The Words of Jin Sung (Pak) Moon (husband of In Jin Moon)
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The Words of Jin Sung (Pak) Moon (husband of In Jin Moon) |
Jin
Sung Nim explains the Principle.
Good morning, brothers and sisters. All my life I have come to Belvedere to hear our Father give us the truth about our Heavenly Father and all mankind. I want to say that I feel completely unworthy to be here, and I pray that I may be able to express Heavenly Father's heart and the heart of our True Family.
First of all, I feel that I should give you some words of introduction about myself. We have a relationship, a true relationship, as brothers and sisters.
Father said here in April the only thing that is needed to graft into the True Parents' lineage is your essence -- your original mind -- and your willingness to have your neck cut. On February 13, 1984, that was exactly what happened to me. I completely felt it -- a nice clean cut. It was not the most joyful Occasion because we were coming to the fortieth day of Heung Jin Nim's Seunghwa. In the seven days between the engagement to In Jin Nim and the wedding I was often sitting close to Mother. My stomach was saying "eat," but when I tried, the rest of me was too nervous to eat, so after about one bite I was full. When the Holy Wedding took place a week later, I was 20 pounds lighter.
Since that time, my life has only become more amazing each and every day and year. Here was this not so good-looking person coming into the True Family, and yet from the start I felt the complete warmth and willingness of True Children to accept me as their new brother. At that time In Jin Nim didn't want to see me; she needed some time to reflect. I remember Hyun Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim coming and physically embracing me, telling me that they were happy to have me as their new brother and wishing me every great blessing. They also immediately gave me an affectionate nickname. The younger brothers and sisters of those who are married call the husbands of the daughters mae hyungs and the wives of the sons hyung soos. From that time I have received so much love and blessing from our True Parents and Heavenly Father.
Each of us must think of ourselves not as an individual but as a product of a lineage. However, many great philosophers don't even consider the issue of lineage, and here in the West the concept of lineage is almost non-existent. You may think about your parents and maybe your grandparents if they are alive, or you may visit them at the cemetery, but our lineage, our root, is actually of utmost importance.
Once Father told us what the four greatest questions were that have plagued mankind throughout history. The first was man's relationship to God. Second was the Cain/Abel struggle. The third was portion of responsibility, and the fourth was the change of blood lineage. Perhaps the one we least understand is the concept of the change of blood lineage.
We know that we have to resemble Father as a man and Mother as a woman. They are our ideal example, but in essence the ideal position we must obtain -- and all mankind, as well -- is that of sons and daughters of our True Parents. Heavenly Father has prepared and hand-picked all of us here so that we can serve our Father and Mother with our lives and strive to become their sons and daughters. Now, how can a stranger come into the position of a child of some couple?
The first and foremost prerequisite is that Father and Mother recognize you and embrace you as their sons and daughters. Without this parental love you would have no hope. Secondly, we have to live like True Parents' sons and daughters. The blood flowing through our veins was supposed to be from God, and from the perfected Adam and Eve or the ideal True Parents. But having Satan's blood instead affects every cell in our body. This is not an easy thing to overcome.
It is important to understand that there is a heartistic distinction between blessed children and True Children. I have felt it every day since coming to share my days with the True Family. There is something very, very special about them in the way they think, but also, even more importantly, in the way they express love, the way they feel towards True Parents. The definition of the word "absolute," which you've heard many times, can be found in the heart of the True Children. Their absolute unity with True Parents is undeniable, unbreakable.
The statement that blessed children are born without original sin is not well understood even now. The root through which Satan held all of mankind captive was cut by True Parents. Therefore, the generation that comes forth from your lineage -- the blessed children -- is more pure. But I realized it doesn't mean anything to be born without original sin unless you are connected to True Parents. Principle tells us that it takes seven generations to purify our blood. Blessed children and blessed couples should know that our incredible role and value and privilege is conditional upon realizing our portion of responsibility -- to absolutely obey True Parents and become their sons and daughters by serving the True Family.
The Holy Wine ceremony symbolized the change of blood lineage. From that point on, if you live as a child of our True Parents then you are setting a condition whereby Satan cannot say anything to you. When you go to the spiritual world and claim to be the son or daughter of our True Parents, two things are very important: Will Father and Mother recognize you and will Satan have anything to say about it? We know Father and how loving and how merciful he is -- he probably will try everything in his power to recognize you and say everything he can before Heavenly Father on your behalf. The problem is that there is another character who's going to point out every flaw in you. If Satan is just lying, Father will say, "Satan, you're lying. Shut up." But if he's not lying and if there is something against you, what can you say and what can our Father do for you? We have to live a life absolutely dedicated to our True Parents to earn the right to be their sons and daughters. But we also have to change Satan's blood in our veins.
How do we accomplish this change? When I was blessed in 1984, Father said to me, "You are no longer a Pak; you are a Moon." Even though I didn't clearly understand, I knew that I had to take responsibility for it and realize that it means absolutely I am no longer a Pak. The concept of a woman coming into a family by marrying a man is easily understood. In the secular world, In Jin Nim would come into the Pak family. But as a man marrying into a woman's family, I stand in a unique position which the Koreans call myung ha dee -- I am in the position of a bride in the sense that I am the one being cut from my family and brought into another family. Why? There can be only one set of original True Parents. So Father proclaimed that those who come into the True Family are no longer a Pak or a Hong or a Kwak, but instead become a Moon. It's very important. Father has spoken a lot about this to the True Family, though he did not express too much to the members because first it had to be substantiated.
Before the first True Child was married, people had many theories about who the True Children were going to marry. However, such talk can actually be very misleading so it is better not to engage in it. When the divine will was manifested, those who were connected to True Parents said, "Oh, of course." But it is only with time that I realize more and more that this is a form of Heavenly Father's love to mankind. This is Heavenly Father's way to bring world salvation down to the very cells in every man's body. True Children are the flesh and blood of our True Parents. They are incredibly special. Principle tells us that True Parents can only exist if they establish a four position foundation. Father gained adopted sons and daughters through his disciples, but only in 1960 did we have the Holy Wedding of our True Parents, and in 1961 the actual existence of our True Parents began with the birth of Ye Jin Nim.
In
Jin Nim listens
Then, why do we respect True Children? Many members found it was not easy to have a relationship in which you're older and smarter, and yet True Children who are younger are your subjects. Actually, it is very similar to Lucifer's situation: He was very smart, very wise, very accomplished, but he still had to respect Adam and Eve as his subjects. In the fallen world you respect someone typically because he has accomplished something. But we respect True Children because they are part of the original, critical first four position foundation in the history of mankind. It was Father and Mother and the True Children together who created the first ideal family.
Principle tells us that nobody is born perfect. Everybody has to go through a stage of growth, including True Children. To be a True Child doesn't mean you lead a perfect life from the day you are born. If we understand that, we can embrace True Children in a much more loving way. What I can testify to you is that they are true, true in heart. I have seen that there is something inside of them that keeps them coming back to True Parents, no matter how hard they have been hit by Satan, no matter how many times they've been put down, and no matter how many times they've been led astray. Adam and Eve did not fall alone. An outside force that shouldn't have existed smashed them. Unfortunately, as the True Children were growing up, the blessed couples couldn't fulfill their responsibility to create an environment for them of an ideal tribe and society in which they could safely dwell and reach their potential.
Still, who of you here would have lasted if 43 years ago Father had said, "Well, the worldwide foundation has just crumbled. Those who are willing to follow me for the next grueling 43 years, raise your hand." Father broke everything down into three or seven year courses, saying, "Come with me just this much further." Father was taking care of you, hoping that you could make it all the way.
I can testify to you that it is an awesome responsibility to live with True Parents. You may sometimes wonder what they do at a certain time of day. Somebody who lives with them can testify that their sacrifice and giving is even greater at the times when you don't see them. When Father calls a meeting or gives a really long speech, it's devastating to our legs. We see Father leave, and we stretch or go sit in a chair, but Father just goes straight to another meeting. Morning until night, even every meal is a meeting.
And the True Children -- what have they gone through? When I came to live with the True Children, I realized that they were living like orphans. Father and Mother literally spend all their time with the members. Why? Those who have children know that a very real way to express love is to spend time with them. But there was no time spent together for True Parents and True Children.
I know that Col. Pak and Mrs. Pak suffer in a sense, and their birthdays are difficult for them because they expect a card or a telephone call from me, but only when True Parents recognize their birthday can I be fully joyful in my heart to also recognize it. Can in-laws say, "Now part of the True Family belongs to me," and divide up the True Family? No. If members look at me as Col. Pak's son or at Hyun Jin Nim's wife as Rev. Kwak's daughter, that's not right. Hoon Sook Shi is my sister now only in the sense that she is Heung Jin Nim's wife and I am In Jin Nim's husband, and as such, we live as brothers and sisters. The 12 True Children and their husbands and wives must live as brothers and sisters to represent one family, one absolute and pure lineage.
I can only change my blood lineage, in a spiritual sense, if I live and breathe like Father and Mother's son. However, my son, like all the other grandchildren of True Parents, is Father and Mother's flesh and blood. The concept that Hyo Jin Nim spoke of, of creating 1.2 billion members of the True Family in 10 generations, will never come into being if, in each generation, they are divided up and taken away. The True Family does not live for the sake of individual privileged families who "made it." In fact, their trials and tribulations in serving True Parents have just begun, starting with the Holy Wedding of their sons or daughters to True Children. Becoming part of True Parents' lineage is not something I earned; it's something unearnable, something given to me.
We are not living for the sake of True Parents just for our own individual and family salvation, but also to restore our whole lineage into True Parents' lineage. How can that be? Your parents, you, and your children are one and the same, just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- one generation. Heavenly Father and True Parents have made a way, through the True Family, to embrace the whole world in their deep love. One aspect of this is their receiving those who are not their children in marriage to their own children. It could be that some of you sitting here may have a child in a future generation marry into the True Family. That would be the most incredible blessing of your life.
I spent many years outside of the True Family. When my expressions of love and heart fall short next to the example of the True Family, I see that I have been invaded in my way of thinking in ways that I don't even understand yet. With the True
Family, every expression is so pure. It doesn't mean we walk around saying, "I love you" all the time. Sometimes the older True Children even speak harshly to the younger ones, but when you come to understand love, you see that all their expressions are purely motivated. My motivations were not like that because I did not live a life as True Parents' son. So many times I look to see how Hyun Jin Nim, or Kook Jin Nim, or the younger True Children express themselves toward Father and Mother and their brothers and sisters. I want to cleanse my younger years when I didn't learn such heart, by uniting with the hearts of the younger True Children.
Jin
Sung Nim as he speaks at Belvedere.
We have to be careful with expectations. There has been a lot expected of the True Children and that in part has caused a lot of their suffering. Why? It creates a paradox in their lives, especially when false expectations come from those who are supposed to love them. True Parents have a certain true expectation, but then members have their own expectations about what True Children should be. True Children of course will try to live up to True Parents' standard when they understand it. But it is difficult when they are young and True Parents in their absence have to rely upon brothers and sisters to take care of their children. True Parents really sacrificed their children in order to love the blessed couples and mankind. At least part of the responsibility of blessed couples was to return the true love they received back to Father and Mother's children. In short, we can say the suffering of Ye Jin Nim and Hyo Jin Nim and all the True Children has come about because of the failure of those around the True Family to be able to give true love. Think about your own life. How many years have you been in the movement, and how high do you rank in your expressions of true love? We're not so good at it because it's not easy.
Satan has tried to strip True Children of their dignity, especially through school. When you go out fundraising or witnessing, if people know you're a Moonie and persecute you, you can go away and find somebody who's more prepared by Heavenly Father. We could control our persecution because when we couldn't take any more we backed off. How would you like to walk around Manhattan 24 hours a day with a big sign that said, "Moonie"? We should walk around like that and be proud of it, but I know that we don't. When I went to school, nobody knew who I was. In elementary school it just didn't occur to me to tell people I was a Moonie. In junior high and high school I realized that based on the quality of the relationship I developed with others, they usually would decide that I was okay. They would maintain that feeling even when they learned I was a Moonie, and therefore, would decide that Father must be okay.
But from the beginning people know who Father's children are. When judged based upon abilities and skills, True Children are top of the class: the best violinist, the best artist, the top grades. When Hyo Jin Nim was in Korea in elementary school, he was top in his class. When the teacher told him to go home and memorize the seven continents of the world, he'd memorize the seven continents of the world plus the 50 states of the United States for extra credit. Jeung Jin Nim is like the darling of the elementary school. What happens in junior high school though? Kids start having popularity contests, and certainly, being a Moonie is not yet quite in! In the seventies and early eighties when our membership took a lot of beating, know for sure that True Children were on the front line with you, even ahead of you.
Hyo Jin Nim once had an English professor who asked him to read one of the prominent 19th century feminist novels. It described how a young woman only found her identity when she was sexually liberated. Her life culminated when she walked into the ocean and killed herself. He was asked to write an essay on this junk. Instead of conforming in order to get an "A," Hyo Jin Nim wrote an essay about the virtues of family, the very thing the novel was mocking, and submitted it. It came back "C-" and no other comments on a fairly well-written paper.
Another English professor, who was a homosexual and an atheist, told In Jin Nim's class, "I'm going to teach you how to write a formal expository essay. First I'm going to show you an essay that I've written with the thesis: "Religion is the opiate of the people." The class went over it in detail, excruciating for In Jin Nim. She prepared for the final exam by reading many of the famous classics of English literature. However, when she opened the exam book, one of the questions was: Write an essay on the thesis, "religion is the opiate of the people." The teacher thought he was being a nice guy, but actually he was brainwashing, wasn't he? It was a three-hour exam an In Jin Nim cried for about the first thirty minutes. But when Satan attacks them, they respond by going back to God and True Parents, no matter what the cost. Would you have said, "Well, Father wants me to go to college and do well. Okay, I'll get an "A" and I'll just let my hand write 'religion is the opiate of the people.'" In Jin Nim couldn't do it. She said to herself, "I can't I do this to You, Heavenly Father. Even if no one else reads this besides the English teacher, I cannot let this come from my fingertips." So she wrote an essay on the virtues of true love and got an "A,"
Just by looking at Hyun Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim, you can see what incredible athletes they are. True Children will never let you down spiritually or physically. In junior high school, Hyun Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim typically were the team captains and most valuable players in whatever sport they participated in -- lacrosse, football, or baseball. Even without practicing, they became the stars of the team. But then others would get jealous. Kook Jin Nim just recently finished two seasons of football. It became the thing to do on his team to see how hard you could hit him. He used to come home totally bruised and have to sit in the tub. True Children are not invited to participate in any extra-curricular activity such as running for class president. Other kids write notes about them; they are laughed at, excluded, and pushed around. These are some of the things you need to understand, so you can connect to them better and not take them for granted.
To accomplish absolute unity with our True Parents, we need to transcend our way of thinking. Westerners -- I can say "we" because I am one of you -- have a tendency to think very logically. Sometimes when I come home from the university where I have to think very analytically, the True Children remind me that "this is the realm of love." Since we were created to live for love, we live for Heavenly Father who is the source of true love. But the arms and limbs of our existence are knowledge, power, and wealth. We need knowledge to build things which enhance our life physically, and maybe also spiritually. However studying in itself is very individualistic -- and the thing that Satan uses to kill us spiritually most often is individualism, by separating us and making us think only about ourselves. That's why sometimes brothers and sisters should postpone their studying when they first join the movement.
At the university I see people who are living for nothing but money or power. Often people use knowledge to fight each other or to put other people down. Students even at our seminary may struggle a lot simply because studying is individualistic. When you read a book, in a sense you are putting the author in the subject position and gaining knowledge which you may use to make yourself look good. But knowledge is nothing of value unless it's used for Heavenly Father and True Parents. I didn't fully grasp that until I came into the True Family and began rubbing against raw true love. People would say to me, "What's the matter with you today?" and I would say "I don't know." My first reaction was very physically oriented, but now I look at my heart and ask, "Am I centered correctly?" Whenever you think about something, let True Parents come into your mind first and you'll be right where you are supposed to be.
The question often arises, where are we in the dispensation? When in 1985, Father stood here in a crowd this size -- about 1,000 people -- and said, "All I need is 100 of you to do what I -ask and the Kingdom of Heaven will be established," I cried. If everyone here today just made a pledge to serve Father the way he wants us to serve him, then we would have it made.
After the flood, the Bible tells us, Noah was sleeping naked and drunk, and Ham asked his brothers to walk backwards and cover Noah with a blanket. When I was young Ham's failure was one of the things that really scared me. I wondered if Ham even knew the significance of his failure. It seemed like such a slight thing. In fact, I'm sure if his heart had been different that ' the same act would have been a good act. He could have walked in and said, "Oh my goodness, its chilly today. My father will catch a cold. I must put a blanket on top of him."
Would God have looked with disdain upon that act? I wanted to live a life that True Parents would be proud of, to live up to True Parents' standard, and that act frightened me because I did not understand its consequences fully. I understood things very externally -- I did not understand heart. Ham's mistake was a heartistic mistake. He failed to connect with Noah and he put himself above Noah who was standing in God's position. How many times have we done that in our mind? How many times have we all done that through our central figure to True Parents?
Sometimes it seems that Father says things to us that don't sound logical. Sometimes a leader will report something to Father, and then another leader will say, "Oh, Father, that particular fact is not correct. Let me tell you another fact," and Father says, "No, that's okay. I already understand." Then the second leader says, "Oh, Father, you don't understand; you've just been told something that I believe is not right." You see, that's Ham's mistake and you should not do that. When you come with urgent news to Father and say, "Father, I need to tell you something," and Father says, "No, that's okay, it can wait," then it can wait, right? That's our standard. If we live like that, then with our mind and body we can be absolutely united with True Parents. We live like that here because we believe Father and Mother won't lead us astray as may happen in the fallen world. We have found the true man and woman who will never do us wrong. Even if our mind doesn't understand completely, we can make the absolute condition to follow anyway.
I stress Noah's situation because in a sense I feel that we as brothers and sisters are in Ham's position right now. Upon Ham's failure Moses had to redo the foundation of faith. At Moses' time the Israelites united enough to be able to leave Pharaoh's land, but that didn't mean that their foundation of substance was solidified. The unity between Cain and Abel has to be accomplished over a certain time period. It can't just be done one day by Cain saying, "Okay, I'll unite with you on this one point, that's all." There has to be a true give and take between the two. There had to be absolute unity between the Israelites and Moses. Did that occur? Principle teaches us clearly Satan's strategies so we can overcome his invasions.
Today we are living at the very time when the culmination of human history is happening. Father said in 1945 he should have been received as the worldwide Messiah based upon the worldwide foundation of Christianity centered upon Korea. But the foundation that had been prepared collapsed and established Christianity rejected Father completely. Isn't that similar to the situation that happened with Jesus? When Satan has a victory, he'll use it against us as much as he can until finally we can rectify it, but how many times in history have we been successful in invading Satan's invasions? God needed a man who would not fail him. Who was that man? Father. That is the victory of our True Parents. Unfortunately, we are the very people who, like the Israelites, failed to prevent Satan from invading. We have to be incredibly grateful to Father and Mother because they fought and won every battle by themselves.
Father has been in prison six times, and he said that every level that he ascended to was a life and death situation. Jesus' life would have been spared had three disciples been willing to give up their lives for him. They couldn't even pray all night. Likewise, Father could have been spared tribulation had those around him been faithful. But be it known that we have come this far because of True Parents and everything that they bore.
When I was in law school, I learned that Jesus' crime, in our secular sense, was contempt of court. He didn't respond when he was asked a question. That was the actual charge against him and he was killed for that.
What was Father's crime on the worldwide level? Tax evasion? If I ever have the opportunity, I would like to share with you everything about Father's trial and the court case. When I was in law school, it was the thing to study. We had Cain-type professors who kind of laughed it off, and we had Abel-type professors who said, "Wait a minute, this is too much!" There were about six or seven clear constitutional issues, any one of which would have been enough to prove Father's innocence, and everyone agreed that there shouldn't have been a jury trial. These were conclusions reached by legal scholars even within Satan's own system. You have to know that Father and Mother are not only innocent in God's eyes, but they are also innocent in Satan's eyes.
Father himself had to relive, and in a sense, reconstruct all of history in order to win the victory on the individual, family, tribe, society, nation, world, and even cosmic level. Many times when Father and Mother declare a new victory and open a new level of the providence at celebrations, we members say, "I don't see it; it's another one of those invisible victories." Well, that's right, it is invisible, but it's there. We wouldn't be here, and maybe we wouldn't even be alive if Father had not made those victories. In some societies, even modern-day ones, religious persecution is carried to the extent that it's okay to kill those who are unpopular. Can you imagine a law that for every Moonie you kill you get so much money? That's not so farfetched. But it's because of Father's victories that that hasn't happened. Whenever you close your eyes to pray, thank God for True Parents and for the victories True Parents have reaped for us so that we can stand here. I fear that brothers and sisters do not recognize the significance of this time, the turning point, 43 years after 1945. At this crucial time, Father needs Jacob, Joshua, and Caleb, not ten faithless people. The Israelites were on the verge of fighting the ultimate battle, but only two people were willing to do it. Consequently they had to stay in the wilderness and only the second generation made it to Canaan.
We are not yet a nation, but we're definitely a tribe, aren't we? We're one family. So the most important thing is to recognize Father and Mother as the Messiah. That has been substantialized spiritually on the cosmic level and we can make it happen in the physical world if we get ourselves motivated and absolutely united, recognizing the significance of this time.
Don't think that after so many years you know what Unification Church is all about. Don't say, "Well, I've been here long enough and I know what tomorrow's going to be like." What you've tasted is forty years in the wilderness -- not even forty years, because some of you came late. But that's what it was and now here we are on the riverbanks. Tomorrow is going to be the dawn of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and if you're not ready for it, you'll be left out.
What role do we play? We are to be True Parent's sons and daughters, the flesh and blood of True Parents, centered upon our True Family. Father has sacrificed himself and his whole family, even to the death of his beloved son. To be with Father we have to be willing to sacrifice for the greater purpose. Father is sacrificing us for the sake of the world. We have the privilege of bringing the Messiah to the world. Father doesn't need a million Moonies; Father just needs you, the chosen ones in the Last Days, to establish the foundation to receive the Messiah on the worldwide level. Father accomplished the foundation for the Messiah on the tribal level. And now he is working on the national and worldwide level, centering on the unity of North and South Korea. When Father talks about the floodgates, he means it can happen, bam, all at once. But if you don't believe it, then it won't happen, and do you want Father to go to prison again? To do it by himself? I would rather die than to see that happen.
Who are you? You are the Abel to the Christians, to the world. Now do you see what's happening with the 7,000 ministers? It's a Cain/Abel struggle on the worldwide level. Everything that Father does is according to God's divine will. So Father walked the path that Jesus was unable to walk in order to lay the worldwide foundation to receive the Messiah. As Abel, we want to connect the Christian ministers with love to True Parents.
We can't let Satan invade our connection with True Parents. If Satan invades this link, then Father will be made vulnerable and everything will be destroyed. You see why it is so important to have absolute faith in True Parents. In a way, you could say the number 7,000 came from Satan, because until Satan is satisfied, God's will cannot go forth. Satan is the gatekeeper to the Kingdom of Heaven. When Father asks you to obtain 10 million signatures, or reach 7,000 ministers, don't ever think that Father is being arbitrary. Just think that it is a life and death matter, and we've got to do what Father tells us to do.
It is crucial here on the worldwide level that we realize we represent Father and Mother to the world. That is why in the past when we failed, the blame went to Father every time. Heung Jin Nim came to teach us that we are never alone in our public or private lives. Ma be you're home alone, relaxing on the couch when you're supposed to be doing some mission. You say, "I'll take the day off today. Nobody will know, I'll call in sick." But sooner or later, ever body will know the life that you lead.
We have to be aware that Satan is lurking nearby, hoping to invade our connection with True Parents in our mind, in our heart, in our daily life. If we don't lay the worldwide foundation for the Messiah, some sacrifice will be required. It is our privilege to do it. Those who are going to do it, raise your hands. Thank you very much.