A daily life that resembles the heavens 空に似た日常

(61.2.12) For those who would become victors, every circumstance and condition that comes against them is not one that cooperates but one that opposes. Therefore, no matter what difficulty comes, your heart at least must not waver and must not change. A victory won without conviction is a victory won by chance. You must have a victorious heart burning with faith. Until you have overcome every trial, you cannot wear the laurel wreath of victory.

(63.10.18) A leader should wish to feed and clothe his subordinates better than himself; yet when the moment is urgent, he must send them forth even down a miserable road. Today, as I saw the members walking this path, my heart ached—but the more it aches, the more I feel the earnest desire to realize the ideal of one heavenly world as quickly as possible, even by driving them onward. I remember the days long ago when I was in prison as a convict. Victory can be won only through tears, blood, and sweat. Whenever we work resolved to die, Heaven opens a way for us to live.

(70.5.24) The path of indemnity must involve the expending of oneself. How much time have you spent, and how much have you expended of your very self? This is what decides whether or not the conditions of indemnity are removed. Seen this way, the path of faith is the path of sacrifice. In other words, it is the path of investing everything that could make you happy. You must pay the price of sacrifice centered on the whole and of sacrifice centered on yourself. The longer that time, and the greater the amount of your own sacrifice, the more you can settle the accounts—this is a just principle.

True Mother has now spent ten months in prison. Those ten months are no different from the ten months in which a mother conceives a child and carries it to birth. True Mother, in a body that can scarcely bear it, is even now enduring the most severe pangs of labor.

If we compare it with Father’s time in Heungnam Prison, which suffering was greater—spiritual and physical? Both were situations at the very limit. Father, too, was arrested by a communist political trial, on the accusation of established churches and on a charge of being a spy for the South. True Father labored for two years and eight months in Heungnam Prison, under extreme conditions beyond imagination. In a situation where he could only have died, he came out alive by a hair’s breadth through the advance of the UN forces. His liberation was not by human power. There was True Father’s own portion of responsibility, and the devotion of his parents and a few members, but it was almost entirely God who helped. The trials of the communist regime at that time were merely a formal procedure to keep up appearances. The regime intended to execute not only Father but all the religious people and prisoners. In those urgent moments where life and death crossed, God, to rescue True Father, collapsed the prison wall through the UN bombing of Heungnam at dawn on October 14, 1950. True Father has said that he walked out through the fallen prison wall. That is why True Father called the Korean War a holy war—because it was a war that rescued the returning Messiah.

True Mother’s trial, too, is a political trial. It has gone beyond the bounds of a judicial trial.

The legal schedule ahead is as follows. On Friday, July 10, 2026, the final hearing (closing arguments) will take place. At the final hearing, the special prosecutor reads out all the charges and then requests a sentence. After that, the defense counsel argues on True Mother’s behalf, and finally True Mother gives her closing statement. Then the three judges, after a preparation period of about two to four weeks, are expected to hand down the first-instance verdict of the Seoul District Court around August 12. This, however, is not yet a final ruling. Whether it is our side or the prosecution, if either is dissatisfied it will appeal to the High Court, and if still not satisfied, appeal to the Supreme Court.

So, within seven days there is an appeal to the High Court (taking four to eight months) and an appeal to the Supreme Court (three to six months, to judge whether there is any legal flaw), and the sentence is finalized as acquittal, a fine, or a guilty verdict. If the sentence is three years or less, a suspended sentence may also be possible depending on the situation. Even so, while activity within the country would be free, leaving the country would require special permission—so it would not be complete freedom.

Then, does Heavenly Parent know all of how True Mother will fare from here on? In truth, even God does not know. If God knew everything, there would be no reason for Him to be in pain, to be tense, or to grieve. Precisely because even God does not know, His heart is on edge.

God is almighty and is determined to accomplish His will without fail; yet the realm of the human ‘portion of responsibility’ He entrusted to human free will. Therefore, whether we complete our responsibility and are victorious, or fail and prolong the providence, is by no means something God has fixed in advance—it depends solely on whether or not human beings fulfill their portion of responsibility.

In fact, if it went by a purely judicial trial, we could predict to some degree what verdict would come. The law goes by legal standards, so it is not swayed by the mood or winds of the world. But a political trial is different. In Japan, too, had it been a judicial trial, it was a matter of civil law and there would have been no way to dissolve the church. Yet because the government brought a political trial that followed the emotions of the public, it was dissolved. So whatever result may come, we must hold an absolute faith that does not collapse—the faith of Heavenly Parent and True Parents, who overcame suffering with patience and hope—and go forward looking far ahead.

Suffering is not only a bad thing. We often think of suffering and glory as opposites. But suffering and glory are to be seen as one set. At the Olympics, is the gold medal simply handed over? It is given only after passing through suffering so severe it feels like death—training called hell. As the saying goes, ‘misfortune turned into blessing,’ once misfortune rolls around, it can turn into blessing. Good and bad are one set; blessing and misfortune are one set; glory and suffering are one set.

That is why it is called restoration through indemnity. We speak of restoring through indemnity, but in truth there are more people who fail to restore and perish. If you receive indemnity while complaining and giving up, you perish. This does not mean that, though anyone would feel wronged to bear the price of sin without having sinned, you should simply submit and give thanks. It means that even when you cannot see the way ahead right now, you should hold on to hope and endure. For if we moved holding Heavenly Parent’s dream and the key to humanity’s salvation, and committed no sin, then Heavenly Parent is with us at every moment.

Yet many people of faith, while believing that God did everything in the creation of the world and the history of the Bible, cannot hold the belief that God is with them even now. Surprisingly many believers are like this. For example, we say that soccer is played with the feet. But when you kick the ball with your foot, do your hands stay still? The whole body moves together. More fundamentally, the unseen mind works ceaselessly to play soccer better. The foot kicking the ball is only the visible phenomenon; most of that work is the unseen mind deciding and commanding moment by moment. In the same way, God is merely unseen; He is deeply involved in every area of human life. The one way God differs from soccer is that He gave human beings absolute free will and a portion of responsibility, so He cannot do everything as He pleases. That is why it is a living history in which both God and human beings are in suspense. No one knows how it will turn out. That is why it is sorrowful, and that is why it is also thrilling. The history of humanity’s restoration is a vivid history we all create together. Therefore we must always stay alert and take responsibility.

(March 8, 2026—words from Mother in prison to the Japanese members after the dissolution of the Family Federation in Japan)

“Beloved Japanese members, take heart. Heaven is surely alive and is working even now. When you look with the eyes of faith, Heaven is by no means silent. Throughout the long 6,000 years of human history and providence, Heaven has ceaselessly led the course, and even in this very moment is working to fulfill His will toward His beloved children. In the end, the dream of Heavenly Parent will surely be realized.”

This is what True Parents are saying to me. Anyone who fully trusts the God who is alive and working here and now will not be shaken, whatever the outcome of the trial may be. For though Heavenly Parent cannot decide how it will unravel, He will surely accomplish His will.

Then why is it that spiritually sensitive people receive revelations in dreams and even prophesy how things will turn out? It is because, once the judge decides the verdict, the spirit world learns the result only then and may inform a spiritually sensitive person of it in advance through a dream or vision. It is not because it was predestined, but because the judges had already decided before the sentencing. And then, if there is an even greater outside pressure, the content of the sentence may still change. Here is one thing that is certain: the conclusion is in the direction of absolute goodness. For Heavenly Parent, as the Absolute Being, must accomplish His will without fail. This is the meaning of the principle that predestination regarding the will is absolute, while predestination regarding human beings is relative.

True Mother is now enduring a prison life almost too hard to bear, upheld by the single dream of Heavenly Parent. That endurance—holding out for ten months—is a living sermon to us. The greatest devotion we can offer True Mother is an unshakable heart of filial piety. Whatever verdict may come, it is to look far ahead, to embrace the will of Heavenly Parent, and, like Heavenly Parent and True Parents, to overcome this suffering with patience and hope.

Suffering and glory are one set. Within this very suffering, God is at work. And at the end of this indemnity of suffering, an astonishing landscape of restoration will surely open. Heaven, though we do not know it, is surely planning through this long and great indemnity we are paying an even greater reversal of misfortune into blessing. The deeper the darkness, the nearer the dawn.

Do not be shaken. We shall surely be victorious. Together with True Mother, within the embrace of Heavenly Parent, we shall surely win. Aju!