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this time we are gathered to celebrate the New Year, and to begin 1978
we are going to project our new goal in a slogan. As you all know, our
primary mission is to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth and
there is no more important responsibility for all of us than to realize
how important that is. The slogan for the year of 1977 was "The Kingdom
of God on Earth and the Ideal Family." Our slogan for the new year is
"The Basic Formula for the Realization of the Kingdom of God on Earth."
What I am talking about here is the method for realizing the Kingdom of God on earth. In order to form a nation, there must first be a sovereignty, then a people and a territory. In talking about the Kingdom of God on earth we must think about who is to be the sovereign. Indeed God is sovereign over the kingdom. Then who are His people? All people are supposed to be the citizens of that kingdom. What is the territory? The entire earth is the territory God planned for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now let us look at our own world. Is this the world over which God is reigning? Is this the world in which all people are the citizens of the kingdom? The answer is no, God is not the master of this world yet. Look at America, for instance. God is certainly not the final authority for this nation and the American people cannot be said to be directly connected to God. Even on the smaller scale of church denominations there is not one whose members are totally centered upon God.
All the churches on earth are claiming that God is the ruler and king, but is that a reality in their everyday lives? It is not so. There are hundreds of denominations within Christianity and sectarianism prevails in that faith today, even though Christians are supposed to be brethren in God. Since there is fighting over private interests in the churches, could the true God reign under those circumstances?
There is no denomination over which God can fully take control and do anything He wants to do, whose members live totally in obedience to God. If God has an ideal to fulfill here on earth, what kind of church or denomination would He be looking for? God has to look for at least one dot, one unit here on earth which can be the basic starting point of His kingdom. That unit is one family. In that family the father and mother must be totally one with God, and the children must be totally united with their parents. That's the kind of family God is looking for. You are all members of families, but when you each look at your own family can you say that it is totally one with God? Where can God go if He cannot use your family? God will narrow His goal and look for one individual. God has to begin somewhere in order to fulfill His ideal and to do that He must at least be able to find one person whom He can confidently call His son here on earth.
Each of you is an individual. Can you say, "God, certainly I am the one who can be Your base here on earth in the absolute sense. Your benefit is mine and mine is Yours"? Twenty four hours a day God is looking for the one day of the fulfillment of His ideal here on earth. Are any of you following that pattern? If you are not as absolutely dedicated as God in pursuing that goal then you are not qualified to be His representative, and that means that the realization of the Kingdom of God is an empty slogan.
Where in the world can God find His base for the realization of His kingdom? What is the formula to establish the Kingdom of God on earth? In other words, where can God dwell?
Certainly we can say that God needs a nation which He can love, as well as a society and a family and an individual with whom He can dwell. The formula is very simple. Wherever a people or nation or individual love God, that's the place God can stay. Wherever God finds love God can make Himself at home. Are you such an individual?
Is the road of love a straight road or a crooked road with twists and turns? Do you think you can say there is an East and West and North and South in love? Because God is the center of everything, love is the center so everyone looks at it.
What does it mean to love God? What would you do to love God? Is it enough merely to say you love God, or is it coming to the New Yorker for the first moment of the New Year to hear an important message? Is that the way you say, "I love God"? To qualify to love God you must first become a person who is born of God as an extension of His own lineage. Love really does not take too much explanation. Did nation. Did your father and mother need a manual to know how to love their own child? Parents love their children simply because they are an extension of themselves. You are qualified to be loved by your parents simply by being part of their direct blood line. By the same token, to be able to love God and be loved by God you must be part of God's own lineage.
We must be born of God and in God's love receive life. Life that comes from God is a gift. From Him we inherit the capability of loving God as God loves us and we also inherit the right to live as long as God and in the manner that God lives. For whom was that life and love given? For whom should that way of life be extended? For whom were all those inheritances given? These are simple questions. The very best answer starts with the realization that there was a reason you were created and that God has that reason, not you. You cannot be born for yourself. You were born because God wanted to fulfill His ideal. Simple speaking, you were born to love God. I was not born for myself but for the love of God, as the fulfillment of God's love. Without us God cannot fulfill His ideal, no matter how almighty He may be.
In my search for the true meaning of life the hardest question I had to struggle with in those years of meditation and prayer was understanding what was the cause and reason for the universe. What is the core of the world of existence and relationship? That's the question that I dwelt upon in most of my life of searching for the truth. The answer was simple. The trunk line of the universe is the father-son relationship in love. This particular formula and truth can be applied to God and man, where the relationship should be one of father and son united in one love.
Going back to what I said at the beginning of this message, in looking around at our world we cannot find the environment of God's heavenly kingdom on earth, even at the level of the society, family or individual. Then where can we start? God wants to start with the individual so somehow we must make a relationship with this individual love of God. Is it simply a matter of looking up at the sky and declaring, "God, here I am. You love me"? The answer is not that simple.
You must present yourself as the dwelling place of the love of God, and in order to do that you must have your true conscience and your true body totally united. Why do I say true conscience and true body? I want to show that they must be unchangeable and permanent, with no increase and decrease. What about your own mind, is it always going in all directions, constantly changing? If so it means that your mind is not true yet. We must anchor it so that nothing can change it. Does gold have value only when it is used for a king's crown and not when it rests in a dirty place? Is gold tarnished and corrupted by its surroundings? No, it always continues to be pure gold. Gold is a true metal in this sense.
Do you have a gold mind? When you have lots of fun and joy you can easily answer yes, but when you face difficulties the answer is not so certain. You can judge for yourself whether you are men of God or not. If your mind is always changing and keeps thinking of something else then I want you to know that you need a true mind.
What about the body? It changes more than the mind! If you don't have a true mind or body yet, when can you expect the love of God to dwell in you? Suppose the love of God forms the upper portion of your body, while your mind is one leg and your body is the other leg. If one leg keeps changing its direction and the other also keeps changing its direction, the love of God just has no place to stay! How can love maintain its position upon such a feeble foundation?
For fallen mankind the most important question is how to acquire an unchanging true mind as an individual, as a member of society and of the nation, and as a member of the world. How can we each acquire a trustworthy mind? The mind needs some guidelines in the form of ideology or teaching which can help it realize how man should live. We have to show our minds the right direction.
Suppose your body became the dwelling place of God's love and then you later started your family. Would you change or not? How about when you advanced to the level of society? As long as your true mind does not change, the love of God would not change either. Once you secure the love of God in your body then wherever you move and in what ever level you dwell your true mind would not change and the love of God dwelling in you would not change. When you move up to the Kingdom of God in heaven where the love of God prevails you are already a recipient of that love so nothing is different.
Wherever the love of God dwells there is always unity because we are talking about one God, not several. When you move away from the love of God you can't talk about unity because there is none. For whom do you love in the Kingdom of Heaven? Who is the center of that kingdom, yourself or God? Is your thinking parallel with God's thinking? If you are firmly attached to God do you have freedom? Don't you feel that God is the big boss and you are always small potatoes in heaven because you always have to come under Him? Perhaps you don't like that idea too well so how about this: you and God are one but sometimes you are under God and sometimes you are over God. How do you like that? I like the second choice too. Compare this to our life on this earth. How would you like having nothing but daylight twenty four hours a day?
Is your hair part of you or not? If someone pulled your hair you wouldn't say, "Why did you pull that hair?" You would say, "Why did you pull my hair?" because it is you that they're pulling, isn't it? That hair is you, but once it comes out it is no longer you. Apart from you it is simply a dead object, but as long as it stays in your head and you can comb it and see it in the mirror it's still you. Your hair dwells within the realm of your love and your life and is under your control. The thin hairs on your head enjoy the same love as any other portion of your body, just like your eyes or fingers, because they are connected to the body.
Could you take out your mind and show it to me? Can you reasonably ask where your mind is? The answer is, wherever God dwells your mind dwells. In other words, your mind can dwell wherever the love of God dwells. Wherever you live, centered upon God, there your mind also is at home. Because God can be everywhere the mind can be everywhere. Wherever God's life dwells, wherever God's love dwells, wherever God's way of life exists, there is the dwelling place of your mind.
Do you have a home town where you grew up and enjoyed your young days? Some portion of your mind still lingers in that place and you miss your I parents. Is that right or wrong? You have such feelings because you and your parents are linked in life and your home town is connected with your way of life.
Why did you ever leave your home town? Actually your ultimate destination is the place where you can find better love or more love. In other words, you are making a journey because you are searching after stronger love. Your mind is always free to maneuver and run faster toward the better way of life and love. Your mind constantly pursues that goal.
Why is your mind so restless? The journey of your mind has not ended since it is in search of perfection-the perfection of life, the perfection of love, the perfection of a true way of life. When a higher way of life is to be found, the mind is constantly striving upward. The person on that journey is a happy person.
When children grow up they normally get married and leave home, and naturally it is a sad day for their parents. Yet at the same time parents know that their children are journeying toward a higher way of life and love. When children are growing up in their parents' home they only know about their parents' love, but when they are grown up they learn about the conjugal love of husband and wife and later when they have their own children they will start to love as parents. In that way they elevate their experience.
Perhaps you have seen a father and mother fighting, but did you ever see them fighting over loving their children more than each other? A mother sometimes falls in love with her child and loves him so much that she forgets her husband. Her children are her life to the point where she almost pushes her husband away. Normally her husband would not get mad and kick her out but be glad to see the intensity of her love.
Love always tends to advance from loving as a child to the conjugal love of marriage and to parental love. The process of elevating this experience of love is welcomed. That is its natural course and normally it would not be met with jealousy because everyone is going after the same higher goal. Why is this true? That is the way you come to resemble God and feel closer to Him. You can enjoy the total experience of all God's love. God wanted to have children so that He could love them and smile and laugh when they in turn responded to His love and returned glory to Him. When God smiles and laughs it can be felt by the entire earth.
Would God ever reach the point of enjoying His happiness so much that He would restrict Himself and say, "I'm laughing too much. I want to stop right here. No more"? Would you say instead that God has limitless laughter? When God begins to smile and enjoy the dancing and singing, the entire universe will respond and feel His joy. God is almighty and absolute in the sense that once God finds absolute love and joy He would never want to return to the grief and sorrow of the past. God wants to amplify His joy.
God has not shouted out in whole-hearted laughter yet; therefore, mankind has mostly felt the agony of sorrow and contradiction and conflict. Everyone has felt some conflict inside, with the explosion of love and joy yet to come. Did you come to the Unification Church to fund raise or to sell newspapers? Is that your ultimate goal? When I look at your faces I feel sad for you because even on New Year's Day when most everyone is resting you have to deliver newspapers in the early morning.
If there had been no fall, everyone would have been born of God and entitled to His love and in living would have expanded that way of life. That was the original purpose of our lives. We didn't begin that way but we are restoring ourselves into that position. Today we each need to practice living as a child of God, giving our lives to others. How much you practice the love of God for others and inherit His way of life is the ultimate criterion.
First you must each realize that you are a child of God and then you must practice God's way of life. In selling newspapers you are not just going after a few dollars. Rather, your inward purpose is to disseminate God's way of life and God's love. You are living God's life and whatever you do and wherever you go your entire purpose is to live as God, giving His way of life and His love.
What we are doing here in the Unification Church is making a total investment, without any reservation. Commercially speaking it's a foolish way of doing business, to do so much for God without receiving any honor or recognition for your unselfishness. Yet we know that it is all worthwhile nonetheless; whether someone gives you recognition or not, no one can take away your value. Total commitment and total service will be rewarded many times over because that is the way the universe operates.
What would happen if you gave your whole love for the sake of others and made yourself totally empty? Just like air rushing into a vacuum, the love of God would rush into you like a storm. You have that guarantee and for that reason you don't have to seek for recognition or hear someone else say you are great. God will always reward you. If you send your true heart and love out into the universe, do you think evil or greater good will come back to you?
Why is God like that and why is the universe like that? I want you to know that the universe is made up of horizontal and vertical, and thus if you are giving everything you can horizontally, then automatically the universe will reimburse you in a vertical way. When you only look at the horizontal, however, you are a loser. Electricity reflects the nature of the universe very well. When you create an absolute minus, no matter how much you try to keep the plus away it will automatically come and react with the absolute minus.
Why did God create both men and women? Women are beautiful, like flowers, so why should ugly men even be necessary? God created both because He is clever. No matter how pretty women are, they only represent minus and God knows there must be a plus. Without both of them the human species would become extinct. Here in America women are taking over positions that used to be held only by men, feeling that they have a right to equal sovereignty, but no matter how they look down on men they cannot change being women.
Even feminine features show that women are to be object instead of subject. Men have broad shoulders, but women have their heavy part lower down. The composition of men and women even helps the New York subway situation. Sometimes during rush hour it is very crowded and men and women have to bunch together, and with one being wider on top and the other wider on the bottom more people can fit in a subway car!
Men and women cannot be outside the universal law that governs the rest of creation. God's love always dwells where there is plus and minus and give and take in harmony. The existence of minus alone would be imperfect and plus alone would be imperfect, but together they can make a permanent existence where God can dwell. Since God is permanent He is looking for a permanent home. No matter how poor and miserable you are, once you find love everything becomes equal. In love there is no such thing as being captain and lieutenant or loser and winner. Love makes men and women equal.
Are your mind and body one, being an unchanging, permanently true mind and body? No, the problem is still there. Are your mind and body united in harmony and joy or are they in conflict, trying to subjugate each other? When there is conflict you feel pain, but where does that pain come from? Man is out of order, with his mind and body out of joint while the rest of the universe is in harmony. The pain of conflict comes from the universe pushing the mind and body back toward that one point of harmony.
Where does the pain of illness come from? Sickness is the result of harmonious give and take in the body being disrupted and the harmonized universe responding with pressure on the affected area. We can almost say that it is a function of the universe to respond in this way to whatever is out of harmony with it. When you harmonize with the rest of the universe you feel joy and exhilaration.
Is your mind a plus or minus? It is meant to have the subjective role so it is trying to make the environment harmonize with it. Without the fall the body would have naturally responded to the mind and become one, but the fall caused the breakdown of that obedience. The mind and body each go in opposite directions, with each wanting to be subject and have its own way. Plus and plus repel each other.
Either the mind or the body must become a minus instead of plus, but which one should it be? The religious life results in the conquest of your body by your mind. It is when your body can become a complete zero, offering no resistance to your mind that your mind and body will really become one.
Leading a religious way of life always includes sacrifice, which essentially means giving up your body's desires. The quicker you can give up your body the quicker you can come to that unity which means perfection. What does that involve? First of all, the body always has a craving for sleep, even though the mind keeps saying, "Wake up! What are you doing? You must obey me! " The body also wants to eat, even when the mind insists on fasting.
Toward the end of a seven-day fast you feel very hungry, but when the end comes on the last day do you cheer, "I can eat!" If you do then you flunk the course. Right at that moment your body is ravenous, but if at that moment you say, "God, I can do this and more for You," then you have succeeded.
When you reach the age of adolescence your mind is also reaching out to embrace the entire universe. Everything has romantic and sentimental meaning and your feeling of wanting to love everything is very deep at that age. Why did God give that young adult age such sensitivity and romance and sentiment? That is the age at which God wanted to have men and women fully awaken to His love so they can truly give their love to God. True men and women would be consummated at that point. By reaching maturity in the love of God they can become men and women of perfection.
Once you are struck by the experience of the love of God you want to remain intoxicated in that love. You don't want to change but to go on that way for the rest of your life. That's the way God designed your life to be. Even when you go to the bathroom you would still think of God and when you eat a meal you would think of God. There is no moment when your face would be cloudy because inwardly you would always have spring. Once the love of God hits you and stays within you there is no other way you want to live. The age when your mind and body mature is the time God intended to have you be totally united with His love and to remain in that love for eternity.
Where can you find individual heaven? Is it found in unity between the mind and body? That answer includes only two parts. The love of God must make a dwelling place in that unity for it to be heaven. That is the formula for becoming a godly man. As an individual you transform yourself into the visible form of God because His dwelling is right there with you. You represent God's life, God's love and God's way of life. Do you really know what I mean by this?
You have two eyes but you don't see two images, do you? You see one image because in your brain they are united into one picture. By the same token, you have two ears which each receive a different sound, but do you hear two sounds? You don't actually hear what hits your ears but the combination of those sounds. If you have two special instruments tuned to the same pitch, the vibration of one is picked up by the other and it also starts vibrating. The realization of the ideal is similar, with the mind and body vibrating at the same frequency; then because God can hear that sound He comes down and stays there.
If you want to see God do you go out and look up at the sky to see Him? To see God you have to close your eyes, not open them. In the meantime your mind and body start vibrating together with the same sound as God. it's most logical to think that all five senses in your body are there for you to perceive God. Through them you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste God within you. If your mind and body are never separated, you will always have a happy way of life; when you eat you know why you eat and when you sleep you know that your mind and body are one. When you talk everything has meaning. Then you are a true man.
The false man has a mind and body that are always isolated and working separately. The mind I says one thing and the body does something else. For example, when I ask, "Shall we do such and I such?" everybody says yes, but usually I don't see much action!
The worst enemy that you have is the bad habits with which you grew up. The individualistic way of life in America will never bring unity between mind and body. My most important task in America is waging war against this entrenched way of life. You should not only say yes but translate that yes into action. At Belvedere on Sundays I know you are honest when you say, "We will do it," because you are really inspired and you want to do it, but by the time you get back to New York some temptation sidetracks you. You think there are a few minutes extra and you can lie down on your bed again, for instance, and by the time you get up all your inspiration is gone.
When you come to Belvedere and are inspired and you say you really want to work then when you eat a meal after you get back, just fill up your tank in the dining room and run. That's the way it should be. Perhaps you may get that far but at the street corner someone says, "Hey, let's talk a little," and you stand around and talk and half the day is gone and in the meantime your inspiration is lost. Is this true or not? You leaders in our Church should work as hard as I do, going out and shedding tears, sweat and blood, but often you are very passive and tell the members to go out while you stay back in the office.
The truth is that no matter how many years you have spent in the Unification Church, if you don't know the love of God then you are destined to hell instead of heaven. That is an honest evaluation; you don't deserve heaven yet. If you don't make yourself a total object then automatically the subject-object relationship will become more and more hazy and will finally disappear in your life.
What you are actually going to do is make your world. If you become an absolute plus to the world then you can expand your world of absolute minus wider and wider. In other words, when you give more and you create a part of the world which is minus to you, then with both you and that world together as a plus more of the world as minus will gather around you. In this extraordinary way all of plus and minus will ultimately become one.
Why do I emphasize serving others and sacrificing yourself? These are not empty words. As the subject you will disseminate more love, life and spirit and create more and more of a minus world. The bigger the world you can create the bigger plus you will become until finally you can be united with God. Then in reality you can assume God's position to that world.
This is the strategy I follow. When I came to America I was truly mistreated, but I didn't tell you to go get revenge for me. God asked me to love America. If you and I together as a plus give more love and life to America then this entire nation will become minus to us. That means that our plus is automatically as big as America. That is God's method for victory.
Now let me ask you, would you like to make just America the minus or the entire world? God is really waiting for someone who thinks as big as He does. God is like an old bachelor who hasn't found the right bride yet.
A good teacher will tell his students that it is good to help others and to love and sacrifice for them, but no one can explain why. We should be able to answer that question, however. Suppose that for the sake of God and humanity you chop one finger off. Spiritually speaking it is absolutely true that you will receive it back again billions of times over. If you sincerely give yourself and truly manifest the love of God then the world and God will return it to you many times fold.
Since they are minus, I want to ask all the women whether they should always want to receive love instead of giving it. Which comes first, giving or receiving? In this case it doesn't make any difference whether you are plus or minus. Wherever there is a giving action there will always be a return because you have an object to give to.
You American women need a revolution because you always want to receive. In the average American home the wife usually waits for her husband to initiate kissing, but it is best if both husband and wife do the initiating. When the POWs were freed after the Vietnam war and they came back home did their wives say, "Oh, I am glad you came back! Come here and kiss me." Is that the way it should be or should both sides run together and join into one happy union? When two people collide in heavenly love there is never any accident because when they hit, they turn. I particularly want to emphasize this for American women.
This morning I have described the individual heaven, but where can we find heaven for husband and wife? When plus and minus have total give and take and one unity together, heaven is there. As I said already, God dwells where a permanent situation exists and when a permanent lasting love unites a husband and wife God will be with them.
In many cases a woman falls in love with a man because he is so handsome. Imagine that he proposes and they get married, and one week later there is a car accident and that man becomes ugly and disfigured. The wife loved her handsome husband, but now that he is ugly is she justified in getting a divorce? Is that true love? America is the land of easy divorce and I discovered that two thirds of all divorces are initiated by women.
Heaven for a couple is where love and unity are permanent and nothing can separate them. If you begin with creating perfection as an individual then it is relatively easy to perfect yourself as husband and wife. We have talked about the individual and the husband and wife so far, but where is heaven for the family? When the parents, being the center of the family, totally unite with their children heaven is there. The most beautiful testimony is given when children look up to their parents and think that some day they will marry a wife like their own mother or a husband like their own father.
I want you to listen to this important statement: The Kingdom of God on earth begins with this family heaven-not the individual, not with the husband and wife, but with the heavenly four positions being completed. We can see that it should be like that by seeing the grief and sorrow that a person feels when the husband or wife dies. Wherever a universal law is broken, sorrow and pain quickly follow. Husband and wife are needed to fulfill the law of universal harmony, but when one person dies that particular formula is broken. That person feels pain and sorrow because one portion is lacking with whom he could fulfill heavenly harmony.
Why should it be like that? In order for there to be perfect harmony there should be three levels of unity-God, parents in the Adam and Eve position, and children-and if any of those levels are lacking there is disharmony within the universe. Clearly each couple needs children as the horizontal expansion of their family. Once you form this foundation then automatically a vertical line can be drawn. The body expands on the horizontal level and your children are a horizontal extension of your body, but your mind is vertically centered so the spirit world is your vertical extension. In this way both the physical world and spiritual world join together in you and through you God can maneuver the entire cosmos, which is the spirit world and physical world together.
After forming the family we need a nation. The composition of a nation is simple; it is an expansion of the formula for the family heaven. The father and mother together in the heavenly home are the visible representatives of God on the family level. There are many nationalities gathered together in this room, and who could we name as the sovereign of such a nation? God's direct representative should be the center of that nation, and the representative of God is the position of father-father of the people, all citizens, and all nations.
The same principle can be expanded to the national level. The head of the nation should be a representative of God and father of all the citizens. A father and mother united with the people in the position of children would make the nation the extension of the formula of the family heaven. The goal of a national parent is the prosperity and glory of the nation, not just of one family or one home. The same person who is the center of the nation must be the center of the family, center of the husband and wife, center of the individual. In other words, that person can bear the bigger burden of the nation. Instead of many different individuals, one person is the central axis of the Kingdom of God on earth.
This national level is only the second level after children as the center of the heavenly family. So far this world has not seen any goal beyond that second level. The nation is the broadest level of self-interest in this world today, but we must not forget that there is one more level to move up to. That is God Himself as the center, with the entire world living in joy as one home and one family.
When we install God as the center, who shall be His object? If someone represents God on the worldwide level we call that person a saint. On that level a]one can all of humanity embrace God and God embrace man. The first level of great virtue is that of a pious son; that is the basic moral virtue of man. Who is such a son? That son will serve his, parents and grandparents with total devotion. completing a foundation of three generations: son, parents, and grandparents.
The second level of loyalty is the loyal subject, a patriot. A patriot serves the head of the nation as his parent and grandparent. On the children's level there is a set of parents and grandparents as the visible, direct subjects, but in speaking of the patriot I or the loyal subject there is a head of the state and God in the parent and grandparent's position. God is like the spiritual parent while the head of the nation should be like the physical parent. God truly dwells on a national level; in others words, God needs a sovereignty to truly have a home here on earth.
God wants to fulfill that concept in the work of the Messiah. The Messiah is coming in the position of parent and sovereign to the nation. Once the Messiah can stand on the national level God will be in the grandparent's position. This is why the dispensation of the Messiah will be fulfilled on the national level, when he will become the vertical connection between the heavenly world and the horizontal world.
This mission of the Messiah begins on the national level and is consummated on the worldwide level, with his job being to expand one nation into all nations. Once the entire world becomes as one nation, he will reign over the world as the parent of mankind and truly unite God with all men. That is the mission of the Messiah. In actuality he begins as a God-centered individual and then advances to the center of the model family and later to the level of nation and world. His mission will be consummated in the unity of all nations. Clearly the Messiah is an absolute necessity for the world and mankind.
The three levels of family, nation and world correspond to the three sections in each of your fingers. The individual who assumes the responsibility for the Kingdom of Heaven must pass through the basic family formula that I mentioned and move up to the national formula and then to the basic universal formula, passing all three tests. We know the true son of a family as a son of filial piety. We know the true subject of the nation as a patriot or loyal subject, and the person loyal to the universal level as a saint.
That is the formula for the Kingdom of Heaven, and the same basic formula works on three different levels. The person who passes the family level dispensation can win the national level as well with the same loyalty and love and heart and win the universal level in the same way. That one basic formula I am talking about is the universal core of truth, which is the father-son relationship in love. That will work on the family, national, and universal levels.
All our society is linked by this same principle, for example, a teacher and students in school. The students are in the son's position as far as the teacher is concerned and the teacher is like the parent of the students. Who should initiate love and giving? The teacher should give to the children. In the heavenly world the teacher who is working only for a salary is not a true teacher. A teacher should work out of love and should be giving love. He should not continue as a teacher without disseminating his own love to his students.
In a company the situation is the same. The president of the corporation in the position of parent and he should care for his employees as he would for his own children. They are in this position in respect to love. The Kingdom of God here on earth is the world where this formula of the father and son relationship is utilized and expanded in every segment of our society.
Always the closest point to God is the plus. In relationship to society is the Unification Church a plus or minus? You said we are plus, so should we receive instead of giving? Whether or not children receive the parents love should not change the parents' love. Whether or not America appreciates what we do doesn't make any difference; since we are in a parent's position as far as the universe is concerned we must give to America. We must give life, love and the heavenly way of life.
We cannot be hypocrites. We must sincerely give our lives and our love and sincerely serve in our way of life. If you are a hypocrite, if there is no genuineness in your giving then you are like a thief who is taking things away without any legitimate reason. The universe will not allow that. Whatever you do has an educational purpose, whether it is selling newspapers or fund raising. By doing all these things with genuine sincerity you are teaching America, and if you continue to give in the genuine way then sooner or later they will come to appreciate you. They will realize that they need that life and love. The time will come when New York will bow down to your sincere giving.
This is the basic formula of the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth, which is the motto of this new year. By living it and practicing it we are going to fulfill, inch by inch, the visible Kingdom of God here on earth. What time are we living in according to the heavenly timetable? I want you to know that we are living on the universal level and our schedule is part of the worldwide dispensation. We have come to the final level where we can receive the parents of the world and we can receive God as the center of the world.
If you are truly to become a loyal subject, you cannot just cling to your own parents and present yourself to the sovereign and say, "I am a loyal subject." You haven't much qualification in that case. Once you become parents and take responsibility in the kingdom and come to give yourself for the purpose of the king and queen then you can say you are a loyal subject. In other words, you must actually follow the same principle of loving your parents and demonstrate this on a larger scale, in this case toward the king and queen.
Following this principle, you cannot claim to be a saint merely by presently yourself in unity with your king and queen. Instead you must leave your king and queen and participate in the universal emergency, or God's ultimate purpose. After you have truly given yourself totally you can assume the role of saint.
Everyone is too impatient to receive recognition but the time will come. The Messiah ultimately comes to take Adam's position. When God created Adam God intended him to be head of the perfect family, head of society, king of the nation and king of the universe.
God is giving a panacea to the world in the form of the Messiah and he will give all the honor you need. Once you have that conviction and faith after meeting the Messiah you have everything that you need. Because the Messiah is coming in Adam's position to be the perfected man, perfected head of the family, perfected king of the nation and perfected saint of the universe, once you find him he will satisfy you fully. All you need is to demonstrate a little patience, and ultimately he will bring salvation.
I want you to know one very important truth, however; the Messiah's ultimate goal is to consummate the universal dispensation, not just to save one nation or one people, and in order to serve him you have to work on the universal level. That means leaving your home and your natural parents behind, as well as leaving your king and queen and nation behind. Then you will be able to serve him and say, "I belong to you." When you serve the Messiah then you are actually fulfilling the role of pious son, patriot and saint. By serving that one person you have already fulfilled everything.
Once you find him and become entirely faithful to him then when you go to spirit world you are above everyone else there because nothing greater has ever been found than the person who will serve the Messiah. On earth you respect the head of the nation but in spirit world all these titles become small before the universal throne of God. In heaven God's son is head of everything, belonging to God directly. By serving him you put yourself above all the kings and queens of the earthly nations.
This is what we are trying to accomplish, being the kind of people who can serve on that level, with our love and devotion and loyalty going beyond the boundary of nation, race and cultural background. The position of serving the Messiah transcends all these things. If you belong to the Messiah, then wherever you go you indeed walk as the princes and princesses of God. Japan would not be a strange country for you for instance nor Germany. Each country would be your own because it belongs to God and the Messiah. Wherever you go is your home and your kingdom.
At the same time you can not only be proud to be in those countries, but wherever you find suffering in the world you must feel that suffering as your own pain, because you are in the position of king and queen. The responsibility for that suffering is yours. That is precisely what our way of life should be in the Unification Church. By doing that, the kingdom is physically being established step by step.
We are going to live this motto in 1978: The Basic Formula for the Realization of the Kingdom of God on Earth. You are typical American young people, right? Even in our own church there are many young men and women who are still suffering because many of them were wounded in their lives before joining the Unification Church. Some of them were hippies, were on drugs or had venereal disease. Some of those things left permanent scars and even after joining the Unification Church those experiences still hurt them. Even so, you are the best people in this country.
Think of how miserable the young people outside are. Each day most of them are ruining themselves more and more. When we see the suffering of humanity outside then even if 1,000 of our members must become a sacrifice we should reach out and embrace the millions of young people who are dying now. That is love.
If our members must sacrifice themselves to save the people then the first one to suffer is me. I must suffer to make you do it. In the worldly sense America is my adversary and in normal circumstances I could not be blamed for cursing America. However, I am even sacrificing my own family to save America. All the billions of people of the world have become adversaries of God. Even though they have rebelled and been children of Satan God is still reaching out to embrace them and try to save them. That is God's way of life and that's the way of life I must pursue also.
God sacrificed His son Jesus Christ to save humanity; God's only begotten son was killed as a sacrifice to save humanity. Would it be right or wrong if it were necessary to sacrifice you to save America and the rest of the world? People of the world are dying and desperately suffering. If they are your brothers and sisters then you have to reach them and cry out for them.
We may never be understood by others but that's all right. One person will know who you arc- God- and as long as God is on our side we are in the majority. As long as we are fighting on His side there is nothing to be afraid of. In the year of 1978 I will push you out as hard as I can to go and save America. You should not only go out to save America but to truly find value for yourself. Then you will become the true you. That makes it a dual process, to save America and to make the real, permanent you. Both can be accomplished at the same time.
How much is God in tears and how much is God's heart suffering? Throughout history God has given His life, given His love and given His way of life, over and over and over. I am asking you how many times and how much you have given. If you become a person who is trying to find the easy way out then you are an adversary of God instead of a child of God.
You cannot expect an easy year this year. I really will push you out! If you really follow me then you must expect to take that pressure. This is the year of strength and boldness. Once you offer your life on the altar then what is there to be afraid of? The end result of sacrificial giving and sacrificial service is bringing the Kingdom of God right here in America.
Why should we be hastening the dispensation here in America? One important reason is that America's way of life is corrupting the rest of the world, just like an epidemic. Not only is America dying herself, she is also killing the rest of the world. America is doubly sick in the sight of God for this reason and His judgment will be double. We cannot allow that to happen to America.
Why should we hasten this dispensation in America? At least at the end of World War II there were many patriots here in America who truly loved their country and loved God. Already thirty three years have passed since World War II ended and many of the people who were brought up in patriotic families have already died. There aren't too many left. The generation born after World War II is spreading a wave of evil in America and in ten years the people who are the backbone of American patriotism will be gone. By then America's situation will be hopeless. Before that happens we must hasten to re-ignite heavenly patriotism in America.
In facing this kind of emergency do you think I should say, "You have done very well in 1977 so take a rest in 1978"? I simply cannot do that because I love you. From this moment on you have no excuse because you now know the reality. The number eight marks a new beginning in the Divine Principle so in 1978 we can really liquidate the past and make a gigantic new beginning. Will you make a new resolution to do this in 1978?
We must go and teach the world the basic formula of the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Would you complain or retreat? Would you give your life to it and march forward? Whoever would do it, raise your hand and pledge yourselves to God. Thank you. Let us pray.