ORDER NUMBER
77-01-01A

REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON

THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON
EARTH AND THE IDEAL FAMILY

January 1, 1977 - Midnight
New Yorker Hotel
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

Today I spoke to the State Directors and leaders of our movement for the entire day at the conference in Belvedere. I told them that there are marked differences in the meaning of the dispensation of 1976 and 1977. The year of 1977 is the year for a leap of success and great glory.

Once all of you here in the auditorium are united with the Unification Church members from all over the nation and all over the world, then certainly we will possess the key to unlock the most difficult problems of our free world as well as those behind the Iron Curtain.

I want you to know very clearly this morning that the years of the dispensation up to 1976 have been for indemnity, for paying off the debts of the past. Therefore, if we had made a mistake, the accumulation of all our work and the foundations laid so far would have been lost. We would have bad to start again from the very bottom. But from 1977 on, the meaning of the dispensation will be different. It's no longer vertical. Now that a firm foundation has been erected completely, all we have to do in 1977 is expand on the horizontal level.

So far the history of restoration has been a path of repetition: laying the foundation, having it broken down to the bottom, laying it again, and then bringing it up to the family level, tribal level, and national level. When it failed it had to go down to the bottom and come back up again. Up and down, up and down, history has been the repetition of such failures. But now, with the completion of 1976, God and I have laid a firm foundation. That foundation is unbreakable, invincible. From now we can have a victorious, horizontal expansion throughout the world.

Therefore, on this particular, meaningful morning I would like to proclaim to you the motto of the year: "The Kingdom of God on Earth and the Ideal Family of Heaven." That is going to be the 1977 motto.

I want you to know that throughout the history of restoration, God has been seeking one ideal, perfected family here on earth which could transcend all accusation from Satan, which could claim victory upon the worldwide level. Because of the fall of man in the garden of Eden, God has never seen a perfected family prospering here on earth.

If there had been no fall, then the first family of heaven would have been established in the garden of Eden. It would have had nothing to do with Satan's accusation. It could only have prospered under God's dominion.

It is my great pleasure to proclaim this morning that after 6,000 years of Biblical history the Unification Church has achieved that cornerstone of the ideal family here on earth. No matter what the satanic world does, no matter how frantic their accusation and persecution- may become, the ideal family is destined to expand onto the worldwide level. This is the foundation we are standing on in 1977.

I want you to know that from this year on, the more the satanic world accuses and persecutes us, the faster they will crumble. In the meantime the prosperity of the God-centered family and kingdom will flourish.

In the unification Church our ultimate goal is the erection of the Kingdom of God right here on earth: the family of God. Each person is like a brick needed to create the foundation of the family. Each member of the Unification Church should dedicate himself to become a part of the foundation of that family. Together we must all be able to create one family on earth which can come under the complete dominion of God. All men are in the position of Adam, and all women are in the position of Eve. United under the protection and grace and love of the True Parents, we can truly create a God-centered family. This is our homework. Each one of you must feel to the bone that you are born again as true sons and daughters of God, that you belong to True Parents, and that you live together with the true family of God. I am in the father's role, and you are in the children's role as sons and daughters. But you and I together will never create the true family here unless God intervenes and becomes its center. We must feel that to the bone. God is the binding force of my own family. So too God must become the binding force of the heavenly family made up of the True Parents and you.

You must become true sons and daughters belonging to the True Parents. We should not come and dwell in your hearts as a concept, but as a natural part of your life. You don't have to explain spring, do you? You know when spring is here; you feel it. In the same way, down in your flesh and bones, you must feel united with the True Parents as one family.

The most important factor for you to become a member of this heavenly family is for you to realize fully that you are the sons and daughters of God. In other words, you should be able to say, "I am completely separated from the satanic world and perfected in the sight of God. I stand in your sight, Heavenly Father, as your son or daughter without shame, with pride."

What is the fall of man? What are fallen children? They do not feel to the bone that God is their Father. They have no concept of God in their minds. You must have the following realization and awakening: "I have been born again. I have a new life. I belong to True Parents. Through the power of the True Parents, I am now engaging in a new life. I am God's son; I am God's daughter." You must feel that realization down to the bone.

Second, you must come to this full realization: "I am a qualified citizen of the Kingdom of God." Third, when you see the nation, when you see the world, you must feel the grace of God and think, "God has given this world to me as His inheritance. I am entitled to claim this world as the son or daughter of God."

These awakenings and realizations are the most important task of our members in the year of 1977. First, you must realize that you are the direct sons and daughters of God; second, that you are citizens of the Kingdom of God; and third, that the world is an inheritance from God. God has given all these things as blessings to the children of God. The individual with these realizations is headed for perfection. That person is entitled and qualified to become a member or a center of the heavenly family.

In our way of life, we can see two distinct worlds existing. One is the heavenly world to which you belong. The other is the satanic world outside. Many people are still there suffering, and it is crumbling. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we should not become victims of the other world. We must be in a position to influence the other world, to bring the other world back to God so that we can expand God's territory.

There can be no value comparison whatsoever between the good the satanic world has and the still poor, meager conditions we see inside our own world. You will see the things that look so good outside crumble, decay, and decline. In the heavenly family, however, the things that look so poor and meager will be blessed, will flourish, and prosper. Instead of being influenced by the satanic world, we shall be in a position to influence it.

What is the secret to influence the entire satanic world and restore it to heaven? Everything the people outside do is completely opposite to what we do. We are moving toward reorganization of the true family on a worldwide level. But the satanic world is destined to destroy the family. There, if there's a family of six or eight people, the parents and children look forward to being divided. The parents say, " All right, when you become a certain age, you go out on your own. Be independent." The parents are for them selves; the children are for themselves, and the grandchildren are for themselves. The members of the family find themselves completely divided.

On the contrary, the heavenly world sees to it that all eight family members come together. The grandfather and grandmother give their inheritance in terms of tradition and way of life to their children who are the father and mother. The father and mother, in turn, hand down the tradition they received to their children who are the grandchildren of the grandparents. When each family has grandparents, parents, and children together, the heavenly tradition of the three stages of creation (formation, growth, and perfection) will truly be represented in those families.

Let's look at Adam's family. God is in the grandparent's position to Adam's family, Adam and Eve are the parents, and the children of Adam and Eve are in the children's position. We are born as children. We grow into adulthood, and then we give birth to children. Later we become older and become grandparents. That's the way we become perfect or complete.

At the time of Adam and Eve, the family was supposed to be organized in three vertical levels with God as the grandfather. From that time on all the families of the human race were supposed to be organized in a similar pattern on the horizontal level. If Adam and Eve had not fallen but had become perfect and had a family, their family would have been the center of the entire heavenly universe of heavenly families.

As you know, God is spirit, and God is invisible. The invisible, spiritual God wanted to manifest Himself as a visible being in Adam and Eve. They were supposed to be the visible form of God, the walking God, the tangible God. Their mind or spirit was supposed to be the inner temple, or the dwelling place of God. Externally Adam and Eve were to be the physical parents to their children. And with God dwelling in them, spiritually they were to be in God's position to their children.

To achieve this position Adam was to be perfected as an individual by uniting together with God as one. Eve was also to receive God and be united in oneness with Him. Then the two individuals, man and woman, were to unite together. This mutual unity should have been external and internal, with the power of love as the binding force.

Why did God create the universe? Why did God create man? God wanted to be in a position where He could exercise His own love. He wanted to have an object to whom He could give His love. If that had become the case, perfected Adam's family and all mankind would never have seen the fall of man or any sin. Your direct father would have been God.

Here on earth we're supposed to live like Adam and Eve. The Kingdom of God here on earth is the place where we produce qualified, perfected Adam-type parents. When they are perfected here on earth, then automatically the Kingdom of God in heaven will be open, and they will be elevated in perfection there, living like God, parents for eternity.

When we ask who really desires to dwell in the Kingdom of God on earth and the Kingdom of God in heaven, there is no one who does not desire it. It is our human destiny to create the perfect Kingdom of God here on earth. In order to do that, the first order of business is to have the first family of perfection, or Adam-type parents of perfection, here on earth.

In the entire world only we in the Unification Church have the terminology "True Parents." I want you to know how precious and valuable it is. This is the most significant aspect of our church. In order to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, we need True Parents in the center as Adam and Eve who were supposed to be the True Parents of mankind. Because they failed, mankind never saw True Parents until the Unification Church. This means only the Unification Church knows how to erect the Kingdom of God here on earth.

I want you to know clearly the definition of the "Kingdom of God here on earth." The Kingdom of God on earth is the place where you live with the True Parents' family, where you become the True Parents' children. The Kingdom of God in heaven is the place where you live in eternity with Heavenly Father and the eternal parents.

Think of it. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have lived their entire lives and would have had children. Then who would have terminated their earthly lives first, the parents or children? The Parents, naturally. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have become the first two persons elevated to the Kingdom of God in heaven. There they would have occupied the throne of God, since even in the spirit world God is invisible.

When you go to spirit world, you not only have a heavenly father but also a heavenly mother. Without both a father and mother there is no regeneration, no multiplication of new life. Actually Adam and Eve are the manifestation of the duality of God, the two essentialities of God manifested as two persons. The father and mother become one and together represent the full image of God. Actually, the father and mother who are elevated into the Kingdom of God in heaven first would become the king and queen of the world.

In the Unification Church when you pray hard or when you have spiritual experiences such as visions or dreams, not only I appear but also Mother. That is our special characteristic. You can feel that Mother and I are truly living with you in person. We will appear together all throughout your life. I want you to know that the invisible God, Almighty God, can manifest through True Mother's and my image. We are His visible image here on earth. God shows Himself through us to you, His children.

The Unification Church has another marvelous aspect. Although I am just one individual with one physical body here in America, at the same time I am appearing in 120 nations all over the world, leading people in the same spiritual crusade. Is this just a dream or is it really happening? Who is doing it? Not I, but God Himself is doing it. God is the one who manifests Himself, but with my image. Even without my permission He is taking my image and going all over the place. Many, many mysterious things are happening, and reports come every day to me. In some cases when the missionaries got diarrhea and were so sick they could not go out and witness, all of a sudden I would appear to them and lead the way saying, "Come, follow me. Do just is I do." Giving out pamphlets and lecturing, I would lead them and then suddenly disappear.

MFT members often say, "Well, one day I was so tired that I couldn't get up in the morning. Then, all of a sudden, in a vision Father was coming with a big basket of peanuts and selling them like hot dogs!"

God can manifest Himself in such a way to assist you and lead you in the front line. In order to lay that kind of foundation, God has been working many, many thousands of years. Many sacrificial offerings have been made. Many martyrs have died, and much sacred blood has been shed. Upon that foundation alone God can now appear and work with the Unification Church in such a manner. Almighty God, who is the creator of heaven and earth, and of mankind, is appearing to you directly in the forms of Mother and me, borrowing our images to work with you. God is doing that only because Mother and I have laid a complete foundation for salvation. This crusade is going on, transcending national barriers, transcending language barriers, transcending racial barriers.

What about the communist world? Do you think there is any barrier spirit world cannot penetrate? Do you think God recognizes any national barrier? Compared to the billions of people outside, we are a small minority, just a handful of people. But you must know that the entire spirit world is rushing down into this world like Niagara Falls. Like a flood, the spirit world is descending on this world.

When rushing water comes pouring down a place like Niagara Falls, it finds the slightest opening, even a little creek. The water knows clearly where the gaps are and pours right down into them. By the same token, compared to the size of the world, the Unification Church is like a little creek, a tiny gap, but the water knows it very well. When you make a little creek, the water comes dashing into it, and splits it wide open.

Think of it. God paid such a price to see perfection here on earth. So many saints and martyrs died; so many Christian sacrifices have been given. Everybody is waiting for the day of fulfillment. Now when God is coming down trying to assist you, do you think He is coming all by Himself, or is He bringing millions and millions of escorts with Him? The spirit world could not function until the appearance of Unification Church. Why? Because there was no handle to grab; no rapport was established. There was no love between the races. There was no one who could prepare the base so that God could really bring down His hosts of angels. But now the Unification Church represents that base, so God can bring down any number of angels or spirit men He wishes.

So far, there have been many, many evil spiritual phenomena. There are many evil, lost spirits haunting people. There are also many mediums trying to tell fortunes. Spirits can also actually cause diseases and accidents.

What is the difference between evil spirits and good spirits? When an evil spirit approaches, you somehow feel fearful and uncertain and very unstable. But when some good spirit is trying to embrace you, you feel so good without reason! You'll be walking on Cloud 9! A satanic spirit is like the winter wind, making you shiver. But a heavenly spirit is like spring. It melts you, relaxes you, and gives you the warmth of love and comfort. You should feel that in the Unification Church. If you don't feel it to the bone, then you still have a way to go. When you come into the Unification Church, without reason you feel so free and so secure, happy, and energetic. But when you go outside, even though there are cars and lots of food, and your parents are waiting, and your brothers and sisters treat you to good things, still you some how feel uncomfortable, scared and shivery. You just want to stay by yourself. You must experience this kind of distinction between the two worlds. Those who do not have that feeling are not quite members of Unification Church.

People outside do not know the secret of Rev. Moon. They think I am carrying around a big bunch of pills, and new members coming in get a pill or an injection. They think that's how we make Unification Church members. But when they look into it, they can find no pills or injections. My secret is deeply hidden. They can not know it until they become members of the Unification Church.

Divine Principle is like a big reservoir of the word of life. When you listen to Divine Principle, it's like sticking a little rubber straw into a big reservoir. You have a limitless supply of the water of life coming to you. You just keep drinking and drinking. If somebody tries to make you go away, your mouth may stick to the straw even though your body is taken away.

Imagine a little honeybee going from flower to flower to suck the sweet nectar. If you try to pull him away when he is sucking the nectar, even though his wings may break, he will not release the flower. You, too, can experience that kind of concentration. Something in Divine Principle is sweeter than nectar. You want to stick in a little pipe into the Divine Principle for the rest of your life.

In your deep prayer and meditation and in your daily life you must be able to see Mother and me appearing, living with you in spirit. Some people could experience us not just in dreams and visions, but literally living with them, always beside them. If you could feel such parental warmth and presence 24 hours a day, would you like us to stay with you, no matter how old we are? (Yes.) Then, you will have the ecstatic realization that you belong to parents who have eternal life. Your life will be connected to eternal life, to the eternal source, the unlimited reservoir. If you have had that realization, you are already living in the Kingdom of God. In the past religious history of the world, the experience, the exhilaration you taste in your life could not occur. This is the first and last time in history.

May I ask you one question? Is honey sweet only to white people and bitter to black people? Is honey sweet to everybody? Even to a hunchback or a lame duck? What about to God, is honey still sweet? Then what happens if there is something sweeter than honey? What is that? (Love) (Father laughing) What is love? Show me a sample on your palm. You say love is a mysterious thing. When someone says, "Show me love," you cannot show a piece of love. There seems to be no such thing as love, but actually there is. When it is there, there doesn't seem to be any. When there is none, then it seems to be there. It's very mysterious. What does love look like? Love looks just like God. When you see God, there is no God to see. But there is definitely a God. God is both there and not there. He does not come within your grasp. The master of love, the host of love is God, God owns love.

A person who is becoming like God and trying to take after the image of God would be pulled by the power of love. That person would truly recognize the power of love. I am in a position to receive love from God. Do you think I am entitled to it or not? How do you know? It is something intangible. You cannot see or explain it by words, but I have some mysterious, magnetic power. Is it true? Now I must beg Mother's generous understanding. Suppose I were not yet married and were very handsome. Then, of all the Eves here whoever would want to marry this type of person, raise your hand. If I said, "Get away, get out," and kicked you and chased you out, still all would come, "Oh, Father, please!" That's why I am criticized by the outside world. They don't understand such a magnetic force.

There were many occasions in Korea and Japan where married couples shared a love so sweet and tight that they would have died for each other. They each thought that there was no one better under the sun. But once one of them teamed the Divine Principle, all of a sudden, that person would change and say to the mate, "I don't know you any more. I just want to go and stay with the church." That kind of situation brought a lot of criticism to me. There really is some power there! But the amazing thing is that it doesn't work only with young people, but with 70 or 80 year old grandmothers too! Honey is sweet not only to young women but also to older women! And men want to know the Unification Church, too. All you men try hard to become my close friend. You want me to recognize you, to call you by your first name. Unless such power existed in this room, how could we be united like this? It is impossible. Anybody seeing this particular phenomenon would say it is impossible.

There is some invisible yet very clear binding force of love. Several weeks ago, I sent all the Japanese married couples back home. With only three days notice I said, "You pack up and take off." Those wives, many sisters, said, "I'd rather die here. I don't want to go." I said, "Why? Go to Japan. Everybody is there: your family, your own culture, the language you can speak. You have good food, a home and everything. Why don't you want to go?" "Because, Father, you are here in America. I don't care about the Empire State building. I don't care about the New Yorker, but I care about you, I want to stay beside you." Everybody said that. There is some mysterious binding force, a magnetic force of love in the Unification Church.

But the outside world cannot understand this noble mysterious power of love, binding the Unification Church. That's why they say all kinds of things about me. "Well, Rev. Moon is a great orator. He is spellbinding. When he starts to speak, everybody melts." And other people say, "No, he is not an orator; he is a hypnotist." "No, no, he is magician, He does magic."

People say all kinds of things about me, but none of them are true. The original nature of man and of all living things is to gravitate to the source of life. When God, the invisible source of life, is permeating me, all key to the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on living beings are attracted to me by a natural force. That is the way we are united; that is the way we are bound together. Nowhere in the rest of the world can you find such a binding force.

When you come to the New Yorker, do you think, "I'm going to stay overnight here. This is Rev. Moon's house." Or do you think, "This is my home, our home." The second view is true. That's why you are crazy, living in the world's biggest house, right? But that's true, it is your home. Who made it so? I taught you, but did I make you fill out a form so you would feel this is your home? No, the source of power is not in me. It is in God. The power of God is making you feel at home. I only serve as a channel for that power to flow from Him to you. I as a person cannot manipulate such a magnetic force. I myself have nothing to do with it. It is the power of God, the nature of God's force flowing through me. I merely set the condition, and the dynamic, universal force of love flows through me to be conveyed to all mankind. It is like spring coming in March and April when the entire world warms up all of a sudden. You don't know where the power came from, but spring definitely is there, and flowers come up, and the breeze begins to play, and the birds to sing. That power goes beyond the global level of the earth. It goes all the way to the cosmic level. That power has no limit, no end. This force of love goes beyond time and space.

However, I do not control time and space. Only God can control it. Do you think God has a watch and timetable to count time and limit space? The power that is manifested through me to the Unification Church is the power of God. No other person, no other universal force could do that. Even Satan could not do that. Actually, this most determined energy is God trying to fulfill His desire to see one perfected family here on earth. The Kingdom of God here on earth is not going to be manufactured by man's hands. God is going to bring it about once we manifest ourselves as instruments of God.

This morning's message is dwelling on the topic of the Kingdom of God on Earth and the Ideal Family. Why the ideal family? Because the ideal family is the earth. Without the ideal family as a building block there can be no Kingdom of God.

In this room many different nationalities and races are together. If someone says, "I don't care about black people so much; I don't care about yellow people," that person is already opposing God Himself because God wants to bring all races together. If someone says, "I don't care about the rest of the people," that shows he is not parallel with God.

Think of it. In Africa there are many missionaries working with black people even though they are receiving some persecution from the government of those African nations. Still many people are receiving revelations and dreams, and they are cooperating with our missionaries. They are hardworking black brothers and sisters. Over there in Africa if one black sister or one black brother comes, our missionaries treat them as God would. It is God who is embracing them and bringing them in, teaching them and feeding them. Then in America how can we say, "I don't care about black people"? People who would say that are really traitors in the sight of God. How can we bring about the universal, cosmic warmth of love that transcends national and racial barriers? How can we make this universally known? How can we expand it to the world-wide level? This is our task.

The answer is simple. God is our parent, both father and mother, and embracing them together God loves all races. How could I take a position opposite to that of my own parents? Impossible. Our key to unlock the Kingdom of God here on earth is this: you must make a relationship with me, feel a closeness and warmth of love for the True Parents and expand it to every comer of the earth. If you are able to do that, we will have the Kingdom of God quickly. If you can go to other continents like Africa and Asia with parental love and embrace those people, then you are a universal person. Your character is a cosmic character.

What is the definition of the ideal family? The ideal family possesses the eternal love of God; the ideal family possesses the everlasting love of husband and wife, and the ideal family will have love between parents and children, These three eternal and lasting loves combined together will make an eternal family.

Married people, if you love your own wife, if you love your own husband, then when you look at other men or women, you will respect and admire them just as you do your own family members. For men, the female world is an extension of the world of your wife. One woman was selected out of all the billions of women as a representative woman. A woman must think of her husband as the representative of the entire male race, the symbol or center of the male race.

When you go to the spirit world, that world works like this: The person who has lots of love toward his own parents, toward his own brothers and sisters, husband or wife, and children, that is, the person who experiences a deep sense of love in family life will have much, much freedom to maneuver. He can go horizontally in all directions, everywhere without any limitation. In contrast, a person who has no experience of love is narrow-minded. He isolates himself in spirit world and has no freedom at all.

The love between parents and children is a vertical relationship; the love between a husband and wife is a horizontal relationship, and the love between brothers and sisters is a circling, surrounding relationship. These three relationships are different. If you experience here on earth a deep sense of love in these three different ways, then you will be able to maneuver vertically without limitation, horizontally without limitation, and circle around without limitation. Those who did not taste parental love because of the early death of a parent, for example, are tragic people in a way, because they lack that very important aspect of experience. Likewise, those people who never experienced family life, the husband and wife relationship, are also in a way very poor in spirit world because they lack one important aspect of life. Also, those without brothers and sisters are in a poor position because they can not live a full life in spirit world with one whole area of experience lacking. A wholesome family life, therefore, has grandparents, parents and children. If one generation is lacking, the family somehow feels crippled. The ideal family alone can serve as the building block of the Kingdom of God on earth.

We have the mission to create the ideal family here on earth. When those children who enjoy a deep warmth of love with their grandmother and grandfather go out into society, into the New York streets, for example, they will feel very close to the senior citizens. To them the senior citizens will look like their own grandmother and grandfather. Somehow they will want to talk to them; they will feel close to them. When a young person who is used to helping his grandparent at home sees a senior citizen needing assistance, that young person will dash to him and help. If sons and daughters enjoy their father and mother's love, when they go out and see someone like Daddy, someone like Mommy, they will feel very close to them. They will want to talk to them and help them. That close feeling will manifest itself automatically. Also, when those who have a beautiful tie between brothers and sisters go out into society, they will have more intimate relationships with their surrounding neighbors and will get along well. When a sister and brother who have a deep relationship go out and deal with the opposite sex, they are very natural. They don't feel any carnal or unhealthy feeling, but experience a brother-sister feeling. The Kingdom of God here on earth is the family that can truly experience such loving relationships with God at the center.

This year I declared as the motto of the year 1977: The Kingdom of God on Earth and the Ideal Family. Now we have come to the era when we can physically construct the Kingdom of God here on earth by creating the family. You individually must become members of a heavenly family on the horizontal level. We must experience this love in our society and our world. For you, Heavenly Father, God, is in the grandparent position. The True Parents are in your parent's position, and you are in the true son's and daughter's position. Even though there are many billions of people in this world, you are just like Adam and Eve who were born in the Kingdom of God, in the garden of Eden. You are like a person who was just created by God in the garden of Eden. By setting this condition you can experience your own Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, and you can qualify for the eternal Kingdom of God in Heaven.

We are bringing back the garden of Eden. We are bringing the entire world population into the Adam-type family. That's what your job is going to be. All men of the world are brothers. Once you live in the full realization of that, no matter how much Satan may try, he will have no condition to accuse you. If you recognize Heavenly Father, belong completely to True Parents, and completely make yourself the direct heir of Adam, how could Satan have any power to accuse?

If we had the ability to telecast the entire heavenly new truth through the networks by satellite for seven years, within that time we could really turn this world upside down into the new heavenly family. The important thing is we won't have to ask the people to come and join. Not at all. All we will have to do is let them know the truth, let them know its value. Once they recognize the value, we won't have to ask them to come or to do anything. For their own sake, for their own good, they will just fight to come in. They will be able to see clearly that their eternal life depends upon it.

By loving True Parents you are loving God because you have a visible symbol. How wonderful! God is invisible, but having True Parents you have a visible symbol. When you love the True Parents' children and love the True Parents, you are actually loving Heavenly Father because they are the manifestation of His spirit. Why is this? Because they are the king and queen of love. They are the manifestation, the personification of the love of God.

This year we are going to concentrate on the construction of the ideal family and on this love of parents. When you see poor people and beggars, look at them from the viewpoint of God, with parental love. Before anybody touches them, you should go and embrace them as a member of their family. Wherever we stretch out our arms to those in the world, we create a little creek flowing from the reservoir of God. God is pouring out the water of life and the water is flowing through your creek, all the way down to wherever you go. The deeper the creek you create, the more water will go through that creek. You are serving like the trunk of a tree or as a small reservoir. You are in a position to distribute the love of God.

Sisters, I want to ask you a serious question. When you get married and have a home, will you welcome your own physical parents as well as your in-laws? America hates in-laws; can you love them? America today is truly hungry for parental love. You know the phenomena of hippies who run away from home. These phenomena occur because the young people don't taste love at home. They are hungry for love, but they cannot taste parental love, grandparents' love, or brothers' love at home, so they run away somewhere to try to satisfy themselves. If you welcome your own parents, your own in-laws and you serve them and love them just as you love your own True Parents, then you could be a saint.

Today in America, what are the many senior citizens, grandmothers and grandfathers, doing? They are just wasting themselves in senior citizens' homes. They have a couple of friends, the sun during the day, the moon at night. Watching the sun during the day and moon during the night, they wait for the day of death. That's a pitiful situation.

Here in America I heard a very uncomfortable report of family life. When one couple was visited by their own parents, they nagged them, "Why didn't you call me? If you had, we could have prepared dinner for you." This may sound very kind, but actually I said, "How ridiculous! Since when do parents have to call and make dinner reservations?" If God were coming to Adam's house, would God call Adam and say, "I'm coming; prepare my dinner." In the sight of God, that is absolutely unacceptable. The children's home is the parents' home. The parents' home is the children's home.

Here in America, when a little baby comes out of the nursery in the hospital, he or she goes right into a separate room at home. The babies seldom sleep together with their own parents. Therefore they can not feel the warmth of love from their parents. They are very seldom fed by their mother's milk. Not sleeping together with their parents, the children are just like pets. You should not treat your children like that.

It is a beautiful scene when a couple of children come and want to sleep together with their father and mother. It's all right. Accept them. If there's not enough room, then sleep upside down, one head this way, one head that way. Organize a little better! The children may actually think it's uncomfortable to sleep between their big parents, but they feel good. The next morning they say, "Mommy, I want to do that again!" Children must feel the temperature of their parents' bodies.

Look at God's point of view. Do you think God would say, "Well this is my son's room, my daughter's room, my first son's room, my second daughter's room, my baby's room." Too many bedrooms would be needed in that case.

Let's say a good thing happened in a heavenly home. Then what is the first thing that happens? They share it. If a good thing happens to Eve, she wants to share it with Adam. She calls, "Adam, where are you? Come here." If something good happened to him, he would call Eve, and God is the same. It's wonderful.

If a good thing happened would a father say, "Don't call your younger brother. He is a greedy man and we don't want to celebrate together with him. Don't call your elder sister. She is a very stingy person, and we don't want to share with her." Do you think that would happen? Once a joyful thing happens, they want to laugh together in all different ways, to make a harmony of laughters.

Those who set up a boundary saying, "Oh, nobody can bother me; no one can disturb me," create their own satanic prison, satanic fence. You have to knock out all barriers or fences from around you.

From 1977 on we are going to initiate such a movement. All the women of Unification Church need to be trained to serve their grandparents, to satisfy them and give them some comfort and happiness. Think of yourself. In your mind you have been thinking, hiding someone. "I don't like that brother. Even though he is my own brother, I don't like him so much." or "I am not that close with my own sister." If you have animosity in your heart for some person, you must go to a similar person and serve her, serve him, and try to make up. We have to learn how to live together in human relationships. How can we serve each other? Unless you can be a harmonizing, unifying family person, you will not be admitted into the Kingdom of God as a good citizen. You will not be qualified.

Those who really have a special distaste for senior citizens and older persons, grandparents and grandmothers, raise your hand, please. There are many, I'm sure, but you are afraid to raise your hands. Those who are fond of old people and don't mind speaking to them, who want to give them some kind of comfort, raise your hands. There are many people who didn't raise their hands.

What if I would assign you to a grandmother and grandfather 500 years old? Would you volunteer to serve them? The kind of person who loves older people, the older the better, would be very good because, after all, who is the oldest person in the universe? God is really the oldest grandfather! Those who love God will be in a position to love everybody younger than God.

In the garden of Eden, God's ideology was "familyism," grand big old familyism. God's family includes all races. Japanese can go into that family, Americans, blacks, Puerto Ricans and everyone. Those who dislike living with other people are the ones who will be expelled from God's family. "All right, if you don't like everybody else, get out."

Is the ideal as simple as one color? Just red, is that ideal? Or would a combination and harmony of many different colors be ideal? Which one? When you paint a masterpiece do you need only white paint? No, you need all kinds of paint. White people alone could not come up with a beautiful painting. You need everyone, red, yellow, light and dark, black and white, everyone.

Do horses say, "You black horse go away. We are the brown horse family. Don't come near us." Do they say that? Do dogs segregate themselves saying, "You black puppy, go away, we are the brown puppies"? Is that true? Do they dislike each other? Do they care about or even recognize different colors? Then why do men? Man was supposed to be greater than they.

Something is wrong, fundamentally wrong. We have to fix it, mend it. I come as the champion to repair that which is out of order. We must repair the human race. Do you think God will say, "Rev. Moon, don't do that, don't touch it"? Do you think God will say that? Those people who say, "Rev. Moon, don't touch us, leave us alone," are the people to whom God will say, "OK, I'm sorry, but get out of my house."

This year, 1977, we must inherit the tradition of our own parent, God in heaven. We must adopt His ideology as our ideology, His way of life as our way of life. Unmarried men and women, you are going to look forward to the ideal family and the creation of such a home. You must become individually ready for it, trained for it and disciplined for it. Married people should be in a position to really live the heart of God in your home.

Today we must pledge together to our Heavenly Father that this year's motto is going to be centered upon the ideal family. We must exert ourselves and construct the Kingdom of God here on earth. The motto is: The Kingdom of God on Earth and the Ideal Family. We must live up to God's expectation and the True Parents' expectation and be ready to truly center on this heavenly family to come. Those who pledge to become such persons raise your hands and show your pledge. May God bless each one of you. Thank you very much. Let us pray.