In the Presence of God

Belvedere

Nobody was born by their own choice; none of us planned to be born. This is true not only for us but also for people of the past and future. A great mixture of people is born. Some boast of their superiority, others lament their inferiority.

Some are good; others are bad. History will continue with such a mixture of people.

People's lives take many different courses; there is no single pattern. Each of us is born as a man or woman with our own life to live.

What direction are men and women going in? Where is our nation going? Where is the world going? The most important question for each person to ask is, "Where am I going?"

Those of you who are engaged may answer that you are going toward your fiancé. But is your fiancée going forward or backward? Is he or she moving with confidence?

Is he or she about to go up or down?

You may say that you never thought about the question and frankly don't care. You may suppose that when you are with your fiancée, you will be satisfied. But what good does it do for two uncertain people to meet?

If one confused person joins another, what will result?

They will become even more puzzled.

Two confused people will collide with each other. Your eyes will clash, your ears, mouths, and minds will clash. There is a good chance that all aspects of you will conflict. You might reason that since everyone else lives that way, you should, too. Perhaps you think that you have no other choice.

But what about your family?

Once you are living together, children will be born to you—that's virtually automatic! But will your baby be able to see straight, hear straight, and think straight?

Perhaps your baby's eyes will be crossed or only be able to look in a certain direction. If you truly realize the position you are standing in, you feel some awe or dread. Once you are aware of it, you cannot just casually enjoy life.

Let's look at how we were born biologically. Out of millions of sperm, only one reaches the egg cell. Still, each sperm has to head in the proper general direction for at least one to reach the goal.

If their direction is off, will they ever reach their destination?

So even before you were conceived, something must have been heading in the right direction.

After fertilization, the egg travels down to the baby's home, the mother's womb.

There it settles and starts growing. But what if the egg doesn't find its proper lodging to settle down? In such a case, please have grown to become the person you are. If the fertilized egg settles outside the womb, the embryo cannot continue growing there.

Suppose while the baby is in the mother's womb, he refuses to get oxygen from her. He has a nose, so he wants to breathe air through it. He has a mouth, so he wants to use it to eat.

If an unborn baby tried to do that, it would choke on the first drink of fluid. The unborn baby has a perfectly formed mouth, ears, and nose, but every opening is closed. Where does it get its oxygen and nourishment from? Through the navel, of course. However, after birth, that nourishment ceases.

The umbilical cord needs to be protected because it is the baby's lifeline and source of nourishment. Inside the mother, the baby does not have unlimited freedom of activity; to a certain extent, it can move around, but it has to stay within bounds and maintain order.

The environment of the mother's womb is liquid, not air. Does the baby feel good in there?

How can you say that the baby likes being in water?

During that stage of life, water is the most comfortable environment.

Does the baby remain there of its own choice? What keeps it there? Natural law.

When we live within natural law, we are protected. Even the time of birth is not the baby's own choice.

Your sisters, was it your choice to become a woman?

Did you plan to be a woman and have a big bosom and shapely hips so people would admire you for your physical beauty? Did any of you think like that?

Who decided you would be a woman?

You may say that your father and mother determined it, but actually, no one knows how such a decision is made. It is definitely decided, even though we cannot comprehend it or explain how.

At the time of birth, is the baby aware that it is about to come out of the protected, watery environment and down the narrow birth canal? Does it know what it has to do?

Does it realize that somehow it has to dilate the cervix and expand the mother's bones enough to pass through the birth canal?

Its head is larger than the passages it has to go through. If the baby were aware of all that, it would probably conclude that it couldn't make it and give up.

Still, when the time was at hand, you came out. Do you think that a baby can be born without trying of its own?

The baby has to put forth all its energy. Of course, the mother in labor gives all her strength to deliver, but the baby has to cooperate with her for a safe delivery, too.

Something kicks the baby on the bottom and tells it, "Go out now, or else!" It tries really hard to get out.

People don't understand why the baby cries at birth. It had such a difficult time coming out that it burst into tears.

If the baby started crying while in the womb, it would be in trouble. But don't you think the baby wants to cry out even before birth?

Certainly it does, but it cannot; it has to wait. To cry inside the womb is against the law of nature.

When the baby is born, the change in pressure in its lungs makes it start breathing, and it cries.

Even at this stage, the baby doesn't have much awareness. Before, it couldn't survive five minutes without the umbilical cord, but now the cord is severed, and the baby's existence no longer depends completely upon the mother. It is more or less independent. Now the baby has a choice in eating.

What doesn't taste good gets spit out; what tastes good gets swallowed. What is the best-tasting food for a baby? It is mother's milk, of course.

When you really think about it, isn't it mysterious and miraculous how the mother's body produces such perfectly nutritious milk? Why does the nipple protrude rather than indent?

Who designed the nipple to protrude for nursing?

Will the beast answer that it designed its own nipple? No, a higher order designed it.

We have observed that until birth, the baby's life is very orderly; it can do nothing other than follow the steps planned for it. A sperm projected itself toward an egg; that fertilized egg developed as a male or a female destined to walk on this earth as a living, growing being.

Each person on earth needs a direction in life. The general direction in life is for men to go toward women and women toward men. That is the truth. No woman can claim she doesn't need a man; no woman can expect to remain just as she is and be perfectly well.

Just as we observed order in each stage of prenatal development, there is order in our lives now: men must head toward women, and women toward men. There is no exception. This is an unchangeable, irreversible order.

Once a man and a woman become one, they need direction as a couple. When a husband and wife meet, they go to a home. When the sperm and egg unite, they go to a home: the womb.

Life before birth is a microcosm, or concentrated form of life in this world. This is the second stage of life, and the equivalent of our mother's body here is parental love. We need parental love to make a home; this is what parents provide for their children.

Before birth, the baby relies on the umbilical cord as a source of life. In this world, parental love is the umbilical cord for growth and nourishment.

Can you imagine a baby denying his need for parental love?

What about people who claim that they are totally independent and that they don't need any parental support either?

The parental heart yearns to give full and eternal support to the children. Parents love their children, even when those children become grandparents and beyond.

While the unborn baby is growing bigger and bigger, will the mother ever tell it to stop?

The baby kicks inside its mother, giving her jolts and sometimes even pain. It bothers the mother, but she feels more joy than annoyance because it indicates that the baby is healthy. That is her primary thought.

People should be aware that in our life on earth, we receive perpetual nourishment from the universe; without that, we could not survive.

To go to the next stage of life in the spiritual world is the same kind of transition as emerging from our mother's womb into this world. The only difference is the duration of that stage.

This life on earth, during which we breathe air and eat food, lasts perhaps a hundred years. Our physical parents' protection extends perhaps 50 or 60 years. But once we are born again into the other world, we will live with our eternal Parent for millions and billions of years.

Dwelling in the eternal love of that world, we will become the very incarnations of love. There, the invisible but still very real umbilical cord will be attached not to our belly but to our head, and we will keep growing and improving, becoming the image of God Himself. We will become the incarnations of love to become subjects of love, like our own invisible Parent.

There we will be freer than ever before, enjoying the greatest conceivable liberty.

Nothing will limit or fetter us. In that world, we won't have to walk with our head up and feet down; we could reverse it and still move freely in any position. We can walk any way we wish, and it will be perfectly normal. Whatever we want to do, we can.

But until that time, we have to go step by step, according to proper order. When we die, our bodies will be buried. People regard death with tremendous uncertainty and even fear, wondering where they will go afterward. But you don't have to worry about such things.

What you should be concerned about is how to live better on earth until the time comes to move on. You need to gain the proper nourishment while on earth, not just physical food, but spiritual elements as well. That is what you should focus on.

So what are the other types of nourishment we need while on earth?

Simply stated, it is the ability to harmonize with the order of the universe. It is obedience. A child may not want to eat something, but when his mother serves it and tells him to eat it, he will eat it. When the child follows that order, he gets a nod of approval from his parents as well as from the universe, which is the greater parent.

On the other hand, if the child tells his parents, "I don't want to eat what you ask me to," he is not justified because it goes against the order of the universe. With such a rebellious attitude, even the food he eats will disagree with him once it reaches the stomach; it won't even be digested.

If he keeps eating that way, his muscles and cells will become rebellious, and the order of the universe will exclude him instead of loving him.

Someone who opposes the order of the universe will feel fear. His conscience will bother him, and he can never be comfortable. Even if no one else is afraid, he will still feel fear creeping up on him. There is a reason why people experience this.

If you rob somebody's food, wear nice clothes that you stole, or hurt other people, your conscience will bother you, won't it?

What makes you feel that way?

You may try to justify your actions, but you cannot steal without feeling something painful. What is that something? It is the universal force at work.

Everything fits into a pattern. We know that people live in three orderly stages: first, inside the mother's womb; second, on earth; and third, in the spirit world. Compare life in your mother's womb to life on this earth. There is an obvious connection between the two. Now consider that even your present existence is like living in a womb, and one more step awaits you.

You had very little range of movement inside your mother's womb, and even now you are not completely free; a freer state is still to come. In your mother's womb, you wiggled a little, and you thought it was a lot. Here we can move around and travel pretty fast in airplanes. But in the spirit world, you can move a hundred times faster than here, just by thinking! Should people follow the rays of the sun, or should the sun's rays follow us?

It must be possible to travel faster than light. Don't you want to become that kind of person and go into such a realm?

You are limited in what you can hear now. But wouldn't you like to hear things whispered hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles away?

You always want the best. If the order of the universe had been ideal, we could experience such things without having to learn about them. But even in the present state of confusion and conflict, people want to go up rather than come down.

It is natural to want to go up. How high can we go? The ideal realm is one of freedom through love. You could ride around on God, like children riding on a horse or riding piggyback on their parents.

Have you thought about how life's transitions always involve weeping?

When a baby is born, it cries, not laughs. When people die, those around them weep, not laugh. But in the final stage, we can be reborn laughing, not crying like a newborn baby.

We live in dim stages: as a baby in the mother's womb, then here in this world, and ultimately in the spirit world. After we become the incarnation of love and experience the fullest dimension of life on earth, then we can feel really joyful about being born into the spiritual world.

People always seek freedom. Actually, people are so limited; people's thinking is so narrow. One direction is bad, but another is good.

Where are human rights?

Human life exists within the realm of the order of the universe. If a person does not live in accordance with the universal force, he doesn't have true human rights.

What is the banner or standard of human life?

What kind of flag best symbolizes human life? Love. Love is life. People may seek power, freedom, or some other value, but the basis of all life is love.

Freedom, which is not based on love, is not freedom at all. If it denies, destroys, or rebels, it is not freedom. Ultimate freedom means to follow the course best suited to us under the protection of universal law. Only then can we make the right choices and exercise true freedom.

We should realize that our liberty is guaranteed only as long as we are protected by universal law, only as long as we develop in the direction of our original state. Anything that does not contribute to this is not freedom.

Just because you do something doesn't mean you are exercising your freedom.

Here is one brother constantly dozing off. He thinks he is free to listen or not, but that is not true.

Not listening denies freedom for the brother, the others in the audience, and the teacher himself. It drags down the atmosphere. He knows that, more or less, so when he becomes aware, he wakes up in surprise.

Why should he jump in surprise? Do you understand?

American young people need to clearly understand this concept. Does anyone disagree? Does anyone have a better idea? "It's my life," people in this country claim. "I'm free to marry whomever I wish." Is that true or not?

You ask why you should care about your parents, why you should listen to True Parents, and why you should pay attention to those who teach you. "It's my life; it's my freedom," you assert.

Some Moonies are engaged for five years before they marry. Many of you think it is wonderful, but other people call it crazy.

What do you think?

Is this truly wonderful? You say yes, but not very convincingly.

Something is holding you back. But when you analyze it further, it really is wonderful. Why? Because this is the only way the universe can have hope. This is the proper way for you to go. It is not just these few years that matter, but hundreds of thousands of generations to come will learn solid lessons from the patterns we establish right now.

So think about how wonderful this is. You are laughing now and proclaiming with confidence how wonderful it is, but when you are not so sure, it is like clouds being drawn across a clear blue sky.

Perhaps you say you wish you could wait five more years so you could do something more meaningful for the world and for history.

Would you choose to wait ten years rather than five?

When you think about how wonderful it is, are you ready to wait that long?

Some of you laugh, but I would like to find out why you laugh. Is it because you think it is wonderful or for some other reason?

Do I take pleasure in making Americans suffer?

Out of all the pain and frustration you go through, I hope to see a new America reborn. I want to see a new standard of marriage in America.

Waiting five years is not easy, but we have to conquer it. I have been observing young American men and women for many years now, and I am not at all satisfied.

For some odd reason, people think they have the freedom and right to get divorced. But I know that the universe does not work that way. Once you choose love, it should last forever and ever. That is the value of love. All human value rests on that.

This world is not an isolated realm; it is part of the continuous universe. You are trying to isolate it, and I am teaching you that it is a continuous one. What makes this world perpetual?

What sustains its physical existence and causes it to endure?

It is the consistent flow of love: the love that parents feel toward their children, and vice versa; the love of teachers for their students, investing themselves to make sure that they learn; the love a president has for his country, its cities, and its people; the love saints feel for mankind, present and future; and the love God feels for humanity and all things. In all these, the pattern of love is consistent; love alone endures.

Suppose a husband and wife are both perfectionists, and they give birth to a child with a deformity. Can they end its existence and say, "Well, we can try again"?

Is that true love?

No, of course not. By the same token, once a person chooses to marry another, he or she should try to make up for any shortcomings and compensate for whatever faults may show up in their spouse.

That is the proper course here, and such love will endure in the spirit world, where love is more visibly dominant than it is here. Such a person is a true husband or wife. True love means that when it is easy to love, you love, and when it is difficult, you still love. This distinguishes true love from false love.

That criterion also distinguishes the true teacher. When a student listens well, learns easily, and shows respect, the teacher can easily love the student. But when a student doesn't appreciate the teacher and rebels against him, the teacher almost wants to disown him. Yet a true teacher continues to try.

In much the same way, when everything goes well in a country, its president can really appreciate the citizens. But when the citizens don't act properly, the president may feel like cursing them. But a true president still takes responsibility for his country.

The only thing that makes the relationship between God and man eternal is love.

God, the king of the whole universe, offers people His love, but His love needs a channel to reach us. When His love is blocked, it is like a bridge being destroyed along that route.

Electricity, for example, needs a conductor. Gold and copper are the best conductors because they offer the least resistance, and the power can flow through them without losing strength.

We all want God's love to flow through us, don't we?

To avail ourselves of God's love, we have to become spiritual gold or copper. It's basic and easy to understand.

Which color of skin is the purest?

Which race is the best conductor of God's love?

Let's say this white woman is the most beautiful, not only the most beautiful white woman, but the most beautiful woman in the entire world. But if she becomes arrogant, God's love cannot possibly flow through her.

Purity is more important than outward beauty. The things you see in your fiancé are most likely the external things. You notice, first, whether he or she is white, Black, or yellow.

You may not believe that a Black person can be gold; only white people qualify. But you could think of your fiancé as black gold.

My title this morning is "In the Presence of God." Why am I discussing so many things? It is because you have a lot of extraneous matter in your thinking. I wanted to trim you a little bit!

When I state that there is no such thing as freedom in our present world, does it please you or disturb you?

What I mean is that to act for a selfish purpose is not freedom. True freedom preserves the order of the universe. In this sense, there is no true freedom on this earth.

The universe will protect true freedom, but it will ignore or oppose what is untrue.

There is no way to reach the realm of true freedom without following the universal order.

There is order in the mother's womb and a different order in the spirit world. But we must abide by the order in which we dwell. We need parental love throughout our lives on earth, unceasing, undying parental love.

A pregnant woman eats good food to nourish her baby. Suppose she orders a $10.00 steak. Will she pay $9.00 and charge her baby the remaining $1.00? That's not rational.

When you plant vegetables, does nature send you a bill for their growth?

Nature is completely free. As long as you do everything with love, you will meet with no resistance from nature.

Suppose you cut the most beautiful flower in the world and put it in a vase. As long as you deeply love that flower, it won't mind. But suppose you give that marvelous flower to some girl to entice her and take advantage of her. In that case, the flower will do its utmost to rebel against you.

However, if the flower knows it is in good hands and is being carried to your eternal love, it will sing out with every step you take. That's true! Flowers have feelings about people. Flowers best fulfill their purpose of existence when they are used by the person with the greatest love.

Poetry dealing with themes of love is the most beautiful. The most enduring literature deals with love. The greatest science is also done out of love.

When political affairs are conducted out of love, certainly that is marvelous to behold. In a tournament of love, no competitor will ever feel resentment because the winner always raises the degree of love.

Any country will welcome an increase in its number of loving citizens. And the president of a country should run the government with love.

Suppose you have a handkerchief steeped with the greatest love. It may have cost just a few cents, but you would never exchange it for a million dollars, would you?

If you misuse it, the handkerchief would feel sorrowful, but if your heart is filled with love, the handkerchief won't mind if you are too busy to wash up or too busy to clean and press it. Whatever truly loving eyes behold will always reflect that love.

You may hear opera, but if someone sings of love in squeaky tones, it should please your ears more than a highly trained voice. You may have unsightly ears, as long as a rabbit's, but if those ears can discern the notes of true love, you should be proud of them.

Not all sleeping is bad. If you become tired in the cause of love, an afternoon nap is a beautiful sleep. A good painter would want to portray such a sleeping beauty on canvas.

Any activity related to love will be welcomed; people won't mind it. Suppose someone gets whacked on the head. It's painful, whether done with love or not. But as long as the motive was love, when the pain subsides, you will exclaim, "Oh, I love that!"

With your bag full of true love, you can go anywhere, day or night, and be welcomed by all.

If a stunningly beautiful woman enters a man's bedroom, and he realizes she has something other than true love on her mind, the man should throw her out instantly. That is love.

In such a case, to kick someone out, rather than to welcome and embrace her, is love. If the woman is an American, she will be hurt because she doesn't know what love is and what it is not!

The happy person sets their goal to follow love and embrace loving things throughout their lifetime.

I can take care of myself, but I like to lean on Mother and be protected by her; I want to follow her wherever she goes. That's beautiful.

Likewise, Mother always wants to lean on me. Even though she wants to be independent, she says she is better off leaning on me, since I have more security than I need. That is so beautiful.

Children want to be included in the love between their father and mother. They want to lean on them, talk things over with them, and just be in the same neighborhood of love.

Many people are pursuing their Ph.D. degrees. They may reason that they have reached the pinnacle of life and that there is no one better than they. They consider themselves independent and able to take care of themselves.

But without love, what good is all the knowledge in the world? They will be counted among the most miserable of all people. This is even more true of kings or others who exercise earthly sovereignty.

Even God wants to rest in the embrace of love. He wants to lean on the arm of love, just as everyone else does. I feel I am such a small part of the entire universe, but God really wants to come and rest on me.

In such a position, I want to offer everything to God because I am so awed by the opportunity to protect and comfort Him. No matter how great God is, He wants to make Himself small enough to be completely embraced in the arms of a loving person. He, too, wants to feel protected.

That is the pure love of God. Knowing that, I will do anything to fulfill it. Can you imagine any greater value for human beings?

In such a relationship with God, whether your skin is black or white has no bearing whatsoever. The only thing important is to have a responsive nature.

Now you know what kind of life you should be living. You need a banner announcing to the world who you are. What do you want inscribed on that banner? "True Love." Wouldn't you like that?

I want to remind you that the world is full of eyes; the eyes of nature and the universe are constantly watching over you, observing everything you do. You must also realize that invisible ears are waiting for you to speak words of true love.

All the noses of the universe are waiting for you to emit some fragrance of love. The mouths of the universe are speaking to you; they will call out to you over and over until you hear them. The universe is waiting to feel your touch.

What are these sense organs of the universe concerned about?

Are they interested in some of the great studies being done in this world? No? Perhaps money, because people say there is nothing that money cannot buy. No? Authority? Power?

What is unanimously cherished by all these sense organs as the highest value and source of the greatest enjoyment? It is true love.

Where? Suppose a parent is carrying a bag with a very yummy and tasty treat for their child. Wherever he goes, he carries it in his pocket and won't let go of it, even in the bathroom.

Now, suppose the bathroom isn't one of the toilets here but like those in the less-developed countries: just a bucket and natural smells, nothing artificial! If he stays long enough among those natural smells, some of them will be absorbed through the bag.

Later, the father gives the bag to his child and says, "This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten; have some."

If the child is an American, he will probably refuse to taste it. He will protest, "Oh, Father, why do you think this is the best thing in the world?" But the true child will really appreciate it because he knows his father will bring him nothing but the best.

There may be finer things, but in his mind, they cannot be better than what his father brings him, so he will eat it. How about that!

True love transcends everything. It goes beyond all visible barriers. Where true love exists, nothing else matters.

Do you understand?

True love must be something perfect for everybody, all the time. I am usually very dignified; I am careful about what I do, and I don't smile or laugh easily. But once I sense true love, I grin from ear to ear; I can't help it. What does that signify? All my cells jump into peak activity, even without my knowledge.

Although they aren't told to do so, they focus upon love, and I become totally excited and jump up and down without reservation. Once true love is activated, and its engines get rolling, it will continue forever and ever, without fading away.

If you fight for true love, it should. Be a good love fight. Then nobody would mind. Do you understand? That is the kind of law that is ruling over you.

You have a limited time period in which to pass this course. The most you will live is about a hundred years, but within that life span, you should pass the grade. Then you can make the transition properly.

The transition is what people call death. Once we die and go to the other side, being reborn over there, we will be in the presence of God.

Compared to the life we now experience, an unborn baby is almost the same as being dead. It doesn't speak; it doesn't express itself; it hardly does anything. But once it is born, that baby begins a life of greater freedom; it stands in the presence of its parents.

Likewise, after so-called death, we are reborn and stand in the presence of God, not the parents of this world, but God. God is our eternal Parent. The parents of this world are our limited parents.

Recently, "Tiger" Park went to the spirit world. You may feel some grief about his situation, but I entirely disagree with you. In one way, I feel, "Lucky guy; he must be doing well now." Remember what I spoke about earlier. With your physical body, could you keep up with God when He travels so fast?

When you shake off your body, you become invisible and can follow God. In that respect, a body is something of a nuisance.

Also, the universe is so immense that even by the fastest known method, it would take a billion years to go from one end to another, but God can cross that vast universe at will.

Don't you want to follow Him wherever He goes?

The only way to do that is by becoming like God and existing without a body.

Speak of love at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or bedtime, but is it easy to attain? Yet you speak about it as if it were not difficult. Who says so? God. God is watching over us.

These are not just concepts. This is the reality that we will experience when we stand in the presence of God. We need to devote our time on earth to fulfilling this.

What does He look for in us? God looks for order. There are eight kinds of order: the central order, the order of love, ethical order, family order, social order, the national order, the worldwide order, and the universal order.

All mankind is encompassed within this array. God looks at us within these various realms of order.

It is not easy to stay in the mainstream in these eight stages. Without the Principle, very creative or smart people can be successful in only one or two levels. Something unjust or unloving cannot be elevated; only what is genuine and principled can be carried from one level to another.

By living a good and principled life, you can successfully penetrate and cross all barriers.

It is the person who embodies Principle: the person who can respect his parents, who can love the president of his company as he loves his parents, and who can love the head of his nation in the same way. Only those who have this principled nature can advance.

These qualities start in the family, in the vertical relationship between parents and children and in the horizontal relationship of husband and wife and brothers and sisters. If you can apply these three relationships on a worldwide level, you can deal with any situation.

Once you master this art, you will not find it difficult to take command anywhere.

The teacher is like a parent at school; the company president is the parent of a business; the head of state is the parent of a nation; and God is the universal parent.

If you can develop this basic heart and expand it to each successive level, you will have freedom on each level. In fact, this is the only way you can go around freely.

You may go to Africa, but you will still develop subject/object relationships there.

All other relationships are encompassed within the concept of True Parents. With True Parents, we can transcend differences of history, culture, or geographical location. In the East and the West, True Parents are the same.

We cannot jump directly to heaven from the family level. First, we must go through the levels of society, nation, world, and universe. Therefore, we must cherish society more than our family and our nation more than our society.

The smaller is subjugated by the greater; the individual is the smallest entity.

Those who remain on this course, the A students, will land in the very center of love.

The less successful ones will be outside the center. Since we are trying to connect with the universe, we have to remain on the central road.

After landing in the center of the universe, we link up all the other parts; we become the center of love. God operates through this central axis of love. God is in the center.

This can be explained simply in terms of subject-object relationships. For whom do you live? You answer God, but in reality, often you are thinking of no one but yourself. Before you can establish a subject-object relationship, you have to think of someone else.

If you focus your mind on that person, you can begin to create an ideal subject-object relationship.

There is a central order in the universe with which everything has to conform or harmonize. In that order, God is the subject and human beings the object. Also, human beings are the subject of all things of creation, as objects.

All things are further subdivided into the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; all of these need to be connected through love. So all things direct themselves towards mankind as the center of love, connected with God.

You might ask why you can't be the subject for a change. You might want to do things as you wish instead of listening to me. Or you might want me to listen to you once in a while. But that is an order governing subject-object relations. You might start collecting reasons to support your desires.

For instance, you might say you are a white person, and I am yellow, and since the white race has been dominant throughout history, there is no reason to change it now. But our relationship has nothing to do with race. This tradition is centered on love; through love, we find our parents.

I thoroughly understand this principle, and therefore, I can adapt to situations more quickly than other people can. I can go from one extreme situation to another and adjust with ease.

When I enter any place or social gathering, I immediately look for its center. I also examine the subject/object relationships.

How do you distinguish between good and evil in a particular situation?

Goodness is long-lasting and applies to all circumstances. Evil is relatively short-lived and applies better to some situations than others.

Cheating, for example, works for a while, but not for long; the more you cheat, the less your chances of success in the future. Justice, on the other hand, may not be clearly understood, but as time goes by, it becomes more apparent and gains strength.

The same rule applies in my court case. Certain forces think they have something against me. But we have been devoting our lives to this cause, and we will continue doing so for the rest of our lives and even beyond.

Our actions have continuity; wherever we go, we maintain the core subject-object relationship, and any horizontal relationships are formed around that center.

The fall of man denied this central order. God is subject, but as a result of the fall, people became ignorant of God and either knowingly or unknowingly submitted to the control of evil.

However, we are being taught to have absolute faith in God.

Do you suppose that anything less than absolute faith can bring us back to the original, central order from which we deviated through the fall?

Absolute faith is a prerequisite for returning to God.

You have learned a great deal about God by now.

Do you have complete confidence in Him?

Is your faith absolute?

If you do not regard God as the absolute subject, that means you are not absolute objects. You can drift away at any time. Your direction varies; sometimes you are closer to the center, sometimes farther away.

When you came to the Unification Church, you were convinced it was right and good. But now, after many years, perhaps you are more inclined to think your old life was better. Christmas, birthdays, and family occasions were important to you, but after joining our church, you don't even go back home for those events.

Well, there is a reason. You can explain to yourself that you need an absolute relationship with God, and since you do not have that yet, you do not qualify for these other things. Therefore, you have to deny yourself completely.

Then, after rejecting all these things and after becoming an absolute object to God, you can own everything. To attain the goal, we have to deny everything else. We even fast on our birthday to deny it, don't we?

We deny everything to re-establish our relationship with God. Denying the fallen world is not bad after all, right? Unless we deny things temporarily, we cannot re-establish our relationship with the ideal being.

This applies not only to Unification Church members. I do it. I tried both ways. I tried not denying everything, but it didn't work out. But through denial, I have been able to establish something permanent for God.

Since you call us True Parents, your physical parents must wonder what they are: untrue parents? Bad parents?

They aren't happy with that thought, so some try to kidnap their own children.

When you find something true, you have to jump for it, isn't that right?

If existing families had been true families already, you wouldn't have wanted to change. But when you met the true family, you jumped for it. To jump for something is to deny something else.

People want to stop me from teaching and propagating this message, but if it is the way of truth, how can I stop sharing it? This is what God has been striving to create throughout history, and I want to follow His way. It is so simple and clear.

We have to be victorious in God's sight, whether other people approve or not. Do you understand?

Through the fall, the order of love was reversed, and human relations and human ethics were turned upside down. Man was supposed to be the subject, but now women have more or less become the subjects. That is a result of the fall.

The center of the home is no longer God, but someone else, namely Satan. How can I say such a thing? It is effortless to see.

If God is the center of a family, people will live for each other, serving and sacrificing themselves for one another. But in families today, everybody wants to work for personal benefit, even at the sacrifice of their relatives. Therefore, it is clear that someone other than God is at the center.

Look at society. Nobody is concerned first for society and second for their family.

People should focus first on the benefit of society, second on the family, and finally on themselves as individuals. But that original order has been completely reversed. Instead, each individual looks first after himself.

Someone who is a little mom-loving will work for the sake of his family and, if he has mom time, will serve society as a third priority. People think about the individual first and then the family.

Even at work, employees put things into their pockets and bring them home.

Anybody can see that the original order has been reversed in such a case.

Furthermore, people should love their country first. But do people think about their nation and work first for its well-being and later think about their society and family?

It is the other way around.

Do Americans think about the world and cherish it more than their own country?

Do they think in an orderly way?

They frankly do not care about the world; at best, they are concerned about their country. But the way the world is going, Americans must focus on the world first and their country second.

In fact, the United States would have an easier course if there were another country that could live up to this standard, but there is no other country.

Americans assume that there is nothing else they can do, since all the other countries act the same way. The world needs the Unification Church's ideal; without it, it could never survive.

To be confident about all these things, you need to understand the eternal spiritual world. This present world exists for the sake of the spirit world, which is closer to God, but many of you are not sure about the spirit world.

You are not absolutely convinced that it exists. We are right next to the big city of New York, for example; you can step out and go there. You are certain that it exists, but not as sure that the spirit world exists. It does, though.

Perhaps I know more about the spirit world than anyone else on earth. Some people ask me, "How do you know? Have you been there?" They may not really want to listen, but I am convinced of these things, and I base my actions on them.

The spirit world is where God personally resides; anybody can feel Him in the spirit world.

For the sake of true love. Only through love can we be sure of connecting with God.

What is Satan's operating principle?

It is easy to explain: Satan's way is anything that reverses or goes against God's desire. God doesn't even want to look at what Satan does.

Knowing this, whose side are you on: the side of God or Satan?

Since you say you are on God's side, the next question is whether you cherish the spirit world more than this world. If you die young, you will go there early.

So to die is not altogether bad; in fact, under these circumstances, it is good news.

Long ago, Jesus said loud and clear that whoever is willing to die shall live. What he said is true, isn't it? Now we understand why.

When Jesus talked of dying, he meant dying for the sake of God. You may say, "But Father, you taught us the principled order. I'm not even married. I should experience family life and have children.

How can I die now?" Well, if God approves, you can transcend that order. Dying for the sake of God is more precious than living for the sake of something else.

When you go to the spirit world, how wonderful it would be if your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth could all claim that they died for God's sake! How wonderful, in the spirit world, to be able to say that you also sacrificed love for God's sake!

Do you actually love the world more than your own country? Do you love your country more than your society? Do you love your society more than your family?

And do you love your family more than yourself?

We cannot live by just following our impulses or seeking what is nice and comfortable. We are supposed to live for this higher order

The United States has no equal among the nations of the world. But what can it be proud of today?

Is its predominant way of thinking true or false? It's false, isn't it? There is no central stream of thought here. Is there any order to love in America?

When you answer no, you have to be sure of what you are saying. If you say human ethics are missing, that means only animal ethics apply.

Does it sound good to say that Americans are living like animals?

You cannot deny it. There is sex even among close relatives. Well, at least you still have a sense of shame. We have to change this situation.

Is there an original order in society?

Do people cherish society more than their family? No, the reverse is true. What about devotion to their country? Do they have a worldview? A universal view?

You may not know precisely, but you can assume that if something is missing at a lower level, the situation will be worse at higher levels.

But the United States is not just any country. Whether Americans like it or not, other nations look up to you as an example. Other people copy the morals of Americans. If the world is washed away, the first country to be punished will be the United States. I came here to prevent this from happening.

If Korea collapses, the world could still be saved, but if America goes under, it will be so much more difficult to save the rest of the world.

All these deviations of society have to end. Do you think the gay movement is in accordance with God's central thought? So many things in this country go against God's order. An alarming number of young people use drugs.

After prolonged use, people can no longer function as normal human beings; they become ill and cannot think straight. The number of drug users is increasing, not decreasing. Society is drifting farther and farther from God's order.

God will be the judge, Jesus the defense attorney, and Satan the prosecutor. Satan will accuse people of all these crimes and claim them as his offspring.

Jesus will try to defend them, but he knows more clearly than anybody the original law by which mankind must abide. Do you think he can effectively defend the whole of mankind when it is measured against that original standard?

Communism denies God. It does not believe in any need for order in the family; it places no special importance on parents. Communism wants to eliminate the need for nuclear families and the parental role in families.

They call these lofty ideas hallucinations and tell people not to worry about something that isn't there. Communism claims that history advances through struggle and revolution and that the victory belongs to the strongest.

Communism denies any central guiding thought in this universe. It denies any order of love, claiming that everything is random. This is a perfect description of the satanic world. South America is becoming more and more inclined toward the satanic side.

Our task is to propagate the truth and restore what has been lost. This court case is based on what we have proclaimed. We will never compromise our message. That is why people halt and accuse us. Which step could we compromise on? There can be no compromise

There are two types of Americans today. One group knows the truth and will defend it with their life; they will not mind dying to preserve it. Another group says they know this, but they don't really care; their personal liberty, safety, comfort, and satisfaction take priority. They aren't concerned about God. They don't even know whether He exists.

In God's court, the first type will be the true witnesses for righteousness, and the second type will be witnesses for unrighteousness.

A judge who understands both sides will rule in favor of the righteous. He will strike out the unrighteous and preserve the righteous, no matter how small their number may be.

You should remember that it is not just one individual who goes to court; it is everybody. At some time in our lives, we must stand before the court of the universe.

This court case deals with events that happened not this year or last year, but ten years ago: 1972, 1973, and 1974. In the spirit world, it is very much the same.

You will face everything that happened ten, twenty, thirty, or more years ago. And it is a grave matter. You shouldn't worry about whether people prosecute you but whether you have done anything wrong.

If you have developed a character pleasing to God and have not done anything wrong, then it doesn't matter who tries to blame you.

If you are willing to take on tasks nobody else wants to do, if you sacrifice yourself for greater and greater causes, when you stand before the court of justice in the spirit world one day, the judge will favor you.

Those of you who are studying for a doctorate, are you studying for the sake of God, for your fellow human beings, for your fellow Americans, or for yourself?

If you study for God, His greatest mandate is that you use your influence to save this nation and its people, not to focus on your future and so-called career.

You may object that since you have spent so much time studying, you should be entitled to lead an easy life. That is wrong. 'The more you study, the more indebted you are to society and the universe.

No one who is going to school should feel more indebted than the average church member. The average members go fundraising and witnessing; some may even lose their lives in an accident.

You have security and prestige, and you are enjoying the pursuit of so much knowledge.

But why are you continuing your studies?

When you master the Principle, you should be able to witness better than your less-learned brothers and sisters. With your higher education, you should be able to raise more funds than those who had to work all the time without the chance to further their education.

After you graduate, you could become the most respected scholar in your field, correct what is wrong, and steer its development in the proper course.

If that is your ambition, your studies are justified. But if you think the challenge is too difficult and you don't want to devote yourself to that task after graduation, there is no purpose to your studying.

For this reason, I send the Seminary graduates to CARP and Ocean Church. They are the most difficult missions in our movement.

Those of you who are pursuing a doctorate degree, do you expect to keep going up after graduation, or are you willing to go down first and rise later?

You have to know what course lies ahead of you. Your mission is to make a confrontation. You were sent to school to proclaim clearly what is right and wrong.

Your task is to challenge the wrong and effectively deny it.

That means you have to work harder than anybody else. Don't dream of just being a white-collar worker and having a nice career; that will give you no position in history.

People must prepare themselves for their appearance before the court of the universe. You should be concerned about how you can be acquitted and how you can leave no room for Satan to accuse you.

The judge knows everything; he sees who is right and who is wrong. The prosecutor knows more about the bad side than anybody else, and the defense attorney should know everything about the good side. He has to repel every argument the prosecutor may raise.

As I said, all Unification Church members will one day have to stand before God's court of the universe and face Satan as their accuser. I will be your defense attorney.

If you don't listen to me and follow everything I direct you to do, can you survive before the court of the universe?

Those who don't listen will have to go through an ordeal. The ideal would be for you to get my signature testifying that you have passed the course. Then you wouldn't have to stand in court at all.

If you had your choice, would you prefer to stand trial, no matter what? Certainly, you would rather avoid it. How wonderful it would be to have a pass entitling you to enter the spirit world freely, without having to face the court of the universe.

What is the pass?

True love, on all levels. Wherever I go, I carry this banner of true love. If you can take this banner to Africa, to Korea, or to whatever land, and live up to its standard, you won't have to stand trial. Without it, however, you will be stopped and questioned.

You all know that. If you live a different way, you realize that the court will eventually call you to account for it. If you don't satisfy the law of God, you cannot enter His realm; bad people cannot trespass there.

I have lived by this principle while in the United States. I don't feel indebted to America; rather, America is indebted to me. People may judge me, but I know clearly the ultimate judgment. Nothing that happens to me will cause me to waver. Even if I am condemned, there will be a day of resurrection.

If your hands work against God, their deeds will testify in court. The same holds for your eyes. Can you pull out your eyes to indemnify their wrongdoings on earth? Certainly not. Especially if you misuse love on earth, how can you avoid embarrassment and shame in the spirit world?

If you don't do something about it here, how can you escape the misery to come?

Your shame will not be confined to yourself and your generation alone, but to your entire lineage. All the hundreds of generations connected to you will endure the same situation as you.

Unless you pass every detail of the course here, such a trial surely awaits you. We must prepare for the time when we will stand in the presence of God. If you need proof, when you die, you will see whether my teaching was wrong.

Every day you should improve yourself, always building up your qualifications for the day when God can commend you and give you His approval.

The prosecutor will still bring out the bad things in your life, but you should devote every day to the task of winning the title.

It is difficult to persevere without enough food or sleep, but you should overcome all those challenges for the sake of your country and for the love of God. Once you build up credit, the universe will need you and protect you, no matter how viciously Satan attacks.

People think they are free to do anything they wish, but it is not true. Our only real choice is to do good, in accordance with God's order. We need to choose the best way to do that and continue on that course so that we can stand blameless in front of God. Do you understand?

The law of the universe governs us, whether we are aware of it or not. That law demands that we go a certain way. Don't imagine that you can take just any course and be successful. The best way to transcend this law and be free of its restrictions is through love.

If you live with love, even though you may be ignorant of the law, you can never violate it. You can freely pass through any place, even hell. If you have absolute love, hell will open up its gates for you.

Actually, Unification Church members don't live with as much a sense of guilt and fear of hell as other people. While others may fear it greatly, we don't. But we should realize that hell definitely exists.

We are not in it now, so we don't know too much about it. Our task is to march forward with the banner of love and put that love into practice. If we don't do that, a truly formidable future awaits us.

So I want each of you to be victorious in the trial that you will face. If you are guided by love, you don't really need any leader's recognition or approval, do you?

You can be your own leader; you know best how to go the way of love.

Whether people take notice or not, whether people approve or not, I will do what I have to do, and I will not do what I know I shouldn't.

Likewise, you don't need an MFT leader, a witnessing captain, or a home church director. You know the purpose of home church; you know the goal. Whether people are watching you or not, you should continue your course.

Actually, love develops better when you do things without other people being aware. Sometimes you see a man and woman embracing and kissing in the street and wonder what kind of special privilege from the court of the universe they think they have. I told you not to kiss or even hold hands while you are engaged because it could lead to something more. But if you are truly grounded in Principle, it is hypothetically possible for you to kiss without it being bad. But until the proper time, don't do it.

Our entire purpose is to elevate the value of love. Something may not be wrong, and we may want very much to do it, but we will hold back because if we can overcome it, our level of love will be greater. Do you understand? In front of True Parents, yes is the only proper answer.

Even bad parents don't want to teach their children bad things. Even bad teachers want their students to learn good things.

When you follow the proper direction, you will always rise because the universe will protect you.

If you object to what I say and refuse to do it, you are taking the opposite course.

You can't reach the goal by merely doing whatever you wish. Doctoral students may know a lot, but they cannot receive their degree without the approval of their examiners. No matter how good you are, somebody still has to approve of you.

So it is natural to conclude that, if you want to go to the same spirit world as I do, you will have to follow my way of thinking and acting. You will have to value the things I value and live by the same law I live by.

My desire is for you always to focus on this one goal and think of nothing else. I want each one of you to become a victor and be free from any accusation by the court of heaven.

Will you put this into practice and give each day to this goal?

If you will commit yourself, please raise your hands. God bless you.