Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 449. The path of filial piety : sincerity moves Heaven
17 What does it mean to serve someone with all your heart and all your will, and offer your utmost devotion to that person? It means you are willing to offer your life for that person. That is the full measure of devotion. Where is the limit of your heart and mind? When you devote yourself to someone with all your heart, it means you surrender your life for that person. To serve with all your will and devotion means to put your life on the line. The saying, “Sincerity moves Heaven,” refers to what happens when your sincerity transcends all limits and you put your life on the line in offering devotion for the other. God cannot ignore those who offer devotion at the risk of their lives, putting their life on the line. (38-242, 1971.01.08)
18 What is the core thought that we find on the path of the providence of restoration? It is to follow the path of a sacrificial offering. What is a sacrificial offering? We were told to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37) The outcome of loving with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind is simple. It means that you put your life on the line out of your love for God. It does not mean that you are forced to do it. It means that you do it willingly, feeling an inexpressible joy. (48-114, 1971.09.05)
19 When I prayed kneeling down on the floor, my tears never dried. I even had calluses on my knees. In Korea there is a saying, “A tower built with devotion will not collapse.” We must offer devotion to God. We must reach a state where we are crazy with yearning for God. If God dwelt on Earth, He would want to visit His children a thousand times a day. But because He does not dwell on Earth, He cannot do so. That is why He sent me to you on His behalf. This is the special reason that you cannot help but love me. You would not feel like loving me without a reason. During the three months of bitter cold in the winter, the tears of my prayers would completely soak through all the cotton insulation in my clothes. Think about how desperate I was. I had showdown prayers with God, face-to-face, stabbing the floor with a dagger, and not just once or twice. (060-213, 1972.08.17)
20 Whatever you do, whether eating or drinking, sitting or standing, and regardless of whom you are with, what is most essential is that you demonstrate a childlike heart before your parents. You don’t receive this through knowledge. Are you going to live in God’s presence, bragging, “I am Dr. So-and-So”? That is something He doesn’t need. The question is how you can stimulate God to love you. There is only one path: “Sincerity moves Heaven.” There is no other way. (78-040, 1975.05.01)
21 You should not complain. There is no room for complaint. What I am saying is, you should not think of yourself. You should not hold on to concepts like “my possessions” or “my love.” Thinking about God, you should have the heart that if you complain, it would cause great pain to our Heavenly Parent, and that because you have the chance to understand His circumstances and inherit His tradition, you will inherit it, follow Him, and comfort Him. If you shed tears with such a heart, God will be with you. But God will not be with you if you shed tears centered on yourself. You should shed tears for God and the Parents. Such is the altar of the Unification Church. Such is the life of attendance in the Unification Church. (114-281, 1981.10.20)
22 Even though I might collapse from hunger and exhaustion, my only thought has been how I can walk the path to fulfill what God needs me to fulfill, and how I can shoulder the cross that I might be required to carry along the way. You, however, are not even preparing yourselves to go on such a path. Although you know that you can be saved through attendance, you are just brazenly watching me. You should not be standing still with that kind of mindset. Whether we are asleep or awake, we should move forward for Heavenly Father and His nation. We must dissolve His bitter sorrow, even if it means that we die tens of thousands of times. Whoever has the courage to do that should be able to carry a cross on behalf of God in addition to his or her own cross. That is why at this time we must work for Heavenly Father and His nation, and become the filial sons and daughters whom the Father can summon. We are the people who were born for God’s sake; therefore we must become filial sons, filial daughters, patriots and righteous men and women. This is our mission. (13-233, 1964.03.22)
23 You should not leave yourself even a moment to think about saving face, keeping your dignity or even feeling hunger. You should focus on activities for God’s Will even more than on a child that is sick. But if you can’t, you should at least have the kind of absolute obedience that won’t let you sleep at night when you don’t understand what I am doing, and sets you running to me at 2 a.m. to ask about it until you do understand. This is the kind of life you must live. That’s what I mean when I say that salvation comes through attendance. It’s how I have always lived out my relationship to God. I cannot relax even for a second. After my body was struck, I was even more determined to stay on the path of indemnity to comfort God. (21-070, 1968.09.09)
24 If you are in difficulty and in pain, go and pray in a quiet room with the door closed. If you still cannot find an answer, pray even more deeply and more seriously. Invest more time in prayer. As I walked this path, it was normal for me to pray more than twelve hours a day. Imagine that you are diving thousands of feet deep into the ocean. What would you have to overcome? What would you have to endure? Prayerful people seldom make mistakes. They can find the answers within themselves. Once you experience the taste of prayer, you will find it more delicious than any meal and more fun than any hobby. When you reach that level of spirituality, you will immediately know what is good and what is bad in your environment. (128-172, 1983.06.12)
25 Unification Church members must pray. Pray to set aside your desires about the clothes you wear, the food you eat and where you live, and pray for humility. How much prayer do you think is needed in order to liberate humankind and God? We should pray as if we were facing the most serious situation in human history. Prayer solidifies your resolve to follow the path, no matter how difficult it may be. Constant prayer, twenty-four hours a day, will bring God to you. If someone is thinking about you, you will want to go and visit that person. It is the same for God. God seeks those who are thinking about Him more than about anyone or anything else, and who are striving to dedicate themselves to Him. (128-172, 1983.06.12)
26 In longing for God, you should shed so many tears that your eyes are blinded and your nose is clogged with mucous. Your uncontrollable weeping should make your chest ache. That is how much you must long for God. A son may desperately cry out, “Father!” as he is being dragged to his execution. Another may mournfully call out, “Father!” as he is leaving for a far- off country. When we call out “My Heavenly Father!” our standard must be higher than that. (50-289, 1971.11.08)
27 God is suffering hardships because of me, because of my family, because of my nation, and because of my world. So it makes sense that I too should suffer hardships because of myself, because of my family, my society, my nation and my world, and that I should do it for God. I am saying that, together with the Republic of Korea, we should suffer hardships on behalf of God. That is my philosophy, and it is also God’s philosophy. Some people look for chances to secretly impose burdens on others, even when everyone is already suffering hardships. These spineless people think that others should shoulder all the burdens instead of them, and if they could, they would sell even God for their own personal benefit. You have to be somewhat foolish to follow God’s path. In a certain sense, patriots appear to be rather foolish people, even somewhat stupid. They have the character of a bear, with a kind of slow- witted generosity that, if someone took a piece of their arm, they would say, “Oh, that’s not enough, go ahead and take some more!” (26-142, 1969.10.19)
28 To this day, I have been enduring hardship for the Will, day and night, and I am not about to stop. Those who have not attended me closely do not know me well. As soon as I open my eyes from sleep I kneel on the floor and pray. Why do I live this way? It is because, even in the middle of the night, my beloved children who are spread all across the world are depending on me. If I cannot be there to offer devotion with them when they pray to God, shouldn’t I at least keep up with them and not fall behind them? Because I pray immediately upon waking up, God forgives me for not praying with them while I was asleep. (26-138, 1969.10.19)
29 What kind of person am I? I am a person who possesses only one talent: I just go straight ahead no matter what. Some people ask why I always do things that everybody vilifies and scorns, instead of quietly going a more convenient way. It is because I can reach the pinnacle only by overcoming the opposition of many people. On the other hand, most of you are thinking only about how to take detours around the difficulties. Why do we need to separate from the world? It is because even the love of our natural parents will take us off target. God has been following a straight path, and we must do the same. (097-257, 1978.03.19)
30 I am a lonely and solitary man. I could come this far only because I understand that God is as lonely and solitary as I am, and that He understands me. I know that the mission I must pursue until I die is to fulfill even a portion of God’s Will and desire—to expand His foundation in even one area. That is why I am gathering together people who can live for God. Because I was born as God’s son and because I feel responsible to establish His Will, I have not accused those who mocked me, nor have I sought revenge against those who beat me. Instead, I have persevered with love and fought my way forward, sometimes staggering, sometimes trudging ahead with my back bent over, and sometimes crawling on my belly. Through all of this I have maintained only one thought: how to establish God’s tradition and bequeath it to the world. (82-047, 1975.12.30)
31 Here is what True Parents have to do. They need to win every battle, enter the deepest place in God’s heart, liberate Him from bitter pain and sorrow, and establish His realm of victory on earth. You need to feel grateful to God that the True Parents have emerged on earth. You need to be aware of the misery of God, our vertical True Parent, which has been dissipated finally, because He has sent the Lord of the Second Advent to earth to liberate all humankind. Now we have entered an incredible era. Because of True Parents, we can pledge to become God’s filial sons and daughters and we can then strive to realize that pledge. (235-021, 1992.08.24)
32 How serious are you about following the way of the Will? I have been walking it all my life without even my wife and children knowing what it involves. Only God and I know that. It has been lonely. No one knows the path I had to follow. With God’s help, I, a solitary man, have brought amazing results. With this achievement I have raised issues fundamental to society. I have triggered a wave of innovative thought in this world of declining democracies. This has made me a controversial figure. What I have accomplished is not because I am great, but because God has been with me. (82-047, 1975.12.30) |