Champions of True Love - In Jin Moon

July 1, 1993
World Mission Center, New York

Who are the champions of true love? True Parents. By champions of love, I mean that True Parents have been victorious in overcoming all difficulties and are able to stand as the true son and true daughter of God. On July 1, 1991, Father proclaimed the Declaration Day of God's Eternal Blessing. Since 1945, our Father and our Mother have shed so many tears and sweat and blood to restore biblical history and to establish the first True Family. God didn't want His children to feel misery and pain and neglect. He wanted them to be glorious sons and daughters. He wanted to be in a position to give them an infinite amount of love. He wanted to be able to say, "Adam and Eve, you are my champions of true love." True Parents have digested all the obstacles that Satan put in their path. Through the magic of true love, they have turned them into one victory after another.

Every time I stand here and look into the audience, I see such a mosaic congregation here. We are brothers and sisters of all colors, ranging from black to white to yellow and maybe even red. This is such a beautiful assembly of God. However, when we come into this holy place, we always have to ask ourselves, are we really worthy? Of all the people in the world, why was I tapped to do God's mission?

We've all made the decision to be here. By our free will we choose whether to follow God or not, and you obviously decided that you want to dedicate the rest of your life to God and to our True Parents and to the world. That is a laudable conviction, and I am truly proud that we can be called brothers and sisters.

A great majority of you are Japanese. Where is America in this room? I only see a couple of American brothers and sisters. Every time Father speaks at major celebrations, he says, "America has a great responsibility to perform. Americans must wake up and realize the providential time. Americans must carry the name of True Parents to the world." However, in a way, America has failed. Our saving grace is that our True Parents choose to still reside in America and revive America so that she can stand in the true position that God planned for her.

Hope for America

True Parents have been going around the country giving a revival message to the American people. Didn't you feel as you were participating in those talks that it was a historical event? For me, these series of lectures symbolized a new hope for America. I was almost afraid that maybe our True Parents had given up on America. However, this time Father turned to me and said, "This is the first time in my twenty-one years here that I actually feel new hope for this country." They feel that the country is beginning to come alive again. There is so much that we can harvest for the sake of our True Parents.

If you really think about it, we have a lot to do. Every day must be spent on doing the work of salvation, giving God's great, important, new hope, to the American people. I've grown up in this country and I know what this country can do if it is centered on God. I can almost see how wonderful it would be if this country could truly be united centered on God and our True Parents. For many people God is something they cannot grasp. Our understanding of God may be someone who looks like Charlton Heston, sitting up in the heavens and looking very grave-sometimes being magnanimous, sometimes judgmental. However, we see God every day of our lives, don't we? We see Heavenly Father in the faces of our True Parents, and you really have to be grateful for that. How many people would die to be in your shoes, to serve True Parents and be able to follow them? How many people would long to say to the rest of humanity and to history, "I was there, walking side by side with our True Parents, making history happen"? I ask myself that question every day.

My source of inspiration

The life of a True Child is not just automatic. There are many struggles that we have to overcome, many obstacles that we must face every day. We are not perfection embodied in the faces of many different "Nims." We are very much with you. We feel everything you feel; we suffer through all the things that you suffer through. Yet I ask myself every day how many people are just dying to be in my shoes- not only following Father and Mother, but actually being the embodiment of their love, their flesh and blood. Every morning when I get up I ask myself, am I worthy to stand as a member of this family and as your sister? If I am not worthy, what must I do to make myself worthy?

I have to work very hard, and sometimes everyday life can get rather perfunctory. You do the same things over and over again, and many times it's hard to feel that renewed inspiration. Over the years I've come to realize that it's not right for me to look elsewhere for my inspiration when God has given me the very source of inspiration within my grasp, within my heart.

Many years ago, I didn't want to accept who I was and I didn't want to be In Jin Nim. Maybe you don't understand how someone in such a blessed position as a True Child would feel this way. However, as we all know, with tremendous blessing comes tremendous responsibility, and when you have the whole church looking to you as a beacon of light, it's very difficult to be that beacon twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, twelve months of the year, basically, for eternity.

When we were children, we could revel in the glory, but particularly during the teenage years it was very difficult for me. I really had to think and pray about it. What kept me going during those difficult years was True Parents, of course, but more than that, all of you. You symbolized for me a solidarity of spirit, a spirit of true love. I looked around the world and I couldn't see that anywhere else. In no other place could I find all different colors gathered in one room, everybody working towards one ideal, the building of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

When I came to realize the greatness and the magnitude of our True Parents, my first reaction was total fear, that they are my physical parents. Then, I entered into a period of intense reflection, where I read everything that there is to read. After a lot of tears and a lot of prayer I came to understand-and am still learning to understand-the heart of our True Parents.

Champions of love

What True Parents preach to us every day is a very simple philosophy: do things for other people without asking for anything in return. Love people endlessly, without limit. Most of the greatest concepts in philosophy have been very simple. Profundity lies in simple words. If you start with the belief that you are living for the sake of others, somehow everything that you do and everything that you personify becomes something greater than yourself. The only way to rise out of who you are is to start doing things for other people.

Certainly, our True Parents have been the champions of living for others. They have given themselves, going out of their way to love all the members, even rejecting their own family at times for the sake of the members. Every day, with ceaseless energy, they have given me and they have given all of you so much hope. "Champions of true love" is a simple phrase, but it comes loaded with suffering and heart and pain.

For Father and Mother to stand in a position to proclaim a Day of God's Eternal Blessing is incredible. It's the seventh holy day of our church. From 1945 to 1985 was our True Parents' forty-year indemnity period. Six years later, this holiday was announced. Many calamities happened that year: earthquakes, natural disasters, so much chaos. In that chaotic year which Satan wanted to claim for himself, our True Parents proclaimed this Day of God's Eternal Blessing. In the seventh year after the forty-year indemnity period, Father and Mother founded the Women's Federation for World Peace. This eighth year marks a new beginning. In seven years we will be entering the new millennium. If we can carry forth this tradition and bring the message of true love to the world, it will be the substantiation of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth.

With the Day of God's Eternal Blessing came the blessing of tribal messiahship. What does tribal messiah mean to you? [In Jin Nim asks several members of the audience to respond to her question. Answers include: becoming messiahs for our tribe, showing God's love, making sacrifices, giving the truth, giving of ourselves, serving.]

Be little Reverend Moons and Mrs. Moons

By asking us to be tribal messiahs, True Parents have given us a very important gift. Father and Mother are the first True Parents. That means that they are the first man and woman to stand victoriously on the foundation of true love and establish an ideal family. To be tribal messiahs means to be little Reverend Moons and little Mrs. Moons. We have to be the representatives of True Parents wherever we go. Now think about that. Can you be like Father? Father doesn't like people to say merely that they will try. You are supposed to say "YES! Yes, I can be." Can you be just like Mother? Yes. That's what we have to be, brothers and sisters: little Reverend Moons and little Mrs. Moons. To our families, to our society, to the nation.

If you are going to be Mr. and Mrs. Moon, how are you going to look externally? Are you going to go to your hometown in punk leather and spike heels and blue and orange hair? No. Everything you do must manifest who they are. Of course, internally you must truly inherit their tradition and become one with them in spirit, so that when you live for others, your actions become a combination of the external and the internal manifested in the beautiful expression of love. It's an awesome responsibility, but if you take it seriously and you are really motivated and invest your heart in everything you do, God can work miracles.

When True Parents went around America giving their message of new hope, many people were studying the speech, taking their pencils and circling some things that meant a lot to them, nodding their heads. Some black ministers who were sitting behind me were saying, "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! That's the spirit!"

There are people out there who are waiting for us to bring them the good news. Come on, brothers and sisters. Don't do your daily tasks grudgingly. You have to be inspired. People will know you by the way you manifest yourself. Is it inspiring to see someone totally enervated because of the day's work? No. We have to be beacons of light. Think that the whole world depends upon you, that everything is contingent on what you do and what you become. Think that every second, every hour, every day of the week is crucial to this providential history. Tell yourself you know what you have to do, and then resolve to do it.

One day at a time

Take things a step at a time, one day at a time. Start your day with a prayer, tell yourself what you are going to do, set up certain guidelines as to what you want to accomplish that day. At the end of the day, come into your bedroom and pray and see how much you were able to follow, how many things on your list you did that day. A life of faith is not easy. It takes constant discipline, constant dedication, but most of all, constant evaluation and constant desire for betterment. Without that, you will spiritually die. You will wither away. You will cease to see the significance of the time that you are living in, and in the end you will leave. It's all up to you, brothers and sisters. Everything depends on you and your determination. Nobody has brainwashed you into this church; nobody has coerced you to do anything. It's your decision, it's our decision, so let's make something of ourselves.

Let's harness the tremendous potential of every individual in this room and put it to good use. If even one brother or sister is lost, think about all the potential that's gone with them. You are hand- picked by Heavenly Father. Everyone of you has tremendous value and importance for this historical time. That's why we have to love and respect each other as brothers and sisters. We have to work as one. There is no room for dichotomy in this church-or in this world, for that matter. We do not need walls of separation between different races, different faiths.

We don't need walls separating men and women. Men and women are different, but in true love they have equal, divine value. Moreover, you, as brothers and sisters, as husbands and wives, and as future parents of your children, have to be able to embody that spirit of true love and manifest it in brother-sister relationships and in a conjugal relationship. Otherwise, how will the next generation learn how to love and serve others? Everything will start with you, with us.

People are searching for true love

Since I've been married, one of my high school friends went through three marriages and numerous relationships. When I got matched, she felt sorry for me and gave me her condolences. However, after ten years, she said to me over lunch: "I would just love to be in your shoes just for one day, to experience the kind of true love that you share with your husband and your family." She was crying. She said, "I have many friends, but all those friends will turn away from me once my beautiful face is gone. Even those who supposedly care about me usually want something in return."

Regardless of how many years we have been separated, my love for her was the same, and she knew that. She said, "I thought you guys were crazy, thinking that you are living in apocalyptic times, serving the Messiah, trying to create the ideal family." With a couple more meetings, I think she is going to be in the next blessing. Of course, this realization came after years of heartache. She said to me, "I feel like a used carpet. I feel like I have nothing to give, nothing new, nothing to inspire me." I said, "That's because you haven't been tapped by true love. However, you know through me, that true love never changes; it's always absolute." Then she said, "Yeah, I can see that." That's just one example from my own life that I share with you. So many people out there are so lonely, and really searching. In my classes and conversations with fellow students, the bottom line is: everyone wants to be happy, everyone wants to find love. They want to find someone who will love them for the rest of their life. To be loved eternally by a true man or a true woman who will be your spouse and through whom you will have an ideal family is an incredible life goal.

That's exactly what True Parents are callings us to by asking us to be tribal messiahs. Messiahship is not confined just to Father and Mother. Father is trying to break us out of the understanding that the Messiah is from a cloud, that he's not a human being, that somehow saintliness has to go hand in hand with being unrealistic. Father and Mother are showing us through their example that saintliness can be substantiated in our daily lives.

Father believes in us

Don't take Parents for granted. They are so precious to me, and I want them to be just as precious for you. If we can't do it, the responsibility will fall on our children and their children.

Father always gives the hardest time to American sisters, right? He does that because he is looking to you to be the women leaders that will unite America and bring it back to our Heavenly Father and our True Parents. It's difficult for Japanese and Korean women to break out of the mold of our Oriental tradition. However, you American women have had the experience of being on the front line. Be aggressive for God. There is nothing wrong with being aggressive for God. If you are aggressive for yourself, that's a problem.

Father and Mother are looking for American women who will be out there day and night serving the world. Because Father knows the potential is there, he is saying, "Come on, do better, because you hold the key. You American women are tall, beautiful, and smart. This is your country, and Mother is showing you the example. If the brothers get a little tired along the way, give them a nudge." You have to believe that Father loves you. Even within my family, Father says, "The ones I love the most, I give a hellish time to," and it's true. Sometimes I say to my mother, "Omma, why can't Father just smile once in a while and tell us we're doing okay? Why does it feel like Father is always kicking us out?" She tells me, "He's kicking you because he wants you to be better, because he knows you can take it." Mother said, "You should be grateful that he kicks you. He's not going to kick somebody that he doesn't love or doesn't trust." Therefore, if Father and Mother give you a hard time, or if your central figure gives you a hard time, be grateful.

I never thought I would be so happy

My life goal is to bring joy to True Parents. If I can be persecuted instead of them, I'll gladly do it. If I can be sacrificed for their greatness, I'll gladly do it. I'm not stupid, and neither are you. Just because I am Father's daughter doesn't mean I have to be here. I can leave. However, I've decided to be here, just as you've decided to be here, so let's not sit around and mope. Let's come together. If we are really united, true miracles can happen. We saw what tremendous effect Father`s and Mother's speech had on people.

I hope we can learn from one another and achieve great things. My desire is to see you become great and for you to experience the kind of love that I've experienced. I never thought I would be so happy. I never thought that I would have a wonderful marriage and beautiful children. When I lie down at the end of the day and I think back about the day's events and I reflect on how much my husband loves me, how much True Parents love me and how much my own children love me, I am just overwhelmed. I feel that I don't deserve any of it.

I want all of you to be that happy. Father and Mother want all of you to experience such magnificent, reciprocal love, so you can be the example for your tribe, so you can provide that spark of life and that incredible breath of fresh air for your lineage.

Please remember that the True Family is with you every step of the way. Young Jin is the top student in his class. He works hard not for himself but because he wants to better serve you in the future. Everybody in my family is working hard because we want to better serve you. We want you to be proud of us and know that our dedication to our True Parents and to this life is unwavering and absolute. We really want you to feel the same way.

Offer to buy someone coffee

You have tremendous potential, a tremendous God-given blessing that needs to be nurtured and used effectively. Grab somebody on the street and say, "Can I offer you some coffee?" They rarely say no. I know from personal experience. At first they may think you are trying to hit on them, but when you talk, ask them questions: What do you do? Are you a student? What are you looking for in your life? Do you believe in God? When you engage them in a conversation, they become really interested and say: "Wow. You really think of that stuff?" I reply, "Yeah." "Do you believe in God?" they ask me. "Yeah, I believe in God." "Gee, that's great," they exclaim. "Now where do we go from here?" "Well," I continue, "do you believe that this world should be composed of ideal families?" Usually the person will say, "What do you mean by an ideal family? Like, gung ho, everybody's happy, drinking iced tea and sitting around the table enjoying some Kentucky Fried Chicken?"

Then you start explaining what the ideal family is. Usually people are blown away: "Oh, my goodness. You believe in eternal love? You really believe that you were meant for this person and you are going to be faithful and loving to this guy for the rest of your life?" And I'm like, "Ye-e-e-es, I do!" Usually they will say, "Wow! Why do you think that way?" Then you can invite them to the center or to your home and really talk to them.

I've realized that there are a lot of lonely people. Many people have friends, but they are just buddies because they go for pizza or they go see a movie together. When you ask them, "So who is your true friend? Who in your life would stick with you through thick or thin?" Usually that person will not have a clear answer. Nobody really knows and nobody can be certain. We will introduce them to the eternal blessing of entering the embrace of our True Parents and to experience true love.

Father once said to me, "In Jin, if you go out grocery shopping, and there is a person behind you in line but you leave without ever uttering a word about True Parents, forty or fifty years later when you meet in spirit world, that person will say, "Hey, weren't you the girl who was buying groceries in front of me on such and such a day? How come you didn't tell me about True Parents?" When Father said that, it really blew my mind. In the movie Dr. Zhivago, even a chance meeting is considered to be somehow predestined. Think about it, there are thousands and thousands of potential new brothers and sisters walking the streets of New York, searching and aching to find the truth, and you are passing them every day, on trains, on airplanes, in grocery stores, in book stores, even in the restrooms. Every human being out there is important to God. It is our responsibility to bring that message to the world. Therefore, don't hold yourself back. Be aggressive. If people like you for some reason, or if people are interested in you, use that as an introduction for them to come and hear the Principle.

Our mission is to give people life

If I, as the daughter of Reverend and Mrs. Moon, can say things and gain legitimacy in people's eyes, it shouldn't be a problem for you. When I talk about my father and mother, people usually say, "Yeah, but you are Reverend Moon's daughter. You've been indoctrinated. You are taught what to say, so of course you say it." They say, "Reverend Moon's rich. You guys live in a mansion. I saw a picture of your house: you have a humongous swimming pool in the middle of your house." I say, "Who would want that?" Whenever I try to proclaim True Parents, people always ask me about the money and the prestige? I can honestly say to them, "Take away everything I own and I will still be who I am, just as proud and just as stubborn and just as aggressive, and maybe even more so."

You members have the advantage of a third-person perspective. When you speak out, when you proclaim our True Parents, people will say, "That guy doesn't look brainwashed. His eyes don't look glazed over. Let's see what he has to say." Can you do that? You with the glasses, you have a sparkle in your eye. Don't ever lose it!

Heavenly Father is truly happy on this day when He looks out at all of you. We can do so much, brothers and sisters. Don't ever forget that. We have to be strong, we have to work hard, we have to be aggressive. On this day, who will pledge, "I will be the champion of true love?" Thank you, brothers and sisters.

(edited for Today's World)