Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 133
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 13: Religion and the Creation of World Peace, pg 464-467
True love starts from the point of living for others. Human beings, as they were originally created, contained God’s true love in their mind and body and responded to it naturally. In other words, the mind centering on true love responds to God, and the body automatically acts in unison with the mind. The true, united desire of mind and body, when there is no conflict between them, is to inherit God’s true love completely and to respond to it substantially. The ideal of a human being, which is the unity of mind and body, is achieved when he or she possesses God’s true love in totality.
The ideal of genuine freedom, peace and happiness is attainable only when the mind and body become one focusing on true love. Furthermore, we can achieve a free and peaceful family, nation and world only on the foundation of the unity of mind and body. The cardinal point of peace ought to be found not at the global or national level but in the relationship between mind and body within the individual.
Yesterday, thirty thousand couples from all corners of the world received the Holy Marriage Blessing and secured the establishment of a new family tradition grounded in God’s love. The ceremony you attended was not simply an important wedding ceremony convened by one religious order.
Society today is being shaken to its foundations by the collapse of sexual morality, the deviant behavior of young people, and the breakdown of families. How can we tackle this situation? The seeds of moral corruption sown by Satan and the ancestors of humankind have borne their historical fruit. The phenomena of the Last Days of hell on earth, where the way of Heaven and human morality have been ravaged and where men and women have become like animals, are quite evident. This tragedy has been further exacerbated by a tendency to extreme egocentrism and a proliferation of free sex, which seems to imbue immorality with a rosy hue. Spiritually and morally, our world is facing a profound crisis. Not only are orderly families disintegrating but the minds and bodies of youth, who represent the next generation, are being damaged as well.
The family is the basic unit of the ideal of creation
This crisis facing humanity can be solved only through the Messiah, True Parents. They are the owners of God’s true love and true life. Contrary to popular trends, God’s ideal of marriage places emphasis on the eternal relationship between one man and one woman before God, the sanctity of love and sex, God’s Blessing, and the purpose of marriage being for one’s descendants. This movement, which aims to realize an eternal ideal of couples and families centered on God’s love in 160 nations, regardless of race and nationality, represents the bright future and hope of humanity.
The family is the basic unit of God’s ideal of creation. The family is the basis for the establishment of the society and nation. God’s ideal of a one-world family, transcending race and based on true love, is directly connected to the realization of a peaceful world. The people of the world can have children of goodness and practice correct ethics when they build blessed families under God’s ideal of true love and become exemplary husbands and wives. Then ideal families that are the fruit of true love can be established, and ideal societies, ideal nations and the ideal world will come into being. The international wedding ceremony is providing a fundamental solution to the chronic ailments of modern society by restoring the original ideal for the family.
Now the time has come for religions to take leadership in the world. Leadership cannot emerge from blind faith or an arrogant and self-righteous attitude stemming from narrow-mindedness. True leadership arises when one subordinates oneself to the Will of Heaven and acts altruistically. It is time for religious people to step up and face their responsibility toward the conditions of this age and its unprincipled facets, and to examine themselves deeply. Religious people need to repent for their failure to exemplify the practice of love and, because they were engrossed in their personal salvation or the interests of their own religious denominations, for their failure to invest entirely for the salvation of humankind. This age requires the practice of love, not only faith.
God is calling us. He passionately desires to challenge injustice and evil in the world and express His true love. All religions need to be of one mind in making known and actualizing God’s fervent hope for humanity. God transcends all rituals and doctrines, which have led to dispute between believers. He desires that we raise our spirit through profound spiritual dialogue and exchange with Him. Religions need to establish the spiritual order with which human beings, who have a spiritual nature, can align themselves closely. They have to systematize this spiritual order and create a lifestyle that expresses it rationally. Religious leaders of all creeds need to take the lead in self-discipline and, with mutual respect for each other, build influential interreligious organizations.
Realization of world peace through harmony among religions
Until I founded the Interreligious Federation for World Peace last year, I endured enormous difficulties. For forty years, I trod the path of sacrifice, living for the sake of others, while envisioning the hitherto unrealized ideal of interreligious harmony and the accomplishment of world peace in the fulfillment of God’s Will. Despite the persecution of a number of intolerant religious groups in various countries, and a lack of understanding shown by successive generations of political regimes, and at the cost of many personal sacrifices, I determinedly worked to establish an ecumenical movement, an ecumenical theological seminary, the New Ecumenical Research Association and the publication of World Scripture. I have also continually supported the Council for the World’s Religions and the Assembly of the World’s Religions for the promotion of interreligious harmony.
One may ask why I have initiated all these projects. All I desire when I involve myself in these activities, including the convening of the Assembly of the World’s Religions and the activities of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, is to fulfill the Will of God, the Parent of humankind. My only aspiration, together with all of you enlightened religious leaders and religious scholars, is to realize the hope of God and all people on earth.
Rather than satisfying ourselves with interreligious harmony, the next step from here is to involve ourselves more positively in social activities, by creating a broad-based, united organization aimed at world peace, in cooperation with opinion makers in the academic, political and media spheres. In cultivating and guiding this organization to fulfill God’s Will on earth, religions need to exemplify the spirit of living for others.
Let us all open our spiritual ears once again and, inclining them toward Heaven, follow God’s advice with a humble heart. We need to be aware of the mission that God has bequeathed to the religious leaders of this age and, by correctly guiding the human spirit, secure the spiritual and mental order of the new world culture.
I hope that this conference will provide a forum for discussion based on God’s wisdom, transcending the dimension of human insight. I want to express my appreciation for the dedication of His Grace, Dr. Gregorios, who has provided a model of organization and management as chairman of the conference. I would also like to thank all the committee chairmen and representatives for their hard work.
FFWPU, USA