Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 84

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 3: True Love
Chapter 3: The Practice of True Love
Section 3: The True Parents' Practice of True Love, 15-27

15 In the Bible, we learn that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Unless you adopt this tradition, you cannot rally people around you. I have done that. Once, when I heard the news that my enemy's children were going hungry, I sent them everything I had except my underwear and one of my blankets. For one week I lived with only one set of underwear and one blanket. Later I sold the only blanket I had left, for them. Why did I do it? It was not because I was a fool; it was because I had to set the condition of totally loving my enemy on the way of restoration. I did it because I had to practice the Bible's words, "Love your enemy."

16  Because of whom does God support the Unification Church? I hope you are a person who can say, "It is because of me." Please live in such a way that God can give you His help and support. You must become such people. This has been my secret and my philosophy of life. I am saying that you must be the people who leave God no choice but to help Korea because of you. You should become such leaders. The question is whether you can draw God to the Unification Church. Do not hate your enemy. Do not rejoice at your enemy's ruin. If God were happy to see His enemy ruined, this world would no longer exist. When God cannot hate anyone, not even Satan, how can I?

17 When you shed tears, lamenting sorrowfully that you could not love God enough, or you could not love the world enough, or you could not love your country enough, God will comfort you with tears, saying, "It's alright. That day will come.  Because you have such a sincere aspiration, I will bring it to pass." I need you to become such people. Once you are able to live that way, then you can love your tribe, your family, and last of all yourself. This should have been people's central mindset throughout God's providential history.

18 I came to know the story of God's sorrowful history. I came to know of God's heart when He sent Jesus to his tragic fate. So I thought about how I could offer myself for the sake of God's Will. While the entire Korean people ridiculed me and the world persecuted me, I loved my enemies more than anyone else in order to bring them back to God. I not only loved them, I even wished blessings on them. Then I thought about how I could leave in my will a request to my sons and daughters that they would bless my enemies and love them on my behalf. This has been my aspiration, and I have paved the way to bring it to pass.

The practice of loving the people in the realm of Cain

19  My mother loved me dearly. She gave birth to thirteen children, eight of whom survived, two sons, and six daughters. Among them, my mother loved me the most. But I never had a chance to show her my love I did not even buy my mother so much as a handkerchief to express my devotion. This is because I had to follow God. I had to love the world more than my mother. Had I not, it would have been as if I were stealing God's love. I would have become a swindler. I have to love this world more than I love my mother and more than I love my wife and children. Even if I was not able to personally love an enemy who shot arrows at me, I have to love that enemy's children. Even though God cannot love the fallen archangel himself, He has to love his descendants and restore them.This has been God's providence.  Therefore, you and I also have to love Satan's sons and daughters.

20 After endless, bitter suffering, I discovered all the secrets of the spirit world.  This discovery was a precious treasure, of priceless value. Yet I could not share it with my parents, my brother, or my sisters. Isn't this tragic? When I left my mother by herself, I could not stop crying. I said in my heart, "Mother, I'm leaving home, and because of the way I must go, I may never see you again. Please forgive me." After I departed like that, she came to see me in prison, weeping endless tears. But I could not offer words to comfort my own mother. Instead, I asked her to stop crying. I encouraged her, saying, "Accept that you are not the mother of an insignificant man. Please accept that you are the mother who gave birth to a great and true man." This is my history.

21 You must love the sons and daughters on Satan's side before you love your own sons and daughters. Without making the condition of loving the children on Satan's side, you should not love your own children. Because I faced that circumstance, I had to desert my child and cross the thirty-eighth parallel into North Korea. I had to make the condition of loving many people in an enemy country and then return. I could return only after I had gained that victory in the enemy country.

22 Until I turned thirty I never bought clothes for myself. It was not that I had no money. It was that I was in charge of many members and I was unable to take care of their needs sufficiently. I wanted to look after those whom I considered my sons and daughters first, with all my devotion, before looking after myself. This is the teaching of the Way, and this is the heart of a parent. Since I had not reached the point where I could provide for my members' needs, neither would I buy clothes for myself. Also, until I was thirty, I never went a day without feeling hungry. It was not because I lacked money. I had money, but I did not spend it for myself. Once I spent it on a man who was lying ill on the street and could not go home. I helped him, even carrying him on my back for a long distance.

23 Whenever I saw people coming to the Unification Church in threadbare, patched clothing, I gave them money to buy clothes. But I never bought my mother or father a single set of clothes. Then how could I face my parents? Whenever I saw people pale from hunger, I could not eat the food that was in front of me. Even after they left they would come to my mind, and I could not eat. So whenever I had something good to eat, I saved it and gave it to the next hungry person I saw. I served everyone who came to see me with all my heart, even going to great lengths so that they would never forget.

My prison life and the practice of truly loving others

24 I experienced life in the prison of all prisons. I have been imprisoned a number of times, but prison life never drove me to sorrow. I looked at prison as my best training ground. Could I truly love humanity? Could I truly love my enemy? Could I truly share my breath, nose to nose, with those who were sentenced to death? Thinking about such things, I considered prison to be a good environment for training myself. Also, it was where I reflected on whether I could really feel the bitter sorrow of my people and whether I had the passion to sharply criticize social injustice. Prison is where our church began. It was there that I had to find the way to overcome the environment and set up the standard of human dignity. There I had to be a champion of the standard of character that God envisaged for the person who would become His original embodiment. My guiding philosophy has been to secure this victory; this has been my lifelong pursuit.

25 While in prison I was whipped, beaten, tortured, and bloodied, yet I never resented those who beat me. The true God is the God who sacrificed His beloved son to save His enemies. Not only that, He gave away All his treasures to His enemy. That is the love of God. God’s way is to pray with tears for the one who holds the whip. This is why I did so and still do to this day.

26 I have experienced prison life many times since the age of twenty-four. I am a man who never surrendered to the authorities. Even under torture, even when my nose was broken and blood oozed from the wounds on my head, even when my neck was injured, I kept absolute faith and conviction in God. I held out against my torturers, thinking, "Go ahead and hit me. The bat will break, not my body. Go ahead and cut off my hands. No matter what cruel tortures you put me through, still I will not give in." Countless such stories are embedded deep in the marrow of my bones. In these incomprehensible places, where no one can come up with answers as to why I came to recognize that my Fathers tearful love was right there. And still, I know that many thorny paths and deep valleys lie ahead of me, paths that others will not understand and which I must face alone.

27 My parents came to visit me when I was in prison, but immediately I sent them home. I had to do that. I never accepted visits from my brother and my sisters. I sacrificed my brother and my sisters, my family, and my relatives, in order to find new people. I have loved all of you more than I loved my own parents, brother, sisters, and relatives. I have done so because God is like that. God sacrificed His own Son to save the world. God had to sacrifice the life of His Only Begotten Son. Hoping to save the whole world, He would do even that. I am following His example.