(After receiving a standing ovation) Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Are you well? (members respond in unison: “Graças a Deus” (“Yes, thanks be to God.”)) I am very, very, moved to be here, meeting in person with you after the pandemic that lasted such a long time. Even though we share the same heart, it is different meeting in person. I went to Bolivia and met with members in person. Truly, I am very happy to have the opportunity here in Brazil as well. The singing was wonderful, was it not? (applause) Thank you, Rodrigo and everyone in the choir. Also, thank you very much, President Santos, for your words to Kyoshu-sama, me, my mother and my wife. I am sure that they really wanted to be here today, but I believe they are with me now, meeting with all of you. In Japan, I watch the videos of President Santos through YouTube, and, truly, his words always give strength, don’t they? I like, in particular, when he jokes that he talks too much and says, (laughter followed by applause): “Are you tired?” Because I am famous for the same. (laughter) I talk too much: “Masaaki-sama talks too much.” So when President Santos’s video, a new video, comes out, I open it, and the first thing I do is check how long it is. (laughter) “One hour! Great! It’s one hour long! He talks for one hour, so I can talk for one hour too.” (laughter followed by applause) In today’s program, we have a greeting from President Santos and my talk, so when you looked at it, I think you might have thought, “Today, the service is going to take a long time. (laughter) Maybe until evening, or till tomorrow . . . it’s never going to end, because President Santos is going to talk and Masaaki-sama is going to talk.” But truly, I am grateful to have President Santos here in Brazil with you. And this time, when it was decided in Japan that I would visit you in Brazil, I felt a kind of pressure, because I make these videos in Portuguese and I prepare a lot for them. So my Portuguese seems to be, I don’t know, good. It seems natural, but they are videos for which I prepare extensively. But this type of situation is a bit different, isn’t it? So I felt this pressure. What’s going to happen—“Masaaki-sama, you can’t speak in Portuguese?” I was already studying Portuguese, but a greater motivation to learn Portuguese was not to disappoint you today. (applause) I did not ask President Santos’s permission, but I am not sure you have met his wife. She does not live here in Brazil, but I am sure that she is always supporting President Santos and supporting the divine plan in Brazil. (Gestures toward President Santos’s wife and says) So may I introduce you now? Katia, please. Thank you very much. (applause) Please forgive me for doing that without notice. (laughter) (Pointing to his own seat in the prayer hall) I was sitting there, thinking, “Would it be best to ask now or not?” I was thinking. (laughter) But, I like surprises. So, today, I would like to share a little about what I am feeling now regarding happiness—happiness—how we can be happy. Because we seek happiness every day. So I want to talk about how we can be happy. Meishu-sama said—usually we think, “Ah, happiness will come one day, the sun will appear one day”—but Meishu-sama said that “The sun is already out, the light has already appeared, and happiness has already come.” It may sound very simple, but this is a big deal. And Meishu-sama said we only need to open the door, because outside, the light has already appeared, the sun is already out. So what we need to do is to just open the door. We think, “What! It’s that easy? Just open the door? In that case, I am going to do that to receive the light, to receive salvation, to be happy.” But, at that moment, another reality comes to our mind, which is, for example, “Oh, but I have this illness,” “My family is going through this,” “My husband through this,” “My neighbor through that,” “I have this problem at work.” Even though Meishu-sama said, “Everyone, open the door,” we think, “Can I really open the door? Am I worthy of receiving this light, this salvation?” So why do these types of thoughts come to our minds? This door that is so light becomes so heavy. We have this hesitation toward opening the door. We feel we do not deserve to receive the light. Even if Meishu-sama says, “Open it! Open it!” we stop, and even if we try, we feel that the door is very heavy. But it is not. So we have this issue—that the door is very heavy. But there’s another issue—the reason why we can’t open the door. The other issue has to do with when we hear Meishu-sama saying, “Ah, the sun has risen, the sun has already come up, the light is already out, happiness is already here,” we think, “Ah, I want to open the door.” So when we extend our arm toward the door and try to open it, our ancestors who are inside us can see what we are trying to do: “Ah this person is now trying to open the door to receive light.” They want to receive light; they want to receive salvation. Usually we think, “Oh, I want to receive light, I want to receive salvation, I want to be happy.” And for this reason, sometimes, we forget our ancestors. And our ancestors, for wanting to receive light, they kind of cling on, trying to pull us, because for our ancestors, the only way that they can receive salvation is through us who exist in this world. So if we who are alive now seek to receive light only for ourselves, they will say, “Wait. Hold on a second. We want to receive light too.” So they pull us, you see? They are pulling us. Even though we are trying to extend our arms toward the door, our bodies become so heavy, because many, many ancestors within us, who want to receive light, hold on to us. So we cannot open the door because our bodies are so heavy now. What is the best way to overcome this problem? Because we want to receive light, receive salvation and be happy. And it seems so simple to just open the door, but we cannot do so. So instead of thinking, “I want to receive light, I want to receive salvation, I want to be happy,” all we need to think is “Instead of me, I want my ancestors to receive light before me. I want them to receive light, salvation, happiness before me.” So instead of trying to open the door, and only we, only you, receive light, the attitude that we need to have is “Instead of me, please, ancestors, after you. After you, please. Go through this door to receive salvation.” We need to think this way, because we only exist today thanks to our ancestors. Our life is very difficult, of course. Our life is very difficult. We have all our problems, difficulties. However, our ancestors also suffered for a long time. They lived in a much more difficult time than ours, and because of them, we were able to be born on earth. So the attitude that we need to have is “I want my ancestors to go through this door before I do.” Then we can report the following to our ancestors: “Meishu-sama is saying that the light has already appeared, the sun is already out, happiness is already here.” This is why we have all these difficulties here on earth. They are messages from our ancestors. Why do we need to suffer in this world? God exists. If God really exists, why do we need to suffer? It does not make sense. Because if God really exists, the suffering that was necessary is already over, finished. But we feel as if we still have this suffering in this life: wars, illnesses, financial difficulties, issues at work, with our friends, with loved ones. If God really exists, this is strange, isn’t it? But the suffering in our lives, in truth, is a message from our ancestors who want to receive our attention and a message that we are not paying attention to our ancestors who want to receive light. That is why, in this world, there is suffering in our lives. We all go through suffering, don’t we? We all need to go through many difficulties in our lives. But instead of thinking, “Ah, this is my suffering. Because of this I can’t be happy; Because of this illness, I can’t receive light; I will not be saved.” Instead of thinking this, the way we need to think is “Ah, God has already saved me. God now wants us to share this salvation, this light, with our ancestors. That’s why I’m suffering.” As you know, a very basic but very important teaching of Meishu-sama is about purification. Purification. It seems simple, too. Purification. But it is a very profound teaching. Because purification means that what seems to be bad is good. Very simple: what seems bad is good. But to experience it in this way is very difficult. When a war begins, “Ah, I want this war to end.” When you become ill, “What a pity. Unfortunately, I got this illness, I have this problem, this problem, this problem.” Maybe when we overcome this purification, we can say, “Ah, thank God,” right? But Meishu-sama, when he received the purification of the brain hemorrhage, he almost lost his life. But instead of thinking that he would lose his life, he thought in the opposite way. He thought, “Ah, I am receiving a new life. God is trying to grant me a new life.” This was not after him recovering. In the middle of the suffering, Meishu-sama thought that this was a good thing, right? So Meishu-sama was really practicing the teaching about purification. It is very easy for us to live in the reality of the world. What is the reality of the world? The reality of the world is thinking that an ideal world will come one day and that we need to join efforts toward that end. Of course, we have to do this as well, but we think that one day happiness will come, one day an ideal world will come. This is the reality of the world. But Meishu-sama was different. Sometimes we say things like, “Ah, this person is optimistic. In midst of all the difficulties, this person can think in a positive way.” But bad things do not exist for Meishu-sama. When he received the brain hemorrhage purification, he did not think, “Ah, this is a bad thing that happened to me. I might lose my life.” No. Meishu-sama thought, “This is a good thing.” He thought in the opposite way, because at the core of his thinking, he has this incredible belief in God. If God truly exists, He will not make His children suffer. Are we already saved or not? (applause) Because of Jesus and Meishu-sama, we were able to know that we are already saved. However, our ancestors do not know this great gospel of salvation. Within you, these ancestors exist. And they are trying to send a message to us, to each one of you, “I want to receive the salvation that you are receiving. You are saved. How great! I want to receive as well.” Within us, we have many ancestors who are thinking this way. So if we can accept this fact and say to them, “Ah, please, receive the light, receive salvation, receive happiness,” then, this time, they will say to us, “All right then, let us open the door together? And receive the light together? And be happy together?” And finally, we will be able to open the door with ease. Don’t you think this is the best way to think? (applause) But we have one more point that we need to consider—one more point. Meishu-sama said in one of his hymns that his body—Meishu-sama’s body—his body and his soul were purified, and after that, he was able to enter heaven. After Meishu-sama had his body and soul purified, he was able to enter heaven. So thinking here, “Ah, now I understand. Together with my ancestors, I will go through the door,” forgetting the fact that we need to be purified, Meishu-sama will say, “You need to overcome one more point. You have not been purified yet.” And the fact that we need to be purified means that we are existences that need to be cleansed, right? This means that we have sins. Clearly, no one is perfect. Some need to commit a grave sin, maybe a very grave evil on this earth. But we all have sins. So if we are not purified, Meishu-sama will say, “If you are not purified, you will not enter heaven. You will not be able to receive the light.” And this is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture. When we talk about sin, how can we avoid the existence of Jesus? I do not know if you, followers of Meishu-sama, accept Jesus or not. Do you? (the congregation responds “Yes!” and applauds) So, for us to be purified, we need to receive the existence of and the blood of Jesus Christ. This is because Meishu-sama himself said that Jesus is originally the Lord of Atonement. Maybe this is a simple statement: “Oh! Jesus is the Lord of Atonement.” But it is huge. And Meishu-sama also said in his teachings that, without the atonement—well, in his teaching, he uses the god with the name Tokotachi, which essentially means Jesus—but without the atonement of Tokotachi, the whole universe would have perished already. This means that, without the atonement of Jesus, Meishu-sama himself would not exist. He would not have been able to be born on earth. How can we avoid the existence of Jesus? According to the Teachings of Meishu-sama, without Jesus, the world would have already disappeared. Without the atonement of Jesus, we would not be able to exist today and hold this service together. Without the atonement of Jesus, without Jesus, Meishu-sama would not exist. I mean, without the atonement of Jesus, not only Meishu-sama, but we, our Church, our parents in this world, would not exist. So how can we treat Jesus so lightly? So now, we need to receive the blood of Jesus Christ to be purified. (applause) Not only us, but our ancestors as well. They are suffering, sending us a message, “Oh, I want to receive salvation. I want to be happy.” So we need to receive the blood of Jesus, not just individually, but together with our ancestors and say, “I want to receive the blood of Jesus together with my ancestors.” So this existence of Jesus is the key to opening the door. World Church of Messiah believes in Jesus, believes in the atonement of Jesus, believes in the power that this atonement brought to the world. We believe one hundred percent. The fact that Meishu-sama recognized that he needed to be purified means that Meishu-sama recognized that he had sins and received the forgiveness of God, the atonement of Jesus—after which, Meishu-sama showed us the following step, the next step for humanity: Not only Jesus, but we too can be born anew as Messiahs. Therefore, like Christians, we believe in Jesus one hundred percent. We believe in the Bible one hundred percent, like Christians. But we believe in Meishu-sama also. (applause) We believe that through his suffering, through the brain hemorrhage, he was born anew as the Messiah. Meishu-sama was the second, because Jesus was the first Messiah. Meishu-sama was the second person to become the Messiah. (applause) Meishu-sama is the model for all of humanity. Each one of us can receive the soul of Christ, soul of Messiah, in order to be the Second Coming of Christ. He is not going to appear up there in the sky and descend. He has already descended within each one of us, just as this soul descended within Meishu-sama. So we are not waiting for the day when Jesus Christ is going to arrive. Some Christians believe this, and sometimes they really wait somewhere for Jesus to descend. But no. He has already descended within all of you. (applause) This thing, so anticipated by humanity: the Second Coming of Christ. We preach that this has already happened. When compared to Christianity, maybe we are a very small Church, but we are receiving a message, such a huge gospel, so enormous. Jesus will not descend in the future. He has already descended within not only us, but within all of humanity. This is not “I believe, so maybe it’s just me or just the members of World Church of Messiah who are receiving Jesus.” This is not the case. All of humanity, within all of humanity, within each human being, Jesus Christ has already descended. (applause) Because Jesus said he will return soon. So I believe that it is up to us. Jesus said, “I will return soon.” You could say, “Ok, so one day he will descend. I will wait.” Or you can say, “Ah, since he said, ‘I will return soon,’ then for me, he has already descended within me.” We have a choice. We have choices, two choices. To believe that God loves us completely. Or to think, “Oh, one day God will love us.” We have choices. I believe that you, since you are the true followers of Jesus and Meishu-sama, you want to choose to live in the reality of God. The reality of the world is to wait, let’s wait. The world has this problem: we are going to wait. But we live in the reality of God, Meishu-sama and Jesus. We say to God, “O Lord, you love me now, one hundred percent. You have granted us everything, everything that You, Lord, want for us.” I am certain that each of you have already chosen to live in the reality of God instead of the reality of the world. I also say that to live in the reality of God and Meishu-sama is going to be very difficult. To live in the reality of the world is very easy, and everyone thinks in the usual way, “Oh, I am suffering, he is suffering.” To the people of the world, we may seem crazy. Because we, even if we have an illness, even if we have problems with our family members, even if we have the difficulties of the world, we announce to the world that we are already saved. They will say, “How? Are you crazy?” (applause) But the power of God is infinite. So if you choose to live in the reality of God and overcome, leave the reality of the world, God will look at us and say, “Ah, finally you understood what I wanted to show you. You finally understood My love for you.” Before, when we were ill, we would say, “Oh, I want to get well soon. I want to end this illness.” And wanting, we were always wanting, “I want this, I want that. God, I want this, and this, and this.” However, now, we say to God, “I want nothing more, because You, Lord, have already given me everything You wanted to offer me.” (applause) So, for God, these types of children are better children. Instead of “I want, I want, I want,” it is, “Ah, Lord, You already love me! Lord, You have given me everything!” So instead of seeking to receive, “I want to receive, I want to receive, I want to receive more, I want to receive more”—well, naturally, I want to have a lot of money and success in this world, of course—but, instead of always wanting to receive, if we truly have everything already, it is now time to share. Share salvation. Instead of receiving, we need to share—first with our ancestors within us, and after, with the world. Because the world is waiting for this salvation. The world is suffering, thinking that God is not loving the world. Even though the reality of the world is different than the one that we believe in, we choose to live in the reality of God, and we need to share this true salvation, the true love of God. Today, I am certain that you received my words, and in Japan, I will do my best. And in Brazil, you will do your best. So let’s make a promise. Today, together, me in Japan and you in Brazil, instead of receiving, let us share with our ancestors, with the world, with Brazilians: “The light has appeared. You and all people are already happy.” Can I make this promise with you? (the members respond, “Yes!” and applaud) Before finishing up my words, in the past few days, with this very warm reception from you, I am feeling a deep love for Brazil. (standing ovation) (Addressing the participants) No, you, you. (signaling that participants should be applauded) I love Brazil. I love all of you. I love World Church of Messiah Brazil. And I even love the members of Igreja Messianica Mudial do Brasil (Sekai Kyusei Kyo Brazil) as well. (standing ovation) Even if they criticize me, (laughter) criticize Kyoshu-sama, slander me and slander Kyoshu-sama, I love them from the bottom of my heart. (applause) Because I am certain that God and Meishu-sama, for some reason, needed to use them in the way they acted. And I believe that a day will come when we members and members of Igreja Messianica Mundial will be able to sit at the same table . . . (standing ovation) I believe that we will be able to sit at the same table and eat the same meal before God, Jesus, Meishu-sama and Kyoshu-sama. Thank you very much.