Memories of Hyo Jin Oppa

Sun Jin Moon
March 19, 2008

Good morning brothers and sisters. I'm going to speak in English because to really express my heart about this day and Hyo-jin oppa I just want to speak in the language I feel most comfortable in sharing with you. Thank you for understanding.

First, I want to say thank you for everything to all the members and everybody. I really see we are brothers and sisters today because even though Hyo-jin oppa is our physical brother, I think, in so many ways, he has been an elder brother to all the membership and the second generation and has shown the true meaning of what it means to be a True Child and to live for the sake of others.

When we think of what True Parents say we have to live for, what it means to be family, what it means to truly live beyond yourself, to really devote yourself to others and give your life first for the sake of the world, I feel that to Hyo-jin oppa we owe the most gratitude because he's a person who truly lived that life of a filial son.

When we think of our lives and the way we live them and why we joined the movement or what we have inherited from True Parents, it really is a battle, you know, between good and evil. In everybody here, in our own mind and body, everyone has that fight between good and evil and between right and wrong. From True Parents, we've not only learned the principle of how to really devote our lives to trying to live a life of goodness, but at the same time we've learned a life of forgiveness and gained a true understanding of what it means to go through the growth process to maturity and perfection.

And if we think of Hyo-jin oppa as the eldest brother, Father's first son, in so many ways he took all the burden and all the suffering coming from Satan, which could have attacked our family. He tried to protect Father and Mother all his life. He took on every single burden, every external and internal burden. And throughout his life, without our parents being home because they were always living for the sake of God and for the providence and raising all of the first generation, the second generation really was in so many ways without a lot of love and did a tremendous amount of trying to always fill this endless hole, of trying to understand what true love is and, in so many ways, Oppa really searched within himself for what that is.

And through much struggle and difficulty, he lived his life to show what true love is and what living for the sake of others is. It is taking on all the burden and all the suffering so he can protect all of us with his life as an example of how to live right and how to live without judgment and truly trying to be the best you can be to bring glory to True Parents.

And I know all of you in the first generation also sacrificed your families and many of the second generation also share that same emptiness and that same suffering. But in so many ways, by Hyo-jin oppa going through his path in life as an older brother, as a filial pious son and as a patriot in our family -- by taking on all that burden -- your children were able to also inherit forgiveness and a chance to grow and mature and through his example learn the way not to struggle and not to suffer and to really try to honor their parents.

There are many times when it's so easy to judge, and I, too, have a lot of reasons to apologize to Oppa because I misunderstood and I judged a lot, and for that I really ask for his forgiveness. But he never -- he only gave us hope. In so many ways, we, as younger siblings, didn't honor and respect him enough for all his struggles because we misunderstood so many times. He was an umbrella to protect all of us and we need to understand his value. Everything he struggled with was for the sake of all our lives, to give us life and to show us the way of loving True Parents.

The last time we spent time with Hyo-jin oppa was after his birthday. He called everybody in the family and invited us to come to a Chinese restaurant. On that day, everyone else had gone to America, but Hyun-jin oppa, Kook-jin oppa, In-jin onni and I went to the restaurant. At that dinner he said it's so good to come together as a family and really take care of each other, and that we all have to be one.

In so many ways he gave up his position so that his younger brothers and sisters could inherit the right direction and so much blessing. He went around that dinner table and he only praised every single one of our family members and (not thinking of himself, though it was his birthday) he really took care of all of us in a way that we really saw that he has been doing this all his life. We all felt so grateful to share that moment with him.

He said that his one dream was like the song he always used to sing -- if I could dream that all my brothers can walk hand in hand. That was his dream, and he said that from now on, every year, every month, we have to come together as a family and share a meal and support each other. That was the meaning of that day when he took us out on his birthday to tell us that. The significance of that day was that Hyo-jin oppa reminded us that from now on his dream was to come together as a family. And his whole point was to really, really take care of True Parents and to live a good and happy life.

Everybody talks about the family not being united. In many ways, we were very immature and we needed a lot of growth and maturity, but Oppa through his example of really being an amazing brother, hyungnim and oppa to us, showed us the meaning of what family is. And in his passing, all of us really, really understood now -- too late -- but because of him, we understood what a blessing it is and honor it is to be a part of one family and to really love True Parents and to bring True Parents glory and to honor all the membership and to really live Father's principle that we all have to be one family. In his passing we were all able to find that; and through sending him to heaven and our going back to that Chinese restaurant as one family, all of us, everybody who's living on earth, came together and we shared his dream and it became a reality. I'm very thankful.

So, today was a lesson that we learned in our family as brothers and sisters and with all of you as our brothers and sisters. I pray that we can all learn this lesson of how important family is. This church was built upon your sacrifice, your struggle, True Parents' struggle. They're parents to us all. True Parents are your parents, they are our parents. Hyo-jin oppa's our brother and he is your brother.

So please take the message and the lesson that we learned here, and from this day on, we pledge as one family to work together, to really understand the meaning of how precious each one of you are in creating world peace and to really, really -- with a heart of thankfulness and gratitude -- accept the blessing that we all have each other and to honor Oppa and Abonim and Omonim and pledge that we will work together to truly realize, not only Hyo-jin oppa's dream of being one family but Father's dream and God's dream of being one family under God. So I pray and ask all of you today to hold hands with us and let us all march forward so we can make this dream a reality.

Kainsahamnida.