Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 340
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 8: The Reunification of Korea and World Peace
Speech 14: The Course of Life for the Princes and Princesses of God, pg 1264-1267
How will the independence of God’s homeland first be realized?
If and when the nation that the Unification Church envisions is established, we will have to take down the Unification Church sign board. And when the world that the Unification Church envisions is realized, we will have to dismantle any nation the Unification Church establishes. By the same token, we will have to discard any religion that exists only for the sake of the culture and the character of the Republic of Korea. Only a religion that exists for the sake of the world will continue into the future.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, what would a person who seeks to inherit the Will of God advocate? There is absolutely no way he or she would tell the people of this world to simply go the way of pleasure. In fact he or she would tell people to go in the opposite direction. The saying, “Love your enemies with the heart of true love” expresses this. The words, “Love your enemies” can turn around our false history. They are anchors for a ship buffeted in a howling typhoon. Throughout the providence of restoration no one has truly been able to practice these words, but God nonetheless found those who sincerely tried to love their enemies. He lifted them to the world stage, and built around them some form of systematic organization. God actually has to present this kind of person, and the movement that he or she engenders, to the world. These are the very religious movements that have arisen in history.
Of all the people in history, whom has God loved the most? It is Jesus. Jesus presented a new direction for this conflict-ridden world. High walls are created between oppressor and oppressed nations, such as existed between Rome and Israel, because they viewed each other as enemies. Jesus’ philosophy is that these walls need to be demolished. He thought, “You in Rome want to conquer me by force, yet I will conquer you in the opposite way—with love.” This is why he sought to bless his enemies even while hanging on the cross. We need to recognize that when Jesus said of the Roman soldiers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing,” he was expressing this amazing philosophy. (Luke 23:34) Because Jesus made this plea, he became the model and archetype for all nations of the world to transcend the position of enemies, and also the model for transcending national borders.
Jesus knew that individual enemies were not the only enemies. He knew that family enemies, clan enemies, ethnic enemies, national enemies and global enemies surrounded him on all sides. This means there are many enemies awaiting those who follow his path. It also means that if you walk the family path, there are family enemies waiting, and if you walk the clan path, there are clan enemies waiting. You can expect fierce battles; however you must love those enemies whenever you encounter them. If you possess this spirit, eventually victory will be yours.
What is the starting-point for realizing God’s ideal nation? What is the starting-point for recovering the original homeland? It will start from individuals who live by the philosophy of loving their enemies. Therefore, because God exists, Christianity could not avoid becoming a global religion. That is because Christianity is a movement to break down national borders with love, to transcend all environments and cultural barriers, and to embrace even the enemy.
You reap what you sow. If you sow kidney bean seeds, you will get kidney bean plants, and if you sow rose seeds, you will have roses. In the same way, if you plant Satan’s seed, a seed of retaliation against your enemies, you will get a tree of evil, a tree of retribution. However if you plant the seed of goodness, the seed of loving your enemies, you will get a tree of goodness, a tree of love. This is just a principle of nature.
Where did I say God’s homeland starts? How does it arise? It arises by the path of loving one’s enemies. It arises by establishing the tradition of loving one’s individual enemies, loving one’s family enemies, loving one’s clan enemies, and loving national and global enemies. God’s homeland cannot appear except by this path.
Take a look. Because the United States opposed me, and its State Department opposed me, and the Congress opposed me, someday I will be granted a certificate of recognition saying I won over the Congress, I won over the State Department, and I won over the United States. I am winning friends even in the State Department, which had been opposing me. In the Congress I am winning many friends. By loving my enemies, I will prevail in the end. Even if I did not have such friends, my conviction is such that I can overcome any opposition and lead the way to victory. The more someone sets him or herself as my enemy and opposes me, the more I love that person. Therefore, I am never worried about how heavy the opposition is.
The laws of nature dictate that if low pressure exists in one place, high pressure will appear somewhere else. If one area develops high pressure, another area will develop low pressure, and as the air from the high-pressure area flows into it, the high pressure area diminishes. If a high-pressure area like the State Department opposes me, then it will have to surrender to me as I develop a field of low pressure, just as a low-pressure area absorbs a high-pressure area in nature.
Even though I took all sorts of abuse in the past, when I didn’t resist and instead loved my persecutors, they became my friends in the end. Families that opposed me turned into friends, clans that opposed me turned into friends, and nations that opposed me turned into friends.
If a nation appears composed of people who have this spirit of loving their enemies, that nation will manifest the ideal that God desires. It will manifest the ideal for all humankind.
I don’t think there is anything externally attractive about me. Although you people here don’t admit it, people in the rest of the world don’t find me particularly handsome. Yet God loves me the most. Even if the world thinks I am a terrible fellow, God recognizes me. That is why I can be bold and open in reaching out to the world.
If you love your enemies, there is nothing you cannot say or do. Why? It is because whatever you do out of love has God’s blessing. If God says a man is good-looking, then he is good-looking; if God says he is really commendable, he is really commendable; if God says he is brave and fiery, then he is brave and fiery. I take it that I have God’s approval, and hence I can take on the world with confidence.
When I become intoxicated with God’s approval while working on my own, do you know what happens? Young people—young men and women—appear, a great family of all races appears, an entire people appears, a people that God can truly take joy in appears, and the dawning of God’s homeland becomes possible.
When Jesus said we have to love our enemies, he meant we have to love even the worst person. If a man who thinks he’s really handsome is matched with a woman he considers to be less than himself, his loving her is even more important than his loving his enemies.
The person who loves his or her enemies will march in the vanguard and carry the flag of the most exalted prince. How noble that person is! He or she can leap over national and racial boundaries. On the day you live with a heart to love your enemies, all barriers will fall, the history of the providence of restoration will be shortened, and heaven will come near. My philosophy is that simple.
There is nothing I haven’t done. I’ve been a farmer, a laborer; I’ve tried everything! Living my whole life in this way, I thought I was all alone. Yet when I turned around, I found British people following me, Americans following me, people following me from all over the world! Even if I pushed them away rudely and moved on in a new direction, they came back and followed me. I go this way, I go that way, yet still they follow me. This is how it is, so no matter how much you research the Unification Church, there is always something more to learn.
FFWPU, USA