Overcoming with Gratitude

I suppose that because of the great distances involved, you had a hard time to come and gather here. Also, you were surely very busy doing your mission, but I still took this time to gather everyone for a special meeting. I suppose this is the first time such a meeting was held. Therefore I really desire good fruits as a result of this meeting. This can be realized only when we are truly united in heart.

I want you to understand the reason why I chose this meeting place here in Germany. Germany is a providential nation within Europe, and from the geographical aspect it is also the center. Therefore I chose this location. Even though there may be better places in other countries, for these two reasons I chose Germany. You may have experienced some difficulties or inconvenience, so I want to ask you to think about the heart of True Parents who were here for three days under similar circumstances. Thinking about the heart of True Parents, please endure any difficulties.

When I saw the members sleeping in tents I was reminded of the time when Father built a small hut during the early days of our church in Pusan, in order to start `The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’.

Let us think of the time before we met the Unification Church. Before we joined the Unification Church we were not really happy people. We did not have hope in our heart. If you would have had this hope, happiness or satisfaction before, you would never have joined our church. This shows that God expressed His concern for us and guided us. The reason why God made us walk such a difficult path before meeting the Unification Church was to enable us to have a foundation upon which we could join the church. Therefore God is a God of goodness. I suppose that when you joined, you recognized that the course you had followed before the church was because of the love and guidance of God.

We have often heard that Father endured many difficult experiences during the course of restoration. Father explained that whenever he encountered such difficulties and could overcome, a blessing would always follow. Through such experiences Father realized that whenever he faced difficulties, he should think of the great blessing that God was preparing for him. In this way Father could maintain a hopeful attitude in spite of the difficult circumstances surrounding him. The reason why Father could think in this way was because he clearly understood that God is a God of love and goodness.

Since God is a God of love and goodness, when we are led by Him we will surely experience His love. Through inheriting Father’s attitude and through knowing God’s situation, we too can find a way to be grateful when facing difficulties. On the other hand, if we cannot adopt this attitude, we will always complain when we encounter difficulties and we will not be able to overcome with gratitude.

When difficulties arise, they are like an indemnity course. However, when God sees that we cannot overcome them, He must surely be very sad. He wants to give us greater blessings, that is why He allows us to experience such situations. But when we cannot overcome, He cannot give us His blessing. So, our attitude should be no matter what difficulties may come, I will overcome them with gratitude.

Since God is a God of goodness and love He doesn’t want His children to go a difficult course. But ever since the fall, whenever God wanted to give man His blessing, He couldn’t do so without a condition because of the existence of Satan. This is a source of pain for God. It means that as long as we have a foundation to he accused by Satan, God cannot give us His blessing.

I think we really need to understand the heart of God. He is a God of goodness and love, but He has to put us into difficult situations in order to be able to give us great blessings. We should understand this.

I suppose you know from Father’s testimony in prison that he understood the loving heart of God, therefore he tried to comfort God and return something to Him in order to relieve His sorrow. Remember that when you met the Unification Church your heart was so moved. We have to remember the abundance of inspiration we felt at that time.

We were guided to join this church. There were people who were guided us to follow this way, so they must have had a reason for doing so. We should not forget this point. The reason why we were guided to join the Unification Church was not only to enable us to live a happy life, but so that we could lead others to find the way of eternal happiness.

I think we really need to understand how much God and True Parents suffered to enable us to follow this way. How much they suffered and endured difficulties! We need to understand this in order to appreciate them. Until now, God and True Parents have been guiding our lives. When we understand their heart we should be able to guide others just as we were guided.

Actually we are the fruits of True Parents. Let’s not forget that they want to be proud of us, because we are the fruits of their investment of heart. They invested their heart completely, and we joined as a result. True Parents therefore want to be proud of us and show us to the world. When we realize that we are the hope and pride of True Parents, we can understand how we should live.

Who are the fruits of God’s investment? Actually, True Parents are the fruits of God’s total investment. As the Messiah or True Parents are the fruits, God wants to be proud of them before the world. Since the Messiah is the fruit of God’s investment, Father respects God, understands Him and wants to return joy to Him. This is the desire of the Messiah. God wants to be proud of the Messiah before the world and on the other hand, the Messiah is proud of God before the world. Both God and the Messiah are proud of being victorious over Satan. They are also victors of love.

Since we are the fruits of True Parents we should be proud of True Parents and praise them. This is our task. Our mission is to inherit the tradition of God and True Parents. Then we have to pass it on to the world. We consider the people of the secular world as Cains. So, we should invest ourselves completely for the sake of these people so that we can one day be proud of them. This should be our final source of joy. When we invest ourselves completely for their sake, they will one day feel so grateful and happy and proud of us as their Abels.

When these people inherit God and True Parents’ tradition, they will automatically give love to other Cain people. They will pass it on. In this way God can be proud of the Messiah, the Messiah can be proud of us as Abels, and we can be proud of our Cains, who in turn can be proud of other Cains. These Cains can then be proud of the higher Cains, who can be proud of their Abels, who are then proud of True Parents; and True Parents are proud of God.

So we should not betray True Parents, because they are proud of us. True Parents gained victory over Satan, they gained a victory of love. Now they want us to inherit these two victories. When we can inherit these two victories they can be proud of us. In fact, all that we experience in our life of faith is to train us, to enable us to become victorious people.

As I already told you, whenever Father faced great difficulties, of course he struggled, but since he knew the heart of God behind these difficulties, he could overcome them with gratitude. Thinking of the blessings that would follow, Father was always able to comfort God rather than complain.

So whenever you face difficulties, don’t think that a certain person is giving you problems. Think that God is using this person to train you, so that you can one day be victorious. Try to see the situation in this way. When we receive a revelation from heaven that God is training us, we can believe that it comes from God. But when somebody we know well explains that it is training from God, we struggle to accept this explanation. Thus when such difficulties occur we cannot understand what is really happening and consequently we cannot overcome. So let us overcome with a true understanding.

As Father said, the family is the school of love. Therefore whatever you may experience from your spouse does not only come from him or her. It comes through your spouse from behind. When you consider your spouse only as your spouse you cannot overcome this training of love. Also, in center life, whenever you have difficult members please don’t forget that God is training you through these members. Also, whenever outside people do not accept you, God is training you through these circumstances.

What kind of training are we talking about? It is training to separate from Satan. We have to kick Satan out! Then, on this foundation we should inherit true love. Please don’t forget that God is really training us these circumstances in order to make us victorious.

Father has met many people who promised they would dedicate everything to him. He invested so much of his heart for these people, but after a while, when they became weak they left the church. Even though such things happen, Father never becomes weak in heart. He never changes his heart of love, even towards such members. Father always keeps the promises he makes in front of God. Because of Father’s attitude, another person was able to join the church in place of one that left.

The members who left and were then wandering around the outside world could come back because of Father’s foundation of unchanging love. Or, if they didn’t, another person who was even more needed by Father would join in their place.

God created man to want to be possessed by the person who loves him the most. The members who left Father may have been loved by someone after leaving the church, but because Father’s love was stronger, they were able to return, even after many years. It is the original desire of our heart to want to be possessed by the person who loves us the most. So, when somebody leaves the church, his body may leave, but his heart always knows who loved him the most. Therefore, his heart always wants to return to Father.

For example, if I were a center leader, I would serve the center members. Then, after some time a new leader may come instead of me and the members would serve this new leader in the same way they served me. When they do this I would probably feel sad or lonely. I don’t know how you would feel in this situation, but I would feel lonely because my heart still desires the members to love me more than their new leader.

How should I respond in this situation? If I had served the members more than their new leader, I wouldn’t feel this way. The reason why I feel lonely or sad is because I wasn’t able to serve the members more than the new leader. Don’t you think so? Even when you served a lot you may still feel lonely. That is natural. If you have a lonely or sad feeling when you go to another mission, you should invest more into your new mission than in your previous one, because this feeling is a sign that you did not do enough. So, whenever a new leader comes to replace you, you must really invest a lot into your new mission. Try to understand the situation in this way.

I learned that feeling lonely or sad is a sign of not having done enough. I realized this point through observing Father. Also, you are all in a leadership position, so you must always serve in your new mission more than in your previous one, because you must develop.

Both the new leader and the members receiving the new leader must serve more than before. The members must repent that they did not serve their former leader enough and try to serve the new leader better. The new leader must repent that he could not serve the members in his previous mission enough, and then try to serve the members in his new mission better.

The reason why I am talking about this is because I to tell you about Father’s attitude. You know, Faither invested so much for the sake of our members, but members left the church, Father maintained an unchanging heart of love towards them. He continued to invest and serve even more. Not only this, he felt the members had left the church because he hadn’t done enough for them. Father thought like this. Therefore, whenever a new member joins, Father really tries to invest more for this person than he did for those who left. When a member leaves the church, we have to serve new member who comes in his place more than the person who left. This means that we symbolically continue serve the ones who left.

I mentioned before that there are some songs in our Holy Song book that were written by a member who is no longer in our church. Father loves these Holy Songs even more than the person who wrote them. If you would ask these songs whom they would like to be owned by, they would surely answer that they

would like to be owned by the person who loves them the most. These songs were originally written by member A, but since Father loves these songs more than member A, they become Father’s songs. All things want to be possessed by the person with the greatest love. Let us not forget that the reason why we could come here and remain here is because of heart and love of God and True Parents. Let us not forget this.

As you know, Adam and Eve broke their promise to God, but since God is an eternal God, their promise was also eternal. Even though man broke this eternal promise, God kept it throughout eternity.

Whenever there is an absolute plus, a minus appears automatically.

So the reason why mankind still remains on earth and has not been destroyed is because God, as the absolute plus, remains for eternity keeping His promise. Even though the first Adam was lost, since God kept His promise, He could find a second Adam and a third Adam. These Adam figures may be different individuals, but as the first ancestors of mankind their position is the same. So, the first, second and third Adam are not different, but one. For the third Adam to stand as third Adam, he has to restore the failures of the first and second Adam. He must restore their mistakes and take responsibility for them. This shows that everything is interrelated.

Let’s take the example of a city. The first missionary was sent there to restore the city. Then the second was sent and the third. Maybe you are now the tenth generation of missionaries. However, when we consider the restoration of this city, these missionaries are like one person, because when they are all united the restoration of the city can be realized. So, although the names are different, they are like one person. Thus, the person who is now responsible for the city inherits everything from the previous missionaries. Therefore, he must carry the previous missionaries’ good and bad results on his shoulders. If he were to blame the previous leaders and not take responsibility for the problems of the past, he would only be considering the perfection stage without the formation and growth stage. There is no growth stage without a formation stage and no perfection stage without a growth stage. These three stages are one, united.

Therefore, let us really understand the heart of our True Parents who want to be proud of us before the whole world and before God. Let us not betray Father’s desire and Father’s heart.

During the next five days I want you to really determine yourselves to become such people. I want you to use this time to achieve this goal. I would like to conclude my talk with this.

Curated by Antonio Ciacciarelli