The Words of the Seuk Family
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The Words of the Seuk Family |
This article, by the president of the Unification Church in Korea who is concurrently international vice-president of the Unification Church, appeared in a recent issue of Tongil Segye, a Korean church monthly magazine.
My fellow Unification Church members, greetings. I am truly grateful to all of you for working so hard to fulfill your given responsibilities and missions with a sense of providential calling.
The purpose of God's providence of salvation was to send True Parents to earth; and the ultimate hope for humanity is that they can receive True Parents. When our ancestors, Adam and Eve, fell and became false parents, humankind lost its true parents; people have since led miserable, sorrowful lives, inheriting a false lineage, false love and false life. However, even in the course of the sorrowful, grievous six-thousand-year history, neither God nor humanity lost hope, because through True Parents, people can transform their lineage into Heaven's lineage; they can inherit true love and true life, and can ultimately fulfill the will of God.
We have now received True Parents, who have come to humanity with such an incredible providential mission and aspiration. We are breathing the same air and basking in the same sunshine as they. Furthermore, we are serving them, receiving instructions from them, and participating in the providence. We cannot help realizing that we are living in a miraculous era that we could only have dreamt about, an era of deep emotions.
On the one hand, knowing that he would be defeated on the fundamental level if True Parents came to be, Satan has employed all possible means and methods to prevent True Parents from fulfilling the will and has continued to carry out atrocious and merciless acts. True Parents, however, never succumbed to him. To save humanity, which is struggling in the deepest pits of hell, Father has endured the pain of death seven times, vomiting blood and having his flesh torn from his body and his bones crushed.
Not once have True Parents asked God to help them. They have consoled Him as He lamented; they have resolved to fulfill His will, and in the end, they've triumphed through true love. Having pledged their lives to remain on the path of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, they have established a tradition of attending God.
True Parents tell us that they have persisted in practicing absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience because these are elements of God's principle of creation. Herein lies the reason blessed families of the Unification Church need to practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience toward God and True Parents. Moreover, there is the tradition of truly loving others, which God and True Parents -- who are our parents -- have established through investing their lives.
After overcoming great suffering and persecution, True Father the Savior and the Messiah, received True Mother in 1960 and together they became the True Parents. Through the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for the Parents of Heaven and Earth, declared on 1997.7.7 (lunar calendar) they were made the Parents of Heaven and Earth. On October 25, 2003, they were elevated to the highest position, that of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind.
From the viewpoint of the restoration of kingship, on February 6, 2003, they became the family-level king and queen through the coronation of the king of the blessed families, and they became the King and Queen of Peace through the entrance ceremony and coronation at Cheon Jeong Peace Palace on June 13, 2006. On January 15 and 31, 2009, through the Coronation for the Authority of the Liberation of God, the King of Kings, which was held in three stages,' they achieved oneness with God and were enthroned as the king of kings, who are no longer distinguishable from God Himself.
Having begun the providence of salvation in pitch-black darkness, through genuine love, and their blood, sweat and tears, True Parents have triumphed over six-thousand-years sorrowful, grievous history. Overcoming brutal anguish while overcoming death itself, they have been victorious in true love. Thus, gaining the highest internal and external honors, they have finally been enthroned as the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, the King of Kings.
They are truly the fruit of history, the center of the era, the origin of the future, the unprecedented and unparalleled first and last, the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal True Parents, and we cannot help offering them our deepest gratitude and congratulations.
True Parents have bestowed unfathomable love and blessings on humanity. The most precious of all are three great gifts of grace, the first of which is that they have allowed us to participate in the marriage Blessing Ceremony, so that we can be reborn and resurrected. Through the marriage blessing, True Parents have converted us from the false lineage to God's true lineage, and given us true love and true life. The blessed families comprise those who have been restored by True Parents' blood, sweat and tears. When we think about how much work and devotion they have put into establishing each and every one of the blessed families we cannot help feeling infinitely grateful to them for their love and grace.
Second, they have bestowed on us the heavenly textbooks, which contain the teachings, rules and ways of Heaven, so that we can lead lives expressive of true love forevermore.
In seeking those teachings, True Father personally experienced all facets of the created world and fought against countless demons. It was as if he were gathering grains of gold in the middle of a vast ocean. Moreover, True Parents have devoted thirty-four years of hard work and devotion to checking and carefully selecting the core of their precious teachings. This has given rise to the Hoon Dok Hae textbooks, which they have proclaimed as textbooks from God. True Parents have generously conferred these books on all humankind and on future generations for all eternity. Herein lies the reason we should follow True Parents' words and instructions with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and protect them as if they were our very lives.
Third, they have prepared the path of eternal life for us through the Seunghwa blessing. True Parents began conducting the Memorial Festival of Ascension and Unity for humankind with the first event on 2.3 (March 18 by the Gregorian calendar) at the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York City. Through the Seunghwa Festival, they have made us realize that eternal life in the spirit world awaits human beings once we have concluded our lives on earth and that we need to receive the Seunghwa blessing to live eternally there in joy and pleasure. They have enlightened us to the fact that death is not another word for sorrow or pain but rather a new birth in the spirit world, the gateway to and starting point of eternal life. That is why True Parents have declared that we should use the term Seunghwa [ascension] instead of the word "death."
Through these three great gifts of grace alone, we have received love for which we can never give adequate compensation, even over ten thousand generations. What more could humankind need? No matter how much deference and glory we give to True Parents, it will still not be enough. Therefore, we should fulfill our dutiful path of attending them absolutely with all our hearts, so that we can repay even one ten-thousandth of what we have been given.
In addition, True Parents opened the way to the era of heavenly heart, going beyond the eras of worldly and human affairs. Passing through the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age and Completed Testament Age, they have proclaimed the era of Shim Jeong in the realm of the fourth Adam.
The responsibility given us now is to become one in relation to True Parents' heart and teachings and to lead lives of absolute attendance, while following the path of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. This is the unchanging, vertical tradition that True Parents have left for us. The fact that we can follow this tradition now is in itself a great blessing and joy. At the same time, because True Parents have established this tradition at the risk of their lives, we have the serious responsibility and mission to maintain and follow it as seriously as we take protecting our own lives.
We are now racing toward the date True Parents have set as "foundation day," January 13, 2013, and toward the goal for the accomplishment of which less than three years remain. This is the day when the world in which two people become one, that is, Cheon Il Guk, is completed and perfected and when the heavenly culture of heart blooms in all its splendor. For that world to be firmly established, we first need to fulfill the responsibility of uniting Cain and Abel.
At True Parents' golden anniversary in April 2009, they devised and personally held a ritual to demonstrate the "harmony and unity game" to help us appreciate the importance of Cain -- Abel oneness. Last year, the Wongu Peace Cup Cain-Abel Cosmic Harmony Tournament was held four times. Through this, True Parents reemphasized that unity between Cain and Abel is the providential task we must fulfill.
To bring about Cain -- Abel unity, the most important thing is to achieve harmony and unity between mind and body in the individual, and in the family between husband and wife and between parents and children; such harmony and unity must also be achieved within the society, nation and the world.
Further, since we are in the position of Cain, we need to achieve oneness with the True Family, which is in the position of Abel. Ultimately, we need to become one with True Parents and return joy and glory to them.
Cain can advance toward Heaven through Abel. True Parents appointed Hyung-jin nim as the international president on April 18, 2008, to stand as the central Abel to love and lead the Cain realm. Moreover, True Parents were enthroned as the King of Kings in the Coronation Ceremony of the Liberated Realm of God the King of Kings in January last year. On that occasion they had Hyung-jin nim and his wife wear special crowns and robes, and conferred on them a special benediction for their mission. To further clarify this, on 4.23 (June 5) True Parents elucidated yet again, on paper, that Hyung-jin nim is their "representative and heir."
Being in the position to be restored through Abel, Cain needs to trust and follow Abel with all his heart, and Abel needs to look after Cain with true love and lead him to God. In that regard, all the Unification Church members, who are in the position of Cain, should respect, cooperate with and support our international president, who has been installed as Abel. Our sincere and honest hearts will let the flower of true love bloom in us and return joy and glory to True Parents.
Beloved members, as we try to make one family under God, we need to shed tears of repentance for failing to practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience toward True Parents and to offer Jeong Seong showing our resolve and determination to fulfill our duty of absolute attendance.
We need to repent in front of God and True Parents for Cain and Abel being unable to unite. It is not the fault or the responsibility of any one person, and we need to realize and awaken to the fact that each of us has failed to have that attitude and determination. Understanding that we are interconnected and that my brothers and sisters' mistakes are my mistakes, our mistakes, we need to deeply repent for our arrogance in being unable to confess, "It is my fault; I was wrong."
At present, members of the church in Korea are participating in a special forty-day breakfast fast and are offering a special bowing condition. This Jeong Seong represents our resolve and determination to establish the tradition of having absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience toward God and True Parents. It is also our strong pledge to achieve oneness between Cain and Abel.
Through this opportunity, all members of the Unification Church should begin a drive to attain enlightenment in their faith, and so reach a great turning point in their lives of faith. Let's take this opportunity to bring about the construction of Cheon Il Guk, and let's begin anew and soar high as proud Unification Church members.
It has been fifty-six years since the Unification Church was established with the important mission of saving humankind under the providential guidance of True Parents. Until now, we have received the deepest and the most magnanimous grace and love from True Parents. Though the providence of salvation has had to surmount many waves, when we look back on it we see that each and every moment of that providence was part of a history that has moved our hearts. It has led to our continuing gratitude and deep emotions.
Treading the final stretch to the establishment of Cheon Il Guk with True Parents, who have given us so much love, we need to concentrate now more than ever on testifying about the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, the King of Kings, to the entire universe. We need to implant in our families, through Hoon Dok Hae, the tradition of reading the heavenly textbooks and teaching materials, which constitute the heavenly law and the heavenly way, and disseminate that tradition to the people around us. True Parents are waiting eagerly for the flames of the word, the heart, the spirit and witnessing to be stoked in Korea, the providential fatherland, and for those flames to spread to the rest of the world. Based on the teachings of the heavenly path, let's become the kindling for the holy fire that will establish Cheon Il Guk, the holy fire of joy and hope. Let's testify with our voices raised in overwhelming joy to say that True Parents are heralding the completion and perfection of Cheon Il Guk.
Through the dissemination of four hundred and thirty copies of the autobiography we need to build a protective fence for our tribe consisting of four hundred and thirty families, beginning with three families and gradually enlarging in scope. We will thus fulfill our mission as tribal messiahs who generate new blessed families.
God and True Parents are administering the providence on the cosmic level and fulfilling their 95 percent portion of the responsibility. Yet, in order to put us in a position where we can claim we have established Cheon Il Guk, they have given us 5 percent of the work as our portion of responsibility. Let's at least fulfill this mission as tribal messiahs through our own efforts and contribute toward laying the foundation stones for the establishment of Cheon Il Guk.
Now the entire spirit world is being mobilized in full force on earth as True Parents have instructed. The heavenly fortune of perfection and completion is coming our way, which means there is nothing we cannot achieve if we invest all our effort, because human endeavor can move Heaven itself. The Himalayas rise to more than seven thousand meters above sea level; yet there are cranes that fly over them while migrating. If we go forward with such courage and zeal we will infallibly triumph. Let's not just wait as the spirit world is mobilized, but show our latent energy as locomotives that can pull the spirit world.
We are proud Unification Church members and blessed families who have inherited the tradition of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience from True Parents. Let's bring about the oneness of Cain and Abel and fulfill our duties of filial piety and loyalty through absolute attendance. Let's race toward the establishment of Cheon Il Guk, which is less than three years away, with joy, hope, pride and confidence. Before anyone else in the world, we will see the genesis of the substantial Cheon Il Guk, scheduled to begin on January 13, 2013. Let's all march forward toward that day on which we will be able to shed tears of victory, glory and heartfelt thanks and raise a shout of great joy. If we invest all our effort, God and True Parents will remember our devotion and the sweat we have shed. Our efforts will be recorded in history.
I hope and pray that all Unification Church members will be empowered to return even greater deference, glory, gratitude and joyful praise to the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, the king of kings, and that the great love and blessings of Heaven will be with you and your families.
Thank you.