Cheon Seong Gyeong 1321
Did you know that during the past two or three years the Unification Church has reached an international level? Are you aware of this? Then how did we attain such a level? By earning a lot of money? By witnessing to many people? It was through the Blessing. When was the 360,000 Couples’ Blessing held? It was in 1995. The 30,000 Couples Blessing? It was in 1992. The 30,000 Couples came in 1992 and the 360,000 Couples in 1995. Next came the Blessing of the 3.6 Million Couples. Who would have believed at the time of the 30,000 Couples Blessing, that at the next one we would bless 360,000 couples? It was the same after the Blessing of the 360,000 Couples. After that Blessing, it took us less than three years to hold the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing. We did it in two and a half years. It wasn’t even that long. When I first issued the instructions to prepare for the Blessing of 3.6 million couples, not one person believed that it would actually happen. I can’t speak for God, but even I was in doubt. Think about it. Is one finger the same as ten, or not? How many hills are there? There are ten hills to climb. During the three years I worked in Jardim, Brazil, I declared the era of the Second Generation in which absolute faith is paramount. Now the time has come in which you have no choice but to believe, even if you don’t want to. (291-152, 1998.3.11)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 963
Now that we have entered the age of liberation, you do not know how much the universe is singing in praise, while focused on this earth. You do not know how joyful they are over this day. From the beginning of this year to this very day, there has been a festive atmosphere.
Now, heavenly fortune will follow us and assist us in everything we try to do. We used to exert ourselves to catch heavenly fortune but now heavenly for-tune will follow us around and assist us. This means that the time has come for God and the spirit world to mobilize numerous ancestors and countless good spirit persons to assist people on earth. We can establish a realm of liberation. The age of transformation has come. (298-228, 1999.1.8)
Sacrificial Love
True love is sacrificial love. It calls forth self-sacrifice in the service of others. Love prompts us to get involved in the knotty problems of the world, gives us the strength to bear with the failings and weaknesses of others, and moves us to help others regardless of the cost. We have the example of Jesus Christ, who out of love, offered his life to redeem sinful humanity. Moses in his time, and Muhammad as well, endured persecution and exile, risking their lives to enlighten and liberate their people—all for the love of God and humanity. Out of Buddhism comes the figure of the bodhisattva, who vows to devote himself to save all beings. He regards his own happiness as incidental to the happiness of others, and would rather not enjoy the fruits of his own spiritual progress before first liberating others. On this topic, Father Moon describes the root of sacrificial love in God, who invested himself endlessly at the creation to make a beautiful home for his children. God, who ever since the fall, has continuously and sorrowfully devoted himself as would a loving parent to rescue prodigal humanity from the pits of sin and grief. Such divine love is manifested every day in the human love of parents, who willingly sacrifice for their children’s future.
1. Sacrificing Everything—Even Your Life—for the Sake of Those You Love
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15.13
The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20.28
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
Ephesians 5.1-2
Love will make men dare to die for their beloved—love alone; and women as well as men. Of this, Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, is a monument to all Hellas; for she was willing to lay down her life on behalf of her husband, when no one else would.
Socrates, in Plato, Symposium (Hellenism)
By this we know love, that he [Christ] laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3.16-18
We, truly, have come for your sakes, and have borne the misfortunes of the world for your salvation. Do you flee the one who has sacrificed his life that you may be quickened?… Do you imagine that he seeks his own interests, when he has, at all times, been threatened by the swords of the enemies; or that he seeks the vanities of the world, after he has been imprisoned in the most desolate of cities?…
Verily, he has consented to be sorely abased that you may attain glory, and yet, you are disporting yourselves in the vale of heedlessness. He, in truth, lives in the most desolate of abodes for your sakes, while you dwell in your palaces.
Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Baha’i Faith)