The Meaning Of Confession

May 28, 1993

I want to speak about the meaning of confession, because many Unification Church
members don't understand the real internal meaning behind it. Even in the Unification
Church workshop, the clear understanding of confession is not taught. People feel very
relieved after they have expressed everything in front of the workshop, but they don't
understand the connection with Me through that confession.

Let Me talk about one brother whose name I won't mention. At one time after having a
most serious mistake, the number one mistake, the Fall, he agonized in his heart because
he didn't know how to express this to his wife. He was afraid. And this was made more
complex by the fact that he never had had a true relationship with Me. He was typical of
"many" persons in the Unification Church, who don't know that true love relationship with
their Heavenly Parent, Myself. And so he thought: (1) If he confessed, what would he do
then? (2) It may destroy his marriage and, also, be a very deep hurt in his wife. And this
agony went on for a full two or three years after the initial mistake. Finally, through a
process of very deep prayer, he could come to understand who I am in terms of My love
for him and his wife, and the fact that I'm not just a God of law, like good or evil, but that
first and foremost I am a parent of deep love. And so, finally I could bring him to the point
where he could share with his wife. It wasn't easy, because it meant removing so many of
his concepts, helping him get rid of so many concepts he'd had about Me and the whole
concept of confession. But here's the main point: What I wanted to show him, what I want
to share with every church member - everyone - is that confession is not simply to get rid
of your guilt, not simply because you are a sinner and when you confess then you can be
forgiven; confession, in it truest sense, is moving the block of sin out of the way so that I
can reconnect with you out of love. And through that you can reconnect. In this case it was
with the wife. This is the important thing. Think of a father who knows his son did wrong. Is
that father just interested that his child just confess everything in front of him and get down
and fall on his face on the ground, and then the father says, "Good, you told me
everything; now you know."? No. Because that father knows the agony of his son (and in
this case, son and daughter both), to be wandering around with this heart full of
unconfessed burden, and that means this son can't even connect with the parent. And so
the parent's enemy is not the son; his enemy is that burden, that son's heart. He knows
that son's original mind and heart. He wants to claim that; but that burden, it's like a broken
engine, it won't let the son move. The parent simply wants to see the son lift that burden
out. He has to do it himself, the parent can't pull it out. The son must lift it out and lay it at
the foot of the parent - confess it. In light of that, then the parent's heart can fill the son's
heart. The parent's love can fill the son's heart. And then the true purpose of confession
can be recognized, the opening of the way for My love and, of course, your love to meet
Me. Then we can do something. You notice, for example, so many Catholic people, every
month they have a confession for the priest. Many of them think the confession itself is
enough, and they take that as a license to go back and sin some more because they can
come back and get rid of it again. That means they didn't really understand My love
beyond the confession. It's just the right and wrong dimension. "I did wrong, so I have to
make it right." But that's not My interest. That's not the most fundamental thing! The thing
beyond that is reconnecting in love, reconnecting in heart, so that we can live the way we
are supposed to live, together, a family. And so, I would like to bring each and every one to
confession, not because I want to hear all that dirt, but because I want you to cleanse your
heart.
Just like you, "H" (husband) and "W," (wife) you're trying to get your youngest children to
take showers more often. Well this is the same with Me, but it's much deeper than that. It's
not just the physical body, it's the spiritual relationship, your true self, your eternal self.

And so confession has much more meaning than just telling someone your sins, go
through a three year or seven year period, or a seven day period, or fasting, or until you
paid your indemnity and then, again, if you didn't realize anything, you just go back and do
the same thing again, until you recognize the dimension of My love! So on that foundation I
can offer it, I can work with you. This is a gospel that every brother and sister should know.

I want to say that at this time, in much of the Unification Church in America and in the
world the teaching is more concerned with right and wrong because even in the leadership
very few recognize My heart of love. Therefore, it's hard for them to feel that for the
members and, with just right and wrong as the standard, there is much bitterness and
much hopelessness. Without a sense of love, and without a sense of the future growth of
My love among you, what kind of hope do you have? Man cannot be moved just by right
and wrong. Man can be moved by love and then he can start to overcome the wrong and
start to establish the right in his life. Man is not a machine that can be repaired like a
mechanical thing, right and wrong. Man is primarily an emotional being, a heartistic being.
I made you that way. Love has to be the strongest force in your life. And if your principle
and your principle leadership is based on right and wrong, then someone else will grab the
love. Do you understand? Someone else will come and get it. If I can't be represented by
the leadership, if I can't be represented in that way, love reaches in other directions.

That man I was talking about was very vulnerable because he couldn't sense My love, he
was taken up with anger even to Me, so where did he look to fulfill the love? Another
place. So please understand the importance of a true loving channel being established
with Me all over the world, throughout this movement. In your own marriage, it goes
without saying. If you're going to be serving Me in the future, it means really opening your
door to My love. And it's not just for you. Sometimes members are feeling selfish, thinking
that they shouldn't impose too much on God's love, that they should just do their best and
work hard. This is a trick of the devil. And this is when members become very dry. Father
has said many times, "God didn't bless and love America for it's own sake, but for the
world." It's the same. I'm not loving you just so we can be alone; I have five billion other
people in this world. I know your life is going to come in contact with many people, and so,
if you and I can open up a true love relationship and you can begin to share love in your
life, then it's My light that can shine through you. Is there anything wrong with that? Not a
bit. So, yes, you need love. I understand. It's just like a radio; it needs batteries. Is that
wrong? You need power. But then that radio can play sweet music for many people once
you have the batteries. So you have been like radios without batteries, some kind of noise
coming out, but I don't know what it is without My love within your hearts. So please
recognize that situation in your life and in My life - how much we need each other to fulfill
this job, this mission. I am not like an army general, I'm not just commanding. You see how
I work in your life. I know who you are and I know how to reach you. If you'll be sensitive to
Me, I can help you to reach others too. It's far more than just bringing members to the
Unification Church or getting membership. Do you see how shallow that is, that inner
content? It means nothing. At least if they come in they can be in a place where they can
hear more truth, but even from the opening introduction to that church, that should already
be an act of love, just like the conception of a true child. And act of love. Again, I want to
say confession is so important, so important, to open up that relationship between you and
Me. If you think about this you will understand I am just telling you the heart of the whole
thing tonight. The matter of moving the burden of sin out of your heart.
Five years ago, when the brother from Africa came around, and had a passion for
confession, that passion was of a young man, a young spirit who went prematurely to the
spiritual world, and he wanted so much to clean up his father's movement. But he's a
young man. He was not Me. He was inspired by Me, but it came through his own
interpretation. Are you following Me? It came through his interpretation, so it was very
physical, very strong. But if you come right to Me, you will understand why confession is so
important, beyond any interpretation of a young man. Do you feel like you understand My
point? I just want to move those blocks out so that we can have the relationship we were
intended to have. That's why these things could happen this evening. So that's why I'm
happy, that's why I have hope beyond anything. I don't hold on to the past and shake it at
people as if it was a terrible problem; that's what the devil does. Because he doesn't want
anybody to get out of his own realm, he is the one who could not confess his own evil, and
so he wanted to pull everyone else down with him. So when someone else has a true
confession experience, they can begin to pop free of that world of Satan. It's like shining a
mirror in his face, he has to look at himself and his falseness. That's why he hates to let
anybody go, because their very growth accuses him, his own heart. That's why he can't let
go. So recognize his weakness, his absolute incapability to be true until he confesses
himself. Until that moment, he's not going to let anybody go easily. He will try to stop
everyone. That's the arrogance, the pride and the emptiness of Satan. My desire is only
the truth, only the truth as a foundation for our relationship. That's what I wanted to say
tonight. That's really central. As you think and pray about this in the future, as you discuss
it with one another, you're going to learn a lot, because this is "central". As long as people
are living a lie with Me, they can't develop. Or very little. It's so important.

My great pain is that, in the case of an elder, when the younger one comes to the elder in
confession, if that elder acts as if he has no sin and shames the younger one, treats him
arrogantly in that confession, or with a cold heart just gives him a condition to do and then
walks away, I am very, very pained and also somewhat angry, because that elder simply
didn't realize himself or herself. Everything became just technical. The problem is
unrealized problems. Maybe the elder didn't fall, maybe the elder didn't make this same
mistake, but far beyond just the Fall itself, there are many other problems. So when that
younger one comes to you, you can understand completely your process of coming to Me.
What did I do? Did I shame you? Did I give you some condition coldly and then walk
away? I simply wanted to move the block and to open up our relationship more deeply,
even through your mistake. If that could bring us to a deeper relationship, then so be it. So
be it. That's My desire. But Satan is the one who will take the cold attitude, who will accuse
and will walk away. And so I want to get rid of that foolish pride in those who take the
leadership positions, and help them realize, again, how I received them. This lack of self-
realization is throughout the whole religious world, among many, many leaders. It's very
ugly and immoral. I want to see a man and woman who are self-realized in front of Me,
who know My heart for them, again, who know themselves in light of My love and can
share that with the right attitude with the one who has fallen down. It has to be! Or no true
repentance, no true path of purification can be followed. Do you remember, Won Pil Kim
said, "Whenever you see a problem member standing in front of you, don't despise him;
you'd better see how you look to God." He knows very deeply. He's a real man. He's a real
son of mine. A son. A son! If you have a seed of that realization in you tonight, let it grow.
Let it grow, because I need many people like that; otherwise people end up hating Me.
There's no other way to build our Kingdom. You see how shallow it is just to have external
goals and become hard inside, just driving for those goals in the name of the Kingdom, in
the name of True Parents, in the name of God, but not opening up the heart and really
coming to these "important" moments of your whole life. It's the worst kind of hypocrisy.
I'm so sorry there's so very little common ground left to coordinate, because it would be
much harder for him to come back. "Much" harder for him to come back. That's why Father
may be called "Reverend" externally, but he knows and I know that "reverends" are not the
purpose; Father and Mother are the purpose - parents - people who have that parental
heart. It comes from "Me". Reverends I really don't need, not if they're going to misuse
their position.

That is what I wanted to say. Unless you have another question, you can turn off the tape
recorder.