The Words of the Beutl Family
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The Words of the Beutl Family |
My dear brothers and sisters,
Please take the time to listen to the interview with True Father which was recorded in 1972 while concentrating on the reaction, the mimic expression, etc. of our Father and hopefully you will be moved by his personality about which the interviewer commented: “out of him shines the most enormous good nature… the most enormous good will, and the most enormous affection…” You find this recording in two parts when you go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNyCNSynrUsandfeature=related
For me it was a really heart warming experience to watch our True Father’s way of responding to challenging questions. It is obvious that most of all Father is dedicated to give love to others, to lift them up, to make them feel welcome in his presence… He is indeed a center of love, who attracted so many people to follow him on the path of returning to our Heavenly Father which he opened up for mankind together with True Mother.
His desire is clearly that we not only become another Rev. Moon, exemplary Moonies, but Sunies through whom the love of God shines and one day to reach the level of being true kings of heart and love. True Father called his members many times the “love race“ and our Movement the “Family of Love“. In recent years he referred to UPF as Universal Peace Family. Ultimately he and True Mother wish that we become better than them - as all good parents wish for their children.
There where loving relationships are a living reality, it is not difficult to create unity, it naturally comes about as everybody strives to find a common base for sharing with others. To the extent that we develop profound bonds of heart with one another we will also experience the presence of the living God and it will be natural for us that God speaks today -- through you and me -- to the people of this world.
When we come to make such a mindset our own we will have no problems to find God in our brother and sister. We will listen to each other very attentively, we will respect each other deeply and always look forward to meet again as we feel the beauty of true friendship as loving brothers and sisters of one worldwide Family, recognizing our value as children of God.
This is the ideal where we should be as members of the extended True Family, embodying the heart of God in our respective unique way just as our True Parents do concretely in everyday life. But what does our reality look like? Are we there where we should be, or does distrust prevail among us as members of the Unification Movement, a spirit of judging each other -- even unconsciously -- because after all we are not perfect and cannot be fully trusted? What kind of heart do we have for one another? These are decisive questions which need to be answered honestly by each one of us.
When Pres. Young Whi Kim was leading the European Movement he explained in 1984: "We can overcome anything if we are united. Whenever Heung Jin Nim, Jesus or other good spirits come to us they emphasize unity. They say that unity is most important. Satan can come and take away everything if we are disunited. No matter how hard we work, Satan will claim the result. So in order to keep our achievements, we must unite."
Meanwhile a quarter of a century has passed. Looking back, how many of the victories we reached in the past are still present today? We have definitely worked very hard, but how much is left from all our investment?
As Hyung Jin Nim mentioned in a recent Cheon Il Guk Family Service, our movement decreased in most countries in the last two decades. What is the inner reason for the fact that we lost the fruits of our work? One core answer lies in our disunity, our failure to unite in heart as one loving worldwide family where each member is ready to sacrifice himself or herself for the higher purpose rather than seeking some blessings for themselves, their families or their own nations first.
Rev. Young Whi Kim’s conclusion when speaking about this central theme of unity is clearly recorded in the book with his speeches entitled “Guidance for Heavenly Tradition” where he explains: "No matter what we do, if disunity exists we fail, because Satan can always invade and destroy our efforts. Satan can't invade when we are united. That's why unity is so important. Then how can we bring unity? Loving each other is the only way."
As we know well, True Father is still standing on the frontline even though he is 90 years old, pushing hard forward to advance God’s providence. When we say that we are tired due to the many years on the frontline, seeing ourselves as wounded soldiers who need healing and therefore unable to contribute on the frontline, we create some distance between ourselves and True Parents who are moving forward no matter what they had to go through until now. They forget what they have already given and are therefore free to invest more while we tend to remember what we have done and in this way get stuck internally.
The difference on the level of dedication between True Parents and ourselves provides already the condition for Satan to attack because there is no real unity. We go our own way according to our (fallen) understanding while True Father paid the price for one miracle after another in order to advance God’s providence despite our disunity and disbelief. They took full responsibility for our failures but that does not make our mistakes undone.
On the contrary, many of us will find themselves in hell after leaving this world behind as True Father told us on various occasions. We can reread these passages in his speeches but unless they hit home in our hearts with us realizing that this is the reality for me because from God’s standpoint I go actually on my own (fallen) ways while teaching the Principle, attending the Sunday Service, doing my tithing regularly etc.
What am I saying here? We may have passed to a certain extent the judgment of word by believing in the Divine Principle and the judgment of personality by trying to practice the traditions of our movement but what about the judgment of heart? Unless we are victorious in this challenge, we naturally end up in spirit world somewhere together with other religious people who followed the commands of their respective tradition but did not develop their hearts to the extent that they are able to love their enemies.
Decisive questions are: What am I doing for the ones who have hurt me and disappointed my expectations? Which concrete steps am I taking in order to show true love to these brothers and sisters whom I perceive emotionally as my “enemies” because of the pain they caused me to endure? Towards whom is my heart closed and what methods am I using in order to break through this heartistic barrier for the sake of true reconciliation? How does my investment look like in order to win the heart of those brothers and sisters for God’s side who are in my opinion wrong in their attitude? One could add many more questions but it is up to each one of us to ask them to our own conscience and to listen sincerely to the answers.
The necessity of our achieving unity among us can be understood from many different viewpoints. The importance of this core task is obvious in various ways with one of them expressed in our Heavenly Father repeatedly asking us to become one in heart. Just as Father proclaimed the ascension of True Parents first son as an occasion for our worldwide membership to unite, Yeon Ah Nim appealed to all members to unite on the anniversary of Hyo Jin Nim’s passing to the spirit world when she spoke about the topic of achieving unity while working together as a team. You can re-listen to her sermon recorded at /tworiversvip.com (March 21, 2009).
Members of the True Family called upon us again and again to unite but how much did we invest into this most central responsibility until now? It is our core task to dedicate ourselves to deepening relationships in each of the four realms of heart which we are blessed to develop during our life here on this earth. This means also that we are not only responsible to cultivate three of these precious realms within my own family but also among us as members of the Unification Movement.
What do we invest concretely for this very central purpose? What moves our hearts to unite as true brother and sister, as true husband and wife, as true parent and child? On one hand we have the deep longing in our original mind to experience such relationships to the fullest -- and on the other we have our own personal fallen nature hindering us to establish truly loving relationships as a reality because we judge others, because we close our hearts towards other children of our Heavenly Father.
Yes, this is a reality. If you feel some rebellion inside against such an evaluation then it is a sure sign that improvement in this respect is needed in one’s own heart because a humble soul listens to others with an open mind, trying to understand the other person with the desire to find out if what others are stating is true or not. To the contrary an arrogant attitude -- however hidden it may be -- moves us to react to others critically with a closed mindset, not free to look for common understanding but rather wanting to keep some distance to others, judging them internally…
There is no need to explain what is going on in one’s heart if we are challenged because we experience it again and again. The important question is whether or not we are successful in walking the way of overcoming, of going beyond fallen reactions in favor of cultivating the originally destined path of true love which embraces even the worst enemy and sacrifices oneself for the sake of this person’s happiness.
In which cases are we re-acting in this way? Into how many people are we investing ourselves with the readiness to give up our own joys for the sake of their happiness? Our conscience knows the right answer. Through my lines I would like to encourage you once again to take the time for a thorough check up of one’s soul because what is in our hearts -- what we keep there - stays with us for a long, long time.
With one word: No more judging others in the form of excluding them or distancing ourselves from them but only trying to find a way to establish unity. This is the way we are called to walk as members of the extended True Family. At times it is a painful path on which bitter tears cannot be avoided. Our True Parents have been victorious on this heavenly course and now it is up to each one of us to achieve true victories of heart again and again, especially in those circumstances where we are challenged to our limits.
Wishing that we all grow closer together until we are one with a singular purpose and vision based on our having overcome any hidden forms of building walls in our hearts and minds,
I remain sincerely yours,
Nikolaus