The Words of Joong Hyun Pak
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The Words of Joong Hyun Pak |
Rev.
Jong Hyun Pak.
What is the goal of faith? To meet God? To prepare to meet the Messiah? There's a very easy answer. My understanding of our goal is to become beautiful sons and daughters of God and to establish God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
To become God's sons and daughters is a most honorable historical achievement. And we absolutely need God's Kingdom on earth. This is Father's teaching. Jesus also taught the same thing: We must become peacemakers and then the children of God, and finally establish the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 5:1-12 is a very famous and meaningful passage -- called the Beatitudes, or the Eight Blessings. Jesus promised eight kinds of blessings. Through 30 years of life he prayed to understand and embody God's ideal and love. Then at the age of 30 he began the Messiah's mission. For the people who originally followed him, the Beatitudes were part of his first sermon to them. What can we understand from Jesus' first words of instruction to his followers? Jesus suggested eight stages of faith to go through in order to reach our goal. Today we want to use Jesus' words to understand our personal stairway toward faith. He used very symbolic and poetic words, but through knowing the Principle and our True Parents we can clearly understand what he meant by these eight blessings.
How do we accomplish these goals? Does it require a miracle, or a step-by-step process? Some Christian churches believe a miracle is necessary -- they preach that people should just attend church and serve it, and one day a miracle will happen and they will be saved. But Father teaches us that we need to follow the way of responsibility and challenge.
The first stage is described in Matthew 5:3. Jesus says that to receive a blessing, we must have a "poor spire Why is this the beginning point of faith? A rich spirit seems better! Don't we need a rich, exciting, joyful spirit? Ministers can't explain why we need a poor spirit.
We must always actively seek the meaning of life and the meaning of history through the Bible, through Father's words, and through prayer. If we realized and knew everything already, we wouldn't need to learn. But feeling the necessity to learn is a hungry position, a position of being poor in spirit and needing more learning, more awakening, and more understanding. Without deep understanding, how can we believe? Therefore, the meaning of "poor in spirit" is that of a person with a lonely, thirsty spirit, one who recognizes that he or she has a deep need for spiritual nourishment and for God. Some don't understand that this is their position. A hungry spirit will seek spiritual food, which is God's love and ideal.
Twenty-four hundred years ago Buddha was born -- the son of a wealthy prince. His future was guaranteed. But he left his rich environment and escaped to the Himalayas to seek and to meditate about the meaning of life and suffering. Why? He realized that he was poor in spirit and needed something deeper than material wealth and power. We need to find first, above all else, God's love, will, and ideal. Jesus explained in John 6:35: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst:' Jesus taught us that we must be in touch with our hungry, poor spirit in order to begin a true life of faith.
At the time of Jesus the Jewish rabbis thoroughly knew the Old Testament teachings, and were arrogant in their understanding. Jesus brought a deeper revelation, but because the Jews didn't feel a need for more understanding, because they weren't hungry, they couldn't accept Jesus' message. They felt they had enough and nothing new was necessary. But Jesus was saying to them, "Please make room in your spirit -- I want to give you a new message from God" Many of you joined the Unification Church because you had a hungry, poor spirit. Your religion wasn't enough to give you satisfying answers.
Father met Jesus when he was 16 years old, but he had been spiritually hungry since he was 8 or 9. He went to the mountains with so many questions: Who created this world? How can we end suffering? What is the meaning of life? He prayed, thought, and meditated deeply, and thus he could receive the Principle from God. Jesus himself had also been very spiritually hungry. He didn't receive any education in life, and only worked as a carpenter. If you are already full, you won't seek. Therefore, our first stage requires a thirsty, seeking spirit.
The second stage is described in Matthew 5:4 -- blessed are those who mourn. Why do we need to mourn? Why should we become sad people? Christian ministers usually teach that God is almighty. The Principle teaches, however, that God is our Parent, and that He lost Adam and Eve, and is therefore very lonely and sad. Thus, we find the real God when we too feel mournful and sad. God's position is not absolutely powerful -- He lost His ideal, His dream, and His children, and has suffered and sacrificed thousands of years for His sons and daughters. As we understand God's situation and our position as the children of fallen Adam and Eve, we are very miserable. As soon as we understand this we mourn. This is the Unification Church faith. When I myself first understood God's heart and situation, I was always tearful. Jesus and Father both were deeply tearful because of their understanding of God. Paul also acknowledged in many places in the Bible that he was a very miserable, sad person, wondering who could help him.
The third stage is expressed in Matthew 5:5 -- "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth:' How can we find God? Without God's mercy and love, we have no hope. We are actually like trash because we are the result of Satan -- of a sinful blood lineage and degraded love. We are people of no value. So what can we do? The only way is to seek God's mercy and forgiveness. We must meekly say, "Whatever You want, I will do" Clay can't control what the potter does. We must be absolutely humble and obey God's will. If we deny ourselves, then Satan will leave us. As Paul expressed in Philippians 2:5-7, we should keep God and Jesus in mind, deny our own desires in the same way that Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant;' and gratefully follow God's heart and plan for us.
The fourth stage, Matthew 5:6, is to be hungry for righteousness. If we are hungry, then God will fill us. The Principle teaches that righteousness means living centered on God. If we live this way, Satan leaves us. Our lifestyle changes as our center becomes God's ideal and love. As we develop more righteousness, we can build a world of life. As Proverbs 12:28 says, "In the path of righteousness is life, but the way of error leads to death." Only along the path of goodness do we find immortality.
Jesus continues to push us to a higher stage in Matthew 5:7. If we are merciful to others, we will receive God's mercy. Why? Is it not enough to love God myself? No, God wants to work through me for the sake of others. If only my family is righteous, it still isn't enough. We must also enable all those around us to become righteous. Therefore, with our tongue, our hands, and our feet we must be merciful and express true love for others. If we live centered on God and love, we can create a righteous society.
Communism promotes a life of resentment and anger. In some communist countries even small children are taught to kill righteous people. They learn this kind of value very early in life. But we must do the opposite and practice mercy -- a life of kindness and service -- even towards our enemies.
If you serve others, they will serve you. So many of our European and Oriental brothers and sisters left their families and their familiar customs, and came to serve America. Forty years ago we were enemies. What changed us? God's love and truth, which Jesus and our Father have taught us, brought about this change.
You and I are at this fifth level -- but it is still not sufficient. Jesus pushes us even higher.
Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" Have you seen God? When we become pure in heart, we will see God. To become God's sons and daughters we must see God. Our internal spiritual eyes are not yet open because we aren't mature enough. Jesus is God's true representative -- he has God's truth, love, and righteousness. But our hope is that we can see even beyond Jesus to God Himself someday. If we have a pure heart, mind, and character -- that is, if we overcome our selfishness and make ourselves into a holy temple -- then God will come. If I'm a perfect minus, then a perfect plus will come. I should feel, "I am a rough stone, and I want to be ground and polished till I become a perfect mirror to reflect the blue sky:' We become a copy of God by understanding His original ideal. Then God is automatically reflected. We need a deep prayer life, we need to shed tears, sweat, and blood, and we need to oust Satan completely from our lives in order to become pure.
A pure heart and character leads to a holy life, in which selfishness is 100 percent overcome. If we follow the words of Hebrews 12:14, "Strive for peace with all men, and for that holiness without which no one can see the Lord," then we can become God's pure people. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. lived unselfish lives for the benefit of others, so we can call them holy. We ourselves are almost there! It's not so difficult. We must strive to reach this level.
The seventh blessing, Matthew 5:9, is to be a peacemaker. What is the meaning of peacemaker? If a husband and wife are united in heart, there is peace. If not, there is no peace at all. People today are more anxious than ever for peace on every level, from the individual to the nation to the world. We need peaceful relationships with others and with God, horizontally and vertically. James 3:18 says, "The harvest of justice is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace:' A peacemaker is one who can create beautiful, harmonious relationships that reflect God's ideal. Then God and mankind become united, God dwells within us, and we dwell in God.
The eighth blessing, Matthew 5:10, involves persecution. To become God's sons and daughters is not enough. We must kick out Satan not only from ourselves but from the world. We will inevitably suffer in the eyes of the world for the sake of our cause, but we need to create a total environment in which God can live and express Himself. The CAUSA movement is stimulating righteousness in America, while communism wants to enslave this country. We …