The Words of In Jin Moon
|
|
The Words of In Jin Moon |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Every time I come to Belvedere, I am very much moved. I truly love my True Parents and every time I want to speak about them something stirs inside of me and my love for them just wants to lunge forth and expose itself. Each time I stand here, I realize how much more I must do to serve our True Parents, how much more we have to understand their heart. But more importantly, we really have to understand our position. That is the topic I would like to share with you this morning.
When we come here on this beautiful Sunday morning, the grass is green, the trees are blossoming and the flowers are all around us. You feel a sense of love, don't you? There is a sense of beauty and harmony surrounding us. When I look at the trees, many times I wonder how those small leaves and those beautiful branches came to be -- and how the tree can stand so strong, with years and years of rain and storm and even lightning. Sometimes I think, "It is so beautiful--and yet something so beautiful is so strong. Strength and beauty are embodied together in that tree."
When I was growing up as a child in America, it wasn't very easy for me, or for the rest of my family. To be frank with you, every time I felt forlorn or somehow forgotten by my True Parents, I would always look at a tree and remember those little leaves and branches and that one, strong trunk which unifies the branches and the leaves, and I would say to myself, "You know, in a way, True Parents are my root. The trunk is like my faith in True Parents. It can never waver; it must be strong; it must stand through rain or sleet or through storm or thunder. Then the branches and the leaves must be my expression of joy and love and beauty to them."
Nothing is random in this universe. There is a strict order to things. Many times at schools and universities, they teach you things just happen by coincidence -- everything is chance! But when you look at something as simple as a tree in a loving way, it can teach us so much. Trees grow on the ground, but they don't become the ground and the ground doesn't become the tree. The two are two separate things, and yet they exist in harmony and need each other to survive and to prosper. Isn't that true?
Being a woman, I find listening to the Principle about the subject and object relationship very amusing because I know that a lot of sisters have trouble being the object, right? And I know that many brothers think that being the subject is being bold and courageous and strong, almost to the extent that you become crazy in your subjective role!
I want to say something to you: Principle teaches us that when God sees us through His eyes of love, we are all equal in that we all have five percent responsibility to do God's mission. But biologically, our characteristics are very different. Our desires and longings, the things that we want to attain in life are different. In this 20th century, with the advent of feminism, many times women get confused about proper priorities and positions in terms of their role as women and their "careers."
All throughout history, women were mostly subjugated by men. That is a result of Eve's failure in the Garden of Eden. When you look at Oriental or African countries, the role of women is very, very low compared to that of the men. They are seen, in a way, as something inferior, as property, as a possession. That is why women, out of their anguish and frustration, may go to the extreme and take feminism to its limits because there is a constant obstacle in front of them. They become women who do not want husbands, who engage in lesbian relationships and who forget the importance of their role as mothers.
I, being a woman raised in this kind of environment, felt that very strongly. But I want to tell all of you something. Subject and object is not superiority versus inferiority. Neither man nor woman can grow without interaction with the other. Man was born for the sake of consummating his love with a woman and woman was born to consummate her love with a man. Both of you exist for each other, and must unite totally under True Parents and establish your four position foundation, on up to the cosmic level. That is our position.
When we look at nature, we realize we need relationship with trees to survive. We emit carbon dioxide and the trees give out oxygen. If we say, "All right, since I am the subject, I am only going to give you my carbon dioxide forever -- and I don't want your oxygen," can we exist? No. Again, there is this beautiful give and take between humans and creation and between men and women. That is why both men and women are extremely important.
You sisters must know that being an object is not something inferior. In fact, it is really a blessing and an incredible responsibility to be able to receive that true love from a man and return that love. Man gives you love, but if you don't receive that love, there is no way that the love is going to go back to the man and thereby create a circular relationship of giving, receiving, and giving back. I am very proud to be a woman and I am very grateful to Heavenly Father because I am a receiver of love, and my duty is to reciprocate the love that is given to me back to my subject.
I've watched all of you gather here many years and I have watched you grow. I have watched myself follow in your footsteps, growing and struggling with you, struggling to keep my faith, to keep myself consistent to Heavenly Father and our True Parents. Just because I am a True Child doesn't mean that I don't go through suffering. As much as you go through suffering, my brothers and sisters go through suffering, too. I want you to understand this, even though we may seem somewhat apart from you because we don't interact daily and maybe you feel a little distant. When you see the True Family during celebrations, all decked out and no place to go but onstage, you might say, "Ah, I guess that's the mission of a True Family -- all thirteen of them looking great over there and smiling ear to ear, photos being taken all over the place." That is just the exterior -- our public responsibility to you and to the world. What lies in our hearts beneath and behind that exterior is what matters, and what lies in our hearts is true love for our Parents. That is what matters the most.
I have no foundation to be here in front of you without True Parents. Why is it that you receive me or the members of my True Family with so much love? Yes, it is because True Parents substantiated their love for Cain before Abel. Before their own children, they loved the world. Your loving their children is your way of reciprocating the love that Parents gave to you. In that way, we have give and take.
Since we are part of the first, original four position foundation established here on earth, the members of the True Family stand in a subjective position. But we can only do so in that we are willing to live and die for the movement and for the world. So when you examine our position in this light, you realize that we have five percent responsibility, just like you. We have desires and wants, just like you. We can make mistakes, just like you. We can fail True Parents, just like you.
As parents, you must know that your children are not born perfect. True Family was not born perfect. I can testify to you that my elder sister's and older brothers' lives were not a bowl of cherries. It was very difficult for them, growing up in this antagonistic environment, being rejected and mocked by fellow classmates, being scorned -- it is something that is not easy to explain. I don't like to talk about my family's suffering because I don't want you to understand it as self-justification. What makes True Family great is that no matter what we go through, no matter what my elder sister and our brothers went through, they always came back to True Parents. Always.
If you don't face any obstacles or hardships, what difficulty is there in your being a goody-goody two shoes when you are an adult? But if you are confronted with obstacles and conflict and yet you are able to overcome it and become victorious in connecting back to True Parents after having gone through such tremendous suffering, that is something that is so precious. I am moved by my brother Hyo Jin Nim. I am also very much moved by your response to him. Your relationship truly expresses love between you. He is standing as the subjective person, the leader. You are the members, his objects. But a subject cannot be a subject without an object. You've returned the love he gave to you by receiving it, digesting it, and then reciprocating that act of giving by my brother. That is something so beautiful. I am sure when Heavenly Father sees that happening, He is truly moved. It makes me realize, in a way, how much Father has given you all throughout his life, because without Father's giving, without Father's substantiating his love for you throughout all these years, I don't know if you could have been in a position to receive and reciprocate that love and urge Hyo Jin Nim on, saying, "Okay, older brother. We're behind you all the way. Let's go." I truly want to thank you for that.
I know that many of you here have suffered a lot. Many of you have your individual problems, family problems, financial problems. But what determines everything is that no matter what, you always connect back to True Parents. You start your days with True Parents, you end your nights with True Parents. That is our responsibility as Unification Church members. As a part of the True Family, that is my responsibility, too. No matter what I go through, no matter how many people spit in my face, I will not give up. No matter what, I must be in total unity with True Parents to qualify in my position as a True Daughter.
You must know your position, and yet you must not let your position keep you from doing what you must do. If you are a man, you cannot let your subjective role get in the way of your relationship with your wife. And the wife cannot let her objective position get in the way. If your husband is having difficulties with his faith and struggling, then in your role of practicing the objective role to the extreme, you must bring your husband back to True Parents. And you brothers, when your wife is having trouble, don't stand there and say, "I'm the subject. My wife has to come to me and bow down to me." If you stand in the position of a subject, then you must give unconditionally. You must be willing to love your wife unconditionally to the extent that your wife realizes her mistakes and comes back and is able to find her true position as your object and as the object of God's and True Parents' love.
What I'm saying to you is very much applicable to me as well in my own relationship with my husband. I'll be frank with you. In 1984 when Father told me the night before that I was to be matched, I was in no mood to receive a Blessing! Yes, I was very immature and I did not realize what Father wanted to give to me. I said, "Abba, my brother just ascended to spirit world not even 40 days ago. I am in no mood for a Blessing. I am in no mood to think about living the rest of my life with some man."
When Father was choosing my husband, inside my heart was helter skelter -- World War III! I am a very independent and stubborn person. I knew it would not be easy for any man to live with a woman like me! So part of the reason I could not really get into the spirit of marriage was because I felt sorry for the guy!
Oriental men especially like very soft-spoken, fragile, obedient, subservient wives -- and I'm not any of those things! At least, I wasn't. Jin Sung lost weight -- he weighed 145 pounds when we got engaged, and on the day of my wedding, he weighed 125 pounds! So, seeing that, I felt, "Boy, at this rate, he's going to disappear!" On the morning of my wedding day, I said, "Father, you want me to live my eternity with this man, but if he vanishes into thin air, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to have children and establish my four position foundation?" He just smiled at me and didn't say anything.
It was tough for Jin Sung, too. It was tough for both of us. But one thing I said to myself was, "If I try to hang onto my own happiness and what I think will make me happy, I will never be in a position to fully accept this Blessing." What helped me the most was saying to myself, "My individual ideas, my individual desires and wants go out the door. No more. From now on, I don't exist. My desires don't exist, because they interfere with my doing my responsibility." As a member of the True Family, I have always been in a subjective role to the blessed children.
If I were to maintain that position and say to Jin Sung, "You, blessed child, now you're my husband but I'm still your subject! So obey me!" our marriage would have gone nowhere. We would never have been able to share the kind of love that we have now.
It is in humbling yourself that you can gain or maintain true love. Only when I saw myself as someone who must fulfill my position as a wife and as an object and who must not let my True Family background interfere in my subject and object role did I experience true love with my husband. I had to say, "There is nobody else in the world except you. I was born for you and you are my destiny. Of course, we have True Parents -- but you are who I live for and it is with you that I must establish my four position foundation."
Only when I had acknowledged that to myself was I able to love Jin Sung. You know, I respect him because it took about two years for us to really have good give and take. Imagine if he though fulfilling the subjective position was to say, All right, wife. If you're going to be like that, forget you. Let me find my own happiness in this little True Family. If you are not subservient to me, then I don't want to be your husband." What would have happened if he had said that? Collapse. Total collapse.
The reason why I respect him is because he stuck with me through thick and thin. No matter what I did -- and I did a lot of things to the guy! -- he came back with loving eyes and a loving embrace and said, "Yobo, I don't care how our relationship is now. Even just seeing your smile before I die will make me happy for the rest of my eternal life."
I share this story because he remained in his position of subject in giving me unconditional love, no matter what. And, yes, it was my responsibility and it was my admission that I do not exist that allowed me to become the object of his love. He wasn't leaving his position; I wasn't leaving mine. If Adam had fulfilled his responsibility by becoming a perfected man in mind and body totally united with Heavenly Father, he would have been in a position to substantiate his vertical relationship with God in the horizontal relationship with his spouse. Adam and Eve should have met in the center, totally united with God -- that is the only way they could have had true children. Likewise, you cannot have a blessed child unless you establish yourself as someone striving toward the ideal, toward perfection, toward uniting with God.
Blessed children must be able to absorb Father's tradition totally so that they can give that love to the next generation. Heavenly tradition must be saved. It must be consistent no matter what. Therefore, why is the number two so important? Because it must be able to fulfill its objective role to the first generation, by totally assimilating and transmitting True Parents' tradition to the third generation. Father said when we can complete these three generations, then the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
That is why blessed children and True Children must totally unite with and become one with our True Parents, so that our individualistic traits and traditions do not go on to dilute or distort the heavenly tradition. That is why being a True Child is a very fearful position. If we make a crucial mistake, then what will happen to the dispensation?
This is a very serious matter. Jesus Christ was in the position of number two as the Second Adam. He was crucified. Likewise, Heung Jin Nim was the second son. Before me, there was another sister, the second, who only lived eight days. Even within Father's own family, among his close relatives, the second son of each family died prematurely. The interesting thing is that Father is the second son of his family. For Father to remain alive in this world, the second sons of his direct relatives were sacrificed. That is why when my brothers and sisters stand up here and talk to you, it is with utmost seriousness. As you know, when Satan thinks he's got something good going, he will keep on using it. Now, Satan thinks he has the number two in his lap! So he will keep on trying to get to the second generation -- the blessed children and the True Family. Now that you see this, you can understand more deeply why I say that my eldest brother's and my eldest sister's overcoming their own individual suffering and assuming their own roles as the eldest children of True Family is in itself total victory.
Nothing holds my brothers and sisters back. It was difficult in the beginning for my family because Parents didn't raise us. So we had to mature ourselves. We had to understand True Parents in our own way. True Parents loved the members before their own children. In this way, the members became True Parents' object. Father still does not love the True Children first because he is a man of God, and he wants to see the love that he has given to the members go back to the True Children. Therefore, when the members have their own children, True Children will be able to love the members' children before they love their own third generation children.
When you have children, you start thinking about financial responsibility, about where you are going to live and where your next meal is going to come from. Don't worry about your children. True Family will take care of your children. When Father says, "Do your mission," follow True Parents' example and love the world. Then, even if you don't focus on your children, love will automatically come back. Sacrifice never goes to waste; it will always be rewarded.
But please don't sacrifice while thinking that you want a reward later! It has to be unconditional sacrifice -- not thinking of the reward and what you will receive later. That is the kind of love the True Family wants all of you to have and to establish in this world, because that is the only way we can bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
I am only 22; many of you have more experience and wisdom than I. When I speak confidently, it is because of True Parents. When I think of True Parents, I do not despair or shrivel. I wake up and I become humble.
Many of you think that showing subservience or total respect is bowing your head. But if your heart is not connected, then everything you do is meaningless. In our church, we have Parents, leaders, and the members. Leaders stand in the position of number two -- such an incredible responsibility to carry out Father's desires and to be totally united with True Parents. I feel sorry for them. Please support them. They are the ones who tell you what Parents want, and you must be totally united with them. That is the only way we can do what True Parents are asking us to do for the world and for the cosmos. If you are thinking, "Oh, my leader is stupid. He doesn't understand my family problems, my financial problems," then you are forgetting your position. When you judge them, you are taking subject position over your leader and failing your responsibility as object to totally unite with the leaders.
When Father and Mother speak of the subject and object relationship, Cain and Abel, it is really, really important. Father asked me to get a Ph.D., but studying is something I hate. I find more truth in the Divine Principle book than I do elsewhere. In the beginning, when Father said to go this road, I struggled a lot because I really couldn't see why I had to do this. There are so many Ph.D.'s in our movement, why did I have to do this? But Father said to me, "In Jin, just because you are a True Child does not mean you can just stand there and have everything come to you. You have to reciprocate what the members are giving you by doing your responsibility." Father said studying is my responsibility. So even though I hate it with a passion -- school is one place that has been hell for my family -- I have no other choice.
So when Parents ask you to do your mission, to unite with your leaders, to unite with True Parents, with husband and wife, that is what you must do. We as Unification Church members, and as men and women, must always know our position. For the sake of love, you must meet at the center. Meeting at the center does not mean that the left is coming to the right or the right comes to the left only. Forget your individual pride. Then you make room for Heavenly Father to feel comfortable and dwell within your heart.
Thank you so much. I know that you love True Parents just as much as all of my family. My family knows that. (In Jin Nim cries.) So no matter what, we will be strong for you. No matter what, we must unite. Never forget True Parents. Never forget how much they have suffered. Never forget how much they have given you. When we can realize and feel all of this, then I know we have nothing to worry about.
Imagine -- we don't even live to be 100 years old and we think we suffer a lot. Think about Heavenly Father's longing to see His children substantiate the ideal family, nation, world and cosmos. When you haven't seen your children for a long time, your heart just yearns and aches for the next day when you will see your child. Just intensify that feeling to 6,000 years. Let us never forget this. We must truly be grateful that Heavenly Father and True Parents are here with us, helping us, leading us on.
Won't you please join me in pledging ourselves once again to True Parents? Thank you.