1) When Death Is Near

Victory or failure of human life is not decided in a period of decades. It is decided in a moment.

When we look at our own life, the moment of your birth is not a long time. Of course, there is a period you spend in your mother's womb before birth, but that 10-month period in the mother's womb is preparation for a moment of birth. But no matter how well it prepares for ten months, if the baby cannot go through the decisive moment successfully, the baby to be born will face a tragic fate.

The purpose of ceaselessly nurturing the life in a safe condition for ten months is to make the moment of birth successful. In other words, the period in the mother's womb exists for the future moment of birth. No matter how great the period in the mother's womb might be, if there is mistake at the moment of birth, tragic consequences will come about. (31:185)

If someone regrets his past at the fateful moment to end his life on earth, all the facts of his past life will pass through his mind as images. Even if no one explains to him what kind of person he is, he will know it by himself. The life he inherited from his ancestors, the circumstances he has been connected with, the situation he leaves behind, and all the past will appear as images in his mind at the last moment of his life.

If someone says, "There was truth. I have left something more precious than my life," he would leave a valuable moment even though he was born and died on this earth. But there are people who say, "My whole life course from birth to death was merely a period I spent as a passerby," If such a person reflects on all his past situations and feels that he does not want to remember the past, he is a miserable person. But if the more someone reflects on his past, the more joy fills his face, then fear of death is only a moment of comfort for him.

If you think about it, if the moment to reflect on one's past is not a moment of fear and something else remains, this past will not die and this reality will not die. The person with such a past is surely a person the whole nation will follow and the people of the whole world will follow.

Let us think about what kind of situation that is. If his nation had faced unsolvable problems and was in a miserable and cruel time, if he had taken responsibility and tackled those problems to solve them with his whole life it will become an unforgettable moment.

If during one's life course one offered one's life for one's brother, relatives, or other people in the struggle to save them, that fact will appear as an image in one's mind at the last fateful moment. But even though there was a time of happiness centered on himself and a sacred time of being welcomed and glorified by many people, it will not bring effect at that moment.

When we think about whether we were good, became persons of truth, and could stand alone before God, truth and goodness do not begin in ourselves and end in ourselves. Only when they begin in us and bring results in others, or they begin in others and bring results in us, is goodness established. It is the same with all existences in heaven and earth. They have to establish a reciprocal relationship of give and take according to the Principle.

If one's past life is all a life of giving, there will be no fear in the path of death. If one leads a life close to truth, gives everything for others, sacrifices for others, sheds tears for others, invests life for others, desires for others, concentrates all the vitality flowing from his pulse and invests it for others, his past will become a shining one.

When one longs for such a past and thinks about the nation, he will come to the conclusion that the nation of hope is such a nation. When he comes to miss such a past, he sacrifices for others and can make a decision so that the original goodness he hopes for should be in this way. If he goes before God saying, "Since I have a past to fight for it, naturally there has to be a future when it is realized," that content becomes the foundation of his eternal life. You should know this.

The path of saints and the path of ordinary people are different. Saints are those who tried to live for history, the world, and the future. Ordinary people are those who tried to live for themselves and tried to make the world serve themselves.

When ordinary people think about their past it is dark, but when saints think about their past it is bright. What is that brightness? It is not for themselves but something that can bring about the nation of hope. If there is the Heavenly Kingdom of hope, that kingdom has to be started by them.

When you plan your own path in this realm of the fall with an apparently severe environment, you will draw your own life courses for one year or ten years, and anticipate ups and downs, saying you will go this way one year, that way next year, this way in ten years, and that way in the next ten years. If one experiences ups and downs centered on himself, when he comes to meet his final destiny all his records of sacrificing others for himself will bind him and render him immobile. (31:308)

Have you ever once thought about how you will go at the age of 70? Have you ever thought, "I will go this way even when I turn 80 and am about to die"? (Yes.) Even when you die, you have to be able to present proof, saying, "I have revealed the history in this way, and done these things in this age. I can do those things in the future, but I am dying. So, I want you to do this on my behalf."

You should not say this just with words. It shouldn't be just words. Go ahead and die. (Laughter.) After such a person died, people should cling to him, saying with tears, "That is right. That is right." Can you do that? (Yes.) (73:116)