Unification Theological Seminary Sixteenth Commencement Address

Today I wish to extend my warm and sincere congratulations to the forty-seven honorable graduates who are participating in the sixteenth graduation ceremony of the Unification Theological Seminary. Hereby, we are celebrating their future.

In speaking of the future, allow me to share with you my hopes for a world of peace and harmony.

What is the most precious thing in the world? It is true love centered upon God. If there is anything that you cannot buy with money or power it is true love. True love is unique in that it cannot be actualized except within a relationship. This requires give and take between two beings, a subject and an object. Love between husband and wife, parent and child, and brother and sister are all experienced within relationships.

In the same way, in order for God to fulfill the ideal of true love, He created the universe to be His object. Of all His creation humankind, as His sons and daughters, was created to be His primary object of love. It is only through true love that we can experience true unity between God and humans, between men and women, and among all the creatures of the earth.

True love is the ultimate center of all unified and absolute values. This love originates from the action of sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. Give yourself to others and forget your giving. Then give again. This is the nature of true love. When God created His object of love, He gave Himself for the sake of His entire creation and invested one hundred percent of Himself. And then He invested again and again.

In nature, when air moves, a vacuum is created. Then air rushes back in a circular motion to fill the vacuum. In human life, when we give our love until we have no more to give, God's unlimited love rushes back into our hearts to fill the void. Absolute giving for the sake of others, therefore, will bring us unlimited energy. God stands in the subject position of giving love to humankind. His original nature of giving love again and again created a perpetual dynamic motion characterizing His eternal existence. Thus, eternal life is the natural consequence of living the way of true love.

If you can stand in the position of God's absolute and unchangeable love, you can be where God is. You will have the right to live together with Him all the time.

If we, as human beings, resonate with God's love and enter a sphere of unified oneness with Him, then God's love will be our love, God's life will be our life, God's lineage will be our lineage, and God's creatures will be our creatures. It is, therefore, by God's design that humans are created to live for the sake of others. By living and sacrificing for others, the ideal of love can be realized.

With this in mind, we cannot expect world peace to result from the contemporary philosophy of individualism in which each person lives for himself. It is the intention of evil to destroy the sphere in which the individual dwells as an object of God. When that occurs, what remains is the individual living only for himself. This is the fundamental cause of family breakdown, racial conflict, economic disparity, and disunity among religions.

America was founded upon the Judeo-Christian spirit of love. Then how did it develop this culture of individualism?

While fighting communism, I have continually tried to awaken America's youth and I have repeated my warnings to the free world so they would not be affected by this degenerating pattern.

Yet, America is still suffering from a variety of social ills. Drug wars, AIDS, and increasing criminal violence still plague this great country. Even the considerable military, economic and intellectual might of America have not cured and cannot cure these diseases.

I came to America only with the desire to help save this nation. Even after this country indicted me, I am still committed to this cause. While sitting in the courtroom during my trial, I even made the decisions that created The Washington Times. Moreover, I gave instructions to start Insight and The World and I magazines while in Danbury prison. I am proud of the fact that these publications played a decisive role in heightening America's awareness of the threat of communism.

It was also during my time at Danbury, out of my concern for America's decline, that I helped found the American Freedom Coalition. The Coalition's goal is to educate the public through a nationwide grassroots network in order to promote a better human society. More recently, I started USA, United to Serve America, which has been advocating the reawakening and reuniting of Christianity in the true love of God.

Although this country has repeatedly rejected me, I have continued my best efforts to awaken America to its providential responsibility. God loves America and its Judeo-Christian heritage and looks to this nation to assume the central role in saving the world from the collapse of traditional values.

God's absolute purpose is to save humankind, and His strategy is to absorb evil. In other words, to "take the first blow" and suffer loss.

But then, over the course of time, God would regain even more than what was lost. Evil, on the other hand, always strikes first and claims initial or temporary victory, but ultimately in the end loses all. As you know, during the World Wars I and II, and even during the Cold War, the countries that struck the first blow eventually lost.

If a righteous person endures persecution, his commitment to suffer for his faith plants a seed of respect and admiration in the consciences of his oppressors. Eventually, that seed will grow and transform their hearts for many generations to come. This quiet revolution of the heart is heaven's secret weapon.

I have undergone immense hardship in my efforts to pioneer the way to a true and just world peace. Whenever I founded new organizations or new publications there were very few people who comprehended my intent, let alone any who offered to help. But because I knew the winning strategy of God, I went forward. I foresaw that these projects would be instruments to save America and the world.

In the next decade, our task will be more difficult that ever. We cannot relax just because the fight with communism has ended. For example, who can halt the surging wave of immorality that is sweeping the globe? This world is becoming a society that worships hedonism and seeks only to stimulate carnal desires. The war against drugs in the country has been a complete and utter failure.

The riots that occurred recently in Los Angeles confronted us with issues that cannot be solved merely with more police, more laws, more money, or more political negotiations. Without the true love of God on earth, that is, without people living and sacrificing for the sake of others, we will not be able to solve these problems.

It is important to realize that giving and sacrificing for the sake of others is the only way to establish yourself as the head of your true family and society, and to become true leaders of your nation. When your family, society, and nation follow you in practicing the great principles of true love, then you will become the champions in the establishment of world peace.

What we need is a revolution, a moral revolution, a revolution of true love. Furthermore, this revolution is needed everywhere. Mrs. Moon and I are working to organize this now in Korea.

As you may know, I visited North Korea last November. That event shocked the world. It was considered an impossibility, due to my lifelong stand against communism. As early as 1985 I had predicted and proclaimed the fall of communism and the economic disintegration of the Soviet Union. I was known in many communist countries as a national enemy. My visit to North Korea, therefore, was a life-risking trip for my wife and me.

I went to North Korea out of love for my country and out of a fervent desire for the reunification of my homeland. I met with President Kim Il Sung and had a meaningful dialogue. Even with differences of opinion, dialogue is always useful. Isolation is always dangerous. The president of North Korea promised me that the nuclear issue will be settled to the satisfaction of the United States. The moment of truth on this issue is coming soon. All in all, I feel my visit contributed tremendously to easing the tension in Asia and the world.

In that atheistic country, I preached that god and true love must be the basis and spirit for national unification and permanent peace. Recently, evangelist Billy Graham visited North Korea and met with Kim Il Sung. Reverend Graham is well-known for his great work as the first to preach in several communist countries; this time however, it was my privilege to be God's instrument and speak God's words in communist North Korea.

Today we are beginning another decade of service to America and God. I expect all of you who are graduating at this time, whose importance can hardly be matched in the entire providence of God, to become witnesses of the living God and of true love. There lie even greater challenges ahead of us; therefore, I pray that each one of you will become examples for all humankind and that you can educate all people through an exemplary life.

In order to meet these challenges, I need every one of you to be a champion. In the next ten years, let us build a moral America and a better world for our children. You can surely count on my support.