The Words of the Vincenz Family
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The Words of the Vincenz Family |
Rev.
Reiner Vincenz
America at this time is at the crossroads. She must decide where to go -- to turn to God and our True Parents or not. That is the question. This is true for America as a nation, but I believe also for the Unification Church in America.
Let us reflect and look back for a moment. Our True Parents came by the order of God to this country in 1971. In 1973 and 1974 True Father went on a 7-city public speaking tour, a 21-city tour, a 32-city tour, and an 8-city tour, and later on he tried to wake up this nation through the Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument rallies. All together, Father spoke publicly 70 times to the American people.
Originally God had only asked that our True Parents stay in America three and a half years. This time period had to be prolonged several times. Under the protecting umbrella of our True Parents, we have tried to wake up this nation. In 1983 we started an IOWC campaign. By then we were already in the Children's Course. Now we have reached the culmination of the decisive year of 1988.
This
rally to wake up the consciousness of Americans was held on the steps
of the U.S. Capitol during the Washington Monument campaign in 1976.
Many years ago our True Father told some of us a story about the Koreans who search for wild ginseng roots in the mountains. He explained that wild ginseng is the most precious medicinal herb, but very, very difficult to find. Wild ginseng grows high in the mountains of Korea. The mountain people have to constantly pray, live a life of self-denial, and focus totally on God and the spirit I world in order to be able to survive in the mountains and find the wild ginseng roots. I knew when Father was speaking about these people and the difficulties they had finding the wild ginseng that he was actually talking about himself and about us.
Our True Parents came to America following the instruction of God to search amid great hardship to find the wild ginseng roots. We are the ones they found. The founding fathers who came to America were also wild ginseng roots found by God to create America as a nation ready to welcome the Messiah. The founding fathers had to face great challenges. This country has been prepared through these many years to take on the greatest challenge in history -- the challenge to welcome the return of the Messiah, the arrival of our True Parents.
Our Unification Church members are facing the same challenge in their daily I life of faith. Now we members are the searchers for the wild ginseng here in America, but we are falling short of Father's and God's expectations. We must realize that we are the searchers for the wild ginseng, and we, in the midst of the Children's Course, have to accept carrying the cross of America.
We are doing this here in America on behalf of the world. God is calling us to bring salvation to the world by walking the path in the same manner as our True Parents have done, willingly and without complaint.
Now is the time when the spirit of the founding fathers of this nation must come back into our midst. We also have to remember and call back the founding spirit of our church. Calling on the spirit world for help is, I believe, the key element that we have often missed in our own lives.
What is our essential faith? It is that the spiritual always outweighs the physical in our thought, word, and deed. St. Francis of Assisi spoke at length to us through a member on the earth about this very point.
Today is the time that the people of this country, and especially we members of the Unification Church, must listen to the voice of God.
Brothers and sisters, it is late, but I do not believe that it is too late. We must now make an extraordinary effort to awaken the country to the reality of God's timetable at the end of this critical year of 1988. This is the time for America -- which is at the crossroads.
For a number of years already we have been in the Children's Course. We, the children, are now called by God, by our True Parents, and by the True Children to erect a new foundation of faith and substance to welcome, not in a physical but rather in a spiritual sense, the True Parents -- the Messiah -- within this great continent of America. Since this is the Children's Course, let us remember that the term "children" represents both the True Children and the "Cain" children. This points to us. Let us wake up the American people, and particularly the members of the Unification Church, to be absolutely responsible children who will take the correct turn at the crossroads. Can we not see that God has put us in a highly significant situation here in this country?
Let us realize that the original citizens of America, the Native American Indians, were not included in America's advancements, nor given the credit due them for their sacrifices in building America's greatness. The resentment this brought about can be dissolved if we wake up to the challenges and succeed in bringing the old and the young together. We have to accept that we can learn from our grandfathers as well as from our fathers how to plant the seed that will yield the best harvest.
The first and second generations of our Unification Church are in a similar position. America's forefathers did not quite succeed in preparing the foundation for the Messiah's coming. Similarly, we of the first generation of the Unification Church could not quite succeed to prepare the foundation for the coming of the Lord. The original spirit of desire to do so is still alive, but it must be activated.
Those Americans who took on the historical challenges in the past are now residing in the spirit world. Some of them have spoken and have appeared to us here in the physical world. Let us reflect upon the American patriots who gave their lives for this country. We must understand that they are not dead, but alive. Therefore, our Unification Church members should not allow their own spirit to wither and die during their time on the earth.
Brothers and sisters of our American Unification Church, let us be challenged deeply to forget about our own worries and our own selfish desires and be the bridge that Father has hoped we would be, so that America can fulfill its purpose to serve the rest of the world. Let us be aware of our calling, for if America fails, God will look for another nation. God is already scouting the world's horizon for the nation that will be able to produce and succeed for His will.
America is called strongly now to unite with God's will and accept her God-given mission. The American Unification Church should do the same. But without waking up the American public, our movement cannot be as successful as God needs it to be. If we can do this, I am quite sure that Pentecost will come. Our Lord Heung Jin Nim from the spirit world has already proclaimed that all of heaven is waiting desperately to send down to this earth the greatest Pentecost we can ever imagine, once we on earth are ready. This is certainly part of the challenge we must take up now.
Our True Father has pleaded with us a number of times: If only you would work as hard as you did in the days of the Washington Monument rally, we could truly expand. God Himself is crying out that we need a new foundation. Let us please be reminded that our founding fathers have asked God to let them be the instruments to lead their nation. We Unification Church members are founding fathers of faith, and we should do the same. We must bring the true spirit back to America! The time is now. Recently an American patriot in the spirit world spoke through an American member -- in desperation to reach all of you. I have no doubt whatsoever that the voice of this patriot is a strong warning for us on the earth in our time today.
Brothers and sisters, please listen to this cry from heaven. This is the time America as a nation is at the crossroads. Only we, the Unification Church, can make a change in the direction this country is going at this critical hour. We must not be in the position to say, "It is too late."
The historical clock shows it is shortly before midnight, so it is not yet too late. May we all together wake up this country now and welcome the True Parents as a united, new America.