Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 147. The one who sacrifices becomes the central person
13 To walk the path of love, you need to serve and sacrifice for others. Without serving and sacrificing, your love cannot grow. Although you may have a capacity to love that rates only ten, if you sacrifice and serve, that capacity can grow to one hundred, one thousand, even ten thousand. Especially, if you have some ancestors who were evil, your love rating may be even lower than ten. Nevertheless, you would want to increase it to one hundred, one thousand or even ten thousand if only you could find a way to do so. That way is the path of love, by serving and sacrificing. Because I understood this principle, no matter what kind of abuse and indignities I suffered, no matter how many times I went to prison or faced pain to the point of death, I endured everything. When it comes to loving people, I am willing to sacrifice more than anyone else. When I meet anyone whose sacrifice and love is greater than mine, I immediately resolve to sacrifice and love more. If it means I have to sacrifice and love one thousand or ten thousand times more, I will go that way. I know that only by becoming like that is God able to pour out His love upon me. (44-203, 1971.05.07)
14 The way of love opens to us only when we sacrifice for others. After parents love their children, they do not say, “We raised you for twenty years and sent you to school, so now, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, you have to sacrifice for twenty years for us.” No. Parents sacrifice for their children without considering or calculating the extent of it. In fact, the harder they work for their children, the more their children’s love for them grows. Even though parents ask no compensation, their children’s original mind cannot but love them. That is why children whose parents loved them are never unfilial. It is impossible for a child to be unfilial to such parents. In a family of sacrificial parents, filial children will emerge. The more a nation’s king sacrifices for his subjects, the more loyalty they will display to him. On the path of love, sacrifice and suffering do not diminish your value. Instead, they double it. Such is the path of love. (63-196, 1972.10.14)
15 Love drives you to the place of sacrifice. You may feel that being pushed to sacrifice is unfair. Especially if you collapse and die as a sacrifice, you may feel even more that it is unfair. But unbeknownst to you, God’s love builds up behind you. So widen that place by going over the realm of your tribe and your people. Widen it even further to influence your nation. On the day when you change the standard of your nation, you can take the flag of your renewed nation and march toward the world. The Unification Church is going this way toward that goal. Therefore, you must love your country more than you love your own children. You are in the position of following God’s Will, so you should expect to take responsibility as His representative over and over again. (32-228, 1970.07.19)
16 Sacrifice accompanies the way of love. It is how you can totally possess the love of your partner. You need to sacrifice, because doing so builds the foundation for your partner to completely unite with you and follow you. People can unite completely with those who sacrifice themselves to pay the price of love. It turns out that the dwelling place of love is not in yourself, but in your partner. Do not think that your husband or wife loves you because you are great. (44-349, 1971.05.30)
17 The center of your love has to be your counterpart, not yourself. Only when you fully recognize the value of your counterpart will his or her full value in love become manifest. Why do you have to sacrifice on the path of love? It is because your love does not belong to you. You must make your counterpart the focal point of your love. That being the case, unless you make the condition to be completely in accord with that focal point of love, you cannot fulfill love's purpose. Therefore, if you want perfect love, you must sacrifice completely. When you follow the way of total sacrifice, you will see perfect unity. (45-226, 1971.07.01)
18 Without fail, the sacrificial person becomes the central person. In a family the filial child is the one who sacrifices the most; thereby he or she becomes the center of the family. A patriot who sacrifices the most for the nation becomes the central person of the nation. The saint who sacrifices the most becomes the center of all saints. This is Heaven’s principle, so follow this way with sincerity and become individuals who can bring people into harmony in all respects. When you do so, God’s new hope will dwell within you and the power of God’s love will be added to your efforts. (113-326, 1981.05.10)
19 Sacrifice makes the way of love shine. That is why the Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. It says that it is the first commandment. As commandments go, it is indeed the first among all the commandments in the universe. It is the most important law, because once we fulfill this law, we can create a realm in which all other laws will be followed. From this perspective, in order to fulfill God’s Will, God’s ideal of creation, we have a path to follow: We must make a relationship with God in absolute love; then we will realize the ideal of creation. (63-160, 1972.10.14)
20 The way of true love is to move toward something greater, even if it means sacrificing your own interests. As you move forward toward a bigger world, you make sacrifices and accept greater hardship. With respect to the family, if your family lives for the sake of society, then leaving your family is not leaving it behind but uniting it with society. For example, when your son grows up he will find his life companion, and they will join as a couple. Even though he leaves you, his parents, his loving relationship with you can deepen, and when he has children, your family will expand. Further, when your son’s family moves into society, your family grows even bigger. As its links with society develop, your family will grow ever greater. (48-012, 1971.08.31)
21 If parents love their children in a self- centered way, their love is false. If children love their parents in a self-centered way, that too is false love. What do I expect to see in the Unification Church? If our church represents a true religion of true love, we should not love the Unification Church for the sake of the Unification Church. Just as you become a filial child by loving your parents at the sacrifice of yourself, and you become a true parent by loving your children at the sacrifice of yourself, in the Unification Church we should love the nation and the world even at the sacrifice of the Unification Church. This is the shortcut to establishing the law of love. (34-330, 1970.09.20)
22 For us, to sacrifice our individual selves for the family is to find the path of love to the family; to sacrifice as a family in order to save the tribe is to expand the path of love to the tribe; to sacrifice as a tribe in order to save the nation is to expand the path of love to the nation; to sacrifice as a nation in order to save the world is to broaden the path of love to the world. In this way, by loving the world we should go to reach the love of God. This is the path we have to go from now on. (41-356, 1971.02.18)
23 Religions teach individuals, families, tribes and nations to sacrifice their own interests. The nation of Israel was built upon the sacrifices of its tribes. Among the nations of the world, those that stood on religious beliefs walked the way of sacrifice throughout their history. If we are to realize the ideal of creation, we must become God’s object partners of love. But unless we go through sacrifice, unless we practice this essential principle of love, we cannot become one with God. Nor can we form a relationship with the ideal world of love that God is to govern. To form a relationship with the ideal world of love, there is no other way than to inherit the tradition that takes sacrifice as a cardinal principle. This is why religions place great emphasis on the path of love that requires compassion and sacrifice. The division between heaven and hell, between good and evil, is right there. (60-087, 1972.08.06) |