The Words of the Hyun Jin Moon
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The Words of the Hyun Jin Moon |
Illustrious members of the Korean National Assembly, distinguished guests from abroad, family members, friends, ladies and gentlemen: It is a great and distinct honor for me to be here today. I wear many hats, but the hat I wear most proudly as I come before you today is as a proud son who is carrying out the work of his parents.
It is so fitting that here in the nation's capital of this peninsular nation of Korea, we have invited distinguished guests, leaders in politics, religion and society, and have welcomed them to this nation in order to share with them a vision of peace for this coming century.
I was born here in Seoul years ago. I followed my parents to America when I was a young boy, and I lived there most of my life. Yet I never really fit in there because, deep inside, my origins and roots were here.
Even so, I realized that the dream that my parents have cherished and yearned to see realized in their lifetimes is not the dream of just one family, or of one man or woman. It is the dream of all the people in this nation and of all the people in the world to build one family under God.
This dream came to my father as a result of divine ordination. While he was a young boy, among the windswept hilltops of what is now North Korea, on a cold Easter Sunday, he went into those hills yearning to liberate God from his suffering and anguished heart, His bereaved heart as a parent that has lost His children. There on a hilltop, while earnestly in prayer, Jesus came to him and gave him the mission to build one family under God. This fulfillment of this a mission is something all people have yearned for whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Confucian -- regardless of their tradition of faith. To see all humanity as one peaceful family under God is a dream the realization of which humankind has yearned for since the beginning of time.
It was on that hilltop that this torch was passed for the sake of building one family under God. For many years, in absolute determination and dedication, in order to build this dream, he has sacrificed everything -- including his own family, his brothers and sisters, his parents, and the home that he knew in North Korea. He has sacrificed not only all those things we as people cherish, but he has sacrificed himself. He was unjustly imprisoned six times for his beliefs and for his conviction to realize the dream of building one family under God.
There were those nay-sayers who said it could not be done. There were nay-sayers who belittled him and demanded, "Who are you to have such big dreams? Who are you to say you are taking on the mantle of a great man, a divine man such as Jesus Christ? Who are you to say you are taking on the mantle of building one family -- a vision and dream that the likes of Buddha, Moses and Mohamed undertook? Who are you?"
Yet he had tenacity and hope. He had the audacity to rise up to take up that challenge -- the mantle and the cross -- of bringing this dream to the human family, so that it could be our dream. We stand today on that proverbial mountaintop where this dream is no longer just a fleeting concept or ideal but is something firmly rooted in the hearts and minds of great men and women around the world as well as in this nation of Korea.
We are planting seeds. We are planting the seeds of hope in creating one family under God in the hearts of men. As the seeds germinate there, as they truly take root, one person at a time, peace can be realized on the earth.
More importantly, centered upon this dream of building one family under God, my father has touched upon principles universal to all humanity, especially to those who are faithful and devout and who want to serve God in the realization of this dream. These are principles that can unite us, that can bring us together and allow us to elevate ourselves, to liberate ourselves from the narrow boxes of our own faith traditions and our own "isms." These allow us to unite upon a platform of eternal principles that are rooted in God's divine principle of true love, of living for the sake of others and of building God-centered families.
Is it not in the family that we learn about peace, love, brotherhood, parenthood, the relationship between husband and wife and all the important relationships within the family? It is said that if you have a friend -- a dear friend -- and you want to emphasize how close this friend is to you, you use a simile in familial terms, to establish the intimacy and closeness that cannot be described in any other way. You would say this friend is like my brother; this woman is like my sister; this elder is like my father or my mother; this youngster is like my son or my daughter. It is that intimacy that we learn within the family. And it is a God-centered family -- a family rooted in the divine vertical order of love, where God can dwell -- that allows us to have an individual as well as a collective awareness as to what is right, what is good and what is divine.
The dream of changing the world through blessing together in marriage people from enemy nations is a dream that no one has spoken of until this time. Yet it is a dream that is being realized and is unfolding before our very eyes. We witnessed a beautiful expression of this yesterday in the Holy Blessing Ceremony of one thousand six hundred couples in Cheonan, and thousands upon thousands of couples worldwide. Through true love and building ideal families, we are slowly breaking down the walls and the barriers that separate people from each other.
You know this is a vision that has been too long in being actualized; yet it has come and settled upon the earth through the vision and the work of my parents, the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.
What is more impressive is that this vision is so enrapturing. You know it is said that the hardest converts are your own children. Yet in 2006, the whole Moon clan, three generations, took on the mantle of this great vision, visited almost every nation in the world, bringing a message of peace and hope. That message was about the creation of ideal families through investing true love.
This was an unprecedented tour and an unprecedented event. I am proud that I took part in it. I know that many of you gathered here today in this illustrious building, the center of power in this nation of Korea -- especially our international brothers and sisters -- have come to celebrate this vision of peace based on true love and the creation of true families. We have come as one family, stripping ourselves of our pretensions and evoking the spirit of harmony, unity and peace that only comes from the divine love of God, which we know to be true love, expressed in living for the sake of others.
In Hawaii, in March, my father presented a tremendous vision for the twenty-first century. I was astounded by that vision. As we all know, the twentieth century -- a century rooted in the Atlantic sphere, was a century of untold violence, war and conflict. More people perished in wars during that century than in all the previous centuries combined in the history of humankind. Untold crimes were committed during the course of that century. It is not a distant memory; it is an all too familiar memory as many of us were born in that century of strife and struggle.
As we entered the twenty-first century and a new age dawned, there were those who said that the twenty-first century would be a century of peace. Yet shortly thereafter, in 2001, came "9/11," and the world was once again embroiled in chaos and confusion as the great superpower, America, embarked on a war against terror that had religious connotations and geopolitical ramifications. Yet even the most powerful nation in the world could not find a solution, even after six years of conflict, turmoil, death and violence.
This is an age where peace cannot be found by military means or through a political solution. My father has always believed that politics is rooted in self-interest. Where can you find God in a system rooted in self- interest? We first need to focus our attention back on God and what His will is for humanity. If we were to ask all those people of faith in the world today, "What is the vision God has for humanity?" there is not one that would deny it is the vision of building one family under God.
I want to put a challenge to you today. If we were to hold a referendum in the United Nations on the existence of God, do you not believe that referendum would pass unequivocally and by a great majority, because the people of the world whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or of any other faith tradition believe in God and recognize that there is an eternal father we need to be aligned to? If we can understand the vision that He has for us, truly we can find a way to peace. Because the vision that heavenly parent would have for humanity would be one of peace, reconciliation and unity.
My father, although considered to be a religious leader, is first and foremost a man of God who has taken on the mantle of the great mission of building one family under God. He is not a religious leader in the sense we usually understand religious leaders. He did not embark on this great quest of building one family under God to create a new religion or to offer a new theology. He came with the mission and explicit purpose of bringing the will and purpose of God to humanity and making it humanity's purpose and will -- the will to build one family under God!
Korea stands in a historic watershed moment. I believe in the Pan-Pacific era vision that my father outlined in his March speech in Hawaii. It encapsulates so beautifully the history of humanity and explains how, as we shift from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century, there is hope here in the Pan-Pacific region. Korea stands right there in the center of that region, bridging the continental system of Asia and the island nations of the Pacific. It is a peninsular nation bridging those two worlds together to offer humankind a vision of peace.
My father initiated the Mongolian Peoples Federation that represents 74 percent of the world's population. The resources of the Pacific Ocean and the island nations are abundant. The world's greatest ocean and largest land mass, holding the greatest number of people, are in this Pacific sphere. Thus, if there is unity between the continental and island regions, and if the people can truly become the owners of this vision of one family under God, world peace can be realized in our lifetimes.
Today I believe that in one sense, we're planting seeds -- planting the seeds of peace. If we can plant the seed of peace in our hearts today, the seed of one family under God... Can we all say together, "One family under God?" If we could plant the seed of one family under God in our hearts today, in this illustrious setting, a building that represents the nation of Korea, in this era of the Pan-Pacific Rim, in this providential moment in time, with this great vision of building one family, truly, truly, truly, amazing things could happen!
Thank you very much. May God bless you and your families.