The Words of the Ablong Family
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The Words of the Ablong Family |
Note: I wrote this article in response to what Sister Spring pointed out in her reflection about Dr. Allan Cadano's most recently posted inspiration from another Christian source at our egroups. There are other ways of responding to her article. I just opted to use this approach in order to elaborate a few points that will require a lot of time to explain not just to he but for those of us who need it.
Unificationism is relatively young when compared to major religious movements in the world that have stood the tests of time. As an organized movement, UC is about 59 years old although, it really started when True Father received the anointment from Jesus when he was praying from a Korean hillside on an Easter Sunday morning a few years back. It is the only religion in the world whose founder is still alive and at his age of 90, he is the most widely traveled nonagenarian and total philanthropist.
Islam, Christianity, Hindus, Buddhism and Confucianism started many centuries ago while our church just started in the early part of the 20th century. It took traditional religions hundreds of years in order to be organized and truly established in the world while it took Unificationists only about four decades to be in most parts of the world.
Most traditional religions still have their own problems. Their problems are like ours in most respects. The world is full of people who are sick, poor, unattended, uneducated, drug addicts, orphans, criminals, liars and all. The disasters, dangers and death caused by the fall of Adam and Eve go beyond the barriers of religion, race, ideology, nationality, diseases and even problems themselves. We as chosen people of God are no different when it comes to these things. However, what distinguishes God's people from the rest of all the suffering people in the world is that "we enjoy the reason and purpose for our suffering"
From the testimonies of early members and from the speeches of True Father himself, this church had a very difficult, humble and poor beginning. From the 1950s, we learn that True Father wrote the Divine Principle in a small house made of mud and cardboard boxes with the help of the first church president. There were times when they had to beg for food and True Father wore old and ragged clothes. Even though, they were in that physically miserable condition, True Father would talk about big things for long hours.
True Father explained that
"Whenever I was undergoing
suffering, I could never complain to God because I knew only too well
how much suffering He had to endure more than I. However, heavy a
cross and however many I might have to bear repeatedly because I know
that there was a God who had experienced far greater agony, I was
able to pass through tribulations seemingly effortlessly and overcome
the harshest conditions. Thus, to you who are my following my
footsteps, I should not be someone who saps your strength, but rather
who enriches and energizes you. That is God's Way. That is the
teaching I received from God.
(Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of
Education, p. 269)
Looking back from where are now, we can say that our movement is more organized and deeply rooted in True Parents life, works and teachings. We can feel a little about True Father's life in our individual internal experiences. We see members and younger brothers and sisters' suffering more than our own. We are occasionally challenged in faith and in the way we deal with the different situations of our life by learning from the internal experiences of our elder brothers and sisters.
Growing in Our Life of Faith Growing in our life faith also means, being able to look the other way when reality sticks its ugly head in front of you. It is better to get hit more than once in order to relieve the stress and resentment of sin from another. When we see someone suffering, we find a way to help that person constructively. Helping this kind of person is also to look deeper into the situation that he or she is in before doing something. Just like medicines, solutions have their own prescribed doses based on reality and one's capability.
There is an old adage that simply says that it's better to teach a person how to fish than to give him fish at the moment. The suffering that still lingers in our churches and in the unrealized idealism of our members in the centers is a testimony of our strength as God's people. God's people always suffer for the rest of the world. True Father would have taught us the straight and easy path if it was the shortest route to heaven but he didn't He taught us to go the uneasy and rugged path of life because it is the shortest path to eternal peace and happiness for God and humankind.
The word shortest Eis used there as a metaphor. In our life of faith, time is not measured by our usual 24 hour time period per se. Time, in religious life, is not counted simply by seconds, minutes and hours. It could be days like 7 days, 21, days, 40 days or even years like 7 years, 21 years and so on. We count time as Gods chosen people. It is this time beyond the human system of counting that distinguishes us from the rest of humankind.
So even though, we are 59 years old as a church, we still need a lot of time to grow and develop from experience. In this case, we need patience, perseverance and determination to keep on going despite the things we see, feel, hear or generally experience. It is one thing to look at the problem. Looking for reasons why that or these things are happening is another. The other way and the best approach however is how we are able to translate our reasons, answers and solutions into positive, non-confrontational and substantial action.
Looking for answers to every question and solutions for every problem is still the best way towards perfection. In this way, we can fulfill the purpose of our existence for one another and when we do this every time we are faced with challenges, it becomes a habit. Aristotle once said, "Perfection is not just a matter of action, it is a matter of habit"
We only get what we expect out of life and people only treat us the way we treat ourselves and allow them. So let's solve problems, present solutions, get organized, get over complications and create something new.
The sooner we do it, the better.