What is faith? Until now, there have been many definitions of faith. From the viewpoint of the Principle, however, faith is the recovery of original relationships. In other words, the fall was the severance of relationships. The fall cut off the relationship between God and humanity, relationships among people and between people and nature. Faith is the recovery of the original order. How should I evaluate the degree of my sin or whether I have lived a year well or not? I can evaluate myself by no other measure than to what degree I have recovered an amicable relationship or to what degree I have lived in a way that severs relationships.

Whenever I think of this definition of faith, I feel that "church president" is an awesome title for someone to hold. Had I not taken the position of church president, I would surely have better relationships than I do now. Many times, actually, I see relationships broken just because of my position. Sometimes I feel uncertain. Whenever I see a regional leader, I ask myself how I should relate with him. Whenever I receive church leaders and people with public missions, and find that their actual result is not keeping pace with the huge providential demand, I want to create a bridge to help them cross. I often feel concerned over whether I should scold them or encourage them. When we think that the restoration of relationships is the ultimate purpose of faith, actually, none of us can help feeling fearful.

Who in the world am I? Father asked that in the words we read. He meant that who we are is defined through our blood lineage. Also, he meant that when we look closely at a nation, who we are in relation to it will become evident; and that when we see centered on the Unification Church, what kind of person we really are will emerge. The point is, however, that most people think centered on themselves. If somebody merely says something about them, they feel bad and if their rights are violated in the least way, they become upset.

Father said that what is most important in defining ourselves is to decide what is good and bad when we consider ourselves in light of the public environment. Doing that is a valuable exercise.

True Parents are asking us to regard self-examination as the central task in this era: working out the meaning of our existence with public standards and determining our value based on public criteria. In other words, on the question of what to put in the central axis in restoring relationships, he told us to place public matters in the central axis and thereby work toward the recovery of that relationship. Our relationship with the world is certainly meaningful. What is more important, however, is how much of a relationship we have to the public providence that heaven has established. It seems to me that what we are called upon to do at this time is to conclude this year with relationships that True Parents can be happy with.

Dear members, what do we have to offer that would console True Parents? Would it be possible for us to console them by doing lots of work? There is a limit to our ability. Though we are not doing lots of work and are not fulfilling our responsibility, True Parents will certainly remember us if we are connected to them in heart.

Recently when I see True Parents, I find they are soft-hearted. They are very warmhearted people, brothers and sisters, but more often than before, there are moments nowadays when they become soft-hearted. There are two things that seem to bring this on. When they are together with elder members-on a boat for example-and talk about the trials they endured in the early days of the church, True Parents listen to them and their hearts melt. They say, "Yes, that was a really difficult time we went through." There is certainly a bond of heart there. Even though we have not done anything important yet and have not fulfilled our responsibility, there is significance to a relationship that brings our life into an exchange of heart with True Parents.

They have another soft spot-something else that seems to touch their hearts. That is meeting international families. Why? How difficult was it for these members to marry people from a different country? What kind of experiences have they gone through? True Parents' hearts are often moved. They invite many members to the house in Hannam-dong for Hoon Dok Hae. When international couples are invited it stretches on for longer than usual. True Parents want to say more to them. One day, some Japanese members came and True Parents wouldn't let them go. They invited them for breakfast and even lunch before finally letting them go. What am I trying to say? For the sake of God's will, they came to Korea in their quest to follow True Parents, speaking a different language and not having any relatives here. True Parents have been moved by their sacrifice.

Brothers and sisters, we have to live inside other people to develop a bond of heart. Relationships can be restored when we share experiences. If a person's situation is different from our own, they are strangers to us though we may be sitting down together. How do we define shikgu? We do not use the term "member" but rather shikgu [literally a "mouth to feed," i.e. someone you eat with-a family member]. We don't use the term that means "fellow believers," but, rather, shikgu. But would we be shikgu just because we eat together? It means we share the same situation and are in a position to understand one another's hearts in any circumstances.

Beloved brothers and sisters, each organization in this world is what people make of it. Religions are no exception. Governmental organizations and all others are made by people. There is, however, one "organization" that is not created by people. What would that be? It is our blood lineage. The blood lineage is governed by heaven; humankind cannot alter it by any means.

Though an elder brother is rich and a younger brother is poor, or the elder brother is a religious leader and the younger brother is not, if they understand each other's situation they are shikgu. Our effort to create a shikgu community is to recover the original relationship from heaven in which our circumstances are mutually understood. That is our life and our community of faith. Then, we have to reflect, as this year ends, on how we have lived this year for such a true community of shikgu and how we have lived the year to understand each other vertically and horizontally.

Last week, I had a meeting with Ambassadors for Peace as we bid farewell to the old year and welcomed the new. We held events and toured around the whole country for a week. It was an opportunity to clarify their mission and strengthen the Ambassadors for Peace Association.

We needed to photograph and videotape this event to record it in history, for the Completed Testament Magazine [a church news video] and for a report to True Parents, but the camera crew did not come. I waited and waited, but they didn't appear. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Once the meeting was over, that was it. Why hadn't they come? I was just sitting there boiling inside. As soon as the event was over, I called. I asked the brother who was responsible, "Why on earth did no one come to photograph the event?" He explained that the crew had misunderstood the location, so they had gone to the wrong place.

I was very upset in the beginning, but after listening to their story, I understood they had been eager to come, but there had been a mistake. I felt very sorry for them. I realized that missing the event had been a painful experience for them.

We make mistakes as we go about our lives on earth. Yet we have work to do for the providence of God. Most important, though, are the bonds of heart we develop. If we break those bonds, it amounts to sin and we are held back by that.

How can we regain a bond of heart? The first condition is to develop a feeling of shared circumstances, to put ourselves in the other's position, or, to live a life oriented toward Cain. If I think of myself as Abel or as the church president, I cannot empathize with another person and his situation. If I think of the other person, and that we are shikgu, I can attend him as my subject and empathize with his circumstances.

In this respect, those who are in a higher position are in a fearful place. Those in Abel's position are liable to feel dread, so those who are in Cain's position are relatively happy! If we were to look at Abel and Cain through an institutional framework, the church president, regional leaders and senior members would all be Abel. If we look at them through the framework of heart, however, who is Abel? Those who have more love are Abel. Not the church president, but those who love the church are the master of love and become Abel. We can become Abel in the true sense of the word only when we live a life oriented toward Cain.

That's basically what Father said today. In order to receive public recognition that he is good, he needs to live a sacrificial life by working for others. Sacrifice and service. In general, one could say that the public law of the universe is such that it will protect those who sacrifice themselves for the sake of the whole and get rid of those who hate sacrifice and pursue their own interests rather than those of the whole. Therefore, we may say that good people are those who live for the sake of others and it is good to sacrifice oneself and work for others.

We need to ask ourselves if we are living lives of sacrifice for the sake of the whole. Are we hoping that everything will come under our own realm of dominion or are we living so that we can become part of that everything? In other words, are we self-centered or other-centered? If we have lived this year in a self-centered way, we will have destroyed many bonds of heart in the course of its passing. If we have led our life for the sake of others, we would have restored many bonds of heart in the past year and become wealthy people-like a fig tree heavy with fruit.

There are many beautiful things in this land. Love is beautiful. Flowers are beautiful as well. However, what do you think is the most beautiful thing? Probably the most beautiful thing is reconciliation. Love is for people who like to meet each other, so that should be easy. Reconciliation, however, is for people who don't like to meet each other and resist coming together in unity. It is thus, in a sense, the most beautiful thing.

There are many beautiful stories to be found in the Bible. There are moving scenes of reconciliation. Esau and Jacob were in an antagonistic relationship, but doesn't their unifying generate dramatic beauty? When the prodigal son, who has cut off his relationship with his father and left home comes back and is united with his father and they hug each other, how beautiful that is! On the Korean peninsula, when those from the North and the South hugged one another, the world applauded. The fruit of our life lies in the recovery of relationships, reconciliation centered on heaven.

As we conclude the year, I hope that we think over those matters that are still unresolved and reflect on ourselves once again. Also, as the church president I hope for true reconciliation with our beloved members. There must be those who have been rebuked by me over the course of the past year, or regional leaders who were singled out by me for having failed to fulfill their responsibilities. I would like to ask all of you to forgive me. I ask for reconciliation with you.

Dear members, I sincerely hope that this week as you conclude this year in relationship with your families, shikgu and, further, your relatives and the world, you put heaven's circumstances at the center and experience a festival of true reconciliation. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we cannot but meditate again on how important a providential year this was, with True Parents at the center of things. Since the fall of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, You have not been able to become a True Parent to us. You are the True Creator, but have not enjoyed royal authority. With True Parents coming on earth and restoring people who were suffering, You became our real Parent and became the Creator of the original creation through establishing Your nation and royal authority on earth. When we think that 2001 was the historic year during which Your bitterness (han) was resolved, we must reflect once again that this year was a festive year, a year of liberation and, Father, a beautiful year of reconciliation.

It is the second Sunday of December. True Parents have given us Your word. We have to once again check over how much of our life has been fruitful as we have spent this year in attendance of You both in name and reality, and have to show that we are true children following

True Parents. True Parents have at times explained about the fig tree that bore no fruit and was ultimately cursed. Heavenly Father, please guide and lead us to reflect on ourselves and on how much abundant fruit we have gathered this year.

We always shout "True Parents," but please allow us to look back on whether we now have a bond of heart with them. Centered on True Parents, we have received the blessing, and also become central blessed families who have received the registration blessing.

Father, please let us check if, in keeping with the status of the providence, our life has, in relation to a community of real love and reconciliation centered on heaven, contributed to our families becoming families that fit into such a community. Heavenly Father, now we have received the grace of tribal messiahship. Once again, we find that the fruit of our destined providential task-which is to establish our tribe correctly and build Your nation on earth-is us. Please guide and lead us so that we can check whether we have received heaven in the core of our hearts and become central figures of a community of true reconciliation.

Heavenly Father of love, True Parents have brought us together first in the name of a shikgu community in order to realize one human community. Please guide and lead us so that this can be a precious week in which we can reflect again on whether we have realized that unified shikgu community in our church, centered on the church leaders, and also on what we have done to bring that about.

Heavenly Father of love, we confess we are always in awe. We are reminded again that we should not be insufficient at all in front of Heaven and True Parents, in front of history and in front of the spirit world and our descendants.

Loving Heavenly Father, we must reflect on what kind of age are we living in. The providential time has come in which the entire universe has to be unified, and has to realize its true character. We can't avoid the realization that we are the ones who stand at its center. Please bless us so that we can build an ideal as providential central figures that are called forth in this providential era.

I pray and hope sincerely that You will supervise and guide all Unificationist families so that this week can become a week of liberation and festivity, filled with reconciliation and love.

I offer and report all of this in the name of Hwang Sun-Jo of a central blessed family. Amen.

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