Happy True God’s Day!
Today we offer excerpts from Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s address on True God’s Day, 1982, which was celebrated on January 1, 1982 (True God’s Day is now celebrated on the Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the Lunar Calendar).
Victory of Home Church
There is an insect called a cicada that makes a noise during the summer. For a while, it is encased inside a certain shell and surrounded by liquid. As long as the cicada refuses to break out of this cocoon, he is simply rejecting his wonderful future of flying around from tree to tree. We are encased inside a shell of flesh here on this earth, destined for a wonderful future. Before now, 1982, we have lived with a certain fear of death. But from now on, we can be free of that fear and understand what death really is…..
When one pursues only external values in life, he tends to go away from God’s purpose; but whenever a person seeks after the internal purpose of his life, he will get closer to God. Which one would you want? The person who masters the internal way of life is capable of doing things well externally, also, since internal is subject over external. But the person who only values external things cannot ever achieve internal values. You must become a person who is welcomed by both worlds…
Would you like to become the victors of home church? Do you, then, go to your home church area to be served by the people there? Do you only go to the clean, good places where you expect people to come and bow down to you ? There is no true love in that kind of situation. When a woman does the work of a man, or a man does the work of a woman, then that person learns to do something opposite from the usual and he is free to do anything. Similarly, when you mingle with men of literature, you can learn to write good poetry, like they do. You may not be the greatest artist, sculptor, or singer; but when you sing with true love, that is the best music. The painting done with true love is the best painting….
In order to be victorious in home church, should we then seek out the beautiful places, where everything smells sweet? Should we go to disco dances for our home church work? No, you must go to the ugly, smelly places and make them beautiful and sweet smelling. You must go to the suffering people and make them feel happy-that is your home church work. If you do this kind of work, then you don’t have to make effort to elevate yourself; the people will try to push you into a beautiful, high place, even though you resist and say you want to stay in the low place….
When men and women of separated mind and body try to love each other, it is impossible. Their minds go one way and their bodies go another; that is satanic love. You can love someone else only when your mind and body are one with each other. The husband who caresses his wife should have his mind and body united; likewise, the wife should be a united person, not a person of division between mind and body. True love between husband and wife is the love of give and take between a man and woman of united mind and body. Is there anyone here who thinks he has reached that level? Knowing that you have not achieved that level yet, how can you think that you deserve the heavenly Blessing? Asking for the Blessing before you are ready is an example of a greedy mind. Those who complain, “I’m 32 years old! Why doesn’t Father bless me?” are much further away from God than those who say, “Father, I don’t deserve the Blessing yet. I want to make more effort to unite my mind and body.”…
Why should we live such a life? Because our job is to subjugate Satan, not by force, but in a way that Satan will voluntarily surrender. Who are the true saints? Not those people who are revered by the rich and comfortable people, but the ones who are revered by the miserable, suffering poor people. When such miserable people say someone is a saint, then that person is, indeed, a saint. True love can be found in the lowest places, not in the Waldorf Astoria or in the palaces of kings….
Although we have talked about many things today, we come to the one main point: home church. Why do we need home church? Because fallen parents came into being. In order to restore this position, Jesus came to the earth. He had to go through a certain process; he needed to restore the Abel family of Zechariah and the Cain family of Joseph, uniting them. Because this was left undone, we must go, in our time, to the home church mission and restore those positions. Who crucified Jesus? Fallen men, men of faithlessness. Therefore, until you have paid back that debt, you cannot be restored.
There are many steps beyond just home church. After that, there is the clan church, the tribe church, the nation church, the world church. You have to pass through all these levels. Doing home church is not easy, but doing tribe church and nation church are even more difficult. No individual is capable of doing all these levels; therefore, True Parents came to this earth to do it for everybody else, for you and all your posterity.
Do you think I have a battle between my mind and body? Yes, I have the same battles as you; the only difference is that my battles have been victorious. I knew the truth, so I persevered through my battles. On the road of dispensation, when a person loves himself or his own family and things more than he loves the dispensation and his God given mission, that dispensation will stop right there. My mission has been, in the position of Abel, to win over the position of Cain; to restore the unity on all levels. As the familyAbel, I had to win over the familyCain; and on up to all the other levels. In order to win over Cain, one cannot stay in the same place and have it happen automatically, but must go out to the world and set the right conditions. On each different level, Abel must go out and win Cain. That is why I came to the United States; I was searching for Cain on the worldwide level.
Here I could be beaten and then restore it. When Abel returns, he becomes the elder brother, restoring the birthright. You must restore the elder brother’s position in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven……
If you want to become a true person, you must do the things that you say you will do. Your words and your deeds must become one. The good teacher is one who lives his own teachings, not just speaks about them. The true saint is not one who only cares for his family, but who first cares for others, even those who care the least for him, before his own family. We can define the good God as the God who sacrifices Himself for the sake of others. I, too, have lived according to this principle. I have sacrificed my immediate family, even Mother, for the sake of the Unification Church. It is very seldom that I eat a meal with my own children; I usually eat with the church leaders from all over the world. They are the ones who are sitting right next to me and Mother, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, our children are not there. Sometimes when I am eating a meal with the children and some of the church leaders come in, I immediately send the children to the kitchen to finish their meal and give their seats to the church members. My children, as well, must have Cain to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; they cannot enter without Cain…..
In the United States, the government is in the Cain position, while Christianity is in the Abel position. Only through the unity of these two positions can this country be acceptable to God. Today. on the contrary, the United States government is dominating Christianity and this is the opposite of what should be happening. The communist world, which denies God, is in the position of the Cain world and the free world is in the position of the Abel world. The Unification Church is in the mother’s position, so we are supposed to embrace both sons: the Abel, democratic world and the Cain, communist world. By doing so, the world can accept the Messiah; it can welcome the universal parent.
That has not been done very successfully, so, for that reason, we have to make the foundation from the very bottom. The very bottom is home church, then progressing to tribe church, nation church, and world church. Who has to do this? The Unification Church is committed to doing this, but I have already fulfilled those levels. Each of you must pay a certain amount of indemnity by doing home church. I have come through the entire process and I have erected such a powerful foundation that those hostile to me have a frenzied desire to kill me. But in your case, you encounter no such drastic opposition. Compared to what I have faced, your persecution is very minor; in fact, doing home church is an easy job. Do people try to kill you? You are not risking your life by doing home church. However, as I work in the United States there is a constant danger to my life. No one besides me is clearly declaring a war against communism; for that reason, the communists consider me their archenemy. I push Tiger Park to squarely confront the communists through CARP. Even though Tiger Park is leading the demonstrations, the communists don’t fear him nearly as much as they fear me, since they understand that I am the ultimate source of this war against communism.
I have been doing this mission at the risk of my life, but you don’t have to risk your life in the same way. I have created a safer way for you to go. You must become a tribal messiah in your home church in order to save your own family; the tribe is the strength of the family. When your home church is protected by the tribe, nation, and all the other layers, nothing can invade your home and family. When you willingly take up the cup of persecution in your home church area, trying to win the people, no power can invade you.
The home church providence started as a major crusade in 1979. At that time, our slogan was, “Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven through Home Church.” In 1980 our slogan was, “Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” In 1981 we had the slogan, “Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven.” After those three consecutive years, we have the slogan for this year: “Victory of Home Church.”…
I am not the one who should buy myself a home in Korea. The parents’ home should be bought by the children, Cain and Abel. God’s house, too, is bought by the children; home church will become God’s dwelling place, God’s house. You cannot win the victory without committing yourself to fighting the battle. You have learned the tactics of victory: just go. The important thing is to go, be beaten, and then win. Satan’s method is always to attack first and ultimately to lose, while the method of Heaven is to be beaten first, but to obtain the victory in the end….
Home church is a far more precious gift from God than becoming heads of state or kings and queens. Once your home church people welcome you wholeheartedly, the entire spirit world will welcome you. Suppose you should drop dead in your home church area. Don’t worry, because you are not really dead; you will be resurrected into the highest place in spirit world, where everyone will glorify you. You would like to dwell in the same place in spirit world as I do, wouldn’t you? Even though I may be letting you endure suffering at this time, my ultimate plan is to take every one of you with me, arm in arm, to the Kingdom of Heaven. At that time, you will be a true victor. You can take off, nonstop, to the Kingdom of Heaven….
In the beginning of the message tonight, I said that Adam and Eve were never supposed to have a fear of death. They were supposed to be aware of spirit world and eternity; only because of the fall of man did fear of death come into being. Today, we must be the ones who liquidate the fear of death; we shall be aware of eternity and have no fear of it.
The true fulfillment of the Bible is being done by the Unification Church. Jesus said, “Whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it; but whoever seeks to lose his life for my sake will save it.” This is a dilemma and a contradiction, but we know that those who seek the highest positions shall be lowered, and those who seek the lowest places shall be elevated. Why should this contradictory statement be there in the Bible? People don’t realize it, but such a statement is in the Bible because of the principle of indemnity….
Starting from Dr. Durst, everybody has a home church area. Dr. Durst has been thinking that home church is good, but we need to emphasize street witnessing in order to gain new members. But if you witness to someone on the street, it has only the significance of that individual. An amazing thing is that, although we are doing the same activity, witnessing, when you do it at the home church level, it has historical and providential significance because it is connected at that point to the historical indemnity course. When you connect with one person in your home church area, that individual is representing his family, clan, nation, world and cosmos. By working with one person in home church, you connect yourself to the entire cosmos; but when you go out into the streets, you are only connecting with one individual. It is a one to one relationship that does not go beyond that level…
Until you have finished your home church work, you have no way to complain. You should not get tired. Knowing the Principle, I have no way to get discouraged or to slow down. I continue to march forward; even if I collapsed, I would fall forward, not backwards or to the side. I have always known that I must go over the hill and I cannot stop marching before I go beyond that hill; I cannot afford to die before I get there. Since no one can know when he will die, you must begin now to go beyond the hill. My 21 year course was actually completed in 16 years, 5 years earlier than scheduled. Why? Because I did not know when I would die.
You must overcome your fear of death, becoming men and women who can live without fear, dwelling within the love of God. Unless you can live this way, life is miserable. Once you are elevated into spirit world, there is no way to return to the earth. It is your good fortune to have met me and to have heard this message; but if you do not fulfill my message, it is not good. More than anything else, home church is top priority. Push aside everything else to do home church. For whom are you going this way? Not for the sake of the Unification Church and not for the sake of God or True Parents, but for the sake of yourself, your children, and your posterity. For that reason, you must go to home church and be victorious!
Read the entire speech here.