Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 135
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 14: Religion and the Ideal World, pg 470-473
The Fall and restoration
What is the reality of our world today? Disorder and sickness of every kind, including war, violence and drug abuse, have infected humankind. More important, the rapid collapse of sexual morality among the young, the increasing divorce rate, the problem of young unmarried mothers and the breakdown of the family are all destroying the foundation of human society. All these things originate from the Fall. This is because Adam and Eve defiled the ideal of true love during their growing period. Eve’s eating of the fruit offered by Satan symbolized Eve’s engaging in love outside the Principle.
Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God, their loving Parent, and their ultimate submission to Satan, whereby they became a false couple and false parents, was the beginning of human history. Humankind’s inheritance from Adam’s family includes criminality, lying, illicit love and violence. During this time of the Last Days, we can see that the fruit of the seed planted by Adam and Eve has filled the world. How sad God’s heart must be!
God’s providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. For the sake of the providence of restoration, God established religions and expanded the sphere of goodness. The Messiah sent by God is the person who comes with the overall responsibility to complete the providence of restoration. Accordingly, the Messiah will come as the True Parents. The mission of the True Parents is to restore true human beings through true love, and to raise them up as true husbands and wives and true parents.
The responsibility of religion
Who is able to solve the problems of the world that contradict the Will of God? Religious leaders must assume the responsibility to change the reality of wrongdoing, sin, and suffering. Since the day I received my mission from God, I have devoted myself to this responsibility. While absolutely keeping to the path of the Principle and the providence, I have fought against the evil that, transcendent of time and space, has penetrated deeply into the very lives of human beings. With all my heart and utilizing all my foundation, I have always done my best to seek the cooperation of the world’s religions and religious leaders. In going this way, I have never deserted the responsibility that I vowed to accomplish before God.
At the Assembly of the World’s Religions in San Francisco in 1990, when I announced the establishment of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, I explained God’s purpose of creation, the essence of true love, and the role of True Parents. I strongly exhorted the participants to work to establish an ethical human society, to eradicate decadent culture, and to practice true love and the philosophy of “True Parentism.” The work to regain ideal families through true love and to establish an ethical human society is a precious responsibility given to the religious leaders of this era.
Moreover, religious leaders must take the lead in ending the world’s corruption and wrongdoing. As long as religions remain indifferent to widespread lawlessness, inequality, and injustice, they will neither find their way out of the swamp of the present reality nor move the world toward the ideal. It is clear that religious practices that have turned into mere formalities need to give way to a living faith. Religious leaders must set an example that leads others out of spiritual desolation to regain their original nature of goodness.
Religious leaders have the responsibility to lead unconditional and sacrificial lives for the sake of others, and to teach this way of life to everyone. Still today, there is a great deal of poverty and widespread starvation. Inequality has deeply pervaded this world. The culpability of religious leaders for these problems is very great.
During the past twenty years, I have made a considerable investment in marine ventures, staying at the forefront of the developments by going out to sea myself. I am channeling my determination to rid the world of the misery of starvation into these plans. I think that through the development of agriculture and ocean-related enterprises, religious organizations can use all their resources and work together to produce food and support developing nations.
If it were not for the investment of God’s true love, the universe would never have been born. According to the laws of the existence of the universe, the subject partner takes care of its object partner as parents care for their children, or as teachers for their students. However, instead of subject partners taking care of their object partners, people in the fallen world try to use others in self-centered ways. That is why they perish. I believe that religion has to educate others in the heavenly principle of seeking the happiness of others before our own happiness.
Respected religious leaders, I believe that IRFWP must work constructively for the sake of interreligious harmony and world peace. IRFWP must function as the conscience of the world. It needs to advise and guide leaders at every level in the world, including those in politics, economics and education. It also needs to be an example. Since the great religions were nurtured in the soil of persecution and martyrdom, and stand on the foundation of each founder’s great tradition, none of us may avoid sacrifice. We must reestablish the original integrity of religion.
FFWPU, USA