Truly delicious food

   
Meishu-sama
As you heard from the reading of the teaching just now, what you need to grasp the most is how the world has been misunderstanding suffering as a good thing. As a result, humanity has come to take delight in suffering. Many religions as well as many mental training techniques teach that one must take delight in suffering. Some religions go so far as to teach that one must say “I am so happy” while suffering from illness. They teach you to take delight in suffering! What a huge mistake this is. In this way, everything in the world has been distorted. Nothing is understood straightforwardly and just the way it is anymore. The world is now crooked. What I want to advocate is that everyone be honest about their feelings and be just the way they are. For that is what God wants. God’s wish is for us to feel what we feel and see what we see, just as they are. But we humans have deviated from this path of our own accord. Even though the world was made for us to live easily and happily, we made it into a world of suffering, a crooked world. That is why, for example, those who have strong faith gradually become poor or are always sick. In this sense, religious reform is a part of the mission of World Church of Messiah. We intend to reform many areas like medical science, religion, farming and so on. Once you understand what we are aiming for, you will suddenly feel so grateful for our Church. But since everyone has been living in a crooked culture, it is really hard to make people understand what we are doing. If you happen to give delicious food to someone who has been eating cheap food only, they act strangely. No matter how much you tell them how good it is, they will say, “There is no such thing.” Oh, how bothersome this is.

   
Sermon, October 5, 1951

   
Kyoshu-sama

When asked, “What is forgiveness,” we don’t know the answer, right? We don’t even know how it feels to be forgiven. When told, “You are forgiven,” we don’t know what this means, right? But God is saying to us, “I forgave you,” so we humans should be humble enough to say to God, “I would like to receive Your forgiveness.”

I understand that you may feel unsure about saying this since you don’t understand what forgiveness is, but I wish for there to be some part within you that wants to say, “I would like to receive it.” For it is only then that God may teach you why He forgave you and from where He forgave you.

You may think, “If God already forgave us, what’s the point of expressing our will that we want to receive it?” But what God wants is for us to express our will, by our own will.

How can I put this? Okay, let’s say someone makes us a feast. We eat it, right? In the same way, God has already made us eat His forgiveness. We already ate it.

We may not know what kind of food or taste it was, but we ate it anyway. If that is the case, don’t we need to tell God that we certainly did eat it?

If we respond to God in this way, God may teach us what kind of food we ate. But if we say to God that we haven’t eaten it, even though we actually did eat it, how can God tell you what you ate? I think it’s something like this.

   
Meeting with Executive Directors
April 13, 2017

   
Masaaki-sama

We use phrases like “the concept of Messiah” or “the concept of God,” right? But I say that using these phrases in itself is rude to God, and I’m going to tell you why.

After we are born, our parents prepare the food we eat, right? And we eat it while we are kids, right?

When we are younger, we are quite rebellious and say things like, “I want to eat now” or “I don’t want to eat any food now” or “This food is good” or “This food is bad,” right?

But as you get older, you start to understand how, for example, your mother wakes up early every morning to prepare your food or how your father works hard to sustain the family. If a child can understand this, I’m sure the parents will be quite happy and say to the child, “Yes, that’s right. That’s how we’ve nurtured you until today.”

Now, let’s talk about God. To start with, God imparted His very own soul to each one of us. I repeat: God the Creator imparted His very own soul to each one of us. How magnificent this is!

We were existences that did not need to exist in the first place. God could have made the choice of living for all eternity all by Himself. But He did not make that choice. Rather, He wanted to make a big, big family as He thought it would be enjoyable that way. That is why He imparted His very own soul to us.

So, in my opinion, the simple fact that “we exist” is something truly awe-inspiring. And God is saying that He is going to give us not only His own soul but a name as well. That name, needless to say, is the name of Messiah. And notice how He named each one of our souls with exactly the same name of Messiah so that we wouldn’t fight over who has a better or nicer name, so that no one receives special treatment.

In this world, parents come up with the names of their children, right? In my case, it is Masaaki, well, Masaaki Okada. When parents name their children, they do it with a wish that their children will grow into ones who are worthy to carry those beautiful names, right?

So if God prepared the name Messiah for us with the wish that we grow into ones worthy to be His children, how can we use a phrase like “the concept of Messiah,” analyzing the name that God put so much love into? How can you be like an outsider and say things like “What does the word Messiah mean?”

You have to at least be considerate of the love of God who prepared this name! There lies the importance of receiving the name of Messiah with humbleness and obedience.

Don’t be like those kids who judge their parents’ food and would say something like “In my view, this new concept of Messiah cannot be accepted.” Who are you to say something like that? Are you a critic of your parents, of God? Using phrases like “the concept of Messiah” is proof that you are not yet independent, not yet a grown-up. It is just like the kids who eat their parents’ food and say the food is good or the food is bad. Who are you to judge what your parents did for you, what God did for you?

But look at what God is doing for us. Even though we are so arrogant and have tantrums, if you like, He doesn’t complain about anything and allows us to live, enveloping us with His love and mercy. He could have just annihilated us, you know.

Not only that, God wants us to grow a little bit more and says to us, “Maybe you want to stop having those tantrums and start to turn your face to me a bit more?” That is why God sent Meishu-sama to the world and through Meishu-sama, He is trying to teach us the true meaning of the name Messiah and how a child should love their parents. That is why God, through Meishu-sama, founded World Church of Messiah and connected us to it.

Stop analyzing and critiquing your true Parent and saying things like “this and this is the concept of God”! How can you do something like that to your Parent?

Kyoshu-sama teaches us that we need to “become” Messiahs, right? But actually, it is not a matter of becoming. It is already here! Within us is the divine soul to which God granted a name. So the only choice that is left for us is to accept that name, just as a child accepts the name given by their physical parents.

Accepting the name of Messiah that already exists within us is how we can become true children of God, Messiahs.

   
To staff ministers of Japan in charge of youth members
June 23, 2017