Let Me Be The One

Nikolaus Beutl
October 22, 2009

My dear brothers and sisters,

The ones among you who have taken already the time to read In Jin Nim’s address on October 11, or even had the chance to listen to her directly, are familiar with what she said about our True Mother on that occasion. In Jin Nim had a long conversation with her mother where she asked about what True Mother prayed primarily in her life.

In Jin Nim described her answer as something that was incredibly moving, and at the same time electrifying: “Ever since I was a 17-year-old bride marrying your father, there was one constant theme throughout my life. I always prayed to Heavenly Father, Let me be the one to restore all the difficulties of humanity. Let all the difficulties and suffering end with me. Let me digest it all, Heavenly Father. Let me be the one who suffers. Let me be the one who perseveres. Let me be the one who overcomes. I want the suffering to end with me so that my children can have a better life.”

Upon hearing this In Jin Nim thought: “This is the heart of a mother. You are willing to die over and over and over again for the sake of your kids. My mother has died over and over and over for the sake of her children and for the sake of our movement. Here is Father, on his 9-hour Hoon Dok Hae marathon, and Mother is right there. When my father cannot sleep, she cannot sleep. When my father needs her to go somewhere, she has to be there. So her life has truly been a life of sacrifice and of suffering. This is a woman who, if anybody has a right to complain, would have the greatest right to complain. But in front of the kids, in front of her bigger family, and in front of our American movement, she never utters a malicious word. She's always there to encourage, always there to teach the children how incredible their father is, how incredible we are to be born at this time.”

In Jin Nim further described the attitude of her beloved mother: “I’m not going to let my children suffer. I will suffer on their behalf. I will sacrifice on their behalf.” And she added: “Even as we speak, she's sacrificing, she's giving of herself. So it's very difficult for me as a daughter to look at this woman whom I call my mother and not start to cry because she has carried herself so well, with so much dignity and confidence in knowing who she is - but, at the same time, just as my father said earlier, with the desire to work for the betterment of humanity.”

We are all well familiar with the life changing experience our international president Hyung Jin Nim had when the 7 deaths and resurrections were revealed to him. He was very deeply moved by the realization of what our True Father had to go through, especially what kind of heart he has with the readiness to suffer himself so that the children do not have to be in pain any more. This realization gave him e.g. the strength to go himself through the torture of the 21 000 bow condition for the sake of the growth of our movement -- that more children of God can find their way back home to their Creator.

Through In Jin Nim we learn more about the truly sacrificial heart of True Mother after Hyung Jin Nim has made us more deeply aware of the incredible heart of our True Father. Based on this foundation of a profounder consciousness of the totally selfless heart of our True Parents we are each called as their children to make such an attitude our own so that every one of us can also say with a ready heart: “Let me be the one…”

In the above quoted sermon In Jin Nim said: “There is a wonderful thing called living for the sake of others or being able to understand from another person's perspective what that person is going through. In English, that word is empathy -- being able to empathize with another person's particular situation, or that person’s difficulty or suffering. Caring, being able to put yourself in another person's shoes, is what helps someone become a good person.”

The challenge put in front of us through the testimony of these two exemplary True Children about their parents is to take it to our hearts and to respond to it wholeheartedly with the desire welling up in our souls: “Let me be the one to…” What the three dots stand for may vary to a certain extent individually according to the calling we feel in our hearts but on the whole it expresses our readiness to walk the same sacrificial path as our True Parents did.

Of course this task lay before us since we decided to join our movement, since we realized that True Father and True Mother are the True Parents of Mankind. How well each one of us did so far in following in their footsteps may differ greatly but still from their viewpoint they know that there is a great gap between them and us as our True Father has told us repeatedly. This means that there is much room for improvement on our side in respect to making the attitude of our True Parents our own.

While writing these lines a mail reached me from one brother who described my previous reflections as “heartistic and profound messages of God and True Parents' love” before he shared the following lines: “Truly, True Parents' outer skin, image, or ‘body’ is stained by our fallen nature. Our inadequacies are not just something we say, ‘Oh, sorry Father, I'm not enough...’ and moving right along, continue in the same bent.

We have tarnished the image of True Parents, namely the Living Body of Christ today. We have damaged the Church, the Body of Christ, as the True Church has always been the Body of Christ, even though it never was pure, never was perfect, never was flawless, never was according to God's desire, even now...

Well, through all this, we have to realize that, as Jesus Christ in His way at His time was a Perfect Image and Incarnation of God -- so, likewise, True Parents now are truly the Perfect Image and Incarnation of God, the ‘Cheon Ji In Cham Bumo Nim’, ‘True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Mankind’, or ‘God who becomes fully one in the substance of Heaven, Earth and the Human Being’ -- and to realize that, in essence, purpose, ideal and intent that Incarnation is not only True Parents whom we see, but also ourselves and indeed all people, who are destined ultimately to be made or remade in the Image of Christ, ‘for in that day we shall see Him as He is...’ as the Bible says.”

That day had come for Hyung Jin Nim when he had his profoundly moving realization concerning the heart of True Father while it is very difficult for In Jin Nim to look at her mother and not start to cry as she became deeply aware of her incredible heart. For some of us that day when we clearly recognize the true hearts of our Parents has dawned already but it is important that we all realize in the depths of our hearts and souls what kind of attitude they have preserved and strengthened all throughout their life-course.

We have heard and seen a lot in this respect. It is not really a lack of knowledge that is our problem but a lacking heart and ability to empathize with God and True Parents that has been a certain hindrance for us to become one with our Parents. Now as more of their children have come to the forefront as living examples of inheriting their Parents hearts it is also time for us as the Cain children to unite with our Abel, the True Children, learning from them the good points which they have developed in their life so far, and perfecting them in our own lives according to our respective talents.

Sadly the sad things which the above quoted brother spoke shortly about in his letter is not a theory but a historic reality which calls for deep repentance on our side and a strengthening of our desire to become worthy representatives of God and the True Parents of Mankind. As we recognize their value more clearly it is also important that we become more aware of our own position and value as holy sons and daughters of God, an attitude about which Father spoke especially in the well known speech entitled How to Gain Spiritual Help which he offered on November 27, 1978.

In response to my recent letters one brother shared: “What I want to write to you now is about the topic you wrote in the last couple of mailings about ‘reaching perfection’. They come to my wife’s email and sometimes we talk about them together. This question of reaching perfection has been in my mind since several months very intensively. And at the moment it is pretty much on the top of my priorities that I am internally working on.

Based on the following references I would like to give you my idea about what is meant by perfection in the Divine Principle, i.e. coming to God’s direct dominion, or fulfilling the First Blessing, which, in my opinion, all refer to the same thing. Maybe you remember when we were driving in the car, that I told you about the book A Course in Miracles, which is a book channeled by Jesus. In this book Jesus says (in my opinion, correctly) that we should discover our inner holiness. There are Lessons in the book that have titles like: ‘I walk with God in perfect holiness’, ‘God speaks to me all through the day’, ‘God goes with me wherever I go’, ‘My holiness is my salvation’, ‘There is nothing my holiness cannot do’, ‘My holiness blesses the world’, ‘I am surrounded by the Love of God’, ‘The Son of God is my Identity’, etc, etc. altogether 365 lessons like this.

The reason why I think it is important for us to understand these sayings is because Jesus already reached perfection in his own person 2000 years ago. We don’t need to ‘invent’ it again. It was accomplished in Jesus’ person; the only thing that has to happen is that he has to communicate it to us, and then we can benefit from his victory. Actually I believe that True Father should have come on the foundation of our having already attained perfection based on Jesus’ teaching. But because Jesus was crucified the whole message of Christianity came to be his death and crucifixion rather than the inner victory he provided as having reached his own individual perfection. This message was totally lost. It was never a part of Christian message. The only Christian message has been that we are forgiven sinners.

In my opinion, the Course in Miracles is a channeled message to put the record straight about what his real message was, i.e. our inherent holiness. Also, if we do not see ourselves as holy, the Blessing itself does not make much sense, because the basic message of Blessing is that ‘as mature men and women’ (which presupposes us having reached our inner perfection) it is now our turn to exercise our inner holiness as a couple and as a family. This is an enormous pronouncement and recognition of our holiness.

So my point is that the perfection that we are longing for, is all about pursuing and coming to discover our inner holiness, which is our true nature. This is also the real meaning of "aju" i.e. that God resides in us. It is not just a new ending of our prayer; it should be something that we see in ourselves as our inner reality.”

With these lines I would like to close this letter in the hope that each one of us can recognize not only his or her own value and holiness more profoundly than ever but also see it in our brothers and sisters, especially in our beloved True Parents. Unless we advance on this inner level we will not see the longed for outer growth and expansion of our movement.

May we all open our hearts more widely to allow our Heavenly Father and Mother to touch us in the deepest realms of our souls so that based on a divine love burning in our hearts we will have the strength to go completely beyond our ego and fallen nature with only a pure and unstained heart, thoroughly washed clean in tears of repentance, remains in us as temples of God in whom His spirit dwells.

This is my prayer at this time as we approach the anniversary of Young Jin Nim’s passing into the spirit world as a holy offering because we have fallen short in our responsibility to protect the True Children while their Parents sacrificed themselves and their families for us,

Sincerely yours,

Nikolaus