Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 219

Chapter 1: What Is a Life of Faith
Section 1: A Life of Faith, 13-25

(13)  Expecting blessings unconditionally is not true faith. What then must we do to receive blessings? All humankind on earth today descended from Adam over the course of six thousand biblical years. Our hearts should reach the standard where we can tearfully embrace all the people of the world. Otherwise, we cannot establish a connection with this world. This means that when you see a pitiful beggar, your heart aches unbearably; when you see a person with shabby garments, you cannot dress fashionably; when you see a hungry person, you cannot eat. Your heart cannot seek personal comfort when you are concerned about others.

(14)  There are two types of religious people in the world. One type is those who hide their shortcomings and seek material comforts, blessings, and the welfare of their own religious denomination or people. Religions that focus on receiving blessings will disappear. Since we came to know this, the Unification Church emphasizes personal sacrifice to help God and liberate Him. What is to be achieved through unification? It is the liberation of God. Originally the true God, in the ideal world under His dominion, would have sung songs of praise and happiness with the first human ancestors, who would have attended Him. But instead, because of God’s miserable situation, we seek to liberate Him. This is an amazing plan. That such an idea has emerged in the realm of religion is tremendously joyful news to God.

(15)  A life of faith is about resolving the issue of death while on earth. You may not know much about convicts on death row but I know well, having lived with them. You have no idea how serious such convicts become when facing death. When a holiday such as Chuseok approaches, those convicts reflect on it as if it were the last Chuseok in history. When the wind blows or a typhoon hits, they observe it in the same way. They say, "This typhoon will be the Last one I experience while I am on earth." They spend their last days looking at all things with a serious heart, a new feeling, and a new appreciation. Among those people who walk the path of faith, I wonder how many have such a serious altitude, and how many value their life as a divine life and face each day with new resolve. This is an important question. Because I am in this serious place, I keep going this way.

A life of faith is a life of attending God

(16)  Faith means living in attendance to God, living together with God, and attending Him. If we do not walk such a path, we feel uneasy. We feel physically uncomfortable and we meet obstacles in our environment. A life of faith is a life of living together with God and attending Him. The sun rises in the morning, reaches its zenith at noon, and sets in the evening. This is unchanging. It will not change in tens of thousands of years. If an orbit goes awry, everything goes awry. We need to go out and find the mind of love, the path of true love. The person who inherits true life and true lineage becomes part of God’s family and always lives with God. Living with God also means living happily with nature and coming and going happily in our daily lives.

(17)  In our lives of faith, there is the communal life of faith and the individual life of faith. In the communal life of faith, it is possible to receive shared grace, but it is difficult to receive personal grace. In order to receive personal grace, we must lead a life that is close to God. Accordingly, our devout prayers and constant daily efforts to come closer to God lead to greater depth of faith.

(18)  In order to undertake a mission in the Unification Church, you need to renew your determination as a person of faith. Before that, it is important that the center of your faith is well grounded. You will be unable to practice a life of faith that can manage the world if you do not realize that the center of your faith is even more important than the world. You will also be unable to identify the attributes of faith. If you want to climb to the top of a mountain, you have to be ready to climb despite the conditions. Similarly, you should undertake a major action only after confirming again and again in your mind that you are going the right way. Otherwise, you should not undertake such an action, and before you take the first step you have to strengthen your resolve ten thousand times. If you do this, you will be able to resolve whatever crises you face as you go forward. That is a life of faith.

(19)  A life of faith is not aimless. A life of faith is like gathering the equipment required to reach a mountaintop, the summit of the highest peak. Hence, when faced with an obstacle we should not make a detour around it. Instead, we should proceed through the obstacle. When faced with hardships, we should determine not to give up, and be ready to face even greater difficulties. With an indomitable spirit, we should strive to discover the subjective self that can digest all difficulties.

(20)  People pursue lives of faith in the belief that they will prevent evil and leave a legacy of goodness. What is humanity's greatest hope? It is to become beings of perfect goodness. It is written in the Bible, Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." As the absolute subject partner of love, God's greatest desire is for human beings to stand as His object partners of love. Human beings too want to be beings of goodness as object partners to God. As the subject of goodness, God does not want His object partner to be suffering under the yoke of evil, accused by Satan. There is no doubt about this. Thus, as the absolute subject of goodness, God wants people to be absolute objects of goodness. Was this God's wish from our very birth? Of course. After our birth, does God want us to live that way throughout our lives? Yes, of course. God has always wished that we would be good and will always wish this.

(21)  Faith means believing in and reverently attending God. Where is the end-point of such faith? Where is the final destination of the faith that endures all, overcomes all? It is the place where we can jump on top of God and take a ride. It is the place where, more than attending God, even if we held onto His hair and danced on Him He would say with delight, "Good, keep on dancing!" That is the endpoint of our faith; we need to rise to that level. In this sense, there is nothing you cannot believe in. If you have such a foundation, there is nothing that is beyond the grasp of faith.

(22)  In the Unification Church, we attend God as the object of reverence in our daily lives, and we promote harmony and unity based on God's love. This was my motivation for founding the Unification Church. Our religion began on the best theoretical foundation. It is not a wild fantasy. From its inception, the Unification Church presented concrete substance.

(23)  A life of attendance means that, even after living this way for a thousand years, you still do not think about yourself. You should not think, "I have spent decades in the Unification Church attending Reverend Moon." I don't like that kind of person. I myself have forgotten everything I have done in attending God so far. When you continue on, forgetting everything, a greater life of attendance awaits you. God is like that too.

A life that finds hope through faith

(24)  A person of faith should pray with a public mind, for a greater cause. Then how can such work unfold horizontally? We should not merely daydream about this; we need creative ventures that can make it real. Hence, as people of faith, we need to struggle endlessly with our environment and strive to realize our ideals through innovative lives. A life of faith means the way of the greatest pioneer, the way of the greatest warrior, and the way of the greatest evangelist. Such achievements lead to the way of the greatest victor. This is the life of faith we must lead.

(25)  We should believe in ourselves, place our hope in ourselves and love ourselves so we can say to God, "Dear God, please accept my love, please rejoice at my hope and in my faith." When I do so, God should be able to respond, "Yes!" This is the aim of our faith, the purpose of our hope, and the reason we long for love. If we achieve this, we will meet the Lord, and thereafter, we will live with Him.