The Words of In Jin Moon from 2009
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2009 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. How’s everyone? Did you have a wonderful week?
True Parents just left for Korea this morning after Hoon Dok Hae, and we were so lucky to have them with us for some time now. They truly poured out their heart and soul into this country, in particular every morning at 5:00 am Hoon Dok Hae. Just yesterday was a nine-hour marathon. Father is encouraging all of us to unite with him in heart and in spirit to work together for a greater cause.
As I wished my parents a safe journey back to Korea, where I will see them in a couple of days, I said, “Father and Mother, thank you so much for bringing so much blessing to America. Now you’re headed off to officiate another blessing in Korea for a lot of the people who want to renew their vows, as well as for new couples who will be walking down the aisle for the first time, truly pledging themselves to God and to humanity, to build this thing called an ideal family.”
That’s probably not a very easy thing to do for most of us. I’ve often joked that we always are asking and beseeching our Heavenly Father to give us so much blessing, to give us a wonderful family. Many times our Heavenly Father has given us just that. He has given us a wonderful family where we can practice the art of “true rubbing,” dealing with and working out problems to substantiate the four-position foundation, or this thing called an ideal family on earth.
I told my parents, “You know, Father and Mother, it’s been a long time since I walked down the aisle with my husband -- 25 years. You’ve often talked about the impossibility becoming a possibility and then a reality. Before the day of my blessing, anybody who looked at my husband and me probably thought that we were an impossible couple for the blessing.” Even after we were blessed, for those people who understood how we felt about each other, I think they thought it was an impossibility, thinking, “Let’s just wish them well and hopefully it will turn into a possibility and then perhaps a reality.”
When I told my parents that actually today is the solar birthday of my eldest son, Preston, my parents reminded me, “Now that’s an impossibility that became a reality, and that must be a walking miracle.” Whenever my parents look at me, they like to tease me about my marriage; now they have something else to tease me about -- the five walking miracles that I call my children. I’m so delighted that my parents show my kids so much love and attention.
When you grow up in a public life and environment, many times your parents are not there for you, and you have to walk alone many times, together with our Heavenly Parent, who is always there. It’s heartwarming to see that maybe we didn’t get the love, but the grandchildren are getting the love and the special attention. So there’s a feeling or sense that history is moving forward and that what the First Generation maybe could not experience, the Second and Third Generation might be able to experience.
Here at headquarters I have a wonderful sister named Heather Thalheimer, who’s heading up the Department of Education. She sends me updates on all the activities that she’s involved in. Usually her e-mail subject line says Report on Workshop, Report on this or that. But this e-mail in particular had only three letters and an exclamation mark. It was titled “JOY!” Her message was about how incredibly moved and happy she was after spending some time with the potential blessing candidates, some of them going to Korea for the blessing. She feels that this is a new time for our children. A lot of these new couples were introduced by their parents, and she was commenting that this is really different from the other blessings, that she was an elder sister taking care of these new couples. She said she can feel the change that’s coming. She can feel that there’s a possibility for a great deal of happiness, love, and passion while these children are trying to create ideal families.
When I read her e-mail, I said to myself, “This is what I want for my children, too.” And hopefully, because of the sacrifice that the earlier generation made, or maybe because of the sacrifice that my husband and I had to go through in working to build an ideal family, maybe my kids can have great blessings and truly find that special someone that they’re going to celebrate life with. As parents, isn’t that really the most important wish that we have for our children?
I’m very much looking forward to my five munchkins walking down the aisle. I said, “No more Kleenex at weddings when my munchkins get married. There is going to be laughter, happiness, and celebration.” We very much look forward to that.
When I was meditating this morning about the meaning of the blessing, about the young couples who are looking forward to the blessing, and about us as a community wanting to raise great kids who can enter into a loving relationship with somebody that they care about and truly commit themselves to God, True Parents, you and the greater community, I wondered from a mother’s point of view, What can my contribution be to that process?
I’ve often felt that as a mother probably the most important education that I can take part in, starting from my own individual family and now working with the greater community of the American movement, is to stress moral character. I feel that when a young couple is truly thinking about living a life for the sake of others, really being in that mature position to take another person on, they really must have been prepared by their parents on this wonderful thing called moral education, or character education.
When I meet many young people such as different kids on STF or when I’m visiting families and meeting your children, one of the things that I’m looking at is their personality. A lot of people, I think, feel that somebody’s personality is their character, but those two things are very different. A personality can be so engaging, engrossing, and intriguing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the moral character of that person is just as intriguing and just as compelling as the personality.
Usually when you look at someone’s personality, you’re seeing a unique, individual aspect of that person. The person might be extremely talented, a great artist, singer, or conductor like Brian Saunders, or maybe a great cameraman like Toshi or Koichi here. And maybe somebody’s personality might be outgoing, while another’s is very shy and introverted. But when we talk about a person’s character, or the moral qualities of that person, what we look for in every human being is universal in that we seem to look for certain things. When we say that a person is of moral character, that this person is a man or woman of integrity, usually three things come to mind.
Ephesians 5:8 - 10 says that the fruits of life are things that are good, that are right, and that are true. When you think about somebody who has a good moral character, these three words come up over and over again. When we are born and first start out in diapers, crying and in need of mother’s milk, we’re very much self-absorbed creatures, are we not? We are constantly needing attention and love. But somewhere in the life process, when we begin to take responsibility and know who we are, then we realize that, more than thinking about self-interest, there is a wonderful thing called living for the sake of others or being able to understand from another person’s perspective what that person is going through. In English, that word is empathy -- being able to empathize with another person’s particular situation, or that person’s difficulty or suffering. Caring, being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes, is what helps someone become a good person.
For instance, when we as parents want to educate our children to be good people, the thing that most parents stress is service to others, thinking about others. For instance, I was living and “true rubbing” with my younger sister. There were instances of a bit of friction. At each moment my mother would call me aside, since I was the older one, and would say, “Try to be a caring older sister. Try to be a loving older sister. Even if you think your younger sister is immature, not well behaved, and is asking for things that do not make sense, try to put yourself in her position. Maybe she feels like you, as the elder, get all the attention. Maybe what you get looks better to her than what she has. If you can put yourself in her position and look at yourself through her eyes, then maybe you can learn to develop this love, compassion, or caring so that you can truly take care of her with love and guidance, and not just react immediately out of anger and frustration.”
When we are able to empathize with another person, being compassionate and understanding the situation, then many times we want to do the right thing. I realized, maybe this was the way my sister was looking at me. She had an interesting habit of always wanting to wear something that I put aside for a special occasion. My mother would buy me a beautiful dress, and I would save it for that special occasion. But many times, unbeknownst to me, she would wear it. I would find it in not such good form, and many times I would be upset.
But then I would remember my mother’s words, asking me to be a good person, asking me to empathize with my sister’s need or desire to wear my new dress. Then I would ask myself what would be the right thing for me to do. When you think about the word right, when you’re a righteous person and want to do the right thing, it’s not just a matter of knowing what’s good or bad. Even a very young child has a sense of knowing what’s good or bad. But if you’re truly practicing “true rub,” if you’re truly practicing how to become a better person by applying love in every aspect of your life, then just knowing simply doesn’t cut it.
Not only do you have to know as the first step, but better than that, you have to want to do the right thing. You have to desire to do the right thing. There has to be an inner conscience that tells you it’s good to do the right thing, not just because you know, but because you want to. Many times I’ve used the phrase “just because.” You want to be good, and you want to do the right thing, just because.
We all go through this wonderful thing called adolescence and teenage years. Each step of the way we’re confronted with the question, What’s the right thing to do? Many times we know what the right thing to do is, but sometimes the temptation is a bit too hard and maybe too difficult, and it’s very difficult for us to do the right thing.
But we need to remind ourselves that to be a truly wonderful person and to be a man or a woman of moral character, we start out by wanting to be a good person, by wanting to practice this thing called true love and learning to embody it. At the same time, choosing to do right over not such good things, we can become one step closer to the kind of person that we want to be.
I’ve seen a lot of young people in the midst of their struggle dealing with this dilemma between being righteous and being self-righteous. When you’re wanting to do right for God, that’s a wonderful thing. You want to do good; you want to choose to do the right thing. But there’s a fine line between righteousness and self-righteousness. Sometimes young people in their youthful exuberance and passionate nature forget to be warned of this thing called the self before the word righteous.
When those words are put together, it becomes something quite scary. It becomes something like, “I know that we are good people; I know that our community is wonderful. I know that our community is like the chosen people, and chosen means I’m special. “I’m special” means I’m better than anybody else; therefore, let me be self-righteous, and let me tell you what I think you ought to do.”
When we’re young, often we want to test our relationship with our parents. We’re really believing that we are being righteous, but God gave us parents to teach us the importance of humility and obedience. Many adults who have not grown internally in comparison to what they are externally are still children at heart; adults who are 30, 40, and 50 years old may have a moral character that’s like a child’s.
When you’re thinking you want to do right and you want to be righteous, but you’re not careful that the righteousness that you want to exercise is based on your relationship with God, our Heavenly Parent, and your relationship with our True Parents, it can so easily degenerate into self-righteousness. This happens when we feel that we know better, when we feel that maybe our parents are not as sharp as they used to be, when we feel that maybe our True Parents are a little too old, when we feel that maybe our True Parents do not feel the pulse of the movement. Or maybe some of us might feel that we need to tell our True Parents or our Heavenly Parent how things should be done. The minute we start thinking that way, we very quickly degenerate into self-righteousness
Recently I’ve been watching Korean soap operas with my family. Right now it’s a series called Kim Dae Young, basically a story about a child anointed by God, given to Korea, who grows up in the most excruciating circumstances. He loses his mother, he loses his father, he works as a slave to an incredible general. But because he is such a wonderful human being, he overcomes many odds and also disciplines himself as a great martial artist to later become the true hero of Korea. But when you see his life and the lives of those around him who are fully entrenched in political intrigue, fighting between all the factions that exist in the king’s court, you realize very quickly that they all think that they’re being righteous. Every side believes that whatever they’re doing, it’s for the benefit of God and Korea.
Of course, we have hindsight and the wisdom of history, so we know who the good people are and we know who the evil people are. But in the middle of the story, we see human beings actively engaged in intrigue, plotting, and strategizing; they all think that they’re on a God-given mission and they’re all righteous sons and daughters of God, servants of God.
Another thing that you realize very quickly is that good and righteous people are usually true. They are always eternal in their moral qualities. Once they give their word, it is like gold. They keep their word, whether to their detriment or to their betterment. Usually self-righteous people will change their word depending on the situation that they find themselves in.
When I think about this wonderful word true, I’ve also said to myself, “I want to be a good person, to be a compassionate person, a caring person, someone who practices living for the sake of others, who practices altruism in my daily life. But I also want to be a righteous person, not only knowing what’s right or wrong but desiring to do good, just because.”
When I come upon the word true, I ask myself, what does that word mean? For me the most important thing, especially having grown up in a public situation with my siblings (and still are growing), is the genuine and the true relationship that we can have with people. So many times people look at us as celebrities, as someone they want to get close to -- maybe because they think the True Family has a lot of money or because they think the True Family can give them a new job, maybe because they think they can get a great wife or husband through us. There are many reasons why people want to get to know us.
When you’re a public person, what you crave more than anything is genuine, true, and eternal relationships with brothers and sisters. When I’m looking into the audience with my children seated here, thinking of what kind of family I want to build, what kind of family I want the American movement to be, what I would like more than anything is for us to be real people, genuine people.
There is something very interesting about being genuine, being true, or being eternal. Maya Angelou once said, “Probably one of the greatest gifts is to be true, but it’s also one of the most difficult things for a person to be because you have to have courage to love.” You have to be willing to risk everything. When you are wanting this genuine, true, honest relationship with somebody, sometimes it takes a great deal of courage to love, to trust that person, and to go out on a limb and maybe tell that person something that you are aware of and might hurt that person, but because you want to be an honest and genuine person, you’re going to say it anyway.
When I was a schoolgirl, my parents rarely went to PTA meetings. Every now and then my mother would try to come to at least one or two graduations. My older sister was graduating, and my mother was getting ready to go. My mother is a beautiful woman who truly encompasses what simple elegance is all about. But on this day she wore an outfit that looked like pink feathers. It made her look bigger than usual, and in my eyes she looked like a pink flamingo. Here I was, caught in a dilemma because everyone was telling her, “You look so ravishing! That color is divine.” The whole time I’m thinking, “Pink flamingo!”
I was thinking, “How do I deal with this? I love my mother. I think she’s a gorgeous woman, but I think she could have made a better choice, especially when she’s going to my sister’s graduation.” I was really struggling because I loved her, and I wanted her to show her best form to my school and to my older sister’s class. But everyone was telling her how divine she looked. I felt like nobody was really telling her what they were all thinking. She looked a bit fluffy, a bit feathery.
I was literally shaking and my knees were knocking because I was so afraid of what my mother would do if I told her the truth. Did I really have the courage to love my mother? Could I risk the fact that she might get really upset with me? Did I have the courage to tell her the truth?
So after much discussion with my brain, and then with my heart, finally I went up to her and said, “Mother, pink is a wonderful color, but that dress is just not flattering on you.” She said, “Oh, but everybody said it looks nice.” I said, “Yes, I heard them too. But I don’t think they’re telling you the truth, Omma, because you look like a pink flamingo.” Then I was petrified. I was so afraid, but I said it. I had the courage to tell her what I felt was the truth because I loved her. I was willing to risk the fact that she might come down hard on me and say something like, “You’re just a little girl. These adults are saying it looks wonderful.” But you know what she did? She grabbed my hand, pulled me close and hugged me. She said, “I was looking in the mirror and I thought, I do look a little feathery.” She said, “Thank you, In Jin, for being honest.” I learned a very important lesson that day. I learned that sometimes it takes great courage to love somebody, to be true to somebody, and sometimes to say the thing that this person doesn’t want to hear.
In the context of my family, nobody likes to bring my father bad news. Everyone has glorious reports. But how is our father going to make the best decisions if he doesn’t have all the facts? I feel that as head of HSA and as head of the American movement, I have not only the job to inspire my father and mother with wonderful stories about you, your children, and your grandchildren but also to present the facts, the reality of the situation at hand, the reality of the businesses or organizations that we have, and maybe at the same time make pertinent recommendations that might make the situation better.
This takes great courage, too, because when you’re one in a line of glorious reports it’s incredibly scary to be the bearer of bad news. But you have to do the right thing by being courageous enough to let our True Parents know what’s going on. Once you do that, then you realize that Father has all the ingredients to create an incredible dish. But if you want to create an incredible dish, you’ve got to let the man know what the ingredients are. Time and time again, there were moments when I have been afraid, when I lacked courage. But if we believe in ourselves, if we believe that we are doing the right thing and we decide to take the risk to love, to have the courage to be real, genuine people, then the Kingdom of Heaven is already here.
These are the qualities, the fruits of light, if you will -- goodness, righteousness, being true. These are the things that I see in my father and mother each and every day. In particular I had a long conversation with my mother about different things going on now in regard to my family. When I look at this woman, she is somebody who gave her life to God at the tender age of 17. Just as my father was anointed by Jesus Christ and has never wavered since then in fulfilling Jesus’ mission, I look at this incredible woman who made a commitment and pledged herself to God when she was 17. Here she is, someone who also never wavered in her life of faith.
I asked her, “Mother, one of the things that I like to do when I have my own time with our Heavenly Parent is to really report in the form of a prayer everything that I would like to do at the start of the day and all the things I have completed at the end of the day. Can you give me a pointer here? Can I ask you, What did you pray about?”
She said something that was incredibly moving, and at the same time electrifying. She said, “Ever since I was a 17-year-old bride marrying your father, there was one constant theme throughout my life. I always prayed to Heavenly Father, ‘Let me be the one to restore all the difficulties of humanity. Let all the difficulties and suffering end with me. Let me digest it all, Heavenly Father. Let me be the one who suffers. Let me be the one who perseveres. Let me be the one who overcomes. I want the suffering to end with me so that my children can have a better life.’ ”
When she said that to me, I thought, “This is the heart of a mother. You are willing to die over and over and over again for the sake of your kids.” My mother has died over and over and over for the sake of her children and for the sake of our movement. Here is Father, on his 9-hour Hoon Dok Hae marathon, and Mother is right there. When my father cannot sleep, she cannot sleep. When my father needs her to go somewhere, she has to be there. So her life has truly been a life of sacrifice and of suffering. This is a woman who, if anybody has a right to complain, would have the greatest right to complain. But in front of the kids, in front of her bigger family, and in front of our American movement, she never utters a malicious word. She’s always there to encourage, always there to teach the children how incredible their father is, how incredible we are to be born at this time.
In America you have the saying, “The buck stops here.” It’s almost as if True Mother is saying, “The buck stops here with me. I’m not going to let my children suffer. I will suffer on their behalf. I will sacrifice on their behalf.” Even as we speak, she’s sacrificing, she’s giving of herself. So it’s very difficult for me as a daughter to look at this woman whom I call my mother and not start to cry because she has carried herself so well, with so much dignity and confidence in knowing who she is -- but, at the same time, just as my father said earlier, with the desire to work for the betterment of humanity.
We as a community have this incredible man and woman who truly encapsulate what a good person is, what a righteous person is, and what a true person is. The only thing we need to do is to be humble, to be united, and to aspire to be just like them in our daily lives. I know there’s quite a bit of conversation these days in our movement, and our father is literally breaking his bones to spend time with the American movement, to let all of us know that he is here and he is taking care of us.
In this call for unity that started when our international president Hyung Jin announced at this podium, It’s really high time for us to put aside our small sacrifices because it’s the least we can do. Let’s think about how we can come together as a community so that we can truly honor these two individuals whom we call our True Parents, so that we can share the breaking news of who they are and how incredible it is for us to have them in our lives. Let’s tell our children to be proud of our sacrifices because it is upon our sacrifice that they can enjoy greater glory in their lives.
When I’m thinking about the blessing, about all the well-wishes that I would like to bestow upon the new couples and on those of you who will be renewing your vows, I am mindful of one Korean story that I heard a long while back. It was such a gruesome story when I first heard it, and I could not sleep for days. It’s called “The Iron Bell,” about a Buddhist monastery that wanted to create a bell that would ring so the townspeople could enjoy it and the monks could be aided in their meditation. The monastery put a great deal of money and care into building this huge iron bell.
But when they finally completed this bell and gathered all the monks to coring it and enjoy the singing of the bell, they realized upon striking it that no sound would come forth. Different townspeople came and struck the bell, but there was no sound. The monks started thinking that something strange was going on, and said, “We’d better meditate and pray.” After their prayers, an older monk had a revelation. “You have to sacrifice a beautiful, pure young girl from the village and throw her body into the hot iron that will be molded into the bell. That’s the only way you will get the bell to sing.”
When they got this revelation, they were terrified, wondering where in the village they would find such a girl, willing to throw herself into a pot of boiling iron, to be molded in the bell to be rung so that the whole town could hear it singing. Nobody in the town wanted to volunteer. But they kept looking, asking, saying, “We need this bell to sing. Can we not find a young maiden whom we can sacrifice?”
They came across a poor but very devout family. The father and mother, realizing that this revelation was something Heaven was asking for, felt that they had to unite with the monks, as gruesome as it might be, and offer their daughter as a sacrifice.
I was a young girl when I heard this story, and I could not sleep for days because I was wondering in my mind, “The parents were good, faithful people, wanting to sacrifice their daughter in the pot of boiling iron, but what was the girl going through? Did somebody take her through the process of wanting to be a good person, a righteous person, a true person? Did she have an understanding of what those words meant? Did she understand what would come to her if she followed the monks back to the monastery?”
The monks took her back to the monastery and threw her into a pot of hot iron to be molded into the huge bell. When the bell was formed and the monks gathered again with the townspeople and struck the iron bell, it rang, it cried, and it sang for the first time, and it never stopped ringing since.
This is a story of extreme sacrifice on behalf of the larger community. But I often thought, “What was she thinking and feeling? Did she know why she was there? As she saw the boiling iron, was she overcome with fear, kicking and screaming?” We’ll never know because the story doesn’t specify. I’m sure she was overcome with extreme fear. But she still did what she felt she needed to do because she was there as a sacrifice for the greater community.
One of the most difficult things in my life was my blessing. I remembered this girl, and I felt like I was being sacrificed for the good of my family and my community. I thought, “Can I do what this girl did? Am I going to go kicking and screaming, or am I going to allow the bell to sing?”
This was what I was thinking, and 25 years of my life have been that question mark of what was that girl feeling and thinking, what was she trying to overcome? Did she fully understand that she was a sacrifice? This concept of sacrificing oneself for the good of the whole is engrained in the Korean mentality. But it’s something that we who live in this superpower country, the prosperous country of America, should think about from time to time.
When Heavenly Father is asking us to do something excruciatingly difficult, we still need to ask ourselves, Can we do it for the good of the whole? Ephesians 5:8 starts off saying, We are from the darkness, but in the Lord you are light; meaning, so many times in our lives when we’re confronted with difficulties and obstacles, it feels like we’re drowning, right? It’s so difficult that you wonder how you’re going to get out of it.
This passage from Ephesians has been my source of strength because it reminds us that no matter what situation, difficulty, or obstacle we may find ourselves in, God is always there. We only need to turn to God; when we connect ourselves to God, then we become the light and the children of the Lord, which is what Ephesians is asking us to be. We become the children emitting the glorious, divine light of our Heavenly Parent. We become something greater than ourselves because we are part of something larger, eternal, loving, which is our Heavenly Parent.
In that way we can truly shine our light as good, true, and right people. If we can do that, regardless of where we find ourselves in our lives, then we realize that all the seemingly different things that have frustrated and angered us merely become small sacrifices that my father has talked about, that we can do to make this world a better place.
For those couples who are renewing their vows, for everyone who is looking forward to going down the aisle, my father is asking you to remember the simple sacrifices made along the way between a husband and a wife. Before you get upset at your husband because he doesn’t put dirty clothes in the laundry bin, maybe you can be a little patient and accommodating, a little bit more appreciative of each other, and in that way grow together as a community.
Probably one of the greatest things about a congregation and community like ours is that we can help each other. We’re not alone on this road. We have our sisters and brothers; we have our parents, and more importantly, we have our children. When I gaze at my kids each day, they are living miracles. I think our children are living miracles. Don’t we have so much to be grateful for, brothers and sisters?
I hope that this Sunday can be a wonderful reminder that our life is a journey that is really about God giving us an opportunity to grow, to practice, and to apply how to become a good, a right, and a true person so that we can all be the simple, elegant human beings who we were all meant to be.
God bless, and I hope you can give your heart to all the couples who are headed toward the blessing. Please have a lovely week. Thank you.
1: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
2: And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3: But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints.
4: Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving.
5: Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7: Therefore do not associate with them,
8: for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light
9: (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
10: and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11: Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
12: For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret;
13: but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
14: Therefore it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."
15: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16: making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
17: Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,
19: addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,
20: always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
21: Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22: Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
23: For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24: As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
25: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26: that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27: that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28: Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29: For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,
30: because we are members of his body.
31: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32: This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;
33: however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.