Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 318
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 8: The Reunification of Korea and World Peace
Speech 04: Our Homeland for the Sake of the World, pg 1176-1179
The uncharted path of submission to Heaven’s Will
The mission that God has given me is not something that I may relinquish as I wish or abandon when things do not work out. My mission in America was to continually search for a prepared foundation and to awaken those people to reality. However, instead of repenting, America rejected me. Nevertheless, despite the severe persecution and derision I experienced during my thirteen years in the United States, I worked to create loving individuals, families and communities. I made it my task to build up new people who would be able to live for the sake of the world.
God does not want people to just believe in God. God wants us to fulfill our responsibility. Because I know God’s Will so clearly, I have dedicated my entire life to the accomplishment of this heavenly mission.
In the first place, during the last thirty years I have gathered scholars from all over the world in order to teach them this God-centered thought and make it universally known. As a result, I was able to establish a secure foundation in one hundred nations. Second, since the kingdom of heaven is not composed of spiritual elements only, our movement invested a great deal of money and effort into technological and scientific development. We have since offered the fruit of these investments to the world. Third, I am building a global economic foundation for the realization of God’s Will. I have been researching developments in different areas, including how I could encourage international cooperation in monetary policy for human betterment.
Fourth, our members have established the World Media Association in order to provide society with honest and ethical journalism. In addition, we are promoting activities in numerous other fields, all of them directly related to the task of realizing God’s Will on earth.
As you know, in August I was released from prison in America. The case against me had been fabricated, yet throughout the thirteen months of my imprisonment I never stopped praying for the future of America and the world. I prayed for God to forgive America and help me fulfill my mission. Even in prison, I initiated and directed countless events to rekindle the spiritual and moral foundations of the United States. Out of the Christian spirit of service, our church bought 250 trucks and donated them to churches for community service work. From prison I also inspired the inception of other new projects, including international professors’ conferences to discuss how to overcome communism, a movement for religious unity, a weekly news magazine, and a monthly magazine.
Even while receiving unprecedented persecution and facing unjustified imprisonment, centered on God, I loved America, and I did more for America than any individual, group, or religious denomination. While carrying out that heavenly mission, I walked a more unimaginable path, stained with blood and tears. Because it was a path to save the world as well as to save America, I went down this suffering path gratefully, and overcame it.
Since I received my calling from God, my life has been full of hardships. During the Japanese occupation of Korea I took part in an underground student organization and was imprisoned for my activities. When I was evangelizing in communist North Korea I was accused of being a spy and almost died in a labor camp in Hungnam. In the early days of my mission in South Korea I was held in Seodaemun Prison here in Seoul, accused of being a heretic. And, most recently, I was the object of racial and religious discrimination in America. In this way, my life has been a continuous string of hardships.
Despite the storms of opposition and persecution, I never wavered from the heavenly way of living for others. Now I have returned, having fulfilled the conditions of the providence. This victory is not my victory alone; it is also a victory for God and for righteousness. Do you think it was easy for me to gain such a victory while the whole world was coming against me? I am not trying to praise myself. If it hadn’t been for God I would not have survived. I only glorify God.
Korea is the central nation of the providence
An unimaginable miracle is unfolding in front of us at this moment, and all of you have become partakers in this miracle. I hope you will treasure the memory of having been present at this occasion, commemorating this historically unique victory. I also hope that you will not be content to just be amazed by these accomplishments, but that you will try to find out the exact providential meaning of this event and connect yourselves to it, and take this opportunity to make a great leap forward in your own spiritual life.
I recommend this to you for your personal benefit, and also for your nation and your country. If Korea intends to become the leading nation in the world in a short time, it should not turn its back on the foundation I have laid. When we look from the standpoint of God’s Will, we see that the Korean people are a God-chosen people and that Korea is a central nation in God’s providence. You should provide the world with a model of living for others. Many historical and unknown events in God’s providence are intertwined and centered in Korea. This nation has the mission to take responsibility for the world, and for that it has set numerous spiritual conditions in providential history.
Although the Korean people are endowed with an excellent character and a fine culture, they have walked a path of incomparable suffering. Their suffering should be understood in view of God’s providence. The challenges and tribulations Korea has been experiencing are part of God’s providence, and God is waiting anxiously for the nation to overcome them.
East and West, North and South, converge in Korea. Idealism and materialism, theism and atheism, are all concentrated here. It seems that the whirlwind of ideas sweeping this country is the labor pain before the birth of a new era. Korea cannot solve its national problems apart from the Will and providence of God. Furthermore, Korea cannot overcome its difficulties on its own, but only in cooperation with the world.
In order for Korea to provide spiritual leadership for the world, Korea will have to overcome its difficulties by awakening to the Will of God and by following the person whom God has sent. My foundation and that of the Unification Church has been established by strictly following the Will of God and by completely living my life for others. Now the Unification Church and I have gained the victory and overcome all persecution. If the Korean people, on the foundation of my worldwide victory, live for the world, then Korea can overcome its own suffering and can also become a center of love, truth, and peace in the world. It will receive an even greater blessing than America received.
I am not a weak person. I will not rest on my past merits or yield before an unrighteous world. Even though the road may be long and the task of accomplishing the heavenly kingdom enormous, I will continue on my way. Ladies and gentlemen, on this occasion, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude for your support and your faith in my innocence during my court battle in America. I pray for God’s eternal blessing upon your families and upon our homeland.
Thank you.
FFWPU, USA