The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2009
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2009 |
Rev. Hyung Jin nim, CEO of HSA-UWC International, delivers a call for unity in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York City. The following is a transcript of his speech to Unificationists in the Washington, D.C. area on September 4, 2009
Today I'm here to introduce my younger brother, Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, to talk a little bit about how incredible a brother, a man, a father, and a person he is. I come from a family of 14 siblings, and we have all different character types. Some are heartistic, some are more logical, some are very spiritual, and some are very academic.
One of the things I noticed about my younger brother when I took care of him from a very young age was that he was always somebody who made you feel love, from the moment you saw his face. So even when he was a little baby and could barely open his eyes, when I held him in my arms, I felt love. As an older sister, I had the privilege to give wonderful nicknames to all my younger brothers and sisters (and they all have fabulous nicknames), but his nickname is Lovey. For not just me but other members of the family, he symbolized love.
I thought, how appropriate, many decades later, for him to truly come to his own calling, wanting to follow in the footsteps of our dear True Parents, wanting to investigate, wanting to research, wanting to experience a more profound understanding of his own relationship with our Heavenly Parent. He has struggled on through the years as a member of True Family. As a member of that family myself, I can say that it's not an easy journey.
But here we are, after many years. We have children of our own, and we are looking toward the third and fourth generations. In this time of great confusion because our True Father is getting elderly and often talks about leaving our physical community in 2013, my father and mother and God, our Heavenly Parent, gave us such a wonderful gift of security when my father anointed my younger brother as the spiritual head of the family. Our True Parents have done us a favor, and all that we need to do as a community is to come together, realizing that God and our True Parents are our eternal True Parents; the only thing that the True Children really need to do is to come together and unite as a family and honor our True Parents eternally.
Just as a body has many different parts, how wonderful, how wise, and how all-knowing our True Parents were to anoint the youngest son, who is not just deserving in an external sense because he's a fellow alumni from the Harvard Divinity School. He is also a man of character, a man of integrity, and a man of excellence, which I feel should be the life goal of everybody in this room.
I often talk about how my goal in life was to be a wise mother in that I wanted to serve the world with integrity, excellence, and service. I feel that this man whom I call my younger brother espouses all these things in one figure of a man. I wanted to share with you the 21,000-bow condition that he did in Korea because truly this is a man of devotion who doesn't just teach nor have a knowledge of Scripture, the Bible, or the different teachings of all the great prophets of different religions. The most important thing in a life of faith is a life of devotion: How do we put our faith into practice?
Following his clarion call for the unity of our worldwide movement, I felt that it was incumbent upon me to call the American brothers and sisters into a heartistic unity of doing the 21-week condition that our executive vice president, Reverend Cotter, initiated last week. I'm hoping that this truly can be a time when our country can come together in unity and not be confused, not be afraid any more, and especially not be afraid of change because what God is waiting to give us, to grace all of us in our lives, is for us to experience this landslide of incredible love called true love.
I am honored to have my younger brother here. I feel like my being here together with the youngest son of the True Family encompasses the whole gamut called my brothers and sisters. I know that they're here in spirit, and we want to honor them with our presence here. We truly want to honor our time with you and also honor our time with my younger brother here.
So without further ado, could you help me by giving a round of applause for Rev. Hyung Jin Moon?
(Applause)
My sister! We call her Mini-Mommy. She spoils us too much! Brothers and sisters, it's a pleasure to see you here in
Washington. Actually I never planned to be in the States for all this time. I was actually supposed to be in Korea now. We have a lot of work to do. The temple is coming up very soon. But we were in Las Vegas at the Pal Jeong Shik ceremony, and Father all of a sudden one morning said, "You're not going back to Korea, not on Monday:" I said, "Father, I have to get back to Korea on Monday. I have a lot of work to do." He said, "You're not going back, Son. You're first going around America; you're going to visit some cities and then you can go back." I said, "Father, I have some things:' He said, "You go now." I said, "Yes, Daddy!"
It's been a wonderful privilege to be able to see the brothers and sisters. We saw the brothers and sisters in Los Angeles; we saw them in Chicago and now in Washington. And on the weekend I think about four or five communities will be coming together at the Manhattan Center, and we'll be seeing them there.
Father asked us to come, together with In Jin nuna, because he wants to call us to unity. When Father said, "Now you have to go visit cities," he was expressing his concern because at this very important time when he is alive, he wants us to be united, and not centered on ourselves but on True Parents. As a religious, theological tradition, we understand the centrality of True Parents: We understand that there will be no new True Parent; we understand that True Parents are the center of our movement, and that this is forever. This is just like Jesus as the center of Christianity or the historical Buddha as the center of Buddhism.
That is very important. For myself, whenever Father has asked me to take on more responsibility, and for In Jin nuna I know it's the same, we have always had the idea that there can be no new True Parent. That's very clear in our minds. After the coronation ceremony, a lot of people were congratulating us, but I said, "There's nothing really to congratulate because for us, we're just like bridges. We're trying to allow the world to see True Parents, to meet True Parents. That's our role. And for us, we don't supplant that role of True Parents. We don't take over that role. We simply are the bridge that people can walk on top of to get there. This is how I've been talking to the Korean ministers for the last two years.
Father has asked us to meet with our brothers and sisters in America and to also call us to prayer because in prayer we can unite our hearts and spirit, which is really the key. Father is calling us to prayer so that we can particularly pray for those who are having difficulty uniting with True Parents at this time. It's causing a lot of concern for them.
Father has asked us to meet with our brothers and sisters in America and to also call us to prayer because in prayer we can unite our hearts and spirit, which is really the key. Father is calling us to prayer so that we can particularly pray for those who are having difficulty uniting with True Parents at this time. It's causing a lot of concern for them.
Father wants us to pray; he wants us to unite in our hearts, not just in our words or in our deeds but really in our spirit. This is the reason why Father has asked us to go visit different cities in America. This is something that we are passing on to our different communities around America and around the world. Particularly, Father is asking us to call for prayers of unity for our senior leadership so that the senior leadership, particularly our Korean leaders, can unite with True Parents, putting down any personal ambitions and being loyal to them. That is really the purpose for which True Parents asked us to do this tour. That is why we are here and all of you are gathered here today: to pass on that message and to call us into prayer.
Before each Sunday Service [in Korea], one of the things that we do is what I call "manifest the Principle." You all see the beautiful symbol up here [he gestures to the banner with the Unification Symbol on it]. It's in red. But we wear it very proudly in gold [displaying the symbol on a chain around his neck]. It's not real gold, but it looks gold. Wherever we go, we tell people who we are. "We're Unificationists; we represent the Unification Church. This is the Principle [outlining the shape of the symbol]. This is give-and-receive action; this is the four-position foundation. It's all centered on true love. So we proudly display our faith because we want to be proud of who we are. We want to be proud of what we believe, and we have a right to be.
Reverend Fauntroy is here! So good to see you! Thank you for coming! God bless! What we do is manifest Principle. In a nutshell, we can learn the Principle just by seeing this symbol, which shows us the great gift of the revelation that True Parents have brought to Earth. That can be done very easily, and we do it all the time before the service. So I'm going to ask you all to do it with me when we start, okay?
We're going to draw the outside first, the circle first, give-and-receive action [outlining the symbol in a gesture with both hands]. Now the square, the four-position foundation. Lift it up. You did it! Come to the center, where we inherit the true love of God. Aju. Thank you.
When we were in Japan just a few weeks ago, I shared a little story from the Book of Samuel in the Bible. We meet a very interesting fellow named Elkanah there. He's a very faithful man, a devotee of the Lord. He's a real prophet in his own right, a very loyal man to God. Before the Holy Land was in Jerusalem, the Israelites designated Shiloh to be the Holy Land. So here we meet Elkanah and his wife Hannah making offerings at the temple.
Very interestingly, the name Hannah in Hebrew means grace or mercy, she who is blessed in grace. So Hannah's name means grace, but whenever people look at her, she doesn't seem blessed. She has been married to Elkanah for many years but she has certain problems. One of the issues is that she can't have children. It says in the Scripture that God closed her womb so that she could not bear children. It's interesting that her name means grace, but she cannot reach the fruition of her blessing.
So Hannah, the wife whom Elkanah loves so dearly, is in the situation that God has closed her womb. She also has a problem because of that issue -- in the Israelite community, back then especially, to carry on lineage was so important. So the fact that she can't have children is a negative for her. Everybody is judging her: "You're not blessed. Your name is supposed to mean grace and mercy, but you don't have any grace, you don't have any blessing. You can't even have children!'
On top of that, Elkanah now is feeling that pressure, so he takes on a second wife. Now we know from True Parents that this is a not-so-good behavior, but at that time they did that sort of thing. This second wife's name was Peninnah. Peninnah means pearl, precious stone. Peninnah is very blessed in how people see her. She's now married to Elkanah, she's very happy, and she has tons of kids. Tons of kids! She just has them so quickly.
So Hannah is barren and cannot reap fruition of the blessing. But now she has to compete with another woman who is younger, who is more beautiful, and who has tons of kids. She is constantly compared with this woman. But Hannah has also another problem because Peninnah is not a nice lady. She doesn't just leave Hannah alone; she persecutes, harasses, yells at, makes fun of her and mocks her. She continues to say, "You're worthless. I'm the valuable one; I'm the precious stone. You're worthless. You don't have any grace. You don't have any blessing:"
Hannah is in the situation where she's attacked, persecuted, and mocked. In her own mind, she starts to believe the lies of Peninnah: "Maybe I'm not valuable. Maybe my destiny is not grace. Maybe they named me wrong. Maybe they were supposed to name me Ahannah (which means one who is not graced). She's in a situation where she's very depressed, and she gets desperate. The Scripture says that she begins to pray at the temple. She's walking around the temple, and she meets the priest Eli. He asks her,
"Hannah, you have been drinking again. Get rid of your wine." She tells him, "I'm not drunk. I'm not intoxicated. I'm pouring my heart out to God:"
She is so desperate in her own heart, praying so much so that she is now intoxicated, praying so much that Scripture says that her lips were moving but no sound emerged. She is mumbling to herself as she is walking around. So we meet this incredible woman who has an incredible destiny but is not able to reap that fruit and is praying in desperation.
When I read this story, it reminded me of our own tradition. Actually it reminded me that we in the Unification Church are like Hannah in the sense that we have an incredible name, an incredible destiny that is attached to us. We have incredible prophecies that have been given to the Unification movement, but we have also been told by Peninnahs for the last 30 years that we're worthless. We have been told by Peninnahs that we're crazy, that we're Moonies and a cult that isn't going to survive past the next generation. We've been told by Peninnahs that they are the precious ones and that we have no value, that our name doesn't really mean grace; it doesn't really mean the ones who will be blessed or who will unify the world. Rather, it refers to those who are cursed, those who are following a strange new faith.
In my own reflection on this story, it reminded me of that feeling of being Unificationists. For the last 30 years we haven't been able to witness in our Korean church. In 1970 we had 16,000 core members. In 2005, when you look at the statistics, you will see that we had 14,000 members. So what happened? We had growth, but we had negative growth. So we haven't grown in 30 years. We've lost so much confidence. We don't know our value. We don't believe that the Principle can actually move people. We're thinking that it can't work for this age -- maybe after World War II it worked, but it doesn't really work anymore. We have been believing these things, and they became our reality.
So our communities became more internal as we looked inside more. Because we were being attacked, that was a natural thing, and important at the time. All of you who joined in the 1960s and 1970s, you know what Peninnah is like. You've seen it in your families, and you've seen it from your communities when you joined the movement. So we encountered that. I really felt that, just like Hannah, we started becoming ingrown, fearing our destiny, fearing the prophecies that had been placed upon us, fearing even our own name.
So in Korea we had not grown; we could not witness. The culture of the church was telling us when we started Mapo Church, "We cannot witness. We're not going to grow" This was already very deeply ingrained in our church, beaten so heavily by the persecution, by Peninnah.
We were in a situation in Korea where we had to face this internal struggle, where we had to once again start believing in who we were, once again find confidence in what we believed in, what our faith really meant, and what was truly at stake when we professed ourselves as Unificationists, those who are attending the Lord of the Second Coming. A major challenge for us was finding what is truly in our vision and truly in our tradition that could change the world and change how we speak about unity and peace.
In 2005 Kook Jin Hyung was called to Korea by Father to take over responsibility of the Jaedan group, our business group in Korea. When he arrived, the business group was in absolutely terrible shape. It was losing $100 million per year every year. This was not a burden to Americans or to Koreans. Guess who was bearing the burden? The Japanese. This was absolutely outrageous.
When he saw this situation in 2005, $100 million lost per year, he started a lot of restructuring. Within three years, our business group had $50 million in profit, even at this time of economic difficulty. This has never been done in our history.
About 95 percent of the staff in the business group are newly hired professionals, veterans of the big conglomerates in Korea -- Hyundai, Samsung, LG Group. Kook Jin Hyung hired accountants, lawyers, and other professionals from those groups. The whole Jaedan team became 95-percent non-Unificationists. A lot of people said, "We can't even witness. Why are you bringing these people in? They're going to mess it up:'
Kook Jin Hyung started witnessing to them. At the beginning, it was 95-percent non-members. I'm happy to say that now 40 percent of the entire business group that we have in Korea are Unificationists. And guess what? They're new members, and they are professionals. They have their own careers, they have international experience, and they have done incredible things. They have provided huge support for the temple. They also are now very committed. Through the work of one of our vice chairmen who is head of church finances, we show the church financial statement transparently to the congregation and anyone who wants to see it. That was not done in the past. He headed major corporations in Korea -- Han-jin Corporation was one of them. His spiritual father is Kook Jin, and he's now in our church working as head of finance.
What we now see on the ground is that we can witness and we can be relevant in society. This culture that happened in our movement was because of the persecution. We felt so much opposition during the indemnity period that we almost became scared of witnessing, of saying that we have something incredible to offer. In Korea, we're happy to report that within about one year, membership has grown from about 14,000 nationwide core Unificationists to above 18,000 core Unificationists. We'll continue to grow.
For us in Korea it's very exciting because the tides have turned. We've had over 100 articles in top newspapers and top magazines. Kook Jin Hyung has been featured in Forbes magazine in Korea. We've had over 100 different institutions that have covered developments of the church and the business group. Not even one of them has been negative; every single one of them has been positive. Now for the first time in Korea, we are really changing the whole notion of the Unification Church. That negative cloud that hung around us is really starting to move away. We're once again finding hope.
The week before I came here to America to attend True Parents I met a friend of mine, a nice Buddhist lady in her 50s. She was totally upset, completely angry with me. She started yelling at me, chastising me. You don't want to face an angry Buddhist lady, especially if she's Korean! She was saying, "Look, what's wrong with you guys? I met somebody who I know is married to a Japanese spouse:" She knows our community, so she knows we have international marriages. She said to this person, "Oh, you must be a Unificationist. Your spouse is Japanese" That's not so common in Korea. And the person did not answer. [Hyung Jin demonstrates a cringing response.] Then she asked again, Are you a follower of Reverend Moon?" No answer. Four times. She said she had to push and push and ask before the person finally said, "Yes, I'm a Unificationist," as if he'd committed some grave sin.
She was angry. She said to that person, "What is wrong with you? If you're a spiritual community and your spiritual identity is your central identity, why are you hiding your identity? Why are you not telling me you're Unificationist? Who cares if there're bad people in the Unification Church? There're bad people in Buddhism; there're bad people in Christianity. Who cares? What's important is that you live up to the teaching."
She said to me, "Mr. International President, I want you to educate your members. Tell them to be proud of who they are. What do you have to be afraid of? The Unification Church has such a beautiful name. It means uniting. Reverend Moon is a global person. What are you afraid of?" She was chastising me, and I was receiving that holy fire from the angry Buddhist lady. God works in mysterious ways. On one hand, I was shocked and very embarrassed. On the other hand, I was extremely grateful because something on the inside of me said, yes, we don't have to hide what we are. There is no reason why we have to be shy of who we are and what we believe in.
A famous actor in Korea helped us with the autobiography tour. As you may know, Father's autobiography has been on the best-seller list in Korea for weeks. It reached Number Two at its peak point, and it continues to be on the best-seller list to this day This actor was visiting some of our churches. He also got quite upset at us. He got very upset, actually. He said, "I come into your church, and you don't have anything that says Unification Church. You guys say you are the Family Federation and the True Family Cultural Center, but you're really the Unification Church. So why are you trying to fool me? I feel like I'm being deceived. Any outsider who comes into one of these centers and then finds out it's the Unification Church is going to feel deceived. Put your name up. What is wrong with you? Tong-il Kyo [Unification Church], what is wrong with that name? So what if evangelical Christians have attacked that name? That name Unification Church is the most incredible name. You can't find a better name than that. It means unity. You're the ones who are going to unite Korea. You're the ones who are going to unite the religions. You're the ones who are going to bring True Parents' love to this world:' And he's an outside person. Even people outside our movement are frustrated. "Why are you hiding your identity? Why don't you be up front with your faith? Why don't you declare your faith and be proud of your name?" This was his challenge to us.
We were very grateful because this was right around that time that True Parents told us that now is the completion stage and reminded us that four years remain until 2013. We'll now put the name Unification Church in the forefront. First we were HSA-UWC, the unification of Christianity. We had Family Federation at the growth stage, making our networks and contacts. But now in the completion stage, it is the Unification Church, the church that will unite all religions and bring all people together. The actor said, "Put that name up front. Put your symbol up on the front."
If you come now to Seoul Station, which is the major station in Yong-san, and walk out and look straight up, you will see a big building that now has our symbol proudly displayed; right next to it, it proudly says, Tong-il Kyo, the Unification Church. This is very recent. We changed the symbol less than a month ago. People who had passed that building for the last 10 years have said, "Unification Church has a building here?" They didn't even know what it was or that we were the church there. So now we're standing tall.
When I saw the story of Hannah, I felt that Hannah was in a situation where she was broken down and didn't believe in herself any more. She started believing Penninah's criticism and chastisement, and she started losing confidence in herself. But she was pushed to a point of desperation in which the enemy was used as a blessing, and the enemy Penninah compelled Hannah to not rely on humans or on her own ability but rather on the grace and power of God. So Hannah now began to pray to God, and not just a normal prayer. She was weeping.
The reason why this story really touched me personally is because I also reached this state of desperation in my own spiritual life. I have studied the world's religions for about 10 years. I've lived with those communities, trained with those communities, practiced with those communities, have friends who are spiritual leaders in those communities. For myself, it's been an incredible journey of understanding the different religions.
But there's always been an aching question in my heart because I heard also the prophecy that had been spoken over our own movement and Unification Church: that we are supposed to complete the mission of Christianity, inherit the great foundation that Jesus set forth, and unite the religions. But I could not see a way that we could actually do this, honestly speaking, looking at our theology. We talk about true love: 95 percent of Father's teachings are on true love. We have pride in our true love. I've heard the definitions of true love a million times: Live for the sake of the other; it's a selfless type of love; it is a love that can subjugate Satan. I've heard those definitions millions of times, but I could not see why the true love that we talked about was greater than the love that Christians talk about, that Buddhists talk about. I could not see how we were going to bring that to a new elevation in these faiths and come into unity. I could not see it happening.
I studied Christian theology at Harvard, worshipped with the Christian community, and experienced the love of Christ. Jesus' love was so embracing. The love of Christ is just like Jesus defines it in John 15:13 -- greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his friends. A sacrificial love, an incredible type of love. If we were talking about true love, which we believe to be actually a greater truth, then why is it that we could not articulate it in a way that actually made me believe that it was greater and that it was completing the incredible love that Jesus brought to this world, the love that had changed the world for the last 2,000 years, the incredible agape love of Christ, exemplified by his laying down his life for his friends.
I listened to the definitions of true love and living for the sake of others, selfless love -- we'd be cleaning up a street, or something -- but that's nowhere near Christ's love. It's nowhere near the sacrifice that he made. So what was it that we were talking about? Was our true love actually greater than that of the other religious traditions, like we say? Or was it the same? Were we talking about a similar type of agape love? Were we talking about a similar type of love, like we see in Buddhism, for example, one of the four attributes of the Bodhisatva or Buddha, a great compassion that seeks to gain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings? Or the great obedience of Muhammad -- "I bow to the one true God; there is no God but God, one true God:' That kind of absolute, obedient love to God.
Then what is the true love that we talked about? How come we could not show that this was a greater truth, one that would elevate the world into a new level of love? This was a huge problem for me as somebody who participated in different religious communities, lived with and trained with those communities. For me this was an aching question because if I could not answer this question, then as a Unificationist minister I had no confidence to stand on my faith as a Unificationist. If we were all just the same, there's no reason for you all to be here or to press your faith in True Parents. You could just as well be Christians, Buddhists, or Muslims; there would be absolutely no reason for you to have faith in True Parents.
So this was an aching question in my own theological mind. Why the prophecies were soaking over our tradition, and how is it that it was true? This was a huge question. I had been a minister for two years. As a Unificationist minister, I had been proud of my faith, I had displayed my faith, and I had talked about myself as a proud Unificationist, but in my heart I did not know why the true love that we talk about was actually an elevation of what the world knew of love. I didn't know.
So I reached a state of desperation, just like Hannah, where I could not answer this question. No person's explanation, no Unificationist, whatever teacher, lecturer, minister, or professor they were, could adequately convince me that the love that we had as a religious tradition was going to elevate the whole world into a new level of love. I couldn't be convinced. This was a huge conflict in my own heart. You could imagine the conflict. "Abonim [Father] says I have to be the international president, but I've got this huge conflict in my own heart." This was a big problem.
In my state of desperation, I realized, "I can't answer this question with my own rational mind. I can't answer it with my theological training. I can't answer with my meditative training. With all the devotion that I give, I can't answer this question for myself. By myself, I am limited, and I need to rely, not on others, not on words, but on God, just like Hannah did."
I didn't even know the story of Hannah, but when I read it, it struck me because in my own spiritual life I began to pray like her. I wept for the first time as a Unificationist, really trying to answer this question I couldn't answer. So one night I had a dream of True Parents. We all know that Father went through six incarcerations. We know he was tortured, and that's historical. We know that under the oppression of colonial Japan he was imprisoned and beaten. We know that in North Korea and South Korea he was tortured.
In one of the prisons, you all know the story, Father was beaten until he was dead and was thrown out into the snow. The early disciples found his lifeless body, and they brought him indoors. They warmed him, but he was not breathing, not alive physically. Then they saw a miracle, the miracle of Father being resuscitated. We've also seen as a community the miracle of the seventh imprisonment, what Father calls the real resurrection, in the helicopter crash, when that 16-ton metal prison dropped from the sky, exploded, and all 16 people -- two of whom were my children and two of whom were the True Parents, and, of course staff -- came out alive. This is unprecedented in the statistics of helicopter crashes.
We've seen miracles as a community: We've seen True Parents' life through a historical lens. We understand that they've suffered, that they've taken on the bloody path. But it really struck me that day when I had this dream. I was in a deep state of desperation, trying to answer this question. In this dream, I saw Father being beaten in a prison. His physical body was being tortured. We've heard the stories of him being scarred or burned or electrocuted. Even to this day his body has all those scars.
So I saw Father's body being beaten, but at the same time what his spirit was doing was different. His spirit was going into the lowest realms of hell, what we call the lower spirit realms. In those realms were these torturers who were torturing other spirits there, and True Father threw his body into the arms of these torturers, who looked like big demons, and said, "Don't harm my children, even though they have committed sin and are sinful. Even though they may deserve to be here, do not touch my children. I am their parent." In that dream his body was ripped and torn.
When I received that dream, that message from Parents, I came to know the reason why I could not understand what true love really was, what a parental heart was. It was because I had looked at Father with my historical lens. I had looked at Father with my human eyes but had not opened my eyes of the spirit. It struck me that even to this day, if you're a Christian you must open your spiritual eyes to feel and experience the love of Christ. You cannot experience the love of Christ without opening your spiritual eyes. If you don't open your spiritual eyes, all you will see is a Middle Eastern man who lived about 2,000 years ago who was hung on a piece of wood, and many criminals at that age were also hung on that piece of wood. That's all you will see. Only when you open your spiritual eyes will you see that Jesus died for our sins, descended into hell, and on the third day was resurrected so that we could have eternal life, as it says in the Apostles Creed in Christianity. If you understand that with your spiritual eyes, then you can begin to understand the love of Christ and what he has done for humanity. It's only by opening your spiritual eyes that you can understand the love of Christ.
In the same way, I realized the reason why we were not fully articulating what kind of love True Parents have actualized was because we were not opening our spiritual eyes. We did not understand the sacrifice that True Parents had to pay. We heard about the incarcerations, we heard about the bloody trials and tribulations, but we had not seen them with our spiritual eyes.
For their children, True Parents, just as Christ did, would descend into the lowest realms and depths and bowels of hell to redeem them, to take their place -- not just once like Christ did for friends, but seven times. Over and over they would die and die and die again so that their children, their families, their nations, the world, and the spirit world could have eternal life in the kingdom we call Cheon Il Guk.
Then I knew that I had never understood what we meant when we talked about true love. I never knew what it was. I heard that it was parental heart, but I didn't know what kind of parental heart it was. But when I received that dream, then I realized the parental heart that True Parents have inherited, the parental heart that will die and die again for the sake of the children -- even though those children have sinned and even though they may deserve to be in those lower realms. They would sacrifice their own body and soul, not just once but over and over and over again so that we could have the blessing of entering the nation of oneness, Cheon Il Guk.
When I understood that this is the power of the love that we were talking about, I thought about what Jesus was saying in John 15:13, where he identified the greatest love. He said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jesus inherited incredible love, agape love, but it was a love based on friendship. Notice the word, "For he who lays his life down for his friends."
But we know that Jesus came to complete the mission of the second Adam, that is, to start the new kingdom in which he was supposed to fulfill the role of Adam and to create the new lineage of God. He was supposed to be a parent and inherit the parental heart of God, but because of disunity he was not able to do that.
I recognized that the love that we have in our Unification theological tradition, the love that we talk about when we talk about true love and parental heart, is even more powerful, even greater than the incredible agape of Jesus Christ, a love that surpasses not only that of normal people but of the son of God, a love that is inheriting the parental heart of God, which will sacrifice itself over and over, descending and descending so that the children may see a better day and have eternal life.
Then I came to know that the Unification Church has something amazing about it. Now I realize that the true love we are talking about is not just some street clean-up. It is something profound, and it is something that the world has never, ever encountered. It will bring the world into the parental heart of love and the direct dominion, into the kingdom of Cheon Il Guk.
What we have in the Unification Church, the prophecies that have been spoken upon us, are not fake. But we have to open our spiritual eyes to be able to receive them. I realized that day why Father never told us that we should be grateful that he went to death for us, went in our place to the lower realms. It's already in his teaching about true love -- to give and give and forget. Even though he gave his own life and his own soul so that we could have the privilege of eternal life and direct dominion in God's presence, he has never asked for reward, and he is true to his teaching. And that is why we call him the True Parent, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is why we understand that the great saints and sages bow down before that inheritance of parental love that True Parents have embodied, the center of which is our Unification movement, our teaching on true love.
I realized that day that it is real. What we are teaching is real. And not only that, but just like the prophecy that has been spoken of us, the Unification movement will stand up and reach its destiny, remembering who it is, its identity, its faith, and its destination.
I was very moved by the story of Hannah because she begged God, saying, "Please God, give me a child. If you give me that child, it will be yours. I won't even keep it. I want it so bad, I'll give it right back. Just give that child to me. Let me see the child one day and stop Penninah from attacking me and calling me valueless:" We all felt like that once in a while with our persecutors, right? But Hannah relied on God, desperate in her prayer.
Scripture says, at the end of Chapter 1 of I Samuel, that God heard her prayers -- not prayer, prayers. The point is that she kept on praying. She didn't just pray that one day. She kept on praying, and God heard her prayers and eventually blessed her. He blessed her with three boys and two girls. People started saying, "Hannah, you are blessed."
But guess what? Not a lot of people know this, but her first child was a boy whose name was Samuel, which means "God has heard," or "heard of God:' It means that God heard her prayer. And did you know what Samuel eventually went on to become? Samuel became the highest priest of Israel, the spiritual center of the entire nation of God's chosen people. And not only that, but Samuel also anointed and blessed the first kings of Israel, Saul and David. He was the one who anointed them with the spirit and blessing of God.
When the Unification Church members remember who we are, our destiny and our name -- just like Hannah, whose name means grace -- and start believing once again in our destiny and our prophecy, when we start believing in our potential and in our future; then God is going to start blessing us. Not only is he going to start blessing, we're going to start seeing the history of Samuel. The Unification movement, just like Samuel, will make history. I declare before you that we will see the Unification Church stand, we will see it reach its destiny, and we will see it, just like Samuel, be able to bless the nations, unite the nations, bring them all into one, and allow them to inherit the true love of God.
If you believe in it, let's give it up for our faith. (Applause.) This is who we are. I want you to be proud of who we are. We have nothing to be ashamed of.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. Father, on this day we want to remember who and whose we are. We want to know that you have anointed this movement. Father, we want to know and we want to remember the name that you have given to us. We want to remember the meaning of that name, Father. We want to remember the anointing that you have laid upon us.
Father, we want to believe again. Father, we want to have faith again, and we want to be proud of who we are and what we stand for. Heavenly Father, we know that you have sacrificed your great heart and that True Parents have come here to fulfill the great mission of Jesus Christ, to inherit the incredible love of the parental heart, a love that has never been seen or experienced in this world, a love that is unsurpassed, that goes through the seven deaths, but also a love that is resurrected because of its power. It is resurrected over and over because of your victory, Father. Father, we have to be proud of what we have in the Unification movement. Father, let us inherit this kind of love. Let us remember who we are, Father, and let us be proud of who we are.
We want to offer all the glory up to you today. We want to offer all the thanks, Father. We want to repent in our hearts to you, and we want to begin anew, Father. We want to be reborn and resurrected so that we become new creatures and new creations in your eyes and so that you will work your heavenly will through these people. Bless them this day. Anoint them this day, and let them remember their destiny this day.
Father, thank you so much. We pray this as proud Unificationists, and, we pray this in our own names, as central blessed families, centering on True Parents and on true love. We pray in True Parents' name, aju.
1: There was a certain man of Ramatha'im-zo'phim of the hill country of E'phraim, whose name was Elka'nah the son of Jero'ham, son of Eli'hu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an E'phraimite.
2: He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Penin'nah. And Penin'nah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3: Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phin'ehas, were priests of the LORD.
4: On the day when Elka'nah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penin'nah his wife and to all her sons and daughters;
5: and, although he loved Hannah, he would give Hannah only one portion, because the LORD had closed her womb.
6: And her rival used to provoke her sorely, to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.
7: So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.
8: And Elka'nah, her husband, said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"
9: After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
10: She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly.
11: And she vowed a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thy maidservant, and remember me, and not forget thy maidservant, but wilt give to thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head."
12: As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.
13: Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman.
14: And Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you."
15: But Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD.
16: Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation."
17: Then Eli answered, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him."
18: And she said, "Let your maidservant find favor in your eyes." Then the woman went her way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad.
19: They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elka'nah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her;
20: and in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, "I have asked him of the LORD."
21: And the man Elka'nah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow.
22: But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the LORD, and abide there for ever."
23: Elka'nah her husband said to her, "Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only, may the LORD establish his word." So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him.
24: And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine; and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh; and the child was young.
25: Then they slew the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.
26: And she said, "Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD.
27: For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me my petition which I made to him.
28: Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD." And they worshiped the LORD there.
1: Hannah also prayed and said, "My heart exults in the
LORD;
my strength is exalted in the LORD.
My mouth derides my
enemies,
because I rejoice in thy salvation.
2: "There is none holy like the LORD,
there is none
besides thee;
there is no rock like our God.
3: Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from
your mouth;
for the LORD is a God of knowledge,
and by him
actions are weighed.
4: The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on
strength.
5: Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but
those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne
seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
6: The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol
and raises up.
7: The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also
exalts.
8: He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from
the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat
of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
and on
them he has set the world.
9: "He will guard the feet of his faithful ones;
but the
wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might shall a man
prevail.
10: The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces;
against
them he will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of
the earth;
he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the
power of his anointed."
11: Then Elka'nah went home to Ramah. And the boy ministered to the LORD, in the presence of Eli the priest.
12: Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they had no regard for the LORD.
13: The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand,
14: and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. So they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15: Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give meat for the priest to roast; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw."
16: And if the man said to him, "Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish," he would say, "No, you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force."
17: Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD; for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.
18: Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy girded with a linen ephod.
19: And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20: Then Eli would bless Elka'nah and his wife, and say, "The LORD give you children by this woman for the loan which she lent to the LORD"; so then they would return to their home.
21: And the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.
22: Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
23: And he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people.
24: No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad.
25: If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the LORD to slay them.
26: Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.
27: And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, "Thus the LORD has said, `I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh.
28: And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
29: Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?'
30: Therefore the LORD the God of Israel declares: `I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me for ever'; but now the LORD declares: `Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31: Behold, the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
32: Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house for ever.
33: The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.
34: And this which shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phin'ehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.
35: And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed for ever.
36: And every one who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Put me, I pray you, in one of the priest's places, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"