True Parents are the true parents whom all humankind must seek out. The existence of True Parents makes it possible for true goodness to be established. So what kind of people are True Parents? They are the ones who act as a kind of foothold enabling you to go with the Father. True Parents are the ones who stand as a kind of sacrifice. They are a sacrifice. In other words, the True Parents form a sacrificial altar that fills the gap between God and humanity. They form a bridge that crosses over the world of death.

Seen from this perspective, that position is where you can be with God. It is the focal point that makes it possible for you to be together with God in the bond of parent and child, and form a complete unity with Him. That is, humankind can become one with God for the first time since being separated from him as a result of the Fall. It is a point of origin whereby two perimeters that became separated from each other as a result of the Fall can converge. Who are the ones who stand in the position of the indemnity sacrifice? It is True Parents.

Suppose there were a place where we could go and call on God in times of desperation and have Him put aside all that has happened during the past thousands of years and come forward so that we could form a relationship with Him. Such a place would be so valuable to us that we would not exchange it for anything in the world.

What is the bond that our Father has sent us so that we who are in need of salvation can be with Him, so that the humanity that is not qualified to be in the company of the Father can form a relationship with Him in relaxed surroundings? It is the bond of the True Parents.

How, then, are we to give thanks for this glory by which the bond of the True Parents has been given to us unconditionally? How much gratitude have you returned to God? In response to the grace by which you are now able to receive salvation, how much have you considered that you have been given the opportunity to be jubilant and take a vow of victory before heaven and earth? How much have you realized that you are making a new start with unlimited hope and eternal values? This is the problem.

What about the Father, then? God our Father has had the earnest desire throughout history to find His sons and daughters, and He knows that this desire can be brought to reality through True Parents who come to earth. Because of this, He has longed for True Parents tremendously! I'd like you to compare the two standards of longing-that by the Father and that by you who are in the world of death and long to be saved from it. Normally, you would think that we, as opposed to the Father, would place greater importance on the True Parents, think of them more specially, and place greater value on them. Until now, though, this has not been the case. When we consider that this is how it has been with us, we must reflect with contrition.

In the same way that humanity has looked forward to achieving the position where we can be with God, establish a bond with Him, and stand face to face with Him, so has God looked forward to being in that position with us. Each of you must be able to say: "I will achieve such a position; I will lay the foundation for such a victory." The important thing is how strongly you have determined that you will overcome any difficulties no matter how great, that you will view this position as a turning point that determines all the values in your life, and that you will make this bond your primary motivating force. Considered from this aspect, we need to realize how fraudulent our attitude of faith has been. We need to see how much we have failed to establish our own positions, but instead have wandered as aimlessly as the wind.

If we ask ourselves whether we are qualified to be with the Father, whether we are people whom the Father can be with, the answer is "no." We are in need of a savior. Then, what kind of person is this savior? He is the person who substantiates the bond of True Parents. From this perspective, then, you understand how extraordinary is the bond of True Parents. Because of True Parents, I am able to begin a true life, and undertake a relationship of new life. You must realize again that because of this relationship of life, your are able to initiate a new family. You can initiate a new society, nation and world. Also, the essential factors for the victory to resolve all the paths of life and death of the past two thousand years originate from the True Parents.

There is no "self" there. God is not the one who must travel a suffering path in order to save the fallen world. God does not have to deal with the fallen world. Instead, God comes forward with a new bond of love. He comes to us with new hope and a new foundation for restoration. These are the circumstances in which the bond between God and you is formed.

It is a bond by which the four points of the compass can be brought into oneness, and it is linked at one point of origin so that it can blow apart the world of death and establish the foundation for a new cosmos of glory. The world is able to make a new start as a result of the bond between parent and child being put into practice.

No sword or temporal power can break the bond between you and the True Parents. Even the power of Satan will not break it. Why? It is because this bond possesses the special authority to break through all of today's problems and bring salvation to humankind, and because the power that humanity has sought to find throughout history has been concentrated in this bond. Thus, a power concentration of any particular age will not be strong enough to break this relationship, where the power of history has been concentrated. In this way, the True Parents are people whom God has set forth as historical sacrifices for the purpose of doing away with all evil and making a new, victorious beginning based on a new bond.

I'm sure that in your prayers you have called on the Father just as if you had already arrived in Heaven. In the same way that the Father is in a serious position and miserable circumstances, however, you also should be in a serious position and miserable circumstances. you should say: "Father, no matter what sadness or difficulty I may face, You don't need to worry about me." In this way, you should do your duty as a child and comfort God. Unless one person appears on this earth who can do that, there will never be a way to resolve the historical problems.

Even if we should find ourselves in extremely difficult circumstances, we should not stand before God and hope to receive His sympathy. Instead, we should stand in a position to give sympathy to God. Jesus was the crystallization of all the elements that were carefully accumulated through history in the context of this bond. Because Jesus was blocked from completing the Will of God, however, the coming Lord must fulfill this Will. The coming Lord must go the course of True Parents. The True Parents are the concentration of all the fervent hopes of history. God has set forth the True Parents to represent the whole and as the condition of the substantiation of history. The bond with True Parents cannot begin in spirit world. It must be formed on earth. This is because the True Parents come to earth in substantial form. It is because they have substantial form that the True Parents can answer when you call on them, and give you sympathy when you are in difficulty. You cannot imagine how blessed humankind is that it can meet True Parents on a level plane.

Until now, God has worked to overcome all the difficulties that might be faced in a particular historical age in an effort to achieve decisive victory centering on the content I have just described.

When you look at yourself, however, there is the issue of whether you can become the king of victory or not. You have to be able to say that you have become one with that heart and have become completely inseparable from it. In other words, the pivotal axis of your life has to be the conviction that you are with the Father and that you are together with the True Parents. Only if each of you becomes the self that can continue on the same course for thousands, even tens of thousands of years will a linkage be established between the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world. This means that you will be the master of Heaven and the master of earth. Then, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world will be opened up for the first time.

From this perspective, such a bond is not something that can be formed in a position of comfort. It is formed in a position of extreme difficulty; a position so serious that it could not possibly be any more serious; a position where life and death are on the line; a position where there is an increased level of risk.

That is why if we look at the Bible it says: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it." Jesus sounds as though he is saying something out of tune with the times, but this is the normal approach and attitude for going the way of restoration and for progressing through the world of heart. It is clear that each person is the self who must strive to achieve such a state, and that that path will be the true course. (31-74)