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"Victory" is a commonly used word. What is the best definition of victory? Victory means that some obstacle or difficulty has been overcome or digested. Everything we do in our daily life, including walking, studying, playing sports and so forth, can produce a victory. Whenever we talk about a victory, we automatically take into consideration some opposing element. In order to overcome that opposition, you need power or strength. Consequently, victory can be obtained whenever there is enough strength to digest the opposing elements.
What happens when we win a victory? Should we turn around from that point, or continue in the same direction? If you continue to move forward in an unbroken straight line, you will always encounter opposition from other elements; however, being able to turn can appease your opposition. An example is the game of pool-no matter how the ball is hit, it always turns and slips out of that confrontation. When you touch the ball, it turns; when you strike it from one direction, it moves away. The pool ball never confronts the opposition face to face in a head-on collision. Thus we can say that when you move in a straight line, you are going to face continuous struggle and opposition. However, when you make a circling movement you can appease and mollify the opposition.
In order to win victory, you must go through the process of struggle, and you must have a clear purpose or goal for your struggle. We were born as human beings and we live our one life here on earth, which involves daily struggle. Then what should be the goal of that struggle? What kind of a victory do we want to win in our life? This is a very important question.
First of all, let us analyze the world of nature for a moment. What do the things of nature want from us? Do you think they have some desire, or are they entirely numb and insensitive? They are quite alive and thus they have some desires of their own. What do the things of nature want? You answered, "God's love," but what is that?
It is important for all people to find some unchanging principle or foundation for their life-something that is continuous for the past, present, and future. What should be the goals for our struggles in life? Do you have your own concept of life and struggle, as well as a goal? What is it? You say it is true love, but that is very easy to say. Can you just say, "I want true love," and expect it to come and be with you automatically? No, that is not the way it works.
Since true love doesn't come that easily, how will you get it? There is a very simple answer: If true love doesn't come to you, you have to go get it! Is it easy to find true love? How very, very difficult it is! Let's give a realistic analogy. Pulling out one of your eyes would be extremely
painful. Is the difficult path to true love more or less painful than this? Is finding true love more difficult than chopping off one of your arms or legs? You may lose two eyes or an arm and leg, but do you still need true love? You say yes, and that is a very serious yes.
In human history, has there been anyone who has sought true love and won the victory? You say Father, but how do you know I am not a swindler? Let's suppose there is a great scholar and winner of the Nobel Prize, someone respected throughout the world. We could ask him, "Do you have true love? Have you won it?" Would he shout, without hesitation, "Yes, I have"? Wouldn't he more likely say, "Let me think about it"? If even the greatest of scholars cannot get to true love, then who can? When YOU seriously pose the question of true love, you might conclude, "Well, it is difficult but there may be one or two people who have won true love in their lives. Certainly not many more than that." When you realize that you are not one of those, you can become very serious, can't you?
Think for a moment about God, the absolute being. Let's pose a question to Him: "Are You really in the position of the King of true love?" What would He reply "Yes," or "Well, let me think about it"? Let me ask you a question: do you think love can be initiated through only one person, or do you need someone else to consummate love? Even God needs someone else. Since God is absolute, it is logical that His someone else should also be absolute.
Which idea makes you feel good: the idea of one God, or the idea of two Gods? You want to have only one unique God. Do you agree with this? What are the characteristics of God? He is unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal. Such a subject is looking for someone else with whom to consummate His love. Do you think He would like that someone else to be changeable every day? No, He is looking for an object who is unchanging. Since God is eternal, would He like to have just temporary love that comes and goes? No, He would like to have eternal love. By reasoning and logic, we can come to these conclusions.
We realize that God wants to consummate true love; thus we must understand what true love is. When you think of true love, you can think of it as the "house" in which God wants to dwell. We might ask God, "Where would You like to live?" Would He say, "Since I am the King of Kings, I just want to live alone in a big palace and sit on a golden throne"? What about you? If I asked
you the same question, you might reply, "Father, I just want to be someplace where I can sleep. I'm so sleepy!" Do you think God would say that, since He too is so tired?
Do you think God would like to have a good time and play sometimes? Maybe He would tell you, "I want to live in a place where I can play games and have fun all the time." Or maybe God would say, "I just want to dwell in my mind for eternity; all I want to do is think. " Or might He say, "All I want is to work, since I am the God of creation." No? Then where would He say He would like to dwell?
God will say, "I want to live with a smile, to be happy," just as this white-haired, noble-looking gentleman here might say. What do you think makes a person with a Ph.D. happy? Will receiving his degree make him smile for the rest of his life? Maybe he will smile for a day or so, but then he will get bored.
No matter how great and wonderful and dignified God is, He desires to live His life with a smile. Thus it is important to know what element allows Him to continue smiling. Is it looking at His hands? Is it looking at His own eyes? Maybe He has a big mirror in Heaven-do you suppose He smiles all the time to see Himself? God's body may have beautiful features, such as long lovely fingernails. Maybe He gives Himself a manicure every morning, or maybe He grooms His feet. Does God want to spend all His time in front of His mirror? No? Then what makes God smile? Since love is the only thing which enables someone to continue smiling forever, automatically we come to the conclusion that God needs a good object, such as a wife or children with whom to have the give and take of love.
Let's say a man is very handsome, manly, and also he is well-educated, with a Ph.D. from Harvard. He has everything a man needs to be respectable. Does that make him smile for the rest of his life? No, he might even be very solemn, but as soon as a beautiful woman comes around, his whole demeanor will change. He will light up and start to smile.
Imagine a small, delicate-looking woman sitting somewhere very quietly and solemnly, and her husband, a big tough man with strength like a tiger comes up to her. Other men may fear him, but this small woman will smile as soon as he comes near. She will light up and her eyes will start to sparkle, almost as if electricity was flowing into her. Isn't that true? What makes a woman react like that?
You were all very sleepy a few minutes ago, but as soon as I started talking about love and men and women, everybody woke up! Love must have a pull stronger than the power of sleep. If God is looking for true love, He definitely needs a true object who can respond to Him so that He can create a circuit of give and take. Where can He find that perfect object?
I am sure you have concluded that God must find His perfect object in human beings. Isn't that true? What about monkeys? Can they be the perfect object to God? Is there anyone here who can say, "I am a perfect object to God"? What happened? You are all hand-raising champions, but all of a sudden nobody raised his hand. I thought American men and women were very confident and would say, "Yes, I am the perfect object to God!" But not even a single one of you is saying that.
How should God treat you if you have no confidence to become His perfect object? Are you willing to accept any sort of rough treatment from God, as long as it enables you to become His perfect object? So maybe I will hit you and give you a hard time. Is that all right? You three sisters here in the front row, will you complain if I hit you on the head? Or will you ask me to do it again?
The truth is that if someone hits another person in anger, he is actually defeating himself because he will feel guilty. After one strike, he feels a little lower; after two strikes, he feels even lower. After 10 strikes, he will be kneeling before you. The amazing thing is that if somebody hits you and you hit him back, a battle ensues. But if you don't hit back even after 10 or 20 times, the person who is attacking you will become very low and small, unable to raise his face. This is the truth about human nature. In other words, if you hit someone without any justification, you will automatically have to surrender to that person eventually.
Let's talk about God. What kind of God is He, anyway? God is constantly being attacked and reviled by the people of the world, but He never strikes back. Therefore, those people are being forced to surrender. God just doesn't deal with such things. Thus, God must have a round mind, like that pool ball we spoke of. You hit it and it turns and moves; you hit it again and it moves and turns again. It circles around and around and eventually returns to its original place. There is no limitation or blockage.
Nowadays, even top theologians are proclaiming, "God is dead!" If God wanted to, He could strike out at those people. Imagine somebody coming up and shouting in your face, "You are dead!" What would you do? Wouldn't you feel like punching him in the nose? Then you could say, "Does it feel like I am dead?" This feeling may be a part of human nature, but does it reflect God? When you are here at Belvedere, you give the right answers. You say no to this question, but when you go back to your centers, you might forget everything and punch somebody the next time something happens! That is the easier way for you, isn't it?
God has four major characteristics: He is unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute. God always knows that He is the only subject of the universe. Therefore, in order to become the object to God, you must say, "Father, I am going to have the same substance and nature as you: unique, eternal, unchanging and absolute." Do you think in that fashion? Do you have that confidence to become the true object to God? Can you boldly declare to God, "You cannot find anyone better than me as Your object! I am the one for You!"
Don't you think God yearns to see such bold and confident people? Or does God like to see someone weakly claiming, "Well, I'm not so sure." The most important thing to learn this morning is that you must have that conviction and commitment to become the one true object for God, being like Him-unique, unchanging, eternal and absolute.
You must confidently say, "I am God's unique object. I am His absolute object. I am His unchanging object. I am His eternal object." Then God wants to whisper to you, "You know, you look just like Me! Your eyes are just like Mine and so are your ears, nose and mouth! You smile just as I do!" Don't you think it is logical that God would like to say this?
Only declaring yourself the absolute object to God does not mean you have fulfilled true love. God, like human beings, has five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. We have to do something to please those five senses. We want God's ears to hear something ecstatically joyful. You must speak so that God can hear good words. Also, a good smell must emanate from His object- not a filthy smell.
The subject and object must come from opposite positions. For example, there must be a woman, not another man, as object to a masculine subject. So when you come before God as your subject, can you behave like another subject? For God to be able to accept you, you must be in what we call the objective or feminine position.
A man with a gruff, deep voice appreciates the balance created by the clear, light voice of a woman. When you appear before God as His object, can you shout in a rough, assertive voice, "God! I want to see You! I miss You a lot"? God will reply, "What kind of a guy are you? Get out of here!" It is much better to come before God in humility and say softly, "My dear God, I have missed You so much. My heart has been broken, yearning for You. "
You should come before God with a genuine smile springing from within you. Such heartistic sincerity will inspire God to take you into His heart. He will feel joy just to look at you and He will want to be completely one with you. When you love something cute and charming, you may feel so strongly that you feel like biting it. But instead you just cherish your beloved like a diamond or a jewel. The things I have spoken about today form a sort of manual describing the kinds of characteristics God wants to see. Any textbook about God should record these things.
Can you imagine reading in any textbook: "In order to be a great object to God, you must be very arrogant"? No, that wouldn't work. The textbook would say, "Be humble, meek, and sacrificial. Serve and attend others. Imagine you are one step away from meeting with God, but suddenly an enemy comes and strikes you. Should you strike him back and spend your energy fighting him? Or should you forgive him, go around him and move forward to meet with God? Suppose someone cut off his enemy's head and presented it proudly to God, saying, "Hey, God, look what I brought You. This is the head of my enemy! Don't you like to see this?" Would God say, "Bravo, My boy"? Or would He be shocked and say, "What kind of son are you?" The Bible teaches precisely, "Love your enemy." The spirit of love is exemplified by Jesus on the cross. While the Roman soldiers were piercing and ridiculing him, he could have cursed them but he didn't. He was just one step from meeting with God. He forgave his enemies and went beyond them into the arms of God. At that crucial moment, the lesson Jesus taught was to forgive. Do YOU understand?
If you read the Bible superficially without understanding the importance of loving your enemy, it sounds ridiculous and impossible. But you must realize that for the greater purpose, when you are only one step away from God, you have no energy to waste on fighting, no time to
do anything else but go forward and meet with God. In that circumstance, the most beautiful thing is to forgive your enemy, move forward with a loving heart and be embraced by God. That is the foremost and noblest way to proceed.
This kind of teaching never appears anywhere but in the books of religion. Look at the past 200 years of American history. There are so many struggles, defeats and victories battle after battle.
There is also a lot of "love" being shared in America today, but is it true love? What is it? Many people are enjoying so-called "fun" love or free sex. They are pursuing a perverted way of life far from the way of true love. Such illicit love is very destructive.
Unification members today can cherish this one very important confidence: "I am the unique object to God. Without me, God will feel lonely and cannot consummate His love." This wonderful statement is the key point of my teaching today. Just think of it: you can be the
unique object to God! No matter what, if even the entire planet disappeared, you would still be God's unchanging, unique object. How wonderful! Without an eternal object,
there can be no foundation for the existence of true love.
Do you think that is correct? This is the acceptable, logical truth.
Anyone can speak easily of true love, but to fulfill it in reality you must have the right foundation. We have four bridges to cross, all of which are heading for the goal of true love: the unique bridge, the unchanging bridge, the absolute bridge, and the eternal bridge. After crossing these four bridges you will meet with true love on the other side.
Beyond these bridges is the only place where true love dwells. The people who are making an effort every day to go across these four bridges are the ones in whom true love can dwell, and through whom true love can be communicated. Therefore, can one man marry several women? Can a woman love and marry three or four men? Do you American women feel that you don't have to take this truth seriously? Do you say, "So what?" "So what?" is the language of Satan. Satan loves to hide behind such words. This is very serious.
Do you Unification Church members really love me? In this context, can you say, "Yes, Father, I am worthy of you because I am crossing all four bridges. That is why I can truly say I love you"? Yes or no?
When you get up each morning, you busy yourself with all sorts of secular, trivial thoughts such as how to look more attractive. Have you ever just focused your thoughts on this question: "Am I really unique in the sight of God? Am I really absolute in the sight of God? Am I an unchanging and eternal person?" The problem is always you and where you are. The problem is not the Unification Church, Reverend Moon, or the leaders of the church. You have to have a face-to-face showdown with yourself. You cannot blame the rest of the world, saying, "That evil, secular and sinful world is the problem."
It doesn't matter how evil anybody else is. What matters is you-you are the key. The outside circumstances in the world should not make a difference, as long as you can say, "I am unchanging." People may tell lies and say anything, but that doesn't matter as long as you can say, "I am genuine. My heart is absolute. The same is true of my object." This is what is important.
Perhaps you are thinking this morning, "Now that Hyo Jin Nim has gotten blessed, my turn must be coming. In fact, Father might announce the date today! Oh, I long for my fiancee and I know that we will consummate true love." Have you been thinking in such a self-centered way? Such thoughts make you like a thief! Why don't you yell at me, "No, Father, I have a right to those thoughts!" You are silent because you know what is right. Your conscience tells you where you are.
Speaking of value-let's imagine that instead of giving you these words of truth this morning, I had held your wedding. Which would be better for your eternal life these words which are penetrating your heart and teaching you something of great importance, or a wedding? You are pretty smart. You know the answer. That means you are good material for education; you can learn.
When you men are walking on the street and a beautiful woman walks by, your eyes automatically follow her. Even though you may be a short, tiny man, still your eyes will turn toward a beautiful woman. Isn't that true, Mr. Sudo? But then you must take dominion over your eyes, correct yourself and say, "Eyes, look straight ahead. I am a dignified object to God, so I will not be tempted!" Temptation comes in many different ways. Let's imagine that Miss America came to you and whispered in your ear, "Won't you go out on a date with me?" Would you be completely intoxicated by her, or would you say, "What are you talking about? Get behind me, Satan!"
When you gave the right answer, did you really mean it or were your lips just saying the words? Even though you may say, "Satan, get behind me," Satan knows when you are overwhelmed. You even have to discipline your ears, telling them, "I am the object to God, so be careful what you listen to." Do you understand?
I have been speaking for an hour and a half and we have barely scratched the surface of "Victory and Peace." What do you think is our goal, our objective for victory? Is it money? What about knowledge? Power? No, our objective is only true love. Do you really welcome that goal? Will it be an easy task or a difficult one? You know it is difficult, but you must say, "I am not going to hesitate. I am going to achieve true love."
Many people think, "Life is too short to spend it suffering. Enjoy yourself now!" This is the prevalent philosophy today. But the Unification Church goal is not focused on this world. We are looking at the eternal world and learning to live according to eternal principles while we are here on earth. We know that only with true love can we obtain a victorious life here on earth and forever after. Such accomplishment will never change or diminish. In other words, our life's goal must be to perfect ourselves and become unique, unchanging, absolute, and eternal. This is the goal of the Unification Church.
Why do we want true love so much? It is because true love will fulfill God and ourselves; the consummation of everything good can come out of true love. Only true love can completely fill the universe-not God's power, total knowledge or anything else can do that. Only true love can make everything sound and solid. Inside the realm of true love, there can be no resistance or limits. As soon as you touch true love, you become one with it.
Therefore the whole creation is seeking the consummation of true love-not worldly love. Because true love provides the only way we can perfect and fulfill ourselves, everybody loves and desires it. True love is like a stream. It flows over every log, every stone, and it is all of one piece. Where is the hole through which that stream can go? It is in the center-the point where the horizontal and vertical axis of the universe meet. In this universe, there must be one unchanging vertical line somewhere.
What do you think? Is there more than one vertical line? Where will that vertical line penetrate within you? It comes down first to your parents, then to you. Which parent-the mother or the father-does it come through? This is very important and this is where Western and Eastern philosophy differ. Because man is the subject, love comes through him first to the object. Thus love comes through the father to the mother, then to the children. Which child will be touched by the vertical line first-the eldest or the youngest? The eldest son. Therefore, the eldest son has the privilege of receiving the inheritance. Love goes all the way down and it must descend in a straight, not crooked, path.
Westerners don't care whether they have a son or a daughter. As long as you have children, you are happy. You feel there is no difference. However, this principle explains why Eastern philosophy holds a son to be more precious and important. You women might protest and say, "Oh, Father, you are old-fashioned. We don't believe that sort of thing." Yet God designed the man in the subjective role; that was the blueprint. Men are bigger in every way, with stronger legs and arms and so forth. When you are physically short, you cannot see very far. Thus the taller man is supposed to have a greater vision, to be able to see farther. You women have no choice when your husband grabs your hand and says, "Stay with me! Don't go away!" Nature has made you that way.
The male deer have to fight against one another to win the females. The champion is welcomed by the females, and he passes on his lineage to the herd. Many times we have seen in movies how men-never women-used to fight duels with one another. The woman had to sit there and wait to see who won, since she had to go off with the winner. Whether she liked it or not, she became the prize of the victor. Which is more true to life-two men fighting and the woman going off with the winner, or for two women to fight and a man to go off meekly with the winner?
Do you women agree with that? Creation is designed that way; you cannot go against the creation. Between men and women, who has the tendency to be more changeable? Do you women accept that it is you? Are you going to demonstrate against me, saying that Reverend Moon doesn't treat women right? Since God is in the position of subject, true love comes down vertically first to the father, then through him to the eldest son, then on to the grandchildren.
Let's say you have a son. What is the best way for him to reach out to God? It is simple. The very best way for the son to become a perfect object to God is to become a perfect object to his own father-to be loyal, obedient and to imitate his father. The son should be able to say, "My father is absolute, unchanging, unique and eternal. By uniting with him, I can learn to unite with God." In that kind of relationship, the give and take of true love is apparent, and with it you have the freedom and privilege to go anywhere you want. In spirit world, you can enter the palace of God and roam wherever you like. God's true love comes through your father to you. That is the vertical relationship.
The vertical line is composed of segments of different lengths. One may be very long, another very short. The circle of relationships is filled with different sizes of vertical lines, running parallel. How can we link those vertical lines? It is the horizontal lines. No matter how many vertical lines there are side by side, they can all be penetrated by one horizontal line. Therefore, all the vertical lines, such as all the father/son relationships, are linked and tied together by this horizontal line. The horizontal movement that ties together all these vertical relationships is the mother's love. The father/son love is vertical, while the mother's love is horizontal. The love of the father and mother together, with the love of the children, creates a complete circle.
But that family is just a small circle that doesn't include the society, the nation, the world or the universe. If your family's vertical and horizontal lines are small, you must expand those lines and thus make your circle bigger. Eventually you grow outward more and more, expanding both the vertical and the horizontal lines, and your circle gets bigger and bigger. Finally it breaks through the boundaries and approaches the limitless center. Thus you can expand your territory and potential more and more while simultaneously getting closer and closer to the universal center. In the family, the father is the center; within a tribe, the chief is the center; the nation has a president. By the same token, the world and the universe should have a center.
This principle is very important in the Unification Church. We talk about the family as the basic unit, the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven, but we, don't end there. The same principle applies and is expanded to larger units such as the tribe, nation, world and cosmos.
Give and take of true love between the father as subject and mother as object creates a circle. When they intensify that give and take, the vertical and horizontal lines get longer and thus the circle gets larger. Since vertical love and horizontal love can only be consummated through marriage, we put great emphasis on marriage.
When the vertical line is not really vertical but deviates several degrees, then the intersection of the horizontal line will create a distorted circle, more like an oval. It is most important that you get the vertical line correct and straight. As soon as your vertical line is secured, then you can harmonize with the rest of the universe wherever you go and you will not encounter opposition. But when you try to enter the vast circle of the universe with an imperfectly formed circle, you will always run into conflict and confrontation. You won’t find peace and harmony. On the other hand, when a true circle comes into relationship with the larger circle of the universe, it will fit perfectly; everything will be harmonious and effortless. For a family, it is most important for the father and mother to be perfectly united along the vertical line. That means they are united with God and their family will be all right. The society, nation and world follow the same dynamic. True love is the key, the center, and through it, we become part of the great circle of the universe.
My topic today is about victory. First of all, I want you to be aware that you cannot attain victory all by yourself. You have to digest and overcome something. Do you want to digest something small or something large? The family level is something relatively small to digest, If you want to progress, you have to go to the tribe and the national levels. By digesting the national level, you win the national level victory. Then, if you can digest the level of God, you win the largest, universal level of victory. In a way, you must confront God; you must move up to Him and try to embrace Him with true love.
What do you think? Is God very reluctant or very willing to be embraced by people with true love? Which is bigger-God or true love? True love is actually bigger than God because, even though God is almighty, He only has an up-and-down relationship on the vertical line. In order to consummate His love, He needs an object with whom to have horizontal give and take. Thus He requires the horizontal line in order to create the circular motion of love. By Himself, as a vertical being, He could not create that circle. That is why we say that true love is even greater than God. Once you have true love in your hands, you have absolutely everything else in the universe.
Today we have come to a most important understanding about God's characteristics: He is unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal. Since we must become objects to God, we must possess His same characteristics. By doing so, we can consummate the flow of true love in a perfect circle between God and human beings. This is the way the Heavenly Kingdom shall be established!
Will you go the road of true love? Can you do that by muttering and complaining about everything you encounter? Can you say, "I have been working so hard, yet
nobody has given me any recognition. Father has never even said a 'Thank you' to me. He has never told me I did a good job. My central figure doesn't give me any praise, either. Why should I continue?" Instead you must go forward whether anybody praises you or not.
As you are busy fulfilling your own goals and responsibilities, you shouldn't care whether others recognize you or not. After all, you are accumulating your own assets and fortune, so why should you need recognition? If you go upward in that way, you will hit the boundary and automatically be turned around, making a circle. Ultimately you will have accumulated great spiritual wealth
for yourself.
Every movement you make involves a circling motion. There is no such thing as a perfectly straight motion . When you throw a stone, it makes an arc as it falls to the ground; it doesn't shoot out straight and then suddenly drop down in a straight line. Do you understand now the
road of true love?
Suppose you had to make a very difficult choice: either give up your spouse or your parents. Which would you give up? What would be the answer closest to the Principle? Your parents were there long before you were conceived. They represent the original line of existence, while your spouse was encountered along the horizontal line of existence. You had no relationship before you happened to meet along that horizontal line.
Today in America, many people try to focus their family life on just themselves and their spouse. This, in effect, denies the value of the parents and the in-laws and is very UN-Godly. Also some people disdain marrying anyone with a large family, not wanting to have to take care of so A many relatives. That is very wrong thinking. Look at the entire universe-basically, there is God as the Parent and all mankind as the children. So it is a universe based on the Parent/child relationship. The person who refuses to serve his parents is virtually denying God.
With such an attitude, how can a person be eligible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? How can he be accepted in spirit world? All the multitudes of people there are beyond death. You have to live with all those people for eternity. Can you say, "I don't want to live with anybody"? The only place where you can truly isolate your self is in the cells of hell. Thus when you serve your
siblings and your parents, you are going through the best workshop for heaven. The more relatives you have to serve, the better.
Here in America there is tension between the black and white races. When you ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven, or you think there are different realms for black and white? Are there two different heavens? No, there is only one Kingdom of Heaven for everybody.
Now that you have learned these things, are you Unification Church members planning to send your parents to senior citizens' homes, or will you bring them into your own home and take good care of them? Just as you serve God, you must serve your parents and grandparents. I will watch to see whether or not you live up to these words. When I am elderly, maybe I will come to your doorstep. How will you treat me? Will you shut the door in my face? If you shut the door to your own parents and grandparents, I'm sure you would shut the door to me, too.
I want to go to your homes, but since I am only one person with one body, I will send my representatives our own grandparents-to visit you. Will you accept them and serve them? As you greet the True Parents with a bow of respect in the morning, you should bow to your grandparents and parents, too.
If this kind of thinking were to spread, all the senior citizens' homes would be vacated. Elderly Americans would welcome the Unification Church. What about the young people-do they like the Unification Church? All of you young people will someday become old. Everything takes its turn; that which is up goes down.
Now let us draw the conclusion: We want to become victorious men and women of true love. Thus all our five senses must work centered on true love. Smell, vision, hearing, taste and touch must all be governed by true love. Moonies have a spiritual "Moonie smell" which is different from the rest of the American people. Satan hates that Moonie smell more than anything! He can't stand to be near it. Yet God is completely intoxicated with that fragrance; He just loves it. You know what that is now-it is the smell of true love.
Practice true love and carry this Moonie fragrance everywhere. When you go to Africa, practice true love; when you go to South America, practice it there. When you go to India, practice it there. Then when you go up to spirit world, it will be automatic; you won't have to make any effort. You will encounter no boundaries or obstacles. But if you don't master true love here on earth, you will find walls and barriers in spirit world everywhere you turn.
Now you must become a victorious person centering on true love. You have learned this truth from the sermon today, haven't you? You want this to be true, right? This is the absolute undeniable truth, just as you want it to be. Reverend Moon knows this principle and has been living by it, practicing it and teaching it to others. Because of this, Satan doesn't like Reverend Moon; the entire world has tried to expel me. But it won't work; they will not succeed. Even though American people oppose me, I do not go against them. I came to America to save this nation and I will continue that mission until I die, regardless of how I am treated by America. Many people say, "Reverend Moon, get out of here." But I will not; I will continue to do God's will.
Anybody who follows my teaching will definitely cross the true love bridge. In that respect, I am your guide to true love. I want to urge all you "old-timers" within the Unification Church to reflect and look at yourselves. What kind of life have you been living in the Unification Church? Ask yourself: Have I really been living in an unselfish and sacrificial way? More than the family, have I been living for the sake of the society? More than the society, have I cared for the nation? More than the nation, for the world? More than the world, have I cared for the needs of heaven and earth?
You have to be very hungry for true love. You must keep on digesting true love-on the family, societal, national and worldwide levels, all the way up to spirit world and God's level. Still you should continue because you have such a hunger and thirst for true love. This is why the Bible teaches, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." It is very important to have that urgent hunger and thirst for the righteousness of true love.
If you thirst for true love but there is nobody to give it to you, then you must make yourself the perfect object to God. Create within yourself that circuit of give and take with true love. This is what our movement is all about.
What is the title of the speech today? "Victory and Peace." Now, let's consider peace. The Chinese character representing peace is very symbolic. It shows God's level and humanity's level linked by a vertical line. This represents the originating point of peace. There is also a cross within the symbol. That Jesus was executed on a cross, rather than another way, is very meaningful since a cross is the Chinese symbol of the origin of peace. In this context, a cross should actually be composed of lines of equal length.
Jesus Christ came here to build the Kingdom of Heaven, which he knew had to be established through the family. Thus what he most needed was his own bride and then his own children to create the circle on the family level. Every necessary element can be found in that circle.
What is true peace? When you get drunk on alcohol, you might enjoy a momentary feeling of peace, but is that true peace? Some people think that they will find internal peace through acquiring lots of knowledge. When someone is hungry, he feels that he will find peace as soon as he gets some food. All those things are all right, but they are only temporary; they do not bring lasting peace. In order to find true peace, no matter how many brothers and sisters you might have, you need to have your parents in your home as the center. Then the juncture between the vertical and the horizontal is formed where true peace can be found.
We want to live in peace, but what kind of peace? Wherever we go here on earth and on into eternity we want to live in the peace of harmony-harmonizing peace. This world is searching for peace in the midst of so many problems, including crime, hunger, and war. People are seeking solutions through political and economic means, social programs and so forth, but they will not find the solution until they start to look for true love. In order to obtain true love, one must go through this process we discussed today.
Victorious true love is the center of peace. You cannot obtain lasting peace on the family level alone, but you must move on and digest the higher echelons, such as society and nation, and become victorious on each level. Ultimately, to find eternal peace you must reach all the way to God, becoming victorious on that level and digesting His love.
We must bring together the spirit world and the physical world. To be peaceful as an individual, you must bring unity between your mind and your body. The vertical element is the mind. Therefore, the mind as subject should give direction to the body, and the body should obey. When that happens, will the body suffer or will it enjoy peace? It will not struggle or suffer when it is completely obedient. Mind-body unity, then, is Article One for individual peace.
When an individual with unity between his mind and body gets married, he and his spouse together move up to the family level. When they are totally united, can they suffer and struggle? No, there is harmony and peace. Thus unity between husband and wife is Article Two.
After that, Article Three is unity and harmony between parents and children. Similarly, the family unit must digest the tribe and continue achieving unity on each higher level. Without the human fall, all these processes would have been automatic, but now we have to struggle on each level in order to win unity.
Unless you digest these barriers while here on earth, you will again confront them in the spirit world. Knowing this, Jesus said, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosened in heaven." Thus we are going around loosening things up on the worldwide level.
To develop the peace of harmony and unity, you should go to at least three countries besides your own. You should be able to digest and harmonize with those different cultures
and ways of life. Of course, within the home there are the four elements of father, mother, brothers, and sisters. When we go to the worldwide level, we should be able to travel freely and communicate without obstruction back and forth.
Staying in one spot while saying to others, "Come here and follow me," won't work. You have to go to many different places and make a complete circle. So far, patriotism has been based on nationalistic thinking, but in the future people have to go beyond that to the world level. The ideology of the Unification Church is destined to become the ideology of the future; there is no doubt.
Unless you solve the problems and knock down the barriers while you are living here on earth, you might have to spend a millennium to break them down in the spirit world. But as a member of the Unification Church here on earth, you can accomplish these victories in even 21 months. This is why I am asking you to participate in a conditional dispensation such as home church. The concept of home church has sprung from the depths of the philosophy of the Principle.
You know, it is very difficult to recover the damage from even one complaint. When husband and wife fight, as sometimes happens, the wife may get so upset and emotional that she will rush upstairs and pack her suitcase to leave. But once you pack up, it becomes harder to unpack; so don't-pack up! Even if you pack, don't go out the front door-it is very difficult to re-enter. Even though you wives might be in the worst possible situation, I can concede you the right to go as far as packing up your luggage, but don't take it out the front door! Come into the room, look at the luggage, then go out again; come in and look at it again, then leave the room. Let your husband look at it. Bluff a little bit. But digest the situation. When you go in and out several times, your husband will change. After a few times, you can bridge the gap between you.
The greatest virtue of a husband or wife is that of patience. The man of patience becomes the true subject. Gain the qualities of patience, sacrifice and service. Whenever you come to Belvedere, you hear basically the same thing every time: "Go out and suffer; be patient; persevere. Put yourself in the sacrificial position to serve others." Sometimes people think, "I'm sick and tired of hearing that from Father. I just don't want to go to Belvedere anymore because I know Father will say that again!" But I tell you, you must appreciate this teaching. It is the best thing you can hear.
Through fulfilling these words, you shall become the greatest victor, without ever having to engage in battle. The people whom you defeat will have no hostility or resentment toward you. Instead, they will be completely humble and want to follow you. Isn't that the best method? Do you think the American people will eventually follow my way of life, or will I surrender to the American way? With this Principle, I can declare to this country, "You can do whatever you want, including putting me jail, but no matter what, you are destined to follow the Principle." Is that true? Look at my life. I have been accused and persecuted throughout my 62 years, but what has happened? Now the Republic of Korea is starting to come behind me, as is Japan. Many young people of the United States, the fruits of this nation, are also following Reverend Moon.
No matter what other people may say, when you come here, you feel good, although you are sitting on the floor. You might visit some plush, comfortable church with beautiful stained glass windows, thick carpeting, cushioned pews and so forth. Can you imagine some American minister reaching down like I am right now and tapping one of the ladies on the head? It would become a big scandal! The minister would probably be fired the same day. But here, I hit people on the head, pinch their cheeks and so forth, and the same people keep coming every Sunday morning and even compete to sit in front. Why is that?
You don't feel any offense when I touch you because I do it with love. Maybe I hit you so hard that it stings, but it is a sweet pain. You don't feel any resentment inside. We don't find people saying, "Since Father hit me twice today, I want to take revenge and hit him back at least ten times!" You know that I do what I do out of love. You feel the power of that love.
Love is so powerful, it can melt even God. If someone hits you or accuses you unjustly, you can be patient because you know that if he does it three times, he will have to surrender. If he doesn't surrender after three times, be patient up to seven times. If he doesn't surrender by then, be patient up to twelve times. Twelve represents an entire circle-twelve months, and so forth.
Jesus Christ was a very patient man. He lived and worked with twelve difficult people-the disciples. He put up with them, over and over again, tolerating their failures. Since each disciple represented an extreme characteristic of human nature, Jesus had an incredible burden to tolerate.
If you can take care of twelve rascally people and keep them happy, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be opened to you freely. In order to get that free pass, you need a special card of qualification.
In the Korean folk song "Arirang," the Arirang Hill is the twelfth hill to climb. We have been singing this song for 5,000 years. Only after gaining victory can you enjoy peace. Within that peace you find the dwelling place of true love. That is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. Do you want to go there? We must start here. You cannot wait until you get to spirit world because it will be too late.
Can you say, "I understand now, Father, and I will follow this path"? Let us pledge this with both hands raised. Thank you and God bless you.