech, “Establishing a World of Moral Principles.” As you know well, our
current generation faces a serious crisis. The dehumanization and moral
corruption that have followed the sophistication of material civilization have
reached their extreme. This is due to human beings betraying their original
Parent, God. Because of the Fall of our ancestors,
human beings lost touch with their original mind, which focuses on God, and
thereby descended into a fallen world.
People who do
not know God, who is the standard of absolute values and the absolute center
who directs us to goodness, could only fall deeper into the hell of strife,
hatred, corruption and depravity. However, God, who is the Parent of humankind,
did not forsake human beings. God continued the providence to save us.
God sent
numerous prophets, saints and religious leaders to this earth in hopes of
saving humankind. Saints such as Jesus, who came two thousand years ago as the
Messiah, the Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad, and Confucius were people who worked
to guide humanity in the direction of goodness.
The fact that
the numerous religions that have remained throughout history fundamentally aim
toward goodness can be understood in this way. Though many religions and
ideologies have come and gone in history, an ideal world that gives true peace
and happiness to human beings has yet to be realized. This reality demonstrates
that the existing religions and ideologies have inherent limitations.
Beloved YFWP
members, how can we overcome these limitations? In order to realize the
original ideal, we need to unfold a movement based on the culture of heart
originating in God’s true love. I came to know God in my youth and have
invested my efforts tirelessly and fervently in order to realize God’s purpose
throughout history to save humankind. I entreat you as young people to inherit
the Will of God and to continuously strive to resemble True Parents. In order
to achieve God’s Will, we need first to apply Godism
and head-wing thought as we aim toward world peace and the reunification of the
homeland, and as we stand at the forefront, bringing prosperity and happiness
to humankind.
From that
viewpoint, the issue of Korean unification, of which we are only too aware, is
the task that we must resolve first and foremost. Even though it has been fifty
years since the liberation of our people, the Korean Peninsula still is cut in
half at the waist.
The division of
the Korean Peninsula, which sometimes is called the final ideological conflict,
is no longer just the problem of our peninsula. It is becoming a global issue.
So we cannot just shout out our slogans; we need to prepare the path to achieve
unification and the strength to follow it.
The reason that
the Korean Peninsula was divided into North and South was not because our
people desired it. It was due to the influence of neighboring powers, such as
the two great nations of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, as well as China, Japan and others. Therefore, the reunification of
North and South cannot happen without changing the existing situation in which
the United States, the Russian Federation,
China, Japan and other nations continue guiding international order with the
division of our nation in place. In other words, I am saying that Korea needs
to build its subjective influence in order to have neighboring powers cooperate
in unifying the Korean Peninsula. This was the reason that I visited Pyongyang
in early December of 1991.
North-South
unification has now reached a stage at which it cannot be discussed without the
international foundation and influence that I have garnered. This is because
even North Korea knows well what I am capable of doing. Recently we have been
gaining the North Korean government’s trust in many ways in regard to
reunification. This increases the inclination in the North to play an active
part. With Godism, and true love for our people, we
relate with our North Korean compatriots as brothers and sisters and are
advancing a variety of projects in order to provide necessary economic aid with
a parental heart.
The Geumgang Mountain development plan, the plan to raise and
support flight industries and the plan to create the Jeongju
Peace Park are among the ways in which we are building the foundation for the
unity of our people. In particular, the plan to create the Jeongju
Peace Park will be realized centering on my birthplace, which the North Korean
government has already designated as a holy ground. The North is helping
actively in the work of making the land sacred.
Beloved Youth
Federation for World Peace members! What does unity mean? It means to become
one with another through true love without any conditions. One must present the
most concrete way toward unity through a movement that practices true love, a
movement that will allow two to put their trust and faith in one another.
Similarly, the unity of our people must occur through the path where the North
and South reconcile and cooperate to become one through the absolute true love
of God. This is also the reason that we invest in and support North Korea
unconditionally. I also have visited many nations in Latin America, where I met
each nation’s leader and promised to aid their continent’s vision for unity.
This unity of North and South America, which unites Protestantism and Catholicism,
will be part of a foundation to unite the world peacefully.
I have faith
that YFWP will take a leading role in the unification of our homeland. Please
stand at the forefront as conscientious young people working to re-unify our
homeland and unite the world into one. Only conscientious and awakened youth
are qualified to change history and to guide humankind to a better path.
I believe that
the most fundamental standard that corresponds to the human original nature is
the conscience. The conscience is the standard through which fallen humankind
can find God, its original Parent, again and advance toward a better world.
When human beings aim toward goodness according to the standard of conscience,
they can complete the realization of an ideal human society.
There have been
numerous saints and sages throughout history. Although they realized external
unity, they could not realize the unity of mind and body and, as a result, they
were unable to resolve a fundamental limitation. Now the True Parents have appeared
on the earth focused on God’s true love. They are realizing a true family and a
united ideal society and have become the mainstream of God’s providence of
salvation.
The True Parents
are the mediators who engraft humankind to God. Without True Parents, humankind
cannot go before God. True Parents are the ones who show us the only way that
humankind can be saved from the Fall. Please, once
again deeply remember the meaning of who True Parents are. Please receive True
Parents and please follow True Parents to take part in God’s work of saving
humankind.
Beloved members!
The reason that I founded YFWP was to initiate a movement to save the world. I
appointed my wife, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon, to stand at its head. My wife, is not only
the mother of thirteen children, she also is leading a true women’s movement as
the president of the Women’s Federation for World Peace and is working ardently
on a global level to realize an ideal human society. Mrs. Hak
Ja Han Moon has spoken on
hundreds of occasions, including in forty nations throughout the world in 1993,
addresses at the United Nations and to the national assemblies of Korea, Taiwan
and the United States, and lectures at forty Korean universities. She presents
the true path for humankind and is supported and welcomed fervently by those
who have attended her speeches.
In the future I
hope that YFWP will follow my intent, rally around Mrs. Hak
Ja Han Moon and become a
true light that unites North and South Korea and also opens the way to true
salvation for all human beings, who are in darkness.
Youth Federation
for World Peace members! True love is to give and give again infinitely. It is
the natural heart of forgetting the fact that we have given. Giving
unconditionally is certainly the most natural and precious thing. Where there
is true love, the human original mind responds and the human conscience wants
to stay.
I want all of
you who are here today to become practitioners of such true love. I also hope
sincerely that all human beings will work with YFWP. My wife and I will advance
powerfully so that the life force of infinite true love will reach the entire
world in the name of YFWP.
I sincerely hope
that you will become the young people who will stand at the forefront of
establishing a world of moral principles with true love, true life and true
lineage, which will allow people to come closer and closer to the original
human nature. The last request I would like to make of you is that you think of
yourselves as the true owners of YFWP and think of YFWP as your hands and feet.
If you can act in accord with this calling, you undoubtedly will encounter a
day when you will feel great pride for this time when you were a member of
YFWP. I pray that God’s blessings and grace will be with all of you.
Thank you.
17
The Central Role of Young People in
the Realization of True Love
November 28,1997
Hyatt Regency
Hotel, Washington, DC, USA
The Third World Congress of the Youth Federation for
World Peace
Esteemed President
of the Youth Federation for World Peace, honored Co- Chairman Richard
Rubenstein, guests from all parts of the world, and ladies and gentlemen:
I am truly happy
that we are able to hold the Third World Congress of the Youth Federation for
World Peace in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States, together with
representatives from more than one hundred thirty countries. It is particularly
meaningful that this gathering is part of the World Culture and Sports Festival
III, the centerpiece of which is the Blessing ceremony for 3.6 million couples.
This is partly
because you pure-hearted men and women from around the world, transcending
boundaries of race, religion and nationality, have been chosen to form the main
pillar of the Blessing ceremony. In addition, it is because, ultimately, you
young people are the ones who have to put into practice the results of all the
conferences held during this festival in preparation for the twenty-first
century. I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to
you Youth Federation for World Peace members for dedicating your heart and soul
in all areas and levels of society for the sake of achieving world peace, and
for the contributions you have made toward that end.
I would
particularly like to thank Heaven and praise you for the fact that your
activities, along with those of World Collegiate Association for the Research
of Principles, the Women’s Federation for World Peace, the Family Federation
for World Peace and Unification, and other organizations, have provided a
foundation for the worldwide realization of the true family ideal. These
activities have led to the surprising result that we have exceeded the original
Blessing goal of 3.6 million couples by tenfold, or
thirty-six million couples, and we have gone even beyond that number by several
million couples. I hope that you members of the YFWP will work with even
greater enthusiasm to stand at the forefront of the Blessing event as it is
expanded in the future to three hundred sixty million couples.
Young people are
the central figures in the transition period of history Today
we stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century. Already, people in many
parts of the world have begun the countdown to celebrations that will mark the
beginning of the twenty-first century. As they look forward to the new century,
their hearts are filled with fervent hope that this will be a time for a new
world that is better than anything humanity has experienced at any time in the
past, a world in which we are able to establish God’s new family values of
absolute true love.
In the history
of the world, humanity’s strong desire for an ideal of true love has been the
motivating force for change. Because you young people pursue the lofty ideal of
establishing a true family and possess a greater capability for realizing this
ideal than anyone else, you are undoubtedly the initiators and principal actors
in this time of major historical change. For this reason, you are the symbols
of hope for people who are opening the gate to the new century, with the
earnest desire that it will lead to the establishment of new, ideal families.
During the
course of history, there have been many literary works and recorded accounts
praising young people and their roles and special characteristics. I think,
however, that the roles and responsibilities of young people in the family,
nation and world have rarely been of such critical importance as they are
today, most notably in terms of a revolution to create ideal families. Thus, I
think it is very timely and appropriate that the discussions of this conference
will focus on the theme, “Youth for the True Family, Nation and World.”
Today, families,
nations, and even the world are facing serious dilemmas. The greater the
development of industry and technology around the world and the greater the
number of conveniences that people enjoy, the more erosion we find taking place
in the family institution that forms the foundation of our lives.
According to
data from the United States Census Bureau, the divorce rate in the United
States increased threefold between 1970 and 1990, to the point where each year
one couple in every six has a divorce. Across the United States, thirty percent
of children are raised in single-parent families. Even further, we see that the
decadent, end-of-culture phenomenon of same-sex marriage is becoming more
prevalent.
There are
reports that as many as forty percent of American girls between the ages of
fourteen and nineteen years are sexually active. It is shocking to see that the
rate of suicide among young people has increased by three hundred percent
during the past thirty years. The breakdown of the family is cited as the most
critical issue facing modem society. On the national level, too, we see the
limits of political power in the face of drugs, violence, AIDS, chronic
economic imbalances, and other social problems that are accumulating
everywhere.
The world today
continues to agonize over issues affecting all of humanity, such as the threat
of war and terrorism, discord between races, antagonism among religious groups,
and destruction of the environment. We cannot ignore the continuing reality
that many regions of the world are afflicted with hunger and disease. If we
evaluate these realities, the outcome of all the ideas and activities of
humankind during the past twenty centuries, the result would be a failing
grade. Thus all families, nations, and the entire world are urgently seeking
change.
As we enter the
new century, it is imperative that we place priority on developing an awareness
of our responsibility to bring about changes in the family, nation and world.
Our task is to establish for youth true families and true nations, so that we
may harness the winds of change for the creation of a true world. Members of the Youth Federation for World Peace, what is the one
means by which we can renew ourselves, our families, our nations and our world,
and change the flow of history?
As we stand on
the threshold of the twenty-first century, the philosophy of building a true
family, true nation and true world is opening up a new, historic horizon as the
fundamental principle for world peace. Rev. Moon has been teaching and
exemplifying this philosophy.
The first stage of true love is the true family
Originally,
God’s ideal of creation sprang from sacrificial true love that is capable of
giving and forgetting and then giving and forgetting again. All of God’s
creative effort is sacrificial, in that it involves the investment of His own
power. Because the investment is motivated by the power of love, however, it
returns to God in the form of joy that is tens of thousands of times greater.
If parents,
motivated by true love, invest in and sacrifice themselves infinitely for their
children, then the children will feel infinite gratitude for having received
this true love, and the parents will experience great joy in place of their
sacrifice. In this way, the power of sacrificial true love initiates giving and
receiving that establishes an eternal relationship of joy and peace in the true
family, true nation and true world. It is here that the ideal world of eternal
life is manifested.
On the other
hand, the family, nation or world that lacks such true love is nothing more
than an empty shell, and it will degenerate and breed
distrust, animosity and immorality. It is in the family that our pure, true
love grows and is perfected. The true family is the initial stage in which the
different types of love, between true parents, true husbands and wives, true
children and true brothers and sisters, are put into practice and grow together
to reach fruition.
The true family
is the fundamental nucleus of a peaceful world, for it is here that we learn
about God’s true love through the love of true parents. Also, it is here that,
through the true love of true brothers and sisters, we receive training to
acquire a universal love for the true nation, true world and all humanity.
Moreover, the
true family is the basic unit linking history. Through true love being handed
down from parent to child, the past, present and future generations are linked
together by a consistent value system.
Just as we
cannot expect infertile land to bear bountiful fruit, we cannot expect a family
that has been destroyed to produce a person who will function appropriately in
society and the world. Thus, each of you young people in this age have to first
become the embodiment of true love and the principal actors in building the
foundation for a true family culture and true family tradition.
Beyond the true
family, it is in the context of a nation that young people can put their ideals
and energies into practice. For this reason, the strength of a particular
country is to be measured not on the basis of its political, economic, or
military might, or by its cultural influence, but by weighing the temperament
of that country’s young people and their sense of patriotic loyalty. Young
people are the sprout and if the sprout wilts, then the tree has no future.
However, what is the reality of young people around the world today?
The ultimate
problems faced by all countries are those concerning their young people.
Political, economic, social and environmental issues can be addressed through
means such as institutional improvements and government funding. Laws, military
power and economic strength, however, cannot solve the problems of youth. These
problems cannot be resolved by coercion. The only way is for young people to be
responsible for themselves. For that to happen, they have to lead sacrificial
lives and become manifestations of true love, thereby establishing their
positions as masters of true love.
True love is the
starting point of all ideals and its practice will continue eternally. It will
serve young people as a force more powerful than life itself. When young people
acquire a new outlook on their country that is guided by true love, then that
country will discover new possibilities for advancement. When diverse groups in
the nation adopt an attitude based on true love, they will be able to rise
above the confines of their competing interests and establish a society of
cooperation, harmony and progress.
The primary
force that moves a country forward arises from true love in the form of
sacrificial and patriotic loyalty. Among the numerous national heroes whom we
respect today, there is not one who did not exemplify a life of patriotic
sacrifice rooted in true love.
Furthermore, in
today’s world, there are many challenges arising from differences due to region,
race, religion, culture, customs, language and citizenship that we have to
overcome to bring about a united world of peace. If we view the world from the
perspective of the Creator of all things in the universe, that is, through
God’s eyes of true love, then we can see that the world is one entity, despite
differences of race, religion, language, philosophy, and so forth.
When young
people dedicate themselves to sacrifice and service based on God’s true love,
then they can start to solve the world’s problems such as poverty and hunger.
In addition, they can begin to heal the wounds caused by differences in
economic standards and feelings of animosity and hatred arising from different
historical experiences.
In a time when
everything needs to be renewed, those who cannot renew themselves will decline
and ultimately perish. A seed that fails to sprout at the appropriate time
decays. When the new morning comes, we have to put on a new set of clothes;
when the new season arrives, we have to arrange a new living environment for
ourselves. What is most important here is that we first need to renew
ourselves, as true love involves loving even those who are difficult to love.
From this definition, we can acquire a clear sense of direction to surmount the
challenges of enmity and hostility. The philosophical tension between freedom
and equality also can be resolved in the environment of true love.
Within the
philosophy of true love, it is also possible to reconcile the historical
conflict between God and humanity, as well as conflicts among people. In
manifesting true love, God gives and gives and then forgets that He has given.
His only desire is to continue in the act of giving. It is this true love that
will enable us to overcome selfishness and move forward into a world of harmony
and prosperity.
The logic of
true love is that the family sacrifices for the country, the country sacrifices
for the world, and the world sacrifices for the sake of God. This perspective
enables us to look beyond tribalism and national self-interest and to set our
sights on a world of eternal peace.
We need to establish a true youth culture
More than at any
other time in history, the problems we face today compel us to consider all
people of the world as sharing a common fate. Problems that arise in any
particular region or between any two countries can immediately affect the
world’s balance of power and its economies. As a result of advances in
communications technology, hours, minutes and sometimes only seconds separate
the world’s population.
Even at this
moment, we can communicate our thoughts to the entire world simultaneously
through the Internet. Through the hundreds of communications satellites in
space, the world has already been brought together as one community, allowing
the worldwide population to live together as one universal family. The power
and philosophy of true love is a master key that can comprehensively unlock the
problems of all individuals, families and nations of the world, thus
establishing universal peace on every level. It is you, the youth of true love,
who are to be the principal actors in putting such true love into practice.
Purity,
freshness, vigor, strength, courage, challenge, progress, sacrifice, endurance,
ideals, hope; these are all words of blessing that are
bestowed especially on true youth. These words manifest their real value for
the first time when true youth practice true love in the family, nation and
world. Furthermore, true youth represent the substantiation of true hope. Only
those who present a new vision and direction and put it into practice can
become the principal actors of a new age; this is an insight that is well
established in history.
The marriage
Blessing movement is a universal cultural revolution Through
a movement for absolute love and absolute purity, you have to establish a true
youth culture based on true love. You must always remember that for you, the
true youth who have to protect the family with true love, the greatest enemies
are the social trends of moral degradation, including sexual decadence and
self-indulgence. Our supreme task is to establish true families that will be
the foundations of true love. Our results in this task will determine whether
humanity will survive or be destroyed.
From this standpoint,
the movement for the future Blessing of three hundred sixty million couples
will be a global cultural revolution that the world has to accomplish. The very
survival of humanity is at stake. This event will establish the beginning of a
new moral epoch never before seen in human history.
I firmly believe
that when you, who are the true youth, become the embodiments of true love and
the principal actors in building true families, true nations and a true world,
the coming twenty-first century will unfold to produce a future of hope and
vision.
Thus, to
accomplish the international Blessing of 360 million couples in the future, I
would like to ask that you return to your countries, create supporting
organizations, and enthusiastically work toward this goal.
I pray that
God’s blessings may be with you.
Thank you very
much.
Thank you very much.
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