Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 85

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 3: True Love
Chapter 3: The Practice of True Love
Section 3: The True Parents' Practice of True Love, 28-36

28 In prison, I met so many people who followed me. They received revelations from Heaven to follow me. But those who followed me before I went to prison dispersed. They doubted, "How can someone whom God loves so much end up in prison?" Jesus, too, lost his twelve disciples when he went to the cross. So I had to restore those twelve disciples in prison. In the prison cell were communist spies disguised as inmates, so I could not speak a word. But the spirit world testified and people followed me. When I was hungry, people brought me rice balls. It was because their ancestors appeared in their dreams and asked them to do so.

29 You have no idea how relentlessly God put me through hard training. To me, God was not a loving God. Thinking of how He treated me makes me shudder. If I had the mind of a businessman, I would have run away long ago. I would have forgotten about the Will and run far, far away from God, with the fear that He would come after me. And yet, it was when I was suffering in prison that I felt God's love the most. In that place, I came to know, "Truly, truly, God loves me.” So I did not dislike going to prison. You Unification Church members need to suffer, even if it means going to a prison or a detention center. Where can you meet God? It is in the most serious and difficult place that you can meet God.

Endless investment for the nation and the world

30 Many Korean patriots have shed tears for their people, but I do not know anyone who has shed more tears than I have. Even now, I cannot forget my prayer at two in the morning on April 1, 1941. I was looking back at Korea from the boat on which I had just left the dock at Busan on the way to Japan, where I was to study. I promised Korea, "I am leaving you now, but when I return I will love you more than ever; I will shed more tears for you than ever.” In Japan, whenever I met Korean friends who were going hungry, I gave them whatever food I had, even though it left me with nothing. Whenever I met starving Korean students I embraced them in my arms and wept with them. When they had no food, I took off my school uniform and worked at the dock as a stevedore or worked carrying coal on my back to earn money for their food. Please understand how I fought to love my young comrades.  Whoever met me came to think of me as their best friend.

31 To this day, who have I loved? Not my parents or my wife and children. I have loved the world and I have loved my country. In order to love the world and love my country, I also have to love my people and my tribe—the Unification Church members. To love the nation that God wants to love on earth, I have to love the tribe that God wants to love on earth and love the family that God wants to love on earth. I have shed so many tears of love for humankind. I am confident that God will recognize this publicly. I also have shed so many tears for this country. I have loved my people more than anyone else has, and I have loved my tribe more than anyone else has.

32 This man with knowledge of the new truth was born in the impoverished country of Korea. Born in this war-torn land, I suffered beyond anyone's imagination. I was scorned countless times, and I was hounded relentlessly. Yet despite all that, I have come this far. Do not ever think that I am sitting here comfortably on a wave of good luck. Please wake up! While you were enjoying yourself in comfort and humming along, I shed tears for the Will while standing under the eaves of some farmer's house to get out of the rain. I wandered about the streets like a beggar in the sleet and cold. I am still fighting for my people and for the world. I tell you, when on a bus or on a streetcar you see some poor young person in dripping wet clothes, you should not mistreat him. Your teacher walked that road.

33 I was not born into a lowly family. It was not my lot in life to suffer. But had I not chosen the path of suffering, I could not have opened the way of restoration. So I had to go this way. My heart was burning with ardor to love the Korean people and all humankind. I longed to move God's heart to tears so that He could relate to this people and the world, and love them. Because I moved God to relate to this peninsula, this desolate land, I have no doubt that the day will come in the future when the whole world will welcome Korea as their homeland, centering on the teachings of Unificationism.

34 I left my hometown, I left my country and I left my church in Korea, only to be persecuted, abused, and pursued as I continued on my way, even to this hour. Yet even while we are pursued and hounded, we are growing. We are not people of despair; we are people of hope. We are people united in one love that cannot be severed by anything in the world; therefore no one can conquer us. Only love can bring complete victory. Where there is love, there is eternal victory and the possibility to build the eternal kingdom of heaven. In the presence of love, everything is liberated. This is where I am heading.

35 I have loved God, I have loved the world, and I have loved humankind. Right after the liberation of Korea from Japan, I loved even the enemies who had tried to have me executed as a criminal. I even sold my suit, my undergarments, and gave the money to one of these men when his son was starving. Then I lived for two weeks with nothing. I could not even go outside because I had nothing proper to wear. I did not do this from a calculating motivation; I did it from my genuine heart. I never pray in tears for my own sons and daughters; instead, I pray in tears for you. Were it not for this foundation of shedding tears for you, God would not have carried out His works to this day.

36 My desire for you is that you love God first before you love me. I have been trying to teach Mother and my children that they should not love me unless they love God first. Hence, they should not be sad when I leave home to travel for tens of thousands of miles on a pilgrimage to love God. All of you must love God and humankind before loving me. I want you to practice the law of public righteousness and, wherever you go, stand on that authority. Without doing that, any promises you make are empty. Here heavenly law and the principle of human morality are the same.