God’s Heart of Sorrow

God’s heart of sorrow refers to the heart of God at the moment when Adam and Eve fell away from Him into the realm of death, which came to be under the control of Satan. It is analogous to the grieving heart of parents who lose their children. In the early days of the Unification Church, when speaking about the heart of God at that time, Rev. Sun Myung Moon would weep bitterly when he spoke about the fall of Adam and Eve.

God commenced the providence of restoration immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve. Ever since that time, God has been advancing His providence in hope of seeing the world of joy realized in the future when His will is finally accomplished. Yet, fallen people have been painfully indifferent to God’s providence, continually indulging in corruption and violence. Whenever God saw this, it brought profound grief to His heart. God, who has thus been advancing His providence in history, became a God of han, or deep mortification, as well as a God of unfathomable sorrow. Since His expectation and hope at the time of creation were so great, His sorrow and disappointment due to the human fall, was all the greater.

Even among human beings, when a child whom the parents dearly love is dying, they, the mother in particular, will feel unfathomable sadness and grieve deeply. Even when a child’s illness is very serious and the parents are told that the child will die, they will still try everything in their power to keep the child alive, by any means available. This is what the parental heart is like. So, when the child does eventually die, even though the parents knew it would happen, they still feel as though their hearts have been cut to pieces, and they are completely at a loss as to what to do. This is the heart of parents, especially the heart of a mother.

The sorrowful Heart of God at the time of the fall of Adam and Eve and the sorrowful Heart of God, who has had to watch Adam and Eve and their descendants suffering in the world under Satan’s dominion, which is like a prison, was too great to be compared with anything, even with the heart of human parents who have lost their children. Since the beginning of history, there has been no person who has ever grieved as much as God.…

• New Essentials of Unification Thought, p. 251–252

The Parent whose position was usurped

17. God’s original position was as our True Parent. Yet something occurred that had nothing to do with the original ideal of creation, and His position as the True Parent was usurped. Although God is the Creator, He was unable to intervene and prevent this from happening. Nevertheless, He has been taking responsibility to deal with it ever since. (240-164, 1992.12.13)

18. God’s enemy deprived Him of His throne. Unable to become the God of glory, He was left to preside over a history of sorrow. Although God most certainly is the King of His kingdom and King of the universe, He has been treated with contempt, as if He were dead. Meanwhile, all His beloved children were violated and the planet Earth became the enemy’s playground. (105-199, 1979.10.21)

19. As a result of the Fall, God became the Parent who lost His children. Is there any father or mother who delights in his or her own glory while their children are in prison? It is the same for God; it fills Him with endless pain. Further, God created everything in the universe for human beings, but as a result of the Fall, God had to hand his children over to Satan’s authority. From the moment He lost His beloved object partners, God, the Lord of true love, became infinitely lonely. Moreover, God could not exercise His authority as the Lord of all things, not even once. Even fallen people can boast, but God has never had the chance to demonstrate His full authority and stature as the Creator. Even though He is the Lord of all living things, God could not assume His majesty in front of them, not even once. (343-197, 2001.01.29)

20. What was lost as a result of the Fall? First, the ideal world of true love was lost. Second, the ideal family of true love was lost; in particular, the husband and wife of true love were lost. Third, their sons and daughters of true love, the first grandchildren of God, were lost. These are God’s three kinds of sorrow. (349-013, 2001.07.13)

21. God’s era, in which He hoped to complete His Will, disappeared without a trace because of the Fall. The Fall brought fundamental destruction to the place where He had created all things in hope. Everything that He had planned, the realm of His ideal object partners of eternal love, was violated and destroyed at the root. How sorrowful God must have been when Adam and Eve committed the Fall and disappeared from His presence. They were to have been God’s ideal partners, embodying God’s pure original love. How bitter God’s grief must have been over losing them. (127-019, 1983.05.01)

22. Christians say that God is the glorious judge who consigns people to hell or to the kingdom of heaven. Yet in fact God is the most miserable being in the world. When the Fall turned the brilliance of heaven and earth into the darkness of hell, God went through the most unimaginable and bitter pain. It was as though God Himself plummeted into hell. Yet when He opened His eyes, came back to consciousness and regained His composure, He became intent on recovering His children who had died. (232-114, 1992.07.03)

23. God and human beings should be together for eternity. Can we imagine God’s pain and indignation when the first human beings separated from Him? Can we comprehend His bitterness and sorrow? They should have grown to maturity while building a foundation of love for God that they would not have exchanged even for the entire universe. This would have established a single axis, so that vertical and horizontal could meet on a level plane. Had the first human beings done this, they would have become the standard of love for all existing beings and for all things of creation in heaven and on earth. Then, any being that connected to their love would have been able to reach that standard. (149-240, 1986.11.23)

24. God wants His partners of love to be better than Himself. His beloved partners are none other than us, human beings. Nonetheless, we lost that privileged value and instead came to struggle throughout our lives. How miserable God must feel when He looks at us! He thinks, “They were meant to be My direct children, inheriting My love, My life and My lineage. But now they are struggling as victims who moan and lament in pain and wander in despair until the end of their lives.” How miserable God must feel, looking down at this. He is such a sorrowful God. (211-209, 1990.12.30)

25. When you are comforted by someone who has more reason to be upset than you, you can find some consolation in that. However, God has no one to comfort Him, because He has more grievances than anyone in the world. God is the alpha and the omega. A knot of bitterness remains in the depths of His heart. How can He resolve it? This has been God’s deep, inner anguish. Under these circumstances God has carried out the providence of restoration to this day. The spirit world transcends time and space; hence, even the sorrow of six thousand years ago can persist forever throughout the realms formed by the ages of history. If you have ever experienced the joy of devoting yourself as a true offering, you will never forget that experience for the rest of your life. With the passage of time, more and more people will recognize and respect you for your offering. The breadth and depth of your offering will increase, and you will be ever more deeply connected with the infinite Origin. When you have such mystical experiences, you will recognize that God’s sorrow has not been merely momentary, but has continued up to the present day. (29-294, 1970.03.12)

• Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 92–94