Look at religions. Christianity merely talks about love. Christianity talks about "God's love," but what after all is God's love? What is it? What is love? Love is love... (laughter)

Along with Christianity, Buddhists also talk about mercy. Everyone talks about love. No religion can be a reasonable religion without being centered on love. None can be a world religion. If a religion is centered on love, it calls for sacrifice if a higher love is to be emphasized. You must understand that to illuminate the path of love, to lift up the love connections, you must choose the path of sacrifice.

But why so? Why emphasize sacrifice? Why emphasize sacrifice, you ask? There are several reasons. The first is the very contradiction that our body represents. What is the contradiction between mind and body? There is a difference between mind and body. For the body resents sacrifice, resents humble submission, resents obedience.

So, we must destroy one or the other. We must use force to weaken this contradiction and establish a foundation to unite mind and body. Do you understand? [Yes.] Why do all religions emphasize sacrifice and humble submission? Because that's one of the ways to enter the world of faith and love. This makes the unity of mind and body possible and this possibility opens up the way to greater love, true love. We can find the theoretical basis for this assertion. (94-279)

Who is the center of the Unification Church? [True Parents.] What is the center the parents? [God.] What is the center of God? The center of God is love. Who is the center of love? It's sacrifice which makes love grow. It's like this. Is there love without sacrifice? Where there is love, there is sacrifice. For this the center of the Unification Church is the teacher. The center of the teacher is God. What is the center of God? It's love. What is the center of love? It's sacrifice. There is no love without sacrifice. (56-340)

What can outlive us in history as our legacy? Only the spirit of sacrifice can outlive our fallen world. Look around. Is it or is it not true? Don't you see? Only those who sacrifice become saints, historical figures, and great statesmen. Only in sacrifice does our achievement survive. Only in sacrifice do we leave our legacy. What, then, do we give to others in sacrifice? We re-create as God sacrificed himself in the act of Creation. As God created me in his original act of Creation, I re-create myself for the second act of creation. The act of re-creation is an act of remission, a remission through the act of re-creation, and therefore sacrifice is the inevitable element in this sacrificial act of re-creation. (82-240)

Therefore, all historical prophets have borne their sacrificial burdens and have been persecuted. That's historical fact. Why so? Because of our fallen world. The fallen world's master is not a loving God, but his nemesis, Satan the devil.

The prophet comes to this world to destroy Satan's kingdom, and therefore Satan does everything to cut the prophet's head off. This is the law of the wicked world that has martyred many of the religious faithful through the hands of Satan. We are familiar with the many tragic ways this has taken place. Is death the end of it all? By no means. As long as there is God, there is payment for wickedness. Indemnity requires three times, seven times, a hundred and twenty times, one thousand two hundred times for the price of each martyr persecuted.

Depending on the bitterness of persecution, the payment intensifies accordingly. That's the law. So, bitterly martyred sacrifices thus bring back much greater indemnities. In the Unification Church, for convenience, we use the term indemnity for remission. Therefore, good people who choose the right way always face sacrifice. That's why we teach sacrifice. To say "live for others" means to "sacrifice for others." Is there any profit? It's sacrifice. It's our investment. How much should we invest? Invest all you can and all you have, that's how much. I would say, even including your own life. (78-61)