Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 152. Loving your enemy
10 In my life I have had many experiences as a wayfarer. I wandered along many roads at sunset as the last light heralded nightfall. I still cannot forget the time I prayed, carrying my rucksack on my back, “I have continued on for Your sake. I left behind my wife and child. Yet I cannot do otherwise.” I was facing a fork in the road. I had to succeed in going the path of loyalty to God. I knew that if I failed, I would become nothing but an enemy. Therefore I prayed, resolving not to take time to love my own wife and child until I could welcome God to the earth. This is the bloody road I had to take in order to save this world. I knew that unless I made this resolution, I could not build a true world. You too need to make such a resolution. You are in a position to build this world with me, so you should not weep while holding on to your wife and children. Rather, you should shed tears while embracing the greater world that you are working to recover in the future. (18-164, 1967.06.04)
11 There were no shortcuts, there was no smooth path for this wayfarer with a rucksack on his back. Mine was a tiresome, difficult path as I searched while shedding blood and tears. My course as a wayfarer, as a youth seeking the path of Heaven, was like that of a hunted and hounded lamb. On that path the tears that fell from my eyes were not my tears; they were tears that God shed through me. (18-164, 1967.06.04)
12 The Bible warns us not to forsake our first love. My first love is for God, and to this day I have never forsaken Him, even while walking the way of suffering and adversity as I carried the responsibility for the providence of restoration. No matter what anyone said, and even though my life was tom to pieces thousands of times, I could not deny that love. God knows it. When I see God, I feel heartrending sorrow. When I think of God’s situation, sometimes I feel resentful toward the thirty million Korean people who are opposing God’s Will. But when I think of His suffering throughout the six thousand years of providential history, of His endless endurance as He leads the providence of restoration, I feel ashamed. This is why I too must endure. (17-033, 1966.11.06)
13 If God had cursed fallen human beings, their way for the future would have been blocked. But God did not do that, and hence the hope of salvation has remained throughout human history. I have inherited this tradition and this heart of love; therefore, I prayed for my enemies, even though they hounded me to the point of death. I filled their cups with God’s blessings. I am praying even now for God to bless them. This is my teaching as the teacher of the Unification Church. You who have been attending me for many years cannot deny it, because you witnessed it with your own eyes and experienced it as a fact. I am the one who carries God’s bitter sorrow deep in my heart. Yet I know that even if I could draw a sword and slash to pieces the heads and bodies of the thirty million people of this nation who behave like my enemies, it would still not dissolve God’s bitter sorrow. Instead, since I know that the way of love is to love them even more, I have to make known to them the love of God that I keep in my heart. (22-108, 1969.01.26)
14 I was whipped brutally while walking this path. Sometimes just thinking of what they did to me filled me with indignation. When I felt that way I just wanted to smash them all. But when I thought of God, I pitied my enemies. I knew that God still persisted in His affection for them and I resolved to love them more. When I thought of that, there was nothing I could do but try to comfort God. When I returned after being severely beaten, I busied myself with trying to comfort the broken heart of my Father, who shed bitter tears on receiving me, His son, in that condition. I have been busy on my path. I paid no heed when village dogs barked at me, or when a landslide nearly buried me. This has been my path as the teacher of the Unification Church. For decades of my life I devoted myself to this path. During the time of the Japanese occupation, even while I was busy with this work, I was persecuted and imprisoned. Wherever I went, I was harassed, hounded, rejected and cast into miserable circumstances. Still, I never reproached Satan; I only lamented that the environment was not yet prepared, and I continued my work. (18-254, 1967.06.11)
15 In the Bible we learn that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Unless you adopt this tradition, you cannot rally people around you. I have done that. Once, when I heard the news that my enemy’s children were going hungry, I sent them everything I had except my underwear and one of my blankets. For one week I lived with only one set of underwear and one blanket. Later I sold the only blanket I had left, for them. Why did I do it? It was not because I was a fool; it was because I had to set the condition of totally loving my enemy on the way of restoration. I did it because I had to practice the Bible’s words, “Love your enemy.” (23-320, 1969.06.08)
16 Because of whom does God support the Unification Church? I hope you are a person who can say, “It is because of me.” Please live in such a way that God can give you His help and support. You must become such people. This has been my secret and my philosophy of life. I am saying that you must be the people who leave God no choice but to help Korea because of you. You should become such leaders. The question is whether you can draw God to the Unification Church. Do not hate your enemy. Do not rejoice at your enemy’s ruin. If God were happy to see His enemy ruined, this world would no longer exist. When God cannot hate anyone, not even Satan, how can I? (17-343, 1967.05.10)
17 When you shed tears, lamenting sorrowfully that you could not love God enough, or you could not love the world enough, or you could not love your country enough, God will comfort you with tears, saying, “It’s alright. That day will come. Because you have such a sincere aspiration, I will bring it to pass.” I need you to become such people. Once you are able to live that way, then you can love your tribe, your family, and last of all yourself. This should have been people’s central mindset throughout God’s providential history. (22-149, 1969.02.02)
18 I came to know the story of God’s sorrowful history. I came to know of God’s heart when He sent Jesus to his tragic fate. So I thought about how I could offer myself for the sake of God's Will. While the entire Korean people ridiculed me and the world persecuted me, I loved my enemies more than anyone else in order to bring them back to God. I not only loved them, I even wished blessings on them. Then I thought about how I could leave in my will a request to my sons and daughters that they would bless my enemies and love them on my behalf. This has been my aspiration, and I have paved the way to bring it to pass. (22-131, 1969.02.02) |