Unification Sermons and Talks |
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by Reverend Joong Hyun Pak |
Forever Young
J. H. Pak
April, 1999
Based on a talk given at the Leaders meeting at National HQ on Tuesday, April 6, 1999
True Father gave us the surprising news in Korea after True Parents Birthday that Parents would next hold a Blessing for 400 million matched couples only! That was big news. However, this is the dispensational course. From the book of Revelation (14:4) we read: These are those who did not defile themselves...for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb.
We have just completed True Mother's speaking tour throughout America. This is a historical victory! A cosmic victory! Not only because it was accomplished by True Parents but also because many blessed ancestors from the spiritual world participated in this tour. There were other incidences of history made during Mother's travels across the country. In Norfolk, Virginia, for example, there is the tomb and Memorial Museum of General Douglas MacArthur. When True Mother spoke in that city, she also visited this historical memorial and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for General MacArthur for what he had done for the sake of the Fatherland.
At the time of True Father's announcement of this speaking tour I was surprised that Father chose to have so many speeches given in America -- 24 cities altogether and five just in the New York region. It showed Father's great support of America and its future. We can be immensely grateful for this.
I feel very proud and appreciative of our members for taking the initiative in all these cities and successfully coordinating the events. Each one was a success. We got good media coverage and True Mother's picture was in some newspapers. This is a great plus for America. We can be proud that with our hands we worked with True Parents to make this kind of history.
Preparations for 400 Million Young Couples Blessing
Now we begin preparations for another great victory -- the upcoming Blessing of 400 million young couples. This is the final phase to the peak of this great year 1999. For this we must prepare ourselves well in order to quickly spread the message to others. If a doctor answers the call of a sick patient, the doctor must know how to heal; if a firefighter responds to the call of a burning house, he must know the techniques for putting out the fire. To begin, we can remind ourselves of the words in Family Pledge #8:
Our family pledges, as we enter the Completed Testament Age, to achieve the ideal oneness of God and humankind in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, thereby liberating the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, by centering on true love.
This is the concluding verse of the Pledge and is also the blueprint for God's work of recreation to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. This is what we have to fulfill this year. Father said: Completed Testament Age means "the completion of the family." To achieve the ideal, do you think Father means we should build 10 additional floors onto our houses? Would this bring completion to our family? When I visited the city of Detroit with True Mother, we saw the factory where they make automobiles. Maybe if they gave away millions of those automobiles people would feel so much joy it would make the Earth the Kingdom of Heaven. Or if we were given so much free food that we gained 20 extra pounds, would this make the Kingdom?
The Kingdom of Heaven is when our lives are centered on God, our spirits are shining and joyful and we are peaceful and happy. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is. Even if we have only a humble house, a humble car and simple food, if we live in an atmosphere of love and peace, this is the Kingdom of Heaven.
God means True, so anything centered on God is True. Love plus God equals True Love. A Family plus God equals a True Family. So everything being centered on God, becoming True, makes Completion. Who can build and establish the Kingdom of Heaven? Noah? Abraham? Moses? Buddha? Confucius? God? No, if God could do it, He would have done it long ago. Rather, it has been prolonged over and over again. Only True Parents can do it. But even they cannot do it alone. The Messiah needs partnership. There is the need for national messiahs, tribal messiahs, family messiahs, individual messiahs, all working together.
The absolute authority is True Parents. Through our marriage ceremony -- the Blessing, under the True Parents and centering on God -- we have the life-giving power to change this fallen world into the Kingdom of Heaven. Now this same benefit is coming to the spiritual world. Spirits there do not have to wait until True Father arrives. No, the world has become one, so everyone is receiving this fulfillment right now.
We have three categories of people involved in the marriage ceremonies: 1) previously married couples; 2) couples who have chosen to be together but are not legally married; and 3) unattached, unmarried people. The first three couples True Father blessed were previously-married couples. They represented Adam's family. There have been other previously-married Blessings. Then the second category of couples that have been blessed are those that live together. This second category represented Noah's family or Jesus' family. The third category to be blessed, the unmarried, or the virgins, represent Jacob's family or the Lord of the Second Advent's family. The first group of 36 couples that Father blessed had all three categories within it.
At the RFK Stadium Blessing there was a simultaneous Spiritual World Blessing; and also at Madison Square Garden and at Seoul Olympic Stadium there were simultaneous spiritual world Blessings. Just recently, on April 13 at Chung Pyung 1.6 billion young people were blessed in the spiritual world. We can now say that in the spiritual world there are more blessed people than there are non-blessed people. More and more the spiritual world is bringing miracles on the Earth and Satan is losing power. They are putting Satan out of a job! He will have to surrender to True Parents. At any rate, he will have to leave the planet Earth and relocate! That is reasonable to say, is it not?
The last dispensation now is the Blessing for the young, unmarried couples -- 400 million of them! This Blessing will be the force to unite the physical world and the spiritual world. True Parents have taken on all indemnity to make this happen and to bring about this age.
Kick-off for the 400 Million Blessing
Korea, Japan and America have failed in their heavenly missions, but True Parents are paying the price so that our nations can once again be in the position to fulfill their heavenly destinies -- that of the father, the mother and the elder son.
As True Mother moves around the world, continuing her speech in many nations, we are feeling victory. In America, Korea and Japan, we had great success so that victory is bound to flow over into other countries, making all nations responsive and a valuable part of a heavenly world family. Other nations are being made into younger brother and sister nations.
True Mother's tour is a "kick off" for the Blessing of the 400 million young people. That is why the Pure Love Alliance rallies were held just prior to Mother's programs in various cities, opening the way for young people to turn to goodness and truth. The media gave good coverage.
There is a tremendous amount of give and take now between the physical and spiritual worlds. So many spirits and so many relatives have been liberated and blessed in the spiritual world through descendants on the Earth. Soon everybody there will be blessed. They will come to help guide the people in the physical world to the Blessing.
Many people (of a certain age) on the Earth are being blessed with those in the spiritual world. This will bring the two worlds together even more speedily. There are so many ways in which the two worlds are becoming one now. We must quickly develop our spiritual senses, then there will be absolutely no separation. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the television stations carried news of the spiritual world everyday. That time will come. Why not!?
With True Mother covering 24 cities in America and the visit of Dae Mo Nim doing liberations in four cities, we can all be very grateful and even excited at this point. So much is happening and we can look forward to some very interesting times ahead, and hard work as well. Personally, I am excited because this gives me the opportunity to "pay back" my parents and grandparents, all of whom are in the spiritual world and all of whom suffered a lot in life because of wartime and separations. They sacrificed for me and now I am grateful to give them this most precious of all gifts -- Liberation and Blessing. We all have our own memories and reasons for being grateful for this time.
True Father has given us the gift of Hoon Dok Hae that we can freely and easily give to the world. We have only to gather the people and read them the Divine Principle from the book, and share with them the Hoon Dok Hae volumes. We are not required to memorize long lectures. Just read to them. They will soon come to feel the satisfaction that comes with "eating" the heavenly words. We can show video tapes as well. This also is Hoon Dok Hae. Keep going like this and people will soon come to an understanding of God and True Parents. The more we read, the sooner the Kingdom will come.
We also have the internet. Let's utilize it. Let's educate through it. Everyday. Hoon Dok Hae and news. How wonderful. Young people are longing for the pure life, a family life and true values. When we hear of tragedies occurring such as the recent one at the high school in Littleton, Colorado, the comments we hear most frequently on the news are: "It is the breakdown of family life; where there is no nurturing, no values, only loneliness and emptiness, then these terrible things happen."
Let's quickly regain our confidence, our trust in heavenly forces. Christianity is opening its doors. We have good foundations and backgrounds. In our movement we have all kinds of Unificationists -- Baptist Unificationists, Presbyterian Unificationists, Catholic Unificationists, Methodist Unificationists, Episcopalian Unificationists, Jewish Unificationists, Islamic Unificationists and others. We are a Unification movement. We are everywhere and from everywhere so let's move forward, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom. We are without excuse. We read a warning in Luke 19:40, I tell you…if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. And the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk said, The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it (2:11). We must feel the urgency to get the Word out quickly, with True Love. We all worship the One God and the One Truth.
Leaders throughout America -- do Hoon Dok Hae at every meeting, every opportunity. Set the example for everyone.
True Father is forever young
We have to keep thinking young and looking young. Keep a bright, young spirit. We need to close the generation gap. Be fresh, responsive, not looking out through "dead fish eyes!" Though True Father's physical body is 80 years old, his mind is forever young. He never thinks old, he never is old. He lives in Eternity, spiritually. He diligently exercises his physical body everyday, quickly and expertly, to freshen himself as well as to keep his legs limber.
True Father has demonstrated many times to us how supple his body is -- he can bend his leg very high to his head! That's the kind of shape we need to keep ourselves in, not become stiff. We don't need to go to expensive health clubs to exercise -- we can do it in our office or wherever we are. His mind and spirit are forever exploring, growing and developing. Father walks with the posture and vitality of a young man.
We have to be this way, walking with dignity and purpose, keeping our minds alert and alive. So we can exercise and use our bodies in wise and wholesome ways. We will help us to understand and identify with young people. We must be Eternal people, forever young people. That way, we can be humble and meek people, like children. Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,..." (Matt. 18:2-4).
Children are very simple and pure. They trust other people. They don't think in terms of evil. We should become like this. Children will wander off to explore something and become completely absorbed in it, forgetting everything else. We are lacking this kind of innocence of spirit and the spiritual power that comes from it.
We must become as children in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We should long for spiritual food and trust the Word. St. Peter said, Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation... (1 Pe:2:2). Be humble. Keep your mind young.
Human beings have three parts: body, mind and spirit. So we have to keep all three elements young. We can keep our appearance young by keeping our hair cut in a youthful style and sometimes wearing casual clothes. Think young. America is Elder Son nation but America is a young elder son. Its character, culture and history is very connected to the nature of a child. For instance, many Americans prefer blue jeans and short pants over tuxedos and more formal dress like you might find in Britain; and many American people prefer MacDonald hamburgers and fries to full-course dinners; it is quite common to see even business people eating fast food and ice cream on the street. British people are not as likely to do that.
Licking on ice cream in cones is very popular with Americans. Americans drink a lot of Coca-Cola as opposed to green teas and black teas. They like youth music, like rock. Americans like baseball and Disney movies. At popular Disney Land and Disney World you will find young-minded grandmas and grandpas immensely enjoying everything along with the young children. Americans are fond of pets and adopt them into their households like "one of the family." So we can say that the overall habits of America are more like that of children.
American culture, overall, is a 'young' culture. Being interested in the 'mysterious' or the 'unknown' is characteristic of Americans. The stories, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn came from this culture. In Europe, when they heard of the "New World", they were curious and they came, risking everything. A pioneer spirit, an adventurous spirit is a young spirit.
True Father often talks about his own curiosity as a young lad which led him to find out the secrets of nature -- the habits of birds, fish and animals -- all creatures. Always seeking to know about the world around him and the things that dwelled in the mountains, trees and streams, With this attitude and tremendous curiosity and longing to understand, he could find God and Jesus Christ and all the saints in the spiritual world. He dug deep to understand and unfold the secrets of humankind and history.
To welcome in the new millennium other countries have built monuments of different sorts, but what did America do? They sent a spaceship into orbit! What is happening on Jupiter and Mars, they say! What is it like out there in the galaxy! We've got to find out! America is leading the world in technology. New techniques are being developed everyday. Computers are upgraded at such a rapid rate that what you buy today is outdated tomorrow!
So again, the American spirit makes possible this growth to "the next stage, then the next stage" and on and on, forever advancing this way. It is important that we maintain a young spirit, young mind, and young body. Otherwise, how can we possibly keep up with True Father? He's off to South America, off to Korea, off to Africa. His plans for the future are vast and wide, they are endless. His spirit is like a teenager.
One trait that Heaven especially likes in young spirits (children) is their appreciation of everything. In their gratefulness there is trust. They don't suspect everything that is given to them, thinking of ulterior motives, negative motives and so forth. With that kind of spirit, we can truly and simply accept truth, simply accept true love; simply accept God; simply accept True Parents. This is why our Second Generation can stand in front of us. They are more pure and simple. They are our Abels. We need to protect them, love them, follow them.
In America we are the champions of the youth culture. So with our Elder Son position, our young culture, our young spirit we can witness to young people, educate them and extend invitations to the Blessing. Will we become the number one nation of the world or not? We will. Let's bring victory for the Blessing of 400 million couples.
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