Mother's Day Sermon

In Jin Moon
May 8, 2011

Good morning. Happy Mother's Day. We love you, too. Thank you. I am delighted to be with all of you once again.

I bring greetings from our True Parents, who are on their European tour right now. I was so privileged to accompany them to Norway and also to Rome. They say "All roads lead to Rome," and certainly having our True Parents in Rome was a great honor and celebration for all the brothers and sisters there, and for all the dignitaries who came to help celebrate our True Parents.

I realized how richly blessed the American movement is because the European brothers and sisters do not get a chance to see our True Parents as much as we do. Everywhere that True Parents went, the members were so excited and in tears. To have True Parents in these European countries was an amazing blessing for all of those members. Many of them were literally shaking when they saw True Parents, and you could see in their eyes how much they had missed True Parents over the years. Yet these devout members still held firm in their belief and faith, and they continue today to walk the road together with our True Parents. You could see visibly their elation and excitement at having True Parents in their country, and you could feel their heart of gratitude in experiencing such a blessed day.

True Parents started the European tour in Korea and then went on to Spain. When I met up with them in Rome, Father really gave out his heart to everybody in the audience. At Hoon Dok Hae that morning and the next Father talked a lot about how ancient Rome was the center of the world and Rome had a great responsibility. But because Rome could not unite and acknowledge the true son of God who came 2,000 years ago in the form of Jesus Christ, a lot of the blessing that our Heavenly Parent wanted to share with that city was lost.

Father talked a lot about how Rome in Korean is ro-ma. Father said that in his ears ro-ma sounds like rolling, and ma sounds like ak-ma, which means Satan. You could see the Italian members looking at Father and their thought must have been, "You're calling us rolling Satan?" But what Father was trying to convey is that Rome was meant for greatness, but when it is not centered on God and does not realize who True Parents are, it is like a city rolling around in the satanic understanding of what our life is meant to be.

When the Italian members rushed up to me afterward and said, "True Father and Mother are leaving us today. How are we supposed to understand this ro-ma, meaning 'rolling Satan'?" I said, "Ro-ma can be heard or understood as 'rolling Satan' only because it's not united with God our Heavenly Parents. But if you take the Korean pronunciation of ro-ma and reverse it, it becomes amore. So our True Parents are telling us to reverse the satanic understanding of our lives and to engraft ourselves back onto an understanding of our life in relation to our Heavenly Parent and True Parents, so Rome can become the city of love, of amore.

Then the Italian brothers and sisters got excited and said, "Okay, from now until the next time our True Parents come back, we will be the city of amore. Not only will we be known for rigatoni, pepperoni, calzone, Abruzzi, and so forth, but we will be known for amore." I said, "Wonderful."

The Moon family and friends visit the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway

True Parents gave their farewells to the Italian members and went on to Norway, where at the UPF event Father poured out his heart once again. The whole True Family accompanying True Parents learned something new on our trip to Norway. One of the dignitaries who gave congratulatory remarks was in charge of veterans in Norway who fought in World War II and also those who fought in Korea. This distinguished, tall Norwegian gentleman, obviously from a military background with his really straight back, started off his message by saying, "I love the Korean people." Then he went on to give a little testimony and talk congratulating our True Father.

It was quite inspiring to listen to this man because here is somebody who fought in the war and symbolizes the Allied forces that helped liberate our True Father when he was incarcerated in the North Korean concentration camp of Hungnam. As my father sat in his cell waiting for his scheduled execution the next day, he heard the airplanes flying in and the Allied forces rushing in to liberate him and his cellmates.

My father's heart of gratitude is always full when it comes to those who fought in the Korean War. He pledged to himself when he came to America that he wanted to love this country and help raise up great young men and women of God from this country whose soldiers had saved his life. Just as he felt toward the Americans, so, too, did he feel toward the Norwegian representatives who fought in the Korean War.

Trygve Lie

It as shared with us at that meeting that the UN secretary general at the time was a Norwegian [Trygve Lie], and he in particular fought to have the Allied forces go to Korea. This UN secretary general was also a true advocate and a founder of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which we still use today to fight the abuse that is taking place with the faith-breaking issue in Japan.

For our True Parents to be in the country that symbolizes the Nobel Peace Prize was quite significant to me because I'm hoping that one of these days Norwegians and the country of Norway can wake up to the great humanitarian peace work of the True Parents of humankind, our True Father and True Mother, and award them the Nobel Peace Prize.

It was quite interesting because during the three Hoon Dok Hae that we had there, Father talked about Norway, but every time he said "Norway" it sounded in Korean like no-re, which means song. During Hoon Dok Hae he asked Won-ju McDevitt to read Father's speech and prayer, and then he immediately embarked on a songfest. That was our Hoon Dok Hae. Mother was in great spirits because she did not have to send anybody in with little notes saying, "Father, you need to conserve your energy. You're missing breakfast. You're missing lunch. You're missing dinner." At least in Norway we did not have marathon Hoon Dok Hae sessions and both our True Mother and True Father were very happy.

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han ride the London Eye Ferris Wheel

Then I bid them farewell, and they journeyed on to Greece and Turkey; I will meet up with them again in London. When I was in Norway, the members told me it's been 40-some years since True Father was last there. Many of the members had not seen our True Father walking in their city since 45 years ago. It was an incredibly emotional visit for a lot of the European members. Again, I felt how blessed America is because we get to see our True Parents almost every month in Las Vegas, do we not? We get to spend some beautiful time with them.

Wherever Father goes, our beautiful True Mother is always there with him, taking care of him, loving and supporting him. When I watch them work together in their active life of ministry, many times Father is the one speaking, but many times our True Mother is the one speaking. It's such a beautiful interplay of a man and woman working together without any boundaries or limits, without any "you're a woman, you cannot do this," or "you being a man, you cannot do this." There's very much a sense that they are a team.

They love each other, they enjoy each other's company; to see them work together day in and day out is truly an inspiration for me. But perhaps because I am a woman myself, I'm always looking at the example of our True Mother with great interest and fascination. The messiah comes to find his bride. He comes to find a woman to love. He comes to find a woman with whom he can stand together as the True Parents, thereby breaking all the barriers and past understandings of how a man and a woman should treat each other. Our True Mother is the secret ingredient that makes True Parents what they are.

I jokingly said to my father, "You're the greatest father, greatest teacher, greatest prophet, but, you know, you can't be True Parents without True Mother." Father said, "That's right. No matter how great I might be or people may think I am, I cannot be True Parents without our True Mother."

For me, as a woman and as a student of religion, to see the Holy Spirit materialized in the physical form of our True Mother is an incredibly exciting thing. I've studied the history of religion, and I've seen how religion has treated women over the years. Because we had only the example of a male prophet, or Jesus Christ being the Son of God, nobody knew what to do with the daughter of God. Nobody knew what to do with women in the context of a religious life or in the context of the church. Do we allow a woman to worship together with a man? Do we allow a woman a voice in the congregation, let alone a voice in the pulpit? Is it wrong for women to be leaders? Should they be only mothers? What is the role of women?

This has been the great puzzle for thousands and thousands of years. Women, seen as the great temptress that led Adam astray and caused the Fall, were relegated as second-class citizens. Women were blamed for so many things. If a man was tempted, it was the woman's problem. Where is the responsibility in a man? Why is it that in the stoning of a woman for adultery, only the woman is stoned to death? What about the man? Obviously in the case of adultery, it takes two people, doesn't it? But why has it always been the women who have been stoned to death? [Death for adultery in the Bible]Why was the woman always the one blamed?

It's because we didn't have the example of our True Parents and we didn't have the example of a woman who could stand in the position of perfected Eve, with dignity, worth, and pride in knowing that she is a divine daughter of God. From the vantage point of this student of religion, it's a most remarkable thing that we have this woman in our lives.

So the message that our True Parents bring is truly a fulfillment of what Christianity has been waiting for. In Christianity we had a beautiful example, model, and understanding of Christian piety because we love Jesus as the Son of God. But with our True Parents, we now have an understanding of the Holy Spirit manifested in the physical form of a true woman, understanding that she is the secret ingredient that makes True Parents what they are.

Through our True Parents, women can reclaim their divine dignity and worth as the daughter who was meant to be when God first created Eve. Just as the birth of my father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, was prophesied, talked about, and even heralded a few days before his birth by a special bird signaling the birth of a great child, likewise there were many revelations when my mother was born.

My grandmother used to share with me all the providential significance surrounding my mother's life. One of the stories she told me was how in North Korea at that time many groups were truly excited about preparing for the coming of the Messiah. God was sending revelation after revelation to the prepared Christians of North Korea, saying that the Messiah would come to Korea and therefore these groups must make preparations for the Messiah. At that time, there was even a group that prepared clothing for the Messiah, for each season of the year.

When my mother was eight years old, my grandmother took her to visit one of these churches. One of the great teachers, a lady there whom many saw as a prophet, saw my mother and said to my grandmother, "The child you have brought before me is to be the bride of the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent. You should not think of yourself as her mother. You are but a nurse. So please prepare her and take care of her well." This woman touched my mother's forehead and gave a prayer.

Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en Guerre (Babette Goes to War) 1959

Even when Mother was that young, people who were open to an understanding of providence and to receiving revelation clearly knew that True Mother was born to be an exceptional woman. As she went through the years being an excellent student, she always thought -- and she has shared this with me -- that she was meant for something great. When she was a high school student, she told me, she was quite fascinated and inspired about the great medium of the movies. She thought how incredibly powerful were these people in Hollywood whom she had never seen before. She was quite taken with Brigitte Bardot. In a way Brigitte Bardot was her idol. I asked her, "Why Brigitte Bardot?" She said, "Because I saw her in the movie War and Peace [Babette e'en va-t-en Guerre], and she portrayed such a revolutionary spirit and the spirit of wanting to change the world that I could not keep my eyes off her."

I said, "Omma, but she's also better known as a great sex symbol." Of course Mother had a great laugh, but she said, "No, in that War and Peace role she was magnificent." She really inspired my mother. Mother thought, "How do I use this medium to reach the people that I have yet to meet?" She started actually thinking about these things. She was a very good student and would have gone on to the best college in Korea and so on. But, being taken with this medium, she thought to herself, "Perhaps I should become an actress. Maybe by becoming an actress I can reach a lot of people."

She was thinking this when our Heavenly Parent plucked her out of high school to become the bride of our True Father. Off she went on the road of becoming True Mother, and who she is and who we have come to love and admire over the years.

She expressed to me that she was so taken with this desire to change the world, and now we see what she has done with her life. She's in her 70s now, but single-handedly, and together with our True Father, she has changed the world. She certainly has changed my life. I would not be here without my mother. She has been instrumental in paving the way for the acceptance of women in the areas of religion and faith. She has brought about many great strides in allowing men and women both to experience the dignity of woman that we have not seen for many years.

In my True Mother I find so many inspirations and so much wisdom that many times when I find myself in difficult situations or I am facing things that I need to work out, I again turn back to the wisdom my mother has shared with me over the years. One of the single most important things she shared with me was that we are not here for ourselves. We are here to do something really wonderful. We are here to change the world, to make it better than we found it. But, as proud women, we need to do it with a sense of dignity and worth, knowing that we are divine creatures.

As women, we need to be careful not to fall prey to thinking that because we have such a far way to go we somehow have to deny our femininity, we have to become more aggressive and more passionate. My mother has always stressed to me the importance of maintaining the feminine while being strong inside and thereby manifesting a powerful light of warmth, care, and nurture. She always has asked me to be strong and absolutely ambitious for God on the inside but to maintain the feminine, celebrate the feminine, and express it through loving gestures of care, compassion, and support.

One of the things she has stressed to me over and over is the need to practice what I call simple elegance. She says that we women have amazing powers, but many times we overcompensate because for centuries we have been denied the right to power, knowledge, and wealth. But True Mother has always stressed to me that being comfortable in your skin, being grateful for who you are allows you to be a woman of simple elegance, in that we emphasize the simplicity, the things that are foundational, things that we cannot live without.

The most important thing in a person's life, no matter how great or how small we might be, is an understanding that we live for the sake of others. These are our core values: We love our families; We are here to build healthy, ideal families by dealing with all the issues that arise on the road to building an ideal family; We are here to raise people to be better than ourselves, to raise our children to be better than ourselves so that we can leave something wonderful behind, so that we can keep the continuity of love and greatness and prosperity all throughout the generations. Mother has asked me to concentrate on the simple things, the importance of family.

I was tickled pink when one of the STF-ers wrote me a long e-mail, thanking all of us here at Lovin' Life for worship on Sunday, and for how much she has gained from her experience on STF. She said one of the most inspiring experiences she had was in talking to my daughter, Ariana. Because they are similar in age, she saw Ariana as a compatriot, a fellow traveler on this journey through life. But because Ariana has accomplished a lot in her young life, this sister wanted to know what Ariana's goal in life would be.

She asked, "You'll be graduating from Harvard; you've won the gold medals at the ballroom competitions; you were a concert pianist; you've won the awards, the first prize at the Stravinsky competition, and so forth. What would you like to do with your life?" This sister said she thought that because Ariana was so accomplished as a young woman that maybe she would go on to a career in law, which is in this sister's plan. But Ariana simply said, "My goal in life is to have a family."

When this sister heard Ariana say that, she realized absolutely that our goal in life is to have a beautiful family. That's what Jesus came to do 2,000 years ago, but his mission was cut short because he was crucified on the cross. Our True Parents also come to have a family and are inviting all of us to do the same.

And that's the true beauty in simple living because regardless of how complicated or how ambitious we might be in thinking about many things, or how many things as mothers we have to do in taking care of our children or spouses, the most important thing is the relationship that we have within a family. If we don't have that, then no matter what we become, we will never feel satisfied and fulfilled as a son or daughter of God.

When my mother emphasized simple living, she was asking me to concentrate on the things that are of utmost importance, the simple building blocks of our lives that we need to appreciate and gain wisdom from. Those simple building blocks are the relationship we have with God, our Heavenly Parent, the relationship we have with our True Parents as the paradigm of true love that we can aspire to be like, and the different relationships we have in our own family -- with our children, our spouses, our siblings, and so forth.

My mom was reminding me that the most important simple building block is the family. No matter how complicated life might get, she was urging me to concentrate on building relationships within that family.

When I took calculus in college, one of my professors said that the pursuit of all great mathematicians is to find an elegant solution to a problem. The mathematical formulas are like leviathans -- they may cover three or four blackboards. But what all great mathematicians want to do is to arrive at an elegant solution, an elegant answer that encapsulates everything that the threefold blackboard wants to say, into something as profound as a simple formula.

When my mother always stressed to me elegant living, what she was saying is, "Take all the complexities and formulate a solution that works simply and elegantly. In my daily life, as a mother of five children, I've had almost a research laboratory to test out my mother's theories and her desire for me to be a woman of simple elegance. While my mother continues to this day to prod me for simple elegant living, she always kind of tickles me in the ribs and says, "Do you remember the three things that Mother told you about from time to time?" I say, "Yes, Mother, I remember."

She says, "Do you remember to pray?" I say, "Yes, Mother, I remember to pray." "Do you remember to surrender to God? Let things pass?" I say, "Yes, Mother, I remember to surrender to God, to let things pass." Then she says, "Do you remember to smile?" I say, "Yes, Mother, I remember to smile."

Whenever she asks me about how my simple, elegant living is going, she tests me about these three points, which comprise for her a simple and elegant formula that has been proven by the test of time and has worked for her throughout her life as True Mother. This is a woman who has overcome insurmountable odds, who has experienced the greatest sadness and the greatest elation and jubilation. She has experienced the greatest hardships and still is carrying all her burdens beautifully and in a simple, elegant way.

When Mother is asking me to pray, surrender, and smile, a couple of things come to mind. I reflect on one of the things I think every teenage girl or boy goes through, when we become aware of who we are, when our bodies start changing at 11, 12, or 13. When we realize, "We're no longer girls, we're turning into women," or "We're no longer boys, we're turning into men," a great deal of excitement is in the air, as well as feelings of ambivalence.

I was no different from any kids my age in that I was so eager to experience the world. Having been raised in such a strict and religious upbringing, I was given a list of all the things I could not do, but I was not given a list of all the things I could do. As a child, you want to test out these limits and see how far you can go. I'm sure I've given my mother a lot of sleepless nights.

But throughout my adolescence one instance comes to mind that really reminds me why prayer is so important. I was perhaps 15 or 16, and all my friends wanted to go partying, dancing. There was a new hot club in New York City. I lived in Westchester. My friends had it all planned out. I was going to jump over the fence, walk down the road, and right in front of the deli there was to be a car with all of my friends waiting in it. I was going to jump in the car and we were going to drive to New York City and have a blast.

For me it took a great deal of courage to even contemplate the possibility that I was going to participate in this affair. How would I get out my house? I was raised in a house with security everywhere. There were security cameras and security guards who to my teenage mind seemed to be big thugs everywhere. The front door was guarded, and on the drive was one of those security gates that have to be opened. So my friends could not come in fast and then drive me out fast without bonking into this security gate.

I was thinking, "I'm a young woman. I need to find myself. I don't like being told what to do. I'm going to go and have a great time." All day long, my heart was pounding, and all day long I was wondering, "Can anyone see what I'm planning to do? Can somebody sniff me out?" There was a great deal of excitement, and I was set on going out and having a blast with my friends.

When it came time after dinner, I had to surreptitiously go to my room and pack in my knapsack the clothes I would wear in the club. I certainly couldn't wear them as I left. I had to look like I was going to some place appropriate. I stashed my clothes in my knapsack and tried to walk out of the house as if nothing extraordinary was about to take place. Different people asked where I was going. "Oh, I just want to take in the night air. Walk around the property. I might be inspired to take out my sketchbook somewhere in the night, sketch some trees." I don't remember what I said exactly, but I slowly walked out. Then I had to walk down a long, steep hill, and there were lots of cars coming up all the time.

On that night my mother was there. I knew I would have to say good night before I executed my plan. I went to see her and tell her I would be busy. She asked, "Where are you going with the knapsack?" I said, "I'm just carrying things around." Now when I look back, she was on to me from the get-go. She was terribly, simply elegant. She just sat there with an engaging smile. I thought, "Whew, I escaped that one." I was actually feeling quite good walking down the hill. A couple of cars drove up, stopped, and people asked, "Where are you going?" "Oh, just walking down the hill." At the foot of the hill was Peter Kim's house. I said, "Oh, visiting Peter Kim and his wife." The guards asked, "Where are you going?" "I'm visiting Peter Kim and his wife."

But right in front of Peter Kim's house was the guard booth. I knew I had to duck into the woods, reach the fence, and jump over it. Very quickly, once I saw the last car go by, I got into the woods, jumped over the fence, and started walking toward the road. I had a feeling of grand achievement -- I actually got out without the security camera catching me, without anybody stopping me, without Security finding me out.

Then I started running, and my friends were waiting for me. We got into the car and checked out this new hot spot. One my friend's aunts actually ran the place, so we got to see all the different aspects of the club, even the VIP area. It was a great experience. I had so much fun. I hate to say it, but I had so much fun.

But then when we got home, my friends had to drop me off at the road again, and I would have to make my way back. This time I would have to go all the way through the woods and try not to be detected and make it to my room. Somehow I managed to do that. When I got there and finally closed the door, there was a sense of, "Wow, what an incredible night. I was courageous, I did it. I'm so proud of myself."

But then I turned to the mantle and saw a picture of my father and mother and it hit me -- "Did I just try to pull one over on my mother?" This feeling of real guilt came over me. I went out and came back. At least nothing happened to me. But I did something that my parents did not want me to do.

The next morning when I greeted my mother, she looked at me and said, "How was your walk?" I said, "Yes, it was a nice walk." She said, "Good. Have a good day at school, and I'll see you when you get home." When I got to school, my friends were so gleeful, "We did it! We got you out, and you had a great time. Let's do it again." So I said, "I'm not sure if I can do this again." One of my friends said, "No, we really have to go again. My aunt prepared something extra special tonight. There will be a celebrity there. We really want you to go."

I thought to myself, "Do I do this again?" Then I thought, "Well, the first time I didn't really get in trouble. Maybe I can do it again, maybe one more time." So we planned the whole thing again. I thought I was being so smart. Again the same t-shirt and jeans and same knapsack. I'm sure my mom caught on, "What is this, a uniform for going out kind of a thing?" I went to greet her and then off I went.

When I came back it was quite late, like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I thought I was being very skillful in getting back to my room. But when I entered my room and flipped on the light, I saw my mom had been sitting on the floor in the pitch darkness, just waiting for me to come back. And she must have been praying the whole time. She said, "How was your walk?" I couldn't say anything. She said, "That was a long walk, wasn't it?" I don't really remember what I said. I was so shocked and petrified to see that my mother had been waiting for me in the pitch darkness.

I thought, "Oh, my goodness, I'm going to get into so much trouble." I thought she was going to spank me or something.

But she said, "Sit down." She quietly grabbed my hand and said, "You know, In Jin, you don't really have to prove anything. If you are confident in who you are as God's daughter, you don't really have to prove anything. Just be yourself. You don't have to prove that you can be rebellious. Anybody can be rebellious. You may think it's a courageous thing to do, but anybody and everybody does it. So why don't you think about trying something different, something unique, something that's you, instead of trying to be rebellious, which everybody does, and therefore you are no different from the rest. If you want to be average, that's fine. But if you want to be extraordinary, which I believe you were meant to be, try to be different. Yes, you can do what everybody else is doing, but where is that going to lead you? But if you decide to have a purposeful life and you work toward that end, you can become a remarkable person."

So she held my hand, and I thought she was going to spank me really badly, but she said, "Let's pray. Mommy's going to pray first, and then you're going to pray, and you're going to pray to God everything that is in your heart, and you're going to report to God everything that you did. We're going to hear it together and we're going to pray together and we're going to share in the moment."

That has got to be the most difficult prayer of my life. Here I was; I got caught. My mom knew something was iffy, and then here was my mom waiting for me until 2:00 in the morning. The fact that she didn't yell at me, didn't throw pots and pans at me, the fact that she didn't spank me actually made it worse. Had she spanked me, I could have said, "I hate you! You spanked me! How dare you! I absolutely hate you, detest you, and don't you do it again." But I couldn't do that. There was an overwhelming sense of, "How the heck can I do this to my mom again?"

That's the wisdom of our True Mother. This is simple elegance in a nutshell. I as a mother have been put in situations where, with five kids I want to scream like the boy in the Home Alone movie. That's how a mother feels many times. You don't know what to do, and you want to take that baseball bat and say, "Come here, child, I'm going to spank you now."

But when I remember what my mother did with her simple elegance, maintaining her femininity -- and when she maintains her femininity it's really scary -- and in a calm, composed voice inviting me to pray to God, report to Him everything I did, I realize that what she did was incredibly more powerful than 21 hits on the buttocks.

I learned from my mother that life puts us in crazy situations, and sometimes we are the child, but when we grow up, we are the parents. Life puts us in all different scenarios and environments. But the great thing about keeping my mother in my head is that I am reminded of the lesson she taught me that day: the importance of prayer, surrendering to God, and smiling. She gave her prayer first, and she talked about how much she loved me, how much she believed that I'm an extraordinary person in the making, that I was born as a divine being meant to be a great woman of God. She really put all these possibilities before me in her prayer. She said, "Please help this child not just to be average but let her know that she was born to be extraordinary." That kind of got to me.

Then she asked me to surrender to God, tell God everything, to report to God everything. He saw everything anyway, but this was my chance to articulate to God what I did, and come clean, respecting God as my parent. For me, this reporting or surrendering to God was an amazingly cathartic experience because my mom did not hit me, but at the same time she made me think it through, made me articulate what I had done and why I should not perhaps do this again, because I have a goal, a purpose in life. It's good to rebel, and it could be fun. But she was encouraging me that my life was meant for something greater than just having fun night after night at some nightclub in New York City.

It was an extremely powerful experience and I couldn't stop crying. Then afterward my mom said, "Come here." She held me in the tightest and warmest embrace that I've had in a long time. She said, "Now we're going to love each other and we're going to smile, in that you have come back home safely, thank God. This is a smile of gratitude. This is a smile that signals all the wonderful things that Mommy and daughter will experience together. This is a symbol of being so grateful that God has placed you in my life, that God has allowed me to be your mom and that you have been given to me as my daughter. This is a reminder for us to celebrate." That was one of those beautiful moments that I remember from time to time.

My mother is an extremely powerful woman. She is so powerful without saying a word. The power and the gravitas come from within. You will never see my mother -- I have never seen my mother -- pray hysterically with tears and snot flying everywhere. I grew up on the second floor of the Chung-pa dong church. I went to sleep to unison prayer, I woke up to unison prayer, and many of these Korean women are hot tamales. They may seem subservient and innocuous, but just put the power of faith in them and they were screaming out, yelling out, "Heavenly Father, hallelujah! The Lord is here and we going to change the world." They almost become masculine in their prayer.

When I was little, their prayers used to freak me out because everybody was chanting and screaming; everybody looked hysterical. In a child's eyes you didn't know why people behaved like that, and then you woke up in the morning to the same thing. You were thinking, thank God for school because I don't have to deal with this until I come back.

But I never saw my mother pray like that. She was always so secure, so confident in her own skin, even when people belittled her for being a woman. In the culture of masculinity and the patriarchal system, many people in Korean society didn't understand how important our True Mother was. They singularly understood the importance of True Father, but when she first started in her married life nobody really realized what to do with her. She was many times castigated and relegated as a second-class citizen.

It's really kudos to her that throughout the years in our movement women have been given this opportunity to reclaim our dignity and the sense of ourselves as divine human beings. Without our True Mother, I would not be standing here. Regardless of how much difficulty this woman went through, I never saw her lose it. I never saw her wildly screaming at God.

I once asked her, "Omma, why don't you pray like that?" She said to me, "You are before God. If God was seated before you, is that the way you would talk to God? Prayer is a conversation. You are talking to God. Do you talk to God, screaming, at the top of your voice? God hears you when you're loud. God hears you when you're quiet. God hears you when you're silent."

Many times I saw my mother praying silently while everyone around her was screaming at the top of their lungs. In those moments I experienced how profound it is that here was a woman so confident and well-situated in herself -- knowing who she is and where she is -- before God having this conversation that she is able to report to God as a daughter would report to a father and to maintain this respectful relationship. She was revealing her heart. And in that silence she spoke more powerfully to me than any group of women put together screaming at the top of their lungs in hysterics.

That's how I realized when I started writing songs and recording them the importance of silence in music. Silence is sometimes more profound than the actual singing or playing of notes. When you take away everything, that's when you can feel more of who you are. Every time I experience this, I am reminded of my mother.

On this beautiful Mother's Day, I want to encourage all women and all daughters of God to pursue the life of simple, elegant living. Just as every mathematician tries to take three, four, or five blackboards' worth of mathematical formulas down to an elegant formula, my mother, I believe, through the course of her life has given us a formula that works, a simple, elegant formula. That is to pray, to know when to surrender to God, and to smile.

We as mothers sometimes have a problem of not being able to let go of our children, not realizing that actually we can become their worst impediment to becoming successful human beings. We have to work together with God. Just as we try our best, we have to be willing to surrender at times to God and say, "God, this time, this moment is in your hands. I will unite 100 percent in your hands, and I will let it pass."

And we need to remember always to end and begin each day with a smile, knowing that we live a life of gratitude that we have been given this opportunity to serve God -- not just in our heads or in our understanding, but with our lives. That's what loving life is all about. It's about celebrating God. It's about celebrating the breaking news of our True Parents. It's about celebrating the opportunity that we have before us in being allowed to manifest our own ideal families unto the world. It's really about celebrating each other, in that together if all of us live and practice this philosophy of living for the sake of others -- I live for you, you live for me, all of us working together -- then the world we are waiting for, the world of peace and harmony, is not just some fluffy marshmallow spread on bread. It can actually be made into a reality.

The delight of biting into a succulent peanut butter sandwich is lost when you don't have the jelly; and biting into succulent and steaming eggs Benedict in the morning is lost when you realize the ham is missing. But we have before us a man and a woman. Not only do you have the poached eggs, you do get the ham. And not only do you have peanut butter, you do have the jelly.

We have a total package in our True Parents, and it's our True Mother who is the secret ingredient that makes Father great as the True Parent of humankind. So brothers and sisters, let's honor our Heavenly Parents, our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Let's honor our True Parents and let's also our honor own direct parents.

On this day, all the husbands -- you know who you are -- should honor your wife because without her it doesn't matter how great you are. It doesn't matter how smart, how sexy, how capable you are. You're not going to have a family without your beautiful wife.

This is a day when we can honor and celebrate the feminine. We can truly feel the importance of what Mother's Day is all about because through our True Mother we can reclaim the dignity of a woman. Through our True Mother the position of mother can be understood as something divine and beautiful.

Brothers and sisters, we are the luckiest people in the history of providence -- to have our True Parents here with us. Please have a glorious Mother's Day, and thank you.

Notes:

Death Penalty for Adultery in the Bible

Deuteronomy 22:22
"If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die."

Leviticus 20:10
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor -- both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death."

Brigitte Bardot and War and Peace

Brigitte Bardot was never in a movie titled War and Peace in English, however that may be the title in Korean. Mother was probably referring to Babette s'en va-t-en Guerre (Babette Goes to War) 1959 where Bardot plays a naive French country girl in London who helps the war effort by parachuting into German-occupied France to help kidnap an important German general.