Hello, everyone. (During the service, a member began purifying and Masaaki-sama touched upon it.) Is the person, just now, all right? (From the staff, yes.) So the weather today, well, now it has cleared, but earlier this morning, it was raining somewhat. Anyhow, the rainy season ended unusually early this year. With a water shortage, people were wondering if crops would grow or if there would be enough water. But later, although some areas did not get rain, a lot fell over the whole country, didn’t it? In this case, the way we see it, we may say to God, “Can’t You do a little better?” (everyone laughs) We may hold the view that this is inharmonious and may think, “Why can’t God extend the rainy season to the normal length? And rather than extreme rainfall, have it fall in a nice, balanced way?” (everyone laughs) But actually, for God, He says, “No, no. This is harmonious.” There is a Sacred Word entitled “Theory on harmony,” and there, Meishu-sama says that what seems to be inharmonious to human eyes is totally harmonious to God—it is perfect harmony. To view something as inharmonious is shojo (narrow-minded), and to view it as harmonious is daijo (broad-minded). So what looks inharmonious to us at one glance is actually necessary to God. He is making the situation just right and well-balanced for us. This is not only for the weather of course, but also for human relationships or our bodies—there are many things that appear to be inharmonious. Difficulties with neighbors. Not getting along with siblings. Issues with the body. Like so, there are many situations that look inharmonious, aren’t there? As for myself, this summer, what seemed like a rash broke out on my hands and feet as well as a little on my neck. It was quite considerable, but now, it has started to calm down little by little. In these cases, it first seems inharmonious to us. We wish to make it stop right away. But from God’s point of view, it is harmonious, actually. Physically speaking, a rash means that God is trying to rid of unclean blood. And Meishu-sama is also of the thinking that it is good for those things to come out. So a rash is a good thing, right? On one hand, we want it to stop, but on the other hand, sure enough, if there is something unclean, it has to leave the body. Looking at this through the standpoint of religion, we would say something like “we are being purified.” In my case, the rash appeared mainly on my hands and feet, and I was thinking about what it could mean. I came to the thought that hands and feet are the extremities, the end parts, of the human body. The “extremities” to God, that is, the very end of His creation, is the heart of a human being. So in order to receive God, for my heart to become a more suitable one to receive God, God is purifying me right now. This is how I accepted my rash. What is more, all kinds of thoughts and feelings well up within us from matters having to do with our bodies or our relationships with neighbors, etc., right? Wanting to be healed quickly or wondering if an illness will continue forever or doubting whether our complicated human relationships will ever get better—these kinds of thoughts and feelings well up within us, don’t they? But actually, it is in these ways that God gathers all sorts of human thoughts and feelings into each and every one of our hearts and minds and uses us for the purpose of salvation. Now, through my own rash, I have been thinking about it like that. Now then, there is this matter regarding the content of my messages for these services. Under the permission of Kyoshu-sama and under his authority, I am now able to see all of you at grand services and monthly services in this form, extremely frequently (everyone laughs)—I mean, I am very happy about it. But at the same time, there is the question of what I will be speaking about. As my state of mind, sometimes I think, “This time, I want to talk about this, this, this and this.” At other times, there is nothing. Even as the service nears, nothing. (everyone laughs) I have these kinds of moments too. But in the end, mysteriously enough, as the service approaches, regardless of whether I am thinking about something or not, through various things—things that happen in my daily life when I’m with family or hearing various reports about the movements within the Church or things going on in society, what’s going on in my own body of course, these and a host of other matters—from here, a direction of my speech is formed. Sure enough sometimes I am made to go in a direction that I had not intended, that I had not been thinking about. This kind of thing happens too. Then I feel, “Perhaps through me, Meishu-sama and Kyoshu-sama want to convey these matters to everyone.” So rather than feeling like I am speaking to all of you one-sidedly, I feel more like with my messages, “I must receive these matters as God and Meishu-sama’s will, together with all the members.” Although of course in form, there is someone who speaks and there is someone who listens. Well, of course, this is about the general outline of my talk, and on the actual day as I look at all of you who are listening, there are times I feel I should say a little bit more about such-and-such. Don’t worry, I am not looking that hard. (everyone laughs) It’s just that while I am looking at you, when I sense something, I convey it to you. This kind of thing happens too. In the end, as we are under the leadership of Kyoshu-sama, Meishu-sama’s direction is being revealed to us, and we are able to receive that together at opportunities like these. Were we not under the leadership of Kyoshu-sama, we would be scratching our heads in wonder, trying to understand the whole time. But the path of faith, the path of God, is not about studying hard. With only that, it would be rather difficult. As we are under the leadership of Kyoshu-sama, Meishu-sama is revealing to all of us which way we should go next. This is what I think. In thinking about these kinds of things, what I would like to talk about to all of you today is receiving or accepting. To receive or accept. We often talk about receiving or accepting, don’t we? And when we say receive or accept, the subject matter of what we receive could be many things, right? One of the first things we talk about receiving is Kyoshu-sama’s messages. There is also purification. When a purification comes, like a physical illness or other kinds of difficulties, we may say, “I received and accept this purification.” Or for a more concrete example, when we receive specific instructions from our superior, we may say, “Received and accepted. I will take it up.” If we think about it this way, when we say “receive,” what we receive can be plenty. It is countless for each person. But ultimately, through these matters, what is it that we are receiving? In those countless things, there must be something that runs through all of them. There are many Kyoshu-sama’s messages. Every day, all kinds of issues arise. And we say we receive them. If we put every single thing that we receive on a list, that list would be really long. But I say there is something that is running through all of them. And what is it? For us, it is of course Meishu-sama’s will that is conveyed through Kyoshu-sama. In one word, it is Meishu-sama, right? We receive Meishu-sama. We receive this and that, but to put it simply, we are receiving Meishu-sama. Kyoshu-sama’s messages—we receive this as Meishu-sama. Purification too—we receive this as Meishu-sama, a blessing from Meishu-sama. But when I say Meishu-sama, concretely speaking, it is the Meishu-sama who was born anew as the Messiah. What I believe to be really important here is child of God. It is true that Meishu-sama does not use the exact phrase “child of God,” but he does use “born anew,” so there is definitely someone who bore him. There is no doubt that this someone exists, the one who bore Meishu-sama. There is no one else it could be but God, right? So Meishu-sama’s last message was “to be born anew as a child of God, Messiah.” What’s more, Meishu-sama said that it is not reincarnation. Rather, he was born anew, right? In reincarnation, you have to die first and then reincarnation can happen—as Meishu-sama wrote, “You are born and you will die one day. Then you will be born again and you will die again. This way, your life continues for eternity through reincarnation.” But Meishu-sama was alive. It was while he was alive that he said he was born anew. Which means, as we are alive right now, each and every one of us too, while we have life in this world and even when we leave this world, we can forever receive “to be born anew as a child of God, Messiah”—this, is to receive Meishu-sama. Whatever happens within our lives, you can receive it and say, “I receive the path to be born anew as a child of God, Messiah.” This is regardless of what happens. I can put it even more simply. It is God’s will that all of us become His children. So while there are many things that we could receive, what exactly do we receive? In one phrase, we can say, “I receive God’s will.” It all comes down to this, this one point. No matter what happens, “I will receive this as God’s will.” In response, we might think something like “I understand this in theory.” Well, there is a point to this receiving. I’d like to explain what I mean. For example, a birthday present. There are times when we receive a birthday present. Let’s say you receive something really expensive from someone and to receive the giver’s feelings, you say, “Ohhh, thank you! This must have been so expensive!” The expense is not the point here, although sometimes it is. (everyone laughs) Or there is this kind of instance: “This person went all the way over there and bought me this very precious gift.” We are thankful for that effort. When it comes down to it, before buying a gift, before actually doing something, there is a moment the person thinks, “Oh, I am going to buy that for this person.” The moment before doing anything. For someone important like your friend, there is the moment the person thinks, “I’m going to that place to buy something for this person.” It might be when they are at home or somewhere else, but there is this moment they have that thought. So when we receive the birthday present, aren’t we actually happy that there was a moment the person thought about us? Although there might be some people who are even happier if it’s an expensive present. (everyone laughs) Like so, when we say “thank you” to that person for thinking about us, that person will feel that we have received their sentiments. So the feelings of the friend and our own feelings become one, right? If not, we will end up saying, “Couldn’t you have bought something more expensive?” or “I don’t like this” or “I wanted the one from the other store, not this one.” (everyone laughs) When it comes down to it, it is about that thought and feeling. “This person thought about me” is what we are thankful for. God is the same way. At the time when nothing existed, when there was nothing, God thought about us. What does this mean exactly? As Kyoshu-sama says, God’s creation first began in heaven where He bore us, and then through us, He prepared all creation. But with this, God has already moved into concrete action, right? As in the example I gave a moment ago, it was like the stage that you go somewhere to buy a birthday present. But, just like the example, there was a stage before starting anything. A time when there was nothing. A time when, really, no one existed. A time when God was the only, sole being. This time used to exist, everyone! There was this time that God thought, “I will not continue to live alone. I will create children in My own likeness, and together with these children, I want to live in a world filled with joy, this joy of being a wonderful family.” After God thought this in the time that nothing existed, then all creation began. Every single creation began from that thought of God, from the thought that God had when He was all alone. Thinking about it this way, isn’t this just so humbling? Now then, how did God’s creation progress after that? As Kyoshu-sama says, God first prepared heaven, and there, He then bore numerous souls. And the first would be Jesus—He chose one to be Jesus. In that process, He chose another to be Meishu-sama. But know that between Jesus and us or between Meishu-sama and us, there is no “who is higher” or “who is lower.” There is a difference in roles, but we are all children of God. After that, through us, souls of God, He created the entire universe including the earth, that is, the world of matter. This seems like a fantastical story, doesn’t it? That’s because it is something related to heaven, a world that is not visible. So it is hard to understand if we don’t use our imaginations a little. What I believe to be important here is Meishu-sama’s Sacred Word “The plan of God.” He speaks about the time when Zuiun-kyo Sacred Grounds in Atami was being constructed, and it is the way he speaks. In that famous Sacred Word, he says the phrase, “When I was god in the earliest of eras.” He said it in this way: “This must be something I myself designed when I was god in the earliest of eras, planning for the future.” Right now, I am citing this accurately. Meishu-sama said it in this way. When we hear this, we are inclined to think, wow, Meishu-sama was god in the earliest of eras! But when he said, “This must be something I myself designed when I was god in the earliest of eras, planning for the future,” I think what is important here is that he used “must be.” I believe this “must be” is the keyword. I mean, if he said, “This is something I designed,” we would end with “Oh wow! That’s wonderful!” But for Meishu-sama to say “must be” means that he did not have first-hand experience of it, but he believed it surely was such, that it must have been true. So when Meishu-sama thought, “What a wonderful view [from Zuiun-kyo],” he was thinking, “But in actuality, if I had received God’s soul in heaven and had been one with Him long, long ago, then it means that I too must have designed this together with God.” So I think the meaning of this phrase “must be” is huge. The point is, he is implying God’s own position within himself. He is saying, “When I was god in the earliest of eras, I must have designed this.” So we too, on this earth, when we look at a wonderful view, you can either think that you have nothing to do with its creation, or you can think, ah, actually, in the earliest of eras when I was one with God, when I was god, I must have designed this together with God. It’s hard to flat-out say, “I designed this,” isn’t it? I mean, we have no memory of this time, right? Meishu-sama didn’t remember either. Otherwise, why would he have used the phrase “must be”? So it means Meishu-sama believed that long, long ago, he was one with God, and at that time, he created this earth together with God. Then us too, should we simply not believe because we don’t remember? How should we go about it? Meishu-sama’s way of thinking is based on his belief that God’s position exists within himself; the premise that “Long, long ago, when I was a soul of God, I created this material world together with God. I was that kind of existence.” So we too, can think this. On a somewhat similar subject, do you remember Meishu-sama’s Sacred Word from the Grand Ceremony to Celebrate the Birth of the Messiah? If there are those who do not know of it, you can find it in Glory, etc. (For English, please refer to our media sites.) It was a question asked to Meishu-sama about ken-shin-jitsu, knowing the truth. The question was can anyone reach ken-shin-jitsu if their faith is deep enough. Meishu-sama first says no way, absolutely not. Only one person in thousands, tens of thousands of years is chosen to reach it. But after that, he says that it will be soon enough. There are evil spirits now. But in the world of Miroku, ken-shin-jitsu will no longer exist. For everyone will be able to know the truth. How you understand this Sacred Word is the key. Will you receive his first “absolutely not,” thinking, “Ah, then it’s impossible”? Or will you receive the last half of his Sacred Word? For Meishu-sama to say that ken-shin-jitsu will no longer exist, that everyone will be able to know the truth, means that ultimately, everyone can reach Meishu-sama’s level, the exact same level. Ken-shin-jitsu will no longer exist. What could this mean? It means that God is truth itself, and not only that, God is our true form. So it’s already set that anyone can come to know the truth. That’s what this Sacred Word is saying. (Postscript: Then why did Meishu-sama say “No way. Absolutely not. Only one person in thousands, no, tens of thousands of years is chosen to reach that level”? That is because if we hear we can reach ken-shin-jitsu, some, depending on the person, may get conceited and think they have reached that level solely out of self-interest. For that not to happen, I believe he phrased it in such a way to caution us: It is absolutely impossible to reach ken-shin-jitsu with human intelligence or ability. Unless one is chosen by God, that is, unless they have God’s permission, it is impossible for people to recall the position of God within themselves.) So as I mentioned, we were first given birth to in heaven, and as it says in Meishu-sama’s Sacred Word “The plan of God,” we created this earth together with God, with the intention to create a wonderful world. And as Meishu-sama was god in the earliest of eras and later came down to this world, we too came down to this world. But for many years, humanity has been one where once we came down to this earth, we forgot where we came from, we thought “Does God even exist?” and committed sin against God. We also committed all kinds of worldly sins here and became impure existences that simply could not return to that pure place called heaven. But then, what mercy, God said that the Lord of Atonement—the perfect expression, if I may say so—Jesus, would atone for our sins, purify us and make us into ones who could return to the world where we were gods, in the earliest of eras. So Jesus was raised on the cross, but the story didn’t end there. Two thousand years later came Meishu-sama. But to suit our own human convenience, we even distorted Meishu-sama’s will. And today, this time, Kyoshu-sama came and showed us the return path, that is, how to go back home. And it would be this time that we would try to respond to the love of God who wants to welcome all of humanity into heaven and become a wonderful family. This is the phase that we are in now. So what God was thinking about when He was all alone is everything I just mentioned here. When God was the only One who existed, He had already planned everything I just mentioned up until Kyoshu-sama. God is not a haphazard kind of being that will say, “Oh no! Humans have committed sin!” or “I have to do something to purify them” after sending humans to this world. From the time that He planned to create human beings, He already knew that humans would turn their backs on Him and commit sin. This is from the very beginning, when He was all alone. At the time, at the very beginning, He decided all of this: “I will create children, but at one point they will drift away from Me. They will leave Me, but I will purify them and welcome them back in, then create a wonderful world.” Only then, it was only then, did He start the very first glimmer of creation, right there. So in the Bible passage we heard today, it said “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), right? This Word is “Messiah.” Everything is in that Word: “I will bear you. You will leave Me, but I will forgive you and welcome you back in, and we will live together again in a wonderful world.” This is all within that very first Word. I mean, although it says “In the beginning was the Word,” words come with thoughts, right? And don’t the thoughts come first? God decided everything when there was truly nothing. It was even way before “when I was god in the earliest of eras.” It was also in today’s Sacred Word. Meishu-sama said, “It is nothing other than the program of God that has been determined well before thousands of, no, tens of thousands of years ago.” So it was already determined at that time, right? Well before tens of thousands of years ago, God had already decided everything, didn’t He? This was when, at the very beginning, He was all alone. I wonder if there is any greater love than this. So let’s look at today’s hymn of Meishu-sama: “The plan of God had already been accomplished / So quietly that / It was unseen by anyone.” Meishu-sama says “so quietly.” Quietly, all by Himself, within His thoughts, God’s plan was already accomplished. In that case, there’s no way that anyone could have seen it. I mean, no one was born yet. So before everything began, everything was already accomplished. He thought, “All of you will commit sin, but be purified and come back to Me! Actually, it is already decided that you will come back!” This was already accomplished at the very beginning! “So quietly” is a good expression, isn’t it? You can kind of imagine God being all by Himself. With no children yet, when God was all alone, within His thoughts, everything was accomplished. And within His thoughts, once He decided, “All right, I will accomplish this,” God then began the creation of everything. But then the next hymn says: “Waited for so long You have, O God, / But Your plan is about to be accomplished / Right now!” You might be thinking, “Wait . . . isn’t this contradictory to the first hymn? Wasn’t everything already accomplished?” But it is not a contradiction—to be sure, everything was accomplished within God’s thoughts, but this time, until His own children could receive these thoughts of His, He has had to wait tens of thousands of years. This means that if each one of you receives these thoughts of God right now, then His plan will be accomplished right now. If each one of you says to God now, “The plan that You had accomplished long, long ago, is what You are also trying to accomplish within me now,” then right now, for the first time, God’s thoughts and our thoughts, the thoughts of us His children who receive His thoughts, will become one. Just a moment ago, I brought up the simple example of the birthday present. If the thoughts of the one who gives and the thoughts of the one who receives do not become one, true joy will not be there. Before giving the present, the giver may feel excited, and the receiver may wonder if they are going to receive something from that person. But when the time to hand over the present finally comes, it should be the most joyful for both parties, shouldn’t it? So that is what is about to be accomplished right now, within each and every one of us. And God has been waiting for that moment for tens of thousands of years. If I were to put what I am talking about into words, it would be in this hymn, “The time will come, everyone, when you will be . . .” —what was it again? (Masaaki-sama is asking the attendees. A voice from the congregation says, “. . . when you will be surprised.”) Ah, that’s right: “The time will come, everyone, / When you will be surprised / By the preciousness, depth and greatness / Of the plan of God.” Thank you, everyone. (everyone laughs) So the time to be surprised has come, now. Meishu-sama said that the time will come when we will be surprised by the preciousness, depth and greatness of God’s plan. Until today, we were wondering what it could be, right? But what I’m talking about right now is not just from the Big Bang that happened some 14 billion years ago. It is the world well before 14 billion years ago, the world when God was the only One in existence. This is about God’s plan that encompasses all of the above. So truly, the time to be surprised has come. Don’t you think this is truly amazing? The next hymn: “It is light. / Oh, it is light / That completely disperses the darkness, / No matter how deep the darkness is!” It says the light completely disperses any kind of darkness—but this is not about the future. “From now on, this amazing light will emerge and disperse the darkness, wow!”—it’s not like that. From the very beginning, the very, very beginning, it was already determined. I mean, it says in the Bible that darkness did not overcome it. The darkness did not overcome the light. In Meishu-sama’s Sacred Word, he says God has already determined that the spiritual world will transform from night to day—the period of night will end, and a wonderful world will come. He says that the world of night will fall and will become the world of day, that the world of day will overcome, and that these were determined in God’s program well before tens of thousands of years ago. He said this, didn’t he? So the light “completely disperses the darkness, no matter how deep the darkness is”—God had already decided this when He was the only One being. He determined that light would overcome darkness, and then He began creation. And of course, it is not only us, but also the spiritual world, our ancestors, who receive this light of salvation, as it says “all souls in the material, mystical and divine worlds” in the next hymn: “The moment you look up to / The light of salvation, / All souls in the material, mystical and divine worlds / Will be bathed in jubilation. / Yes, all of them!” The hymn says “the moment.” And as we don’t exist all on our own, as we live together with our ancestors, the moment we look up to the light of salvation, we can bathe in jubilation—all of us. We have all the souls of the material, mystical and divine worlds within us. And while we say light, if the source of the light is not the very first light of God, it is not salvation. To explain, we have darkness in our hearts, sickness, problems in human relationships and various issues, don’t we? There are certainly all kinds of solutions for these, aren’t there? There are even seemingly perfect, light-like solutions for these problems. But the most powerful light is God’s light, so salvation can only be there. Moreover, this light isn’t something that started coming out mid-way—it is the very first light, everyone. The fundamental, original light. Although I say “original” light, it is from when God just began the work of creation—this is the light that is within all of us. So if we look up to that light together with all the souls in the material, mystical and divine worlds, all of us can bathe in jubilation, no exceptions. The next hymn: “The resolute voices / That extol and praise Your accomplishment, O God, / Resound throughout the whole universe!” This is talking about God’s accomplishment, the deeds that God has done. There are many things, aren’t there? For example, He gave birth to Meishu-sama. He also accomplished this, and He accomplished that—all kinds of matters. But the most precious deed that God accomplished was the thought He had for us when there was nothing—what God thought and felt when there was nothing. To accomplish everything, to forgive and welcome all of humanity into His heaven and with this intention, to begin His creation—this thought that He had, this is the most important accomplishment of God that we should praise. That is where the source of power is if an illness were to heal. And that’s because everything was determined at that time. So what we praise God for is a place that humans cannot enter. I mean, God is the only One there. We can make it to the next part though, that is, the world of heaven, as even heaven is a created world. What we are praising is something that was before heaven was created. The era when God was all alone. If that’s the case, there is nothing we can do but praise Him. The God who is in a place we simply cannot go. We praise His highness, His pureness and His power. If we are to praise God, then it is this God we are to praise. The next hymn reads: “How pitiful are those / Who do not know this teaching / For they are unable to grasp true happiness.” It says “teaching” here, but it means love. God’s love. God’s love comes in the form of teachings. And without God’s happiness, we cannot grasp true happiness, can we? There is what I’m talking about now, and there is what Kyoshu-sama has been guiding us on for a long time, right? Not accepting these kinds of things and instead chasing after the happiness of this world won’t go anywhere, will it? You won’t be able to find your way to true happiness, though you may be able to find just the usual “happiness.” So when you think about it that way, “O God, / When I think about the happiness / Of my being saved, / There is nothing I can do but repay You / With all my body and heart!” Here, Meishu-sama says “my being saved,” so he was saved. So when were we saved? I have been talking about it until now, and everyone, it was in the beginning, in the very beginning, that we were saved in God’s thoughts. Usually, when we think about when we were saved, it would be something along the lines of “Well, it was when that disease was cured. It was in that year, that month, on that day.” But actually, it was at the very beginning that God determined in His thoughts to save everyone and everything—we were already saved at that time. The truth is, there is no bigger blessing than this, everyone. We don’t know what to expect from life in this world. I mean, even Meishu-sama passed away from an illness, the illness of a brain hemorrhage. Even Meishu-sama! This is grave. But I believe that at that time, he never thought, not in the slightest, that he was not saved. Even though he was in pain from the brain hemorrhage, wasn’t he in great joy with the feeling God has saved me? So, going back to the issue of receiving and accepting, it is this one point. Everyone, this first point is the only point. When no one else existed, God was thinking about us, just like the way we think about someone when we want to buy them a birthday present. He thought about creating His own children and wanted to share the utmost happiness with them. He thought that no matter what happens, He would save them, comfort and heal them, welcome them and make them into complete existences. So that is what we need to receive, should you ask. It is that thought of God that we need to receive. And there, a discrepancy usually arises. That is, when we see something erupt, we see the problem through the lens of how it will develop and wish for it to be resolved. Even though we say, “I will receive this problem,” we wonder when it is going to be solved or we hope that it will get better or we worry about what will happen next. And since we are receiving it like that, even though God is telling us, “I have accomplished everything,” we say, “Please God, clear this up one day.” As such, there is always a discrepancy between God’s thoughts and ours. So things never seem quite right. But when something erupts and we say to God, “Ah, You have already prepared the path for all of this to be resolved; You are doing this for the very best outcome,” God will reply, “Now you understand! Good!” and will provide power in abundance. He prepares the path that is necessary for us. So as long as our thoughts and God’s thoughts do not coincide, there will always be something incomplete. Of course, the problem may be resolved with the discrepancy still in place. In that case, we would say, “Ah, great. Thank you, God.” That’s fine as is, but soon, the next problem arises, right? It could be something with your body or something to do with human relationships. So as long as God’s thoughts and our thoughts do not coincide, the underlying issue will never be resolved. And another thing, while it is certainly important to say “I will receive,” there is something that we cannot forget. We can readily say “I will receive this” for things that suit us. (everyone laughs) But God’s creation includes everything, not only the spiritual world but also the physical world, our daily lives too—everything. In that case, there are all kinds of various things that we wouldn’t want to receive, aspects that we don’t want to show before God, hiding them as we live our lives. But, truth be told, God has already forgiven even that posture of ours. We humans are good at picking on people and their weaknesses, but God, on the other hand, is saying, “I can wait until your time comes” or “I can wait until the day you hand over and show those things to Me.” Actually, God is ultimately saying that “I want to be together with you for everything in your daily life.” As such, everything that I have been talking about from the start of my talk—these are all matters of the invisible world. So there are postures within us that want to think, “I don’t understand” and “This is difficult.” I understand this. Now, this is what I believe: this God’s thought at the very beginning is nothing other than love itself. He could have been fine by Himself, but He bore us, even though He didn’t have to. We, however, end up defying Him, and still, He forgives that and welcomes us back to Himself. What is more, Meishu-sama says “all souls in the material, mystical and divine worlds,” that is, God is telling us, “I’ll welcome every single one of you into the world of joy.” It is certainly true that God is saying all kinds of harsh things to us, like the “division of good and evil” and putting pressure on us, right? (everyone laughs) But we went against God, so that’s why it has turned into such harsh expressions. Remember, everyone, God is love. And love cannot be comprehended through logic. If we try to understand it logically even though it is not logical, it leads to “This is hard” or “I can’t understand.” But if you think, “This is about love! Kyoshu-sama’s messages, too, are about love! I want to feel this love!” then you may be able to find a clue within you, one that may lead to knowing God’s truth. I mean all of you have actually been given the position that will allow you to reach ken-shin-jitsu, remember? If you try to understand this logically, it would be difficult. And it’s because this is about love. Having said that, does it mean that since God is love, we don’t have to do anything? It doesn’t mean that. On my end, I intend to muster up all the words I can about God’s love so that all of us can receive it together. The content of today’s Bible passage is a well-known part in the beginning of the Gospel of John and has to do with “to be born anew.” As you just heard, it said that those who believe in his name would be born of God, right? Not of human decision nor of a husband’s will. It was also not of natural descent. “Not of natural descent.” Which is to say, as an example, because I am part of the Okada family and since Meishu-sama was born anew, I will be able to be born anew too—this is not the case, as it is not something that runs in the blood. When it comes to lineage, there are various kinds of examples, right? The Imperial Family or royal families and others. But when it comes to being born as children of God, that does not apply. In the human world, there are separate lineages, each one different. But truth be told, by God’s blood, we are all one. As part of God’s lineage, we are all one family. I mean, our blood has been atoned for, hasn’t it? Atoned for. As Jesus is the Lord of Atonement, our blood was atoned for by the blood of Jesus. This means that the blood running through our bodies has been purified, and what runs through each and every one of us right now is God’s golden blood. In that sense, we are all family. We are family united by God’s blood, by God’s golden blood. If we are of God’s lineage, then we can of course be born anew. And since our blood has already become God’s golden blood, it is purifying the many people within us that need to be saved. So our bodies are going through various things right now, including illness. There is the view that because our blood is impure, we will become sick and from here on, we will get worse and worse. But it’s not that. Rather, because our blood has already been purified, because golden blood runs within us—and if it is indeed golden blood, it would illuminate many things—it means that it is purifying the dirty things within us. For example, cancer is one of the very obvious ones. There are other various kinds of diseases having to do with the blood. But all of these “diseases” are not bad things at all. Instead, God is using the clean, pure blood within us and is purifying the many sins of humanity. This is how it works. But as it says in the hymn about people of the world, “How pitiful are those who do not know this teaching” (Complete hymn for reference: “How pitiful are those / Who do not know this teaching / For they are unable to grasp true happiness.”), aren’t those people suffering when they become ill constantly wondering, “When am I going to get better? When?” So if possible, don’t we want to tell them, “Even if you get sick, you are not getting worse. Rather, there is golden blood within you, and you are being used in the work of salvation”? Don’t we want to convey this? So if we receive the truth that we have already been purified and saved, it means at that point, God’s first purpose has been achieved. Then, there is the next step. This next step is to proactively be used in the work of salvation. We are at that stage now. We are not going to just settle on the side of receiving and say, “We have been saved!” We have to advance to the next level. As it was just said in the hymn mentioned earlier, when we know the happiness of being saved, we want to repay God with all our body and heart, right? If you feel you can repay God only when you are perfectly well and healthy, then you will never be able to repay God’s heart for the rest of your life. So now is the time. Right now. It comes down to whether you decide, “Right now, I am saved. I have been purified.” Because you have been saved and purified, you feel many things in your heart and you become ill—God is using you in this kind of divine work of salvation. This is what it is. There is absolutely nothing else other than this one point. Without this one point—that God has already accomplished everything, has saved everyone and everything, and has welcomed all into His heaven—there’s absolutely no way we would be able to go forward on this path. Without it, we would be living in a world of darkness. A world of darkness where we wonder, “When will I get better?” A world where we think, “The world is in a terrible state” and “Another war has broken out. How awful!” Well, the people of the world are living with these kinds of thoughts, though. But it is not that way. There is parental love, isn’t there? God’s parental love. That is true love. It is certainly true that criminal punishment as related to this human world is necessary. But no matter how messed up we become, no matter how horrible a thing we do, no matter all of that, God says, “I forgive you. I will welcome you to Me”—it is this parental love. There is this parental love, isn’t there? Then in response to that, there is the child’s love, our love. In turn, we can respond with, “Thank You.” There is this child’s love of ours. As such, the parental love and the child’s love become one—this is what I’m talking about. In response to this parental love, the child’s love responds, “You have accomplished everything” and “You have prepared something perfect. Thank You.” When this parental love and child’s love match up, unlimited power is to be found. After all, it is the union of the spiritual and the material. So until now, there were activities like the Johrei by the raising of the hand and suchlike, and all this time, our attention went to the side of receiving light and blessings. Don’t get me wrong. It is good to feel that we need to make the world better. But there is a big difference between taking action believing in the premise that God has already accomplished everything and not having that premise at all and thinking that this evil world needs to be changed for the better through human power. To view the plan as already accomplished or to view it as not accomplished—there is a huge difference. So from now on, each and every one of us has to take a big leap over this era of “receiving light and blessings” we were in until now and begin saving all of humanity and all the ancestors connected to all of humanity. It is all right even if you don’t have acquaintances or friends. Within you, you can think, “I was given an important mission.” Then, when you have the thought, “Oh, I hate that guy,” you can think, “Aha, this is what You want to save!” Illness is very tough too. Of course, in this world, we talk a lot about how to cope with such-and-such illness. But within those kinds of situations, even if it is only for a sliver of a moment, if we can think, “Oh God, in order to save many people, You are using the golden blood within me to purify them,” then God will tell us, “Yes, that’s right.” So everyone’s mission, each and every one of yours, is big. It looks like we are suffering from things such as illness or human relationships, but that’s not it. God is entrusting each and every one of us with the great work of salvation. For that, we must first receive, that is, “I will receive Your love that You accomplished in heaven, Your parental love.” It means “I believe in Your love.” This is not logic, everyone. So as God’s love is the true love, if you go forward in this way, the world of light will certainly be established. And remember, this world will also be one filled with love. So I would like all of you of World Church of Messiah to build a world filled with light and love, a world filled with the light and love of God. From today, plenty of things may happen, but God is doing all of it for the sake of salvation. With courage, let’s go forward together. Thank you very much.