Father’s prayer and brief excerpts from his speech at the True Parents’ Day celebration at East Garden on April 9, 2005
Beloved Heavenly Father! Today is April 9 in the fifth year of Cheon Il Guk. This morning we are gathered here to offer our bows to you in commemoration of the forty-sixth True Parents’ Day, a day observed with keen interest by heaven and earth, and by blessed families around the world.
Forty-five years ago today, You established True Parents on earth after passing through an era of global indemnity on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world and universe, in the painful course of restoration through indemnity that began when the ideal you held at the time of the Creation was lost. They are the victorious basis of the ideal family You had originally envisaged. This day marks the forty-sixth occurrence of True Parents’ Day, through which You can concern Yourself directly with this world, based on True Children’s Day and the Day of All True Things on the foundation of the existence of True Parents.
You prevailed in offering innumerable conditions of indemnity in the course of history and chose this immature son to be at the forefront on the path of pioneering; You also mobilized all saints and sages and angels in the spiritual world in order to prepare once again the foundation for the ideal You held at the time of the Creation. After passing through such a process, if this son of Yours had been successful in beginning to establish the blessed families of God, centered on the seven nations of Great Britain, the United States, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Korea, immediately following World War II, Your providence would have been fulfilled by 1952. If this had come to pass, a True Parents’ Day, True Teacher’s Day and True King’s Day would have been inaugurated right there and then. We would have ushered in an era of liberation and complete freedom in all nations, and that ideal would have been fulfilled. That ideal was to connect the life and blood lineage centering on the love of the spirit world and the physical world, and we would thereby have become the lords of all nations in a liberated and completely free world where heaven and earth were completely united. You would have been enthroned as the King of love, the eternal King of kings.
In the efforts to restore all that was lost, You extended Your toilsome course by a second forty-years, and the history of indemnity has continued until this day, the forty-sixth anniversary of True Parents’ Day. Based on this day, which has arrived six years after the conclusion of that forty years, it was finally made possible for the new institution of the ideal of God’s Kingdom for the family to be established, an institution through which a new dawn of bright victory and love can shine on the spirit world and the physical world in this new universe, centering on the love of the family.
We have now entered an era in which, for us to go beyond the age of salvation on the individual level and to obtain salvation on the level of the family, tribe, ethnic group and universe, we need to establish a global sphere of victory on the level of the individual, family, tribe, race, nation, and universe. We need to go beyond what was supposed to have been established by Adam’s family–the victorious supremacy of Your blessing in all nations and all ages, in a world where heaven and earth are united as one and the vertical and the horizontal lines have formed right angles, thereby enabling it to rotate clockwise.
We are truly grateful for Your allowing us to celebrate this forty-sixth anniversary with a world of peace and equality within our grasp, wherein all walls of suffering have been torn down and national barriers transcended.
Many religions stemmed from the religious realm based on Your promise to send the Messiah to this world, but You set it up so that the foundation for the Messiah should be established in a world transcending nations and cultures. Thus, together with the families of children of direct descent centered on the Commander-in-Chief of the spirit world, we were able to succeed in laying down the foundation on the family level, after treading the path of suffering on which the family, tribe, people, nation and world stood opposed to the religious realm.
Centering on the global realm transcendent of religions and nations, we overcame the schemes of Satan to oppose us and to block and destroy the path followed by True Parents, and passed through the supra-religious and supra-national realms to the realm of transcendent liberation and unity, where grounds for global and cosmic conflict cannot exist. Thereupon, standing on the foundation of a family of complete oneness and love, where separation between mind and body cannot be found, Your ideal of love–the love of true parents, true owners and true kings–was established and the will built with Your own hands, the realm of liberation and complete freedom for all nations and all ages, fulfilled through the revolution of indemnity, revolution of conscience, and revolution of heart. And now, at the very summit of the transcending of religion, nation, world, universe and unity, and the central place where the upper and lower have become one, the left and the right become one, and the front and back become one, the basis of the original ideal of the Creation has been firmly established.
In order to prepare once and for all the place of settlement in which Your hopes of all ages can finally be realized, representatives from the seven nations of Great Britain, United States, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Korea will hold a rally on April 13, through which those that transcend religions, peoples, nations and the world will be drawn together to become one in mind, body, ideology and soul in our common goal to achieve Your purpose of the ideal of creation, and the peaceful Kingdom of Heaven. This rally of the final preparation, through which we will cross over to a new world of unified settlement and liberation, will be held three days from now.
Therefore, Heavenly Father, help us make this rally a great success under your supreme guidance, so that this glorious victory will forever shine over the world and the parent, teacher and king centered on love. All this I report and proclaim on this day from the bottom of my heart in the name of True Parents! Amen! Amen! Amen!
Father’s Speech (excerpts)
Among all true days in the world, the very best are days when we can pass the time laughing out loud and singing in joy, rather than living in an environment where we cry and fight and wear a frown all the time! Is that true or not? [It is true.] If you don’t agree, stand up and I’ll give you a prize. Why isn’t anyone standing up, even though I said I would give anyone who disagrees a prize? Children love to be given prizes, so I thought at least they would stand up, but even the little tots are remaining seated, which shows they are better than adults. How about God Himself, then? Would He stand up in disagreement, or not? He would not. That is because everyone agrees that such a day is a good day….
Everyone, look at your palms. You’ll see that there are lines running across them. How many people are here? 3,500? How many? [3,000] If there are 3,000 people here, there are 6,000 hands, half of them being right hands. If you were to look closely into your right palms, all 3,000 of you, could you find even two that are identical to each other, or not? [We couldn’t.]
Since all kinds of people are in our church, you should not judge others thoughtlessly, nor should you criticize others, listen casually to them, sniff them, or treat them roughly….
Something that changes is not something true. Do you understand? During the thirty-four years I stayed in the United States, did you ever see a change in me? The world raised a clamor; whites, blacks, in fact all five races, prayed endlessly for me to die, didn’t they? After Stallings learned about the Unification Church, not even the most confident person on earth could compare with him. He loves his wife–is she here by the way?–and his son; the three of them love each other. In that respect there is no one who can rival him, is there?…
If you asked what kind of person I am, I’d say I am someone who can see with my eyes. Though they are small, I try to see the truth through them. I am determined to be a king in seeing the truth, and I will not be outdone by anyone in the world. …
If you got to meet True Parents… Do you know what a true person is really is? The prominent people seated right here are all religious leaders, but can you claim to know your true selves? Well, can you? Stallings, do you know yourself? You could give a description of your facial features, which you can see for yourself, but do you know what is happening in your mind, and that your mind and body are in conflict right now? Though the fact that the mind and body are in constant struggle is true, our eyes cannot see it. And we cannot hope to make everything okay by denying what is taking place, just because it is invisible to us. Unless we acknowledge this fact to be the truth, the world cannot find itself or the place of peace.
Can peace blossom where there is constant fighting? It is illogical. Can perfection come from ignorance? If you asked someone why religion came into existence, if he did not know the answer, he could not reply, “Religion came into existence for me!” Why? Who is “me”? If the one who answers happens to be a Presbyterian, would the omnipotent God have created the universe and religion for him, a member of the Presbyterian Church? People must first acknowledge the fact that before they were born the universe existed and that a master of the universe must have existed before the universe could be created.
Could a person acknowledge True Parents if he were not a true person himself?… Are you true children? Aren’t your minds and bodies in conflict? What is true? Is it what the body wants to do or what the mind wants to do? You don’t even know the answer to that question. The body and the mind are fighting each other, because the body does not want to do what the mind desires, and vice versa. Isn’t that so? If they both wanted the same thing, wouldn’t they go for miles or for a hundred years without fighting? Ever since the Fall, they have been at odds with each other, because they could not become one. The fight has continued to the present. Without a foundation on which we can stop this fight, peace cannot be achieved.
Where does peace originate? From the moment a baby is born into the world and has cried his first cry, his mind and body begin to fight, because his mother and father are in constant conflict. Not only do the visible selves of the mother and father fight each other but, within the mother, the mind and body are fighting and the same goes for the father. So, in truth, four beings are fighting, and the baby that has inherited the love, life and lineage of such parents cannot help having a mind and body at odds within itself.
At the beginning of history, as a result of the Fall, our ancestors inherited a constantly fighting lineage from their progenitors. We have multiplied on earth to point where six billion people live in the world, while hundreds of billions of others live in the spirit world. All those in the spirit world ended up there without having reached a solution. Their time on earth was spent in the heat of battles and war. They were religious people, nonetheless. Jesus himself was unable to solve the essential problem, the struggle between people’s minds and bodies, and passed into the spirit world without having saved the nation.
Jesus was a holy man. If he had found a holy woman, would he have wanted to marry her or not? Stallings got married because he knew the answer to this question. Did I offer to conduct his marriage? He is the one who made a fuss about it, claiming, “Oh, I must receive the blessing.” He was so serious that if I hadn’t blessed him, he might have demanded it at knifepoint! So in the end I told him, “You are the one who was teaching the wrong things, so you should now be the one who practices the right way. Whether you can receive the blessing or not depends on you.” It was up to him to decide whether to believe in the Unification Church or not, just as it was up to him to have faith in God in his own way. I blessed him, because I felt a certain responsibility. He was overcome with joy when I blessed him.
Did God say, “Mary, you must marry Joseph”? If Mary had not gotten married, Jesus may not have had to die. Some respond, “Why on earth is Rev. Moon saying such things? This is not in the Bible.” But you don’t know what lies behind the Bible. Because what I know is watertight, I am ready to proclaim it to the world….
I am not eighty-five years old; I am eighty-six. We are born from our mother’s womb, so why should we not include that?…
My grandson, where did he go? [He didn’t come.] He didn’t come? I wish he’d come. There are times when I address my ten-month old grandson as “God.” I learn a lot from him. Why? He can tell how much I liked him yesterday and how much more I like him today, just by looking at my face. He knows when I cuddle him with a more loving heart than before. Because he knows, he moves his eyes up to look at me, his grandfather. So I tell him, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry for not greeting you with a smile brighter than yesterday’s.” This is what is happening in my life now; do you know how delightful it is? Underneath his feet are gold mines and diamond mines and a reservoir of mineral water just waiting to be released. If you were to submit to him, underneath would be found infinite treasures and minerals, the stream of immortality of the life of those treasures. When a pepper ripens, it is firm at first, but as it withers, it falls to the ground. It wants to go back to the ground. Fruits need to return to the earth….
Joo Dong-moon, did you send your mother-in-law off well on the fourth? [Yes, I did.] She must have had me on her mind as she passed over. As she searched for True Parents, she wept because her husband opposed her. She was one crazy woman. I was persecuted so much that most people shunned me; what was she to gain by looking for me? It seems like only yesterday that she came to me, weeping, with her baby on her back, but fifty years have passed since then, and she has passed on and left us for good. Before long, I too will pass on. An era may come in which my original mind of long ago will burn hot, and through my heart of love for God flowers can bloom in a new garden. So in my heart I said to her, go on and wait for me. Pray for her on behalf of me, and tell her this, will you?…
Great Britain, the United States and France shouldered responsibility for World War II and emerged the victors; whereas Japan, Germany and Italy lost. At that time, we had to make one nation. If Great Britain, the United States, France, Japan, Germany and Italy had accepted and attended me centering on Korea, the world would not have turned out the way it has. The Vatican and the Protestants would have no reason to fight. And what’s the barrier dividing North and South America…? How can Catholics and the Protestants become one?
The people responsible for these faiths have passed on to the spirit world. Did Jesus preach that we should fight? He told us to love our enemies, so why are there so many religious denominations? Americans do not have faith; they do not believe in Jesus or even God! What on earth are liberalism and individualism? You should know that I came to this country and was persecuted for thirty-four years because I worried that you, clinging to Christianity, God and Jesus, would come to ruin in the end. How many of the people sitting right here can claim they didn’t pray at least once for Rev. Moon to fail?
Can you imagine how delighted God would have been after creating Adam and Eve? Consider it from this perspective: if a woman who had been thought barren became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby, the eldest son who would carry on the family name, how much would her heart swell with pride and hope for her child? It was the same for God. You should know that while creating Adam and Eve, He pictured in his heart a world full of dreams, images of His children, similar to what expectant mothers and fathers picture in their minds.
Though God wants to become the parent of humanity, He cannot attach the label “parent” to Himself. You should realize this. When a couple gives birth to sons and daughters, they may say, “We are their parents,” but they did not become the owners of love by themselves. By being born, their children gave the parents the right to act as their parents, with parental love. The one who makes someone into a parent is not the husband or the wife, but the baby, and until now no one–not the father, sons or daughters, or siblings in a family–knew this fact.
No matter how great I might be, I still need something. What do I need? Am I a man or a woman? Since I am a man, what would a man definitely need? Priests may not know the answer. What a man definitely requires is a woman. Speaking of definite requirements, what is it that they require from each other, the basic and fundamental needs that only the other can fulfill? What the woman needs is the man’s convex part. What would the man need from a woman, her convex parts or her concave part? Well, which is it? Answer me.
What enables a man to function as the master, his convex part or the woman’s concave part? Convex or concave? [Concave! ] [Father laughs.] So you do know. That is what is required. That is what gives freedom. With your wife beside you, you can laugh out loud. You cannot expect to get more complete freedom than that. Freedom is not something you can achieve alone….
God would have yearned to see the faces of the True Parents of humanity, the faces that He loves, but did He get to see them or not? Religious leaders who are gathered here! Of course He did not see them, because of the Fall. Did the Fall occur before or after marriage? It occurred before marriage; God never got to see Adam and Eve get married or their convex and concave parts unite as one. He did not get to see their faces radiating joy over their union and expressing happiness in all kinds of ways. He could not even dream of seeing them like that….
When the real True Parents appear, God wants to see their faces, see what they look like. He wants to prepare feasts for them and break bread with them. He wants to watch over them as they experience delightful festivities as husband and wife and share their joy.
As they continue to live in this way, God would observe them in their everyday lives, and see the wife become pregnant and feel hopes and dreams for her baby–finally giving birth to sons and daughters. Only then would the triple-objective purpose be realized. Only then would the four-position foundation and the triple-objective purpose be perfected. This is in accordance with the formula of the Principle.