The Words of the Hernandez Family
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The Words of the Hernandez Family |
1) First of all, good morning! I just want to express my sincerest gratitude to our National Pastor Rev. In Jin Moon for this incredible privilege. And her expression of trust, in my heart, and in the hearts of the other District Pastors, who have spoken or are yet to speak.
2) I really want to dedicate my sermon today to our elder brother Hyo Jin Nim, who envisioned this place being filled with people who can glorify God through music. Amen! Aju! His fourth anniversary, of his ascension, was yesterday. Truly I am so grateful that I can deliver this sermon. My title today is "Ideality, Loving Life through Bringing Our Ideals into Reality."
3) I've got to give some shout-outs, otherwise I would be very remiss as a District Pastor. I don't know if you know my district, District 9. It's pretty vast. It goes from Yellowstone National Park down to the Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf of Mexico, from the Mississippi River and Arkansas to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. So I've gotta give shout-outs to the Love family in Laramie Wyoming, to Mike and Wendy Stoval, state leaders in the great family in Salt Lake, to Rev. Michael and Shigeko Hentrich and the Colorado family, Rev Rick and Janis Schnor, the New Mexico family in Albuquerque, to Rev June and Eiko Orikasa and the Oklahoma family, (it's a lot of families) to the Arkansas family under John and Asai Jackson, and the Texas family under Rev Hidiyuki and --- Sakai, to the wonderful city leaders in Houston – Rev Brewer, in Austin -- Rev. Ken Morgen, in San Antonio – Dave Rogers, in Dallas – Rev Killy, and in El Paso – the Rodriguez family.
4) We are a huge district. It's very hard to get around. And yet through all the distance we have some great ministries going on. Lovin' Life has given us such a boost. I want to give a real shot-out to the Albuquerque youth. They have been there since two hours before service. They've been doing that for two years, coming to service for two hours before, practicing. They have a great Albuquerque Lovin' Life Band! Then they double as the ACLC youth choir. They go out to churches and celebrate the anniversaries of ministers' churches. They are the most sought out commodity in the ACLC scene in Albuquerque. I want to give a shout-out to the Dallas Sunday service team that comes an hour early. They've been doing this for more than a year. They are so dedicated and they have been growing, college age to middle-aged kids. They are coming to church because they really want to own their church. Amen? Aju? And a great group of young guys that have been developing a ministry called DC Crew – they're break dancers. You got to see them sometime. I couldn't bring them, but they are so hot. They are great!
5) Now I have a long overdue shout-out. It might sound strange, and I know we're not at Mother's Day yet. I want to give a shout-out to all the awesome sisters in our movement. I had such a privilege in my, almost 40 years, in this movement – to work with sisters from all different nations and backgrounds, and, you know who you are. How much you touched me. How much you poured into my life, and left your legacy. I've always sought to do the same to people I see, through my life. Brothers, come on I want to hear it for our sisters, our mothers, our wives, our daughters!
6) You know, another important thing about this weekend, this March 17 weekend, today is the 18th, this is the fifth anniversary of our True Father's historic Pacific rim speech in Kona Hawaii. And I don't know if you read that speech many many times as he asked us to, but very central to that speech – of course is his warning how the Pacific Rim needs to be made safe and secure, but more than anything is his call to women to rise, the era of woman. Let's hear it for the era of woman! We've always said it's paradoxical, but we are the elder son nation, but at the helm is an elder daughter. But I am so happy and I'm so proud of that.
7) Another reason I want to call attention to our mothers, our wives, our daughters, and sisters – is that just a few days ago, on March 15, our True Mother was inaugurated as the chairperson of the board of the Sun Moon Educational Institute. Did you hear about that? Yes! And in her very graceful way, our True Mother said that neither democracy nor communism is the answer, but we must open a new era. She called that era the Era of Heavenly Love, or heavenly emotion. And she called for the Sun Moon Institute to lead the way in providing education that fosters and promotes a culture – she said of – harmonious interaction, communication, and interdependence. Wow! If our True Mother is not the embodiment of all those things, what is she?
8) Yesterday as the plane was flying in from Texas to New York, the way the plane came in I could look out the window and I could see parts of Brooklyn, I could see Manhattan. As we were flying over Brooklyn I looked down and I could see trees in blossom. I could see pink trees and white trees. Brothers and sisters there is an irreversible spring upon us. Amen? But it made me think, can we see the signs, the signs of an irreversible cosmic spring? Our True Father and True Mother are marching to that day which is Foundation Day, the day of origin.
9) And, I am very concerned – cosmic spring is coming. As our National Pastor has spoken to us many many times, we of the first generation, we hunkered down and we survived. But quite honestly we haven't thrived. We haven't. In many cases we've been in hibernation within our caves. And the fear struck me, I looked down and saw that beautiful spring coming. True Parents have declared an incredible spring to come and last for eternity. But am I, are we hibernating in the caves? Are we going to come out of the cave?
10) Brothers and sisters, we've striven too long and too hard to miss this cosmic spring. Rev. Cotter, just two weeks ago, on March 4, called us to march forth with the foundation initiative. And almost a year ago, almost a year ago to this day, our pastor, Rev In Jin Moon asked us to be all in, to jump completely in. And just this past True God Day our True Father extolled the virtue of total dedication, life or death dedication. But what's amazing is he likened it to the birth pains and the glory that mothers go through in childbirth. Amen?
11) You may wonder, what does this have to do with ideality? Well actually, growing up I was one of those cockeyed optimist. But actually I was pretty grounded as an optimist. And for me, I thought I had coined the word, ideality, but later on I found it in Webster's dictionary and it didn't mean what I wanted it to mean. It means a person who kind of is the contrary of reality, reality being the person who accepts the facts as they are, and values as they are, and things as they are. But I was the kind of young person that dreamed that we can have a world centered on true love, that we can have a world where altruism was our state of thinking and being.
12) It has really defined me, but I feel like I need to go back and look at that time and I want to share that with you if I may, share a little bit about how I came to be a part of this church family and also how Jesus and God led me to True Parents.
Jerry
Lewis
13) From about the age of nine (I was raised Catholic), and I was having my confirmation. (And for me it was a very serious time.) It was funny – I wanted to be Jerry Lewis and at the same time I had this passion for a world that was so much better. I would devour encyclopedias; I would listen to the World News at 6 PM with Peter Jennings and Walter Cronkite or whoever was there.
14) And I was the kind of person at that age that I really felt Jesus had given his life for me – and what better way for me to give back to Jesus than to live a life that was worthy of giving him joy and worthy of giving him satisfaction. And I looked around in the Catholic Church and I looked around with my friends in other churches, and I just never felt they were calling us to really be Christ-like. But I felt that since he had said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do," and it was incumbent upon me, and all of us, that once we do come to understand what we did, then we would want to work everything, into letting him multiply himself through us. And so at the age of 9 and 10 I asked him if he would take over my life and live my life, vicariously with me. But there was this bugging thing, every now and then he would ask me – he would say, "Mark, if you lived 2000 years ago would you have been able to recognize me. Would you have been able to see me? And if you saw me and if you heard me, Mark, would you have known? And if you had known would you have latched onto me and held on to me, no matter what?"
15) From the age of 9 until 19 that question would come back. And every time it came back I would be made so serious by it and really feel, "would I be able to recognize you, Jesus?"
16) We hear a lot about bullying and persecution in schools. It might sound strange, but actually almost every day of my elementary school life, and almost every day of my middle school life – I mean almost every day, I would get called names. I would get called names and I would be persecuted. And I just thank God so much that because of the sweet closeness of Jesus, that I could go to him. You might wonder what were they were calling me. Well I was raised up in Texas and I was raised up in neighborhoods that were largely all Anglo. And I was Mexican. I am Mexican.(There are a bunch of other things thrown in, as most Americans are) but my name, Hernandez, identified me as a Mexican. And so I got treated as one. In schools where they were mostly Anglo, you were a standout if you were Hernandez. Such a common Spanish name. Also I was quite effeminate. I didn't realize I was, but everybody said, "Hey you walk like a girl, you talk like a girl, you do this like a girl, you do that like a girl." Boy, I was like, it made me self-conscious. It made me wonder what was I?
17) But I am so grateful to Jesus. Because when I went and asked him, "well, Jesus, what do you think? Should I get in front of a mirror and change the way I walk and change the way I talk and change the way I do things?" And I was so flabbergasted by his answer. He said, "No Mark, just be yourself. Be yourself. Because if you worry about how you walk and how you talk and how you look, you are going to go crazy. Just be yourself. Think about it," he said. He said, "people that have to go around calling other people names, bullying other people, have probably been bullied themselves, have probably had someone calling them names, someone denigrating them – and they don't know how to deal with it and what they are doing is passing it on to you." He asked me to please forgive them. He asked me to pray for them. And I did. And I probably could not be standing here if I had not had that sweet closeness.
18) My father gave me advice much like our National Pastor's advice. He said, "Son, they call you Mexican? You show them your excellence, excellence inside and your excellence outside." And so that became my thing. I really wanted to show people that you can't pigeonhole someone, you can't put someone in some kind of classification because they are Hernandez, or because they are black, or because they are Asian, or whatever, or because they're an Unificationist or a Moonie. Right?
A
Christmas Pageant
19) I had the privilege in sixth grade, I was the first Mexican-American to be the narrator of the Christmas pageant. It was a big thing, to narrate the Christmas pageant with all the scenes, all the angels dropping down, and all that stuff. But I was the narrator of it and I took it to heart and I did my best. And as I was coming down the steps of the stage, my dad had not been able to come because my dad was working two jobs to provide for us what most people made with one job – my dad worked 16 hours a day for almost 30 years to provide for our family. But a Mexican American gentleman came up and walked to me and tears were coming down his face, pouring down his face. And he said, "That was beautiful. That was wonderful!" And I thought, maybe he was overcome by the message or something. And he said, "You showed them! You showed them! You showed them!"
20) It was my first experience to realize that my life could represent more than just me, or more than just my family. That our lives could represent much more, and that people were looking at me, and that call to be excellent, internal and external, was a very very important call. When I heard In Jin Nim make it her sounding board so often I thought, "yes! Yes! Yes!" Our God is excellent. Amen! Our True Parents are excellent, amen! Our National Pastor is excellent! The Lovin' Life band is excellent!
21) You know, sometimes people say, "oh that music. How can you pray to that music?" But I love the music. I love the music! I don't know how many weeks ago, but there is one week when they were singing, "I Want to Know What Love Is" Wow! I was already in a prayerful mood, but wow in that song, "I want to know what love is" I started trembling, I started shaking in my seat there in Dallas, watching it, not even here, live in New York. All I could feel was God saying, "I want to know what love is. I want to feel what love is. I want to be in you. I want you to be in me." I could not stop crying. I know it sounds like a revolutionary, strange concept. It may be a heretical concept – that God wants to know what love is. But love requires relationship. Love requires that beautiful give-and-take, giving and receiving.
22) You know, when I was about 13 or 14 Jesus came to me and laid another one on me. He said, "I want you to stay pure until further notice." I said, "Jesus, did you know we are in the midst of a sexual revolution. Free sex is everywhere!" He said, "No, I want you to stay pure. And I've got some reasons for that. And I want you to pray about that. I want you to search about that." And so I did as he told me.
23) He said, "Look at the state of humanity, look at the state of the world, look at the state of marriage and draw some conclusions." And I prayed. And what came to me, and what also he led me to see, was that Adam and Eve, or whoever our first ancestors were, must have sired children when they were quite emotionally immature, when they were not ready to love with a total heart. And because they could only love conditionally, they passed on children who could only love conditionally. That Adam and Eve became like a ceiling or wall that we human beings have never been able to pierce because we never had a living example of true parental love. He helped me see that Adam and Eve never perfected brother and sister love. And he said to me, "Mark, until you can perfect brother sister love, I am not going to open the door for marital love. So your homework is that you got to be able to see every woman as a mother figure, a daughter, a sister, grandmother – you've got to see them in those eyes before I grant you to see them as your wife.
24) You know, it made so much sense to me. It made sense to me that if you did not perfect brother sister love, how could you go on to really love someone totally as husband and wife. Well, I got excited. I'm a pretty excitable person. And I decided, I had a close knit group of friends, and we were kind of on the nerdy side, poets and stuff, and I shared with them, those that I thought I could share with, one by one. And I said, don't you think that, instead of just rushing into what everyone has always rushed into, all the history of humankind has seen people rushing into sex, rushing into relationships, rushing into passion – without first of all developing their capacity to love, developing their capacity to respect, and see the incredible value in the other human being, to see God in all people? About five or six kids – we made a pact, we sign a pact (not a suicide pact), we made a pact to stay pure, to stay celibate.
25) Fast forward, I'm 19, it's my 19th birthday. I was at home, I just finished my first year college. And Jesus had been laying some heavy things on me. Now he is telling me that, "if he were to come now would I be able to recognize him? If I recognized him would I follow him? Would I give him my life?" And I seriously told him, "Yes, I would give you my life. I will give you my life." He told me though, if I was going to bring more people on board, to bring more people into living a life of ideality, taking our ideals, these invisible ideals and bringing them into reality, ideals of true love, ideals of altruism, ideals of really living for the sake of others, that I had to develop an ideology." "Me, develop an ideology?" But I stayed up nights trying to figure out the ideology, to think of something, because he said it can't be all just character driven, they can't be based on your personality your verve or whatever, it's gotta be based on an ideology. And that ideology will have to outlive you, and people will buy into that ideology. And I was like, "wow, how can I find an ideology? How can I come up with an ideology?"
26) And then on the afternoon of my 19th birthday, a girl came by our house selling candles for the Unified Family. They didn't have a center in Houston where I lived. They had a center back in Austin where I had gone to school for the first year at the University of Texas on a full scholarship. And I said, "What is the unified family?" Now, Jesus had been telling me you have to build an ideal world of true love. So she says, "We're a movement, and we're working to build an ideal world of true love." I just about fell off, I just about died – "What did you say!? What did you say!? You're in a group of people and they are building an ideal world? Wow! That's what I'm all about!" And we stayed there and we talked for about half an hour and I was on cloud nine! Years later she would tell me that she was driving and that she got lost and she just picked this neighborhood. But I know better!
27) I was home for that summer to get a job so that I could make some personal spending money. She told me that they were going to have a workshop on Labor Day weekend. My birthday is in May, this Labor Day weekend back in Austin they are having a workshop – but I kid you not, all summer long I could not take my mind off the idea that I was going to be with other people who had the same passions as myself. I was going to be with people who wanted to build an ideal world, people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and to sweat and to give everything to build an ideal world.
28) Well, I got to the workshop, and I was a pretty arrogant fellow. After all those things Jesus had downloaded to me, I was pretty arrogant, pretty full of it. So I was one of those guests you don't really want to have at a workshop. I was one of those guests who, "why did you bring him?" I kept interrupting the lecturer. God bless you John Doroski! Thank you so much. He is my spiritual grandfather. Thank you John! I must have interrupted him, I don't know how many times. And then I performed the biggest no-no that Unificationists know about. He is about to start the Second Advent lecture and I stood up and I talked to all the other participants in the workshop, "you know what he is about to do you-all, he's about to tell us that Sun Myung Moon is the Messiah." Uh oh! Boy! We had all come there in a van singing songs and stuff. But I was relegated to a Volkswagen with Beatrice Gonzales. I went back to Austin from this wonderful countryside setting in a Volkswagen arguing with this other Mexican-American sister all the way. And when we got back to the center, all the guests had left, but something in my spirit world, something in my heart told me, "Mark, you've got to stay here. You've got something to breakthrough." I love that song Breakthrough. Wasn't that a beautiful song today. Wow! Breakthrough! "You've got something to breakthrough Mark." And the voice said, "These people are much higher than you, Mark. Look at them. Can't you see it?" And I looked around and all I could see were people exuding God's love. And the voice said, "You've got to be humble. You've got to be humble and you've gotta listen for the next thing that man, John Doroski says." He's Just a few years older than me, but I could feel his stature.
29) I heard they're going to have a prayer meeting at 10 o'clock. I was a bad guest, but I begged, "please let me stay for the prayer meeting. Please let me stay for the prayer meeting!" But I could see John go (shrugs). "Is he going to disrupt the prayer meeting somehow?" But, there was one single candle, and one brother began praying. And he began talking to God like a child, like a son of God. And actually, hidden down below, there was a time when I was about seven, before my first communion, I had such a loving relationship with God, and hearing that brother call out to God just broke me down. And, I hadn't prayed in I don't know how many years. You might say, well how did I love Jesus and have contempt for God? I could see clearly that Jesus died for me and lives for me. He was a real person. And he had been already talking to me for such a long time. Our talks were our prayers. But there I was trying to pray to God. What I remember is I said, "God, I don't know if you're really there, but I want to know that you're there. If you're there. If you are real. If you make yourself known to me, and I know I'm not worthy for you to do that, but if you could make yourself real to me, you will have me forever. You will have me forever. I know I blame so much in my life on you, I blame so much in the world on you, but if you could just somehow, even just for a second, show me that you are real, then I will dedicate my life to you."
30) I'm so grateful to God. It wasn't just a second. Who knows, maybe it was just a second, but for me it lasted a long time. I was on the floor. I was sitting on my knees, or maybe Indian style, but suddenly I was in the arms of God. God was rocking me in his arms, putting his love into me. I just began sobbing and weeping like a baby. And God began combing his fingers through my hair. How this happened, I do not know. Maybe on the other side I will get to see it. But every stroke of God's hand in my hair, was like, taking out all this angst, taking out all this junk. And all that was left was me, totally enraptured in the love of God, totally feeling the love of God. And then saying to God, "God, I'm just a 19-year-old nothing. How could you share your love to me so deeply? How can you make yourself so real to me?" I just sobbed and sobbed. It seemed like it went on for a long time. He showed me that my ancestors had actually paid incredible ransom for me. And I cried again when I saw that, when I saw that all my ancestors had poured out all the gold of their heart and all the gold of their actions to bring me to True Parents.
31) I asked him, right then in that experience, as to why in this place did you wake me up, why here in this place did you show me yourself? You showed me yourself absolutely, I will never doubt you. He said, "I showed you here because my son is here. My son is here and I want you to follow him, I want you to serve him, I want you to attend him."
32) Brothers and sisters I was not brainwashed. I was maybe heart-washed. It was God who testified in my life to True Parents, to True Father. I'm so grateful, because for me, I know that sometimes fellow Christians, they struggle, that we ask them to replace Jesus was true father. No, absolutely! I never felt that struggle. I felt that Jesus brought me, he brought me to this church, he brought me to true parents!
33) You know, we've been doing a lot in the education of clergy and brothers and sisters with the Original Substance of the Divine Principle. It is really new wine for this time that we are in. And, contrary to what we might think, brothers and sisters, it's not just new wine for them out there, and we are excluded. Do you get my drift? It's new wine for us! It's True Father's foundation of victories starting from 2008 at the Hawaii King Garden, pouring out new wine. But you know what? The same rule applies, the rule that Jesus said, you can't pour new wine into old wine skins. You can't pour new wine into old wine skins, you've got to pour it into new wine skins. …
34) I've realized over these past few weeks in the education of clergy and the education of brothers and sisters, we began that March 4, we jumped right into it, Rev Cotter. In the Dallas church we made a determination that for 21 days, each day we would have Divine Principle being taught there. It culminated the first week in a 2-Day workshop. We had about 37 guests at that workshop. What's so amazing is, I have this minister, he was very well raised by Tim Henning in Southern California, and he came to our area. And he is so on-fire with the Original Substance of the Divine Principle, maybe some of you heard of him, Rev. Don Peevee. On his Facebook page he says, "if you don't know the Divine principle you don't know God."
35) And the number one thing he is so on fire about is Shim Jung. He can't pronounce it right. He says "shimshoong! Shimshoong!" But he knows what it means. For him it means that God, God has this irrepressible emotional impulse to feel joy in loving his object partner! And Don is so excited, because he is one of those object partners! And God only has this irrepressible impulse to love him.
36) You know if you look at that definition it's amazing. The emotional impulse, that's irrepressible, to feel joy through loving one's object partner. It's not feeling joy in what the object partner returns. It's to actually feel joy in giving, as our national pastor often says, "Just because. Just because."
37) I was looking at the behest of our National Pastor, we studied "From Good to Great," and it's very interesting. Jim Collins in "From Good to Great" wrote something that I was really struck by and looked at over and over again. Think about it in light of the definition of Shim Jung. And he says, "Those who turn good to great are motivated by deep creative urge and inner compulsion for sheer adulterated excellence for its own sake. Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity in contrast, are motivated by the fear of being left behind." That's quite amazing. A deep creative urge, and inner compulsion that seeks for excellence for its own sake. Sounds like Shim Jung. Sounds like Shim Jung.
38) As a District Pastor and as a Vice Regional Leader before that, I had some moments with True Parents in which I really sat there and I wished the whole American movement could just jump in my body and be there, hearing the things that I hear and experiencing what I hear and experience. And there was a time, I think it was in 2004 or 2005, we were in East Garden and there was Hoon Dok in the morning, and most of the people there were mostly from the American movement, and many of us had been around for a long time. Father started out, looking around, and he goes, "Oh, anybody new here?" And there wasn't anybody new there. And he said, "How many here over 35 years following me?" A few people raised their hand. "How many people over 30?" I raised my hand with a bunch of people. "How many over 25, and how many over 20?" What crystallized in that moment for me was how Father was talking with us and to us. It wasn't a time when he was talking and saying, "Do you understand? Do you understand? You don't understand? Do you understand me!?" It wasn't like that at all. It was like he was talking to friends, talking to people who'd gone the same path as he. And, he said, "all of you, you went looking for in visible things. You went looking for valuable valuable things but they are invisible to everybody, they are almost imaginary to most people. But you set your sights on those things, and made those your priority. Are you glad? Are you glad that you did that?" I was smiling back at father and I said, "Yes father. Yes father, I'm so glad. I'm so glad I took this path. I have no regrets."
39) What's amazing is that about a few months later, it was Thanksgiving. And the Thanksgiving before in 2004 had been a really rotten one for me. I had two sons on STF at the time, so they missed Thanksgiving. And my father was like, "you brainwash them! You brainwash them! They are on that thing what you call, whatever!" It was just a hard one. I really wanted to just walk out of Thanksgiving. But thank goodness my brother-in-law David came to me and held my arm, "calm down Mark, calm down." Well this was one year later. It was about 10 minutes before prayer time for the meal and David comes and gets me, out of the den and takes me to the living room of my parent's house, and along comes his older sister Annie. So Annie and David are in the room with me, and David is the husband to my older sister, Becky, who I love incredibly. And my brother-in-law says to me, "Mark, I want to say something to you. I've had it on my chest for a long time and I just want to tell you." I said, "what is it David, what is it?" He said, "Mark, I respect you so much. I value your life so much. I'm kind of jealous of you. But, you are everything I wanted to be." I was beside myself, trying to figure out what he is talking about. He said, "Mark, Mark, you set your sights, (almost like verbatim) you set your sights on invisible things, on things like true love, and raising a family that can really feel the love of God, working for peace in this world, living an altruistic life. You put that as your first priority. And that's what I wanted to do from the time that I was young. But I didn't do that, instead I followed the path looking for material security, thinking that if I got the material security, I could run back and I could get that spiritual internal security. But it's always eluded me. But when I look at your life, Mark, I am so proud that you are my brother-in-law and I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy, I feel like we have a special family because you are in this family." Who did I owe that to? I owe that to our True Parents. I owe that to Jesus.
40) Some people say it's better to be a realist, it's better to put those material things first. But by this age and this time I'm certain that all of us in this room can say, phooey to that. And that it's really the pursuit of this ideal life with God and our True Parents and our fellow man. But we have much more work to do. You can see it, we have much more work to do.
41) And I am so concerned about, about how our church will have the heart to embrace all kinds of people, to really show love to all kinds of people. We are a pretty narrow place. I had an experience this week that I want to share with you. I was thinking, I had heard from Rev Cotter and of course from our National Pastor, "be ready any time to come to New York." Which we are never. But I kept thinking God will show me some new experiences that might be part of this message, and voilà, last Monday and Tuesday I drove to El Paso with our Korean KEA leader Rev Jin Hyung Lee, and we went to perform and I went to officiate a Seunghwa for an elder Korean sister. She was about 75 years of age, and on the way there Rev. Lee shared with me her story. I thought I knew her story, because we had spoken on the phone many many times. But I guess it was hard for her to communicate with me what her real story was. For me, it blew my mind again about our True Parents.
42) She was part of that kind of Korean economy – the host is a US military base. Surrounding the base there are bars and clubs and all kinds of businesses that cater to the lives of the serviceman – and woman that cater to the serviceman. And she came from southern Korea, from Mok-po, a very historical port city, but she went all the way to a base near Seoul so that she can make money and send it back to her family. And she made money in the way of Mary Magdalene. She said that in the late 60s, praise God, probably it was after the victory of True Gods Day, because she joined in 1970.
43) But, there in the late 60s, Father told members, in Korea, now is the time, now is the time, we've got to reach out to all of God's children. Sin, we all are sinners. We've got to reach out to all of God's children. We have to reach out to those who are really crushed by sin, but want to be liberated from sin. Isn't that the state of all mankind? Isn't that the state of all of us? Whether we were a prostitute or someone that can't control their anger and rage – and so he said, "go out, go out and bring the Mary Magdalenes." I never knew this about Father. I never knew this. But she said that at that time many woman came, and they would just be blown away in the presence of True Father. They would feel this love from God. Pure love coming to them. They were loved in a way they had never been loved. And they gave their lives and they gave their hearts to our True Parents.
44) But even then Father gave them a difficult road. He said to them, "because of your lifestyle, please understand, I can't just bless you in a regular blessing. I can't just bless you. Do you understand?" It's so amazing, these woman understood. This woman understood clearly. He said, "I want you to go and find your spiritual child. Raise him up. Show him about God, show him God's love, show him True Parents' love. Teach him the principle and bring him to the Blessing." This Korean sister did just that. I'm sure it took her a long time but she found an American serviceman, his name is Don Richardson. Don was a trombonist in the Army band. A very simple hearted man. And he had been longing to have a family, but he was so simple and so nerdy he turned most people off. But she loved him and raised him, and by the time I met him about 12 years ago, he just could not stop singing the praises of True Parents. They have one whole wall of the house like a church. They were in El Paso. We didn't have anything in El Paso. And they were right off of Fort (Bliss?).
45) But going back, to be part of her Sunghwa, I felt so honored that I could be at the Seong Hwa of the story that began with our Father saying now is the time. What is the furthest thing in our value system as Unificationists, than prostitutes? What's the furthest thing?
46) To usher in the cosmic spring, to really take this time we have in 2012 – I made a motto for myself this year. And it's, "Mark, unleash your true self in 2012." It doesn't completely rhyme. "Unleash your true self in 2012," to unleash my true self I've really got to practice Shim Jung. I've truly got to practice Shim Jung. We've got to practice this. We've got to pray that we are new wineskins to receive this new wine. We should be so blown away by the concept of Shim Jung. And we should be so blown away that God and our True Parents have saved this precious truth for now.
47) You know, I am so grateful to John Doroski. One of the things he taught us back in those days was, to really have a growing church you have to keep growing inside as a person. And I really believe that.
48) The pulse that I get when I travel in my district, and with my members, is that we have some old fears, we have some old misgivings about this church and about one another, and about the sincerity of others. And we are letting them be barriers and excuses for us to remain in our cave. If we stay in the cave brothers and sisters, we will miss the cosmic spring that we've lived for, that we've hungered for.
49) You know, Shim Jung is not about being objective, it's about being subjective. It's not about something that's conditional, or something that's circumstantial – "Okay, when everything's fantastic and good I will come back to this church and I will invest myself." It's quite the contrary. It's that striving, that inner compulsion to strive for excellence for its own sake.
50) I'm so grateful that three years ago – I say to myself, "Our National Pastor must have already been thinking for quite a long time – as a mother, "what does this church need? What does this movement needs?"" And she came out first and she just listened to us. And she listened to our young people. She listened to what made you buzz and also what made you depressed. Our greatest legacy is that we've been given lives where we can seek for ideals, take those ideals we've been given by God and by True Parents and bring them into reality. It's truly our most precious gift.
51) Brothers and sisters let's not let ourselves be looking backward, let's not let ourselves stay in that cave, otherwise we cannot be a growing church. We've got to get out of the cave, we've got to make ourselves new wineskins. And I know I'm first among those who has to do that. Make myself a new wineskins. Stretch myself. Humble myself. Really commit myself. You know, what's so amazing about the feminine aspect of God, Father has often said that woman actually seem almost closer to God, because they are in that mother's role of loving and loving and loving and loving. And that is why God is so enamored of woman, that God is so in love with our True Mother. Don't you think He is so in love with True Mother?
52) I came out here today, ready to sing some songs, I'm kind of Broadway-esque, a little bit. I was so pleased, a number of months ago when In Jin Nim asked all the District Pastors to perform at Open Mic. Because I believe that music is such a powerful thing.
53) I was in Korea at a Hoon Dok Hae with True Parents about four or five years ago. And suddenly there appeared two old people in the room. They were advanced in age, in their 80s, and they introduce themselves to Father and bowed to Father. Later I found out that his name was Mr. Pak. He had been a high school student with Father, Fathers junior in high school. He came with his wife. There was a leaders meeting going on -- and you couldn't get up to Cheon Jeong Gung on any given day, and luckily that was the day I drew the lottery to go there. One of the experiences, brothers and sisters, where I wish all of you could've just crammed into my body and been there (I don't know how comfortable it would have been.) But, they came forward and told Father that they had always been looking for him. But, dang it, he changed his name. It wasn't Young Myung Moon, he was Sun Myung Moon. Actually they had been trying to convince different church leaders that they knew Father from his childhood. And they were like, "sure, sure." But somehow they finally made it through and were brought to Cheon Jeong Gung. And they came in and the man said, "Father, you are so special. I always wanted to follow you. I always wanted to be with you. You know, when you came back through Seoul,"
54) That time was the time when father had come out of Hungnam, gone to Pyong Yang, gone to Seoul to look for followers. And he went back to that area in southern Seoul where he had been a Sunday school teacher, had gone to school and things, and he found this man. He said, "You came to me and you found me, and I wouldn't follow you. I joined the Army instead. I've always regretted that to this day. I've always regretted Father that I did not follow you, because you are so special."
55) It was so amazing. Father didn't judge him. Father said to him, "hey, do you remember that song we used to sing in high school?" I was like, "what!?" And he starts singing this song. And then Father starts singing with him. And I was crying – wow, if I had been able to go to school with Father, if I had sung songs with Father. But this man, you could see his soul was being healed instantly by Father. Father had never changed. Father is the embodiment of God. Father's heart, it never changed, he wasn't judging him up and down, he just wanted to sing with him. And they sang a beautiful song together. And then Father said, "who's that lady there? Who is that Lady with you? Is that your wife?" And he said, "yes that's my wife." And Father looked at her and said, "Oooh!" And Father recognized that he knew her too. That she was part of that high school. And so, "oh, oh, you're married!" And then Father said, "Remember that song that you used to sing?" Amazing! This is the True Parents of all mankind and they are asking this person, "do you remember that song you used to sing that, like really…" And there I was, "is this real? Is this real?" And actually, I even called Dr. Yang last night to see if it was really real, to see if it was a real memory. Because it was so amazing. But he confirmed it. He said yes, and he actually told me the name of the man, Mr. Pak. And Father began singing with her. Oh my heavens! Our True Father singing with his high school sister. Then all three of them began singing. Oh my God! They all began singing. And there I was, just balling. Because that's what music is, that's what music does. It takes us to places we can't go just by talking.
56) Brothers and sisters I hope you have a great week. I'm going to end with a song, is that okay? It's not an original song. I think it would be too hard for me to sing my original song right now. This was a Hollywood song back in the early 70s. I made it into a song that I dedicate to True Parents and True Father. It's from the musical Applause.
Who is it that we're living for?
Father! Father!
Nothing I know, brings on the glow, like our
Father
you're thinking you're through, that nobody cares
then
suddenly you, hear him calling
and somehow you're in charge again
and it's a ball
Trumpets all sing, life seems to swing and you're
the king of it all
Cause, you've had a taste of, his wonderful
love
Father! Father! Father!
When I was 18, a student at college
in
the campus library, I met a girl full of knowledge
she was pretty
to me, dinner program at seven
I shook my head yes, it tasted like
heaven
It's better than eating, it's better than sleeping
It's
better than living, just for yourself
We work till we're dead, it
ain't for the bread
Cause of our head, like our father
Your
bank account's bare, you're losing your hair (I 'm not)
Then you
hear him
That happy sound rolls over you and just like
that
Everything's right, this is the night (morning)
Love hits
you right where you're at
Cause you've had a taste of, his
wonderful love, love, love, love
Father! Father! Fatherrrrrr!
Thank you
i·de·al·i·ty (d-l-t)
n. pl. i·de·al·i·ties
1. The state or quality of being ideal.
2. Existence in idea
only.