The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. How is everyone this morning? I'm delighted to see you as well. You know, we've had a wonderful weekend thus far. Yesterday we kicked off Saturday together with our True Parents, celebrating the World Assembly to Proclaim the Substantial Word of God and the Era of the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. It was like a world congress of our brothers and sisters from all around the world, with different Ambassadors for Peace, dignitaries, and heads of countries that came to participate in the event. The atmosphere of celebration was incredibly powerful.
I think our True Parents were in great spirits as well. I definitely took note that when our True Father came on stage, he was smiling ear to ear. I think he really truly felt your heart. So thank you very much.
This is an extraordinary man living in an extraordinary time. We are so blessed to be part of the history making that is taking place every day that we spend with our True Parents. When I gaze upon my father -- he is well into his 90s, right? -- he is so strong and his desire to teach, nurture, and empower his children is never-ending. When he came on stage and was joking with us, he was needling my mother because she's always thinking about his health, always cautioning him, "You know, we do have a time limit. There are lots of people here. Can you be mindful of the audience and keep to the time?"
It's so interesting to see the interplay between my father and mother and how they work together to go about their business as the True Parents of humankind. My father needles my mother right back by letting everybody know that he's been properly cautioned before he comes onstage. But the mood is so loving. It's like a nonstop flirtation going on between Father and Mother, and it puts the young ones to shame because when we see them we realize how much more we need to work on our relationship.
Father came on stage and said, "I'm 90-some years old. Am I handsome or not?" Then he answered the question himself by saying, "I don't think of myself as handsome," but he smiled a big smile, did he not? He said, "Who here in the audience is over 90 years of age?" He was looking out very carefully, scrutinizing the audience, and he finally had to admit to himself that there was nobody older than 90. In a way, he is the grandfather of all of us.
His life has truly been a living testament, a living prayer to God when we see how much the man has suffered, how much he has loved, and how much he has shared with the world. I think every one of us can get a glimpse or a snapshot of what this man is all about when we read his autobiography. I know that a great many brothers and sisters have taken on the goal of sharing 430 of these books with the world. When you read his story, you realize that this is a very passionate man. He is absolutely passionate about his love for God. He is absolutely passionate about fulfilling the role as the True Parent of humankind. He is absolutely passionate about wanting to raise this Generation of Peace so he can see the eternal sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father achieve their true destiny and potential, substantiating in their lives the opportunity that God gives us every day.
Whenever True Parents come around, my kids are always watching them with great anticipation and a great deal of interest. Whenever we have a meeting with Father or hear Father's speech, we usually go back to our private quarters and talk about him. It's interesting to see the younger generation reacting to our True Parents with such love and admiration. It gives me great hope that if we can keep this feeling of love and accomplishment and hope of what our movement is and can be, then we can truly be a great movement that can serve the world in the proper way.
I was telling my kids, "When you look at Grandfather, he is so passionate about love. Wherever he goes, he takes the weather of true love with him. It doesn't matter if he's fishing on the seas or giving Sunday service. It doesn't matter if he is karaokeing with important guests at East Garden." Wherever True Father goes, he takes the weather of true love with him. It's almost as if the whole universe is actively participating in what our True Parents are doing.
Everyone who grew up in the United States knows the wonderful children's program called Sesame Street . Everybody seems to have their favorite character. Some love Cookie Monster ; some love Big Bird. But I've always loved Count von Count because he was a mysterious creature who talked with an accent and he loved his numbers. He was so passionate about counting, about creating any opportunity to count, which was his great love, that wherever he went, this type of weather went along with him.
Regardless
of what he was counting, like bats -- "One batty bat " --
there would be the thunder, boom. "Two batty bats," and
then thunder, boom. "Three batty bats," and another
thunder, boom. The weather was participating because the Count was so
passionate about his love for counting numbers.
If you look at True Father, he carries this weather of true love -- sunshine, thunderstorms, snowstorms, you name it. He takes the universe around with him and gives us a chance to experience it.
When we note that the Count was so passionate about his ones, twos and threes, we may ask ourselves, what is this man we call True Father really passionate about? What is he crazy about? What is he obsessed about? This is a man who is always so happy, despite what he's dealing with behind the scenes. When he comes in front of his children and spends time with his family, this man embodies happiness.
He is not happy because he believes in or follows the cult of possessions. This is not a man who thinks he's going to be happy as long as he possesses something or that he will be made happier by possessing more things. This is not a man who's passionate about his life because he's possessed about his possessions. This is a man who's passionate and crazy about his life, and happy in the process because what he's concerned about is the condition or state of the heart. What he's passionate about is true love or this word called love.
We know that Father talks about the different qualities of true love, the qualities of being unique, absolute, eternal, and unchanging -- But when we think about the word love as it is applied in our daily lives, how do we come to understand that we are loved? How do we come to feel love?
When we look at this man whose life is a living prayer, we come to understand a couple of things. When we think about the word love -- and here I go, because I always approach the pulpit with the heart of a mother -- I find the easiest way to convey to my kids what is important about a particular concept is to use acronyms. When we look at the word love and understand l-o-v-e as an acronym, then the letter L reminds us to Live for the sake of others.
Without the concept of "the other," we cannot fully experience love. It does not matter how great or beautiful or smart or capable we are, if we are all alone enjoying ourselves, it's very difficult to experience love. As great as our Heavenly Parent is, and as magnificent as he and she are, they wanted children. They wanted "the other " to hopefully one day voluntarily and freely and with great love, love them back.
When we think of love, we have to have a concept of the other. When we truly want to exercise this love or feel this love in our lives, we can start this dynamic process of true love reaction by making that first step in serving, taking care of , thinking about , and loving the other. In the context of the family, that principle can be applied by a child always thinking about the comfort of the parents. When parents come back home from a long day at the office or missionary work, there is nothing more beautiful than a child who takes that step of thinking about and living for the sake of the other, the parents. Think of brewing them a wonderful cup of tea, or even better, snuggling up and massaging their feet because you know their hard work is allowing a comfortable home and a place where you can stay, a place where you can live together as a family.
When we look at the second letter, O, it reminds us that we cannot really exercise or experience love without practicing the Oneness of the spirit. Our True Father and Mother talk about mind and body unity all the time. I think the most difficult thing for all of us as human beings is to overcome ourselves, to tame the beasts within and create a constructive outlet for our energies so we can flower the world in a beautiful way and not with the destructive energies we all have.
It's an opportunity for us to concentrate on the fact that we come from the one Heavenly Parent, and we are his and her eternal sons and daughters. When we are one in spirit with our Heavenly Parent and we realize we ourselves are divine beings just like our Heavenly Parent in heaven, we realize we're not some amorphous, amoeba like creatures floating around in the universe, we're not like a speck of dust, floating around in the wind. We realize that as divine human beings we have a purpose to our lives, a destiny to fulfill, and it's our privilege and honor to exercise our own will by working hard, being faithful, and, with service to others, being the very son or daughter that our Heavenly Parent wants us to be.
When we come to the third letter, V, that letter stands for Verity, in that we need to seek the truth of our existence. We need to understand the truth of who we are, of who our True Parents are, and of who our Heavenly Parents are. We need to have a clear knowledge of the principles that we want to apply in our daily lives. We need to understand clearly why the world is the way it is, but beginning with ourselves deciding to be that agent of change, one person at a time we can change our families, our communities, our societies, our nation, and even our world.
When we understand the truth of who we are, what we need to be, and how we should live our lives in honor of our Heavenly Parent, in honor of our True Parents, in honor of each other, and in honor of ourselves, we have to realize how precious and how important each and every one of us is. We can be that agent of change like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and even our True Father.
This is the great destiny that awaits all of us, if only we can open up not just our physical eyes, but also our spiritual eyes, and know and understand how precious we really are. When we realize how precious we really are, we come to the last letter, E, which stands for Excellence. When I think about the word excellence in our lives, it's a fight against mediocrity in the world. Many times in the context of our family, our schools, or our societies, we are satisfied with mediocrity.
I happen to know for a fact that that word has no place in my father's life of living prayer. My father is not a man of mediocrity. He is a man of excellence in that he practices, applies ,and lives living for the sake of others with absolute love, absolute faith, and absolute obedience. There is no mediocrity in my father's understanding of our Heavenly Parent as his parent. There should be no mediocrity when it comes to our knowledge in who our parents are. The Second Generation should clearly know who their First Generation parents are. It's an undeniable truth that you come from those two special people.
When you want to be excellent, you have to start with absolute faith. You have to have an unwavering, unquestioning belief in knowing who we are as the children of our Heavenly Parent. We need to think and live and breathe and exercise our lives knowing that God is our Father and Mother in heaven. It should not be a question. When Father says absolute faith, what he is talking about is the kind of faith that's not a faith of convenience in that perhaps you grew up in this church and you have a lot of things you would like to improve and that you would like to see different. How wonderful that you have the capacity to see that, to criticize the church constructively in your mind. Perhaps God gave you that perceptive sight because he is expecting you to be that agent of change, to make our movement and family into a better one.
But if we treat our faith as one of convenience, thinking, "Okay, the church has a lot of problems. I will constantly criticize it and point out its shortcomings, but I want to get blessed. Let me get blessed. Father, give me a wife," Then, if we take part in the most precious gift of our movement, the blessing, the opportunity to love another human being, we receive what we can receive. So we now have an eternal mate who believes in the sanctity of marriage, in fidelity, in loyalty, and in understanding the centrality of our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents. But after the blessing we may go about our merry way, complaining, nitpicking, pointing out what's wrong? Our faith should not be one of convenience, taking advantage of all we can take advantage of, but not giving anything back -- not being consistent in our heart of gratitude, our heart of loyalty to our True Parents, or our dedication to our faith.
When Father fights against mediocrity, what he is fighting against is this faith of convenience. He would like to see all of us exercise and apply in our daily lives absolute faith, the unquestioning, unwavering, consistent kind of faith grounded in knowing where we come from. We know who our Heavenly Parents are. It's undeniable.
Concerning absolute love -- Father loves to say not just love, but absolute love in the sense that it's eternal, unique, and unchanging. What Father is asking us to do is to seek genuine human relationships. When Father refers to the family as a textbook of true love, and he talks about practicing this love in the family, I understand that to mean truly rubbing up against each other, rubbing up against the parents, the grandparents, the children, or the siblings.
What Father is encouraging us to do is to practice genuine, eternal relationships in the family so we are not tempted by the kind of love that is fleeting and superficial, the saccharine type of love. If we want sweetness, let's have sugar . Saccharine is a whole lot sweeter, but it's not real and it's not good for you. That taste is so intense, but it's not satisfying.
Sisters in the auditorium can understand when we as women have our monthly visitor, many times we go through PMS. But you know what? Brothers go through PMS, too, and let me tell you why. They are tempted or addicted to PMS -- power, money, sex. This is a big problem.
As we women physically go through the preparation for childbirth, PMS-ing, we must look upon our brothers, fathers, and sons with great love because they are PMS-ing too. Working together, we need to practice true love by continually concentrating and re focusing our thoughts on what is eternal and unchanging, on what is uniquely you and uniquely me. There is not going to be another human being just like you. You are so precious. You are that divine vessel through which God will do incredible things. You were born to touch other people's lives. We were born to live for the sake of others. It's in our DNA to touch other people's lives.
When we think about absolute obedience, please remember what I shared with you earlier that the way I understand the word obedience, it doesn't mean like a master and slave, command and we obey. It's a very loving word if you understand it in the context of a family. When parents ask the children, "Please obey," what they're asking us to do is not simply be their slaves, what they're asking us to do is to truly, genuinely, and lovingly listen. It's a call to listen and unite. Listen with our hearts, and unite with them in our action. It is a call to action, if we really think about it, brothers and sisters.
When we're thinking that we should be excellent people and we're fighting this beast called mediocrity, we can take a lesson from our Heavenly Parent , who says in Revelation 3:15 -- 16, "I know your deeds. You are neither hot nor cold." The Bible is saying, "You are mediocre. You have not decided what you want to be. You have not decided that you want to exercise a life of absolute faith, love, and obedience." Perhaps the Bible is reminding us that we are meandering -- we are wandering, floating -- and our Heavenly Parent would like to see us with a purpose. Our Heavenly Parent would like to see us exercise our heavenly will by living the life that we were meant to live. Revelation goes on further, saying, "Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out."
We have to be clear in knowing who we are. Those of us sitting in the audience at this moment in history are living at the same time as our True Parents. This is what I call the breaking news. Believe me, I as a woman have gone through my own trials and tribulations in the context of a religious life. Religious history has not been kind to women for the last 2,000 or so years in which women were silenced and sidelined, relegated as second-class citizens. Now, for the first time in history, because of our True Mother's victory, because she could stand in the position of perfected Eve, we have a chance -- all the women of the world -- to be proud as eternal daughters of our Heavenly Parent.
I often say, had Jesus found his beautiful bride 2,000 years ago, she would have walked with him, worked with him, and ministered to the congregation. She would have been his best-kept secret, made flesh. He would have shared her proudly with the world, just as our True Father does. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing my father reach over and give this beautiful woman a hug and a kiss. They give us a vision of love in action.
The course of Jesus Christ was a lonely one, a long and suffering one in that he could not find his bride. It was a long and suffering course in that many of the men who would have wanted to practice Christian piety with a wife thought they had to follow Jesus' example and therefore did not get married. They denied themselves the beauty of a human relationship and the beauty of having a family. But with our True Parents, the story is complete. What our Heavenly Father wants for his children is for us to find a beautiful husband or beautiful wife and together create eternal and ideal families, experiencing the joys, tribulations, tears, and laughter of dealing with the different levels of relationships in a family -- with our parents, our spouse, our siblings, and our children.
What our Heavenly Father wants us to experience is parental heart, having children ourselves. For the first time in history with our True Parents, we not only have a chance to substantiate true love and true life, but we have a chance to substantiate true lineage. The most precious gift our True Parents bring to all of us is the gift of the Holy Blessing.
Many people call True Father the man of peace, a peacemaker. But he is far greater than a mere peacemaker. He is the True Parent. He is the Lord of the Second Advent whom we've been waiting for. He is the original olive branch through which we can graft onto the heavenly lineage.
As our movement grows and we come to encompass the whole world, we need to understand that the holy sacrament of the blessing and marriage must be nurtured and given in the context of a church. There have been lots of different conversations: "We are not a church, we are a peace movement." But we are not a mere peace organization. If we are a peace organization , how are we different from any other peace organizations or service organizations around the world? We are different in that we realize the centrality of our True Parents in our lives because it is through them that the gift of the Holy Blessing is made flesh. It is through them that we have the opportunity to graft onto the true lineage.
If we forget who we are, how do we know where we belong? During the last two decades, or sometimes three decades, depending on the different countries that we're talking about, we have lost the concept of being a proud Unificationist. We have forgotten that we are people of faith first and foremost before we serve people through acts of charity, peace, and service. We are first and foremost proud Unificationists; we need to understand that our church is precious not in that we are going to lord it over everybody else, telling everybody that we are better. Our church will be the platform or foundation on which our True Parents can unite all the different religions, traditions , and cultures of the world.
We must understand clearly that our True Parents are so special in that it is through them we can experience and substantiate the true lineage. We must know that ACLC -- as great as it is as an organization, serving the clergy and inspiring them to be of service to the world -- cannot bring people and graft them onto the heavenly lineage without our True Parents. It doesn't matter how great the Women's Federation for World Peace is at teaching the women to be peaceful women in their homes and countries. It does not matter what great work they do, if they don't link it back to our True Parents, teaching and sharing the breaking news of the magic and transformation of the true blessing.
It is only through the true blessing ceremony that the whole world becomes one family under God. All the various organizations that we have around the world -- Youth Federation for World Peace, CARP, STF, the Women's Federation, ACLC, UPF, GPF -- are like the fingers of a hand. These organizations must work together to help the world realize that we must build one family under God through our True Parents and through the magic of the holy blessing.
Brothers and sisters, one of my favorite Persian poets is the great mystic Sufi named Rumi. A long time ago he said, "With will we can even turn fire into sweet water. But without will even water becomes fire." What he meant is that as long as we understand our purpose, live our lives exercising the will we understand to be the truth, and go on exercising this will voluntarily, freely, and lovingly in wanting to be eternal heavenly sons and daughters, then we can turn something that exists everywhere into something fragrant, as sweet as water ; we can turn something destructive into something sweet and life-giving.
But when we start floating around like an amoeba or dust in the wind, when we forget who we are and succumb to the temptation of just being happy with our lot in life, thinking that's all we're good for and we're not meant for great things, we become our own worst enemy preventing and blocking ourselves from achieving our true destinies. Then sooner or later we are going to become people of resentment, having nothing but criticism in our lives.
If we can become a purpose-driven man or woman of God exercising our will, then we can even turn something destructive into something that's life giving and replenishing, that allows us to live as human beings and go about our business of becoming eternal sons or daughters of God.
When the band plays the song about taking the weather with us, it's almost like Count von Count loving his ones, twos, and threes. It's like my father loving and being obsessed about these words true love. We as their children should not be mediocre in thinking, " Umm, I don't know. Who knows? Whatever will be, will be."
It's not a time to be mediocre. It's a time to be excellent people. It's a time to be an excellent son or daughter of God. Many times when we're confronted with the progress that's taking place, we may become confused about the essence of communication. We have technologies that have made our world so small that what takes place here can instantaneously be enjoyed all around the world. Technology has brought us so close that we can almost reach ourselves. But if we live an existence where we're almost touching each other, almost loving each other but never fully committing, never fully reaching out and loving one another, we will never have a satisfying or fulfilling existence .
Yesterday we had a full moon over the Hudson River. The full Moon was here, and he took the weather with him. And yesterday and this morning at Hoon Dok Hae our True Father smacked us with that love. There's a line in a popular song, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie." It's almost as if God were throwing that pizza pie smack into our faces and saying, "You've been hit by love. You've been hit, smacked by love." That's a reminder to live our lives living for the sake of others, being one in spirit, searching for and applying the truth we've learned in understanding who we are as eternal sons and daughters of God, and being excellent people by practicing absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience to our True Parents.
At this time , people often feel like there are so many shadows lurking in different corners of our movement. Well, wherever there's shadow, there's light, brothers and sisters. We need to realize that sometimes the darkest place is that place right underneath the lamp. So let us not be the kind of people who are almost reaching, almost touching our True Parents but are blinded by being engulfed in the darkness when we are right there next to our True Parents' light.
Let's open up our spiritual eyes and realize how incredibly blessed we are to have our True Parents in our lives, how precious our lives are, and how incredible it is that we have an opportunity to do right. We have an opportunity to change ourselves, our families, and our world, as well as to leave this world a better place for our children, our grandchildren, and posterity.
Do not be confused. Always go back to the center. Always go back to the core and seek the truth. Do not be afraid of the truth. When we are confused, let's remind ourselves that we are being hit by the true love bomb from Reverend Moon and all we need to do is wake up.
So God bless. Have a wonderful Sunday, and have a wonderful week. Thank you.
1: "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: `The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. "`I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead.
2: Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.
3: Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.
4: Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
5: He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
6: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
7: "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: `The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8: "`I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
9: Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie -- behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you.
10: Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.
11: I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
12: He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
13: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
14: "And to the angel of the church in La-odice'a write: `The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
15: "`I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!
16: So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
17: For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
18: Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
19: Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent.
20: Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
21: He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
In Napoli where love is king
When boy meets girl here's what
they say
When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie
That's
amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much
wine
That's amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling,
ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts
will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella
When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That's
amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your
feet
You're in love
When you walk down in a dream but you know
you're not
Dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old
Napoli
That's amore
When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie
That's
amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much
wine
That's amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling,
ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts
will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella
When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That's
amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your
feet
You're in love
When you walk down in a dream but you know
you're not
Dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old
Napoli
That's amore
Lucky fella
When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That's
amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your
feet
You're in love
When you walk down in a dream but you know
you're not
Dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old
Napoli
That's amore, (amore)
That's amore