Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 74
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 2: God’s Homeland and the Peace Kingdom
Speech 7: To Realize the World of Peace, pg 251-254
To Realize the World of Peace
February 6, 2003 Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
True Parents’ Birthday Congratulatory Banquet
Respected former heads of state, religious, political and academic leaders who have gathered from around the world, honored guests from the diplomatic community, and esteemed leaders of Korea:
I would like to begin by congratulating you on the results you have achieved for world peace through the Summit Conference, and I wish to convey deep appreciation for your many expressions of congratulations on this occasion of President Hak Ja Han Moon’s and my birthday. I offer all this glory to God, who has protected us until today.
On this meaningful occasion, I would like to share with you my convictions about realizing a peaceful world. In view of our hope for world peace, there has never been a time when understanding between religions and reconciliation between religious people were more urgent than they are today.
The precious teachings of our religions are the source of the wisdom that has brightened human history. However, believers of all faiths tend to have three weaknesses: one, they tend to be unrealistic and oriented largely toward the hereafter; two, they can be narrow-minded and sectarian; and three, they can be extremist.
True religious leaders, however, have to be able to embrace all people with open minds. The real duty of all religious people is to overcome the lines of division crippling the human race, in particular the walls between religions. Religions must not exist for the sake of their own success or for the salvation of their believers alone; they need to exist in order to accomplish the Will of God. Religious people should never be narrow-minded or seek their own gratification. When one lives with a loving heart, all walls break down. The great founders of all the religions understood this and tried to accomplish this ideal. God is the origin of true love. Because the fundamental character of true love is to unconditionally seek to live for another, true love always seeks a partner for a relationship. It is from this point that we can properly understand God’s motivation and purpose for creation. God brought forth the created world as His partner for relating in true love. And in all the creation, God set human beings apart as His closest partners of love, His very children.
The significance of the first person, Adam, was not just as an individual; he was also to have been the origin of the family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos of true love. God’s ideal of creation was a world of harmony and unity, in which each person would live for his or her partner in a realm of true love. Nonetheless, before this ideal of true love could be realized, the first ancestor of humankind disobeyed God during his time of growth to maturity and fell through false love.
Due to the human Fall, strife ensued between God and human beings. Confrontations and conflicts ensued between God and Satan, between people and Satan, and among people themselves. The fact that there have been so many different nations and so many conflicts in human history bears witness to this. We can begin an ideal world only through a movement that is able to overcome and go beyond the origin of these myriad conflicts. And the only way to resolve these conflicts and struggles is through altruistic and sacrificial love, that is to say, through living for the sake of others.
The realization of the ideal nation of God begins with individuals determined to love their enemies. The way to win over enemies is not through superior strength. It is possible only through the power of true love, by which we can embrace them. If you plant soybeans, soybeans grow; if you plant red beans, red beans grow; and if you plant the seeds of red flowers, red flowers bloom. In the same way, if you sow the seeds of Satan, which contain the germ of revenge, a tree of revenge will grow, and if you sow the seeds of goodness, which contain the germ of loving the enemy, a tree of goodness and of loving the enemy will grow.
If a nation arises consisting of people who have a mind to love their enemies, it could become the ideal land that God desires. It could become the model for humankind to follow. For the last thirty years in America, I have been devoting myself completely and without resting to solve such problems as the breakdown of the family, sexual immorality, the decadence of youth, the decay of ethics, and the decline of Christianity. In spite of my many efforts, Americans, including many Christians, misunderstood me, persecuted me and eventually even imprisoned me. The negative attitudes and vicious slander against me continued unabated. Yet, I refused to be caught in negative feelings of hatred or resentment, and I continued to live a life of love, giving consistently to those who persecuted me.
No matter what my situation, in my heart of hearts I consider God’s love and Will to be the most important things of all. Because of this, as time passed more and more Americans, and especially Christians, realized the value of my teachings and life, and I can see they are changing their way of thinking about me. In a public speech, I directly told them, “Christians must respond to their mission to realize the Will of God, who is their true root. Christians must change their attitudes and their ways of life.” The founder of Christianity taught, “Love your enemy.” If Christians cannot fulfill this basic principle, the only way left for them will be one of continued decline. If that decline persists, it will be because they abandoned the sacred teachings of Jesus that give us true freedom.
If, however, the Muslims and adherents of other religions are able to realize a higher level of love than Christians in terms of morality and living for others, their enemies will be subjugated through the mighty power of true love rather than through material strength. I have always told the leaders of the Western world that they must not disregard or overlook the 1.3 billion Muslims and the 3.4 billion followers of the Indian and East Asian traditions, as well as the people of other religions throughout the world. If America fails to understand the meaning of the existence of these parts of the great human family, how can we expect that America will be able to build a better future and realize a world of peace for our descendants?
For the same reason, how can the Islamic world or the people of other religions look down upon or overlook the importance of the Christian culture? If we scorn each other, there will be no hope. All religious leaders must become leaders in a worldwide movement to realize a higher love that embraces other religions and societies. This is the lofty ideal implicit in the teachings of the founders of all religions. What is the direction of God’s Will in history? The ultimate ideal of God is a world that is peaceful and unified through true love, a world transcending religion, race and nationality; in other words, one family of humankind.
The goal of God is not the victory of one religion or one ideology; it is the realization of a world of love in which all people live in peace, unity and joy. In view of the tendency of contemporary society toward merely external unification through technology and economic development, it is the responsibility of religions to lead the way to internal harmony and unification.
Religions must take the lead and provide the example in this work. History is calling for the harmony and cooperation of the religious world. This cannot be delayed. It is the holy Will of God. If we do not accomplish this, religions will decline. I know this because throughout my life I have taught based upon my direct experience of the heart of God and the Will He hopes to accomplish.
FFWPU, USA