The Words Un Jin Moon (daughter of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han)
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The Words Un Jin Moon (daughter of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han) |
Un
Jin Nim greets the brothers and sisters as she begins her talk at
Belvedere on May 22, 1988.
Good morning, everyone. You'll have to forgive me, I'm nervous. When I was asked to speak, I thought, "What can I tell my brothers and sisters that can inspire and encourage them?" I was thinking that if I were in your shoes, I would want to know more about the two most important people in our lives -- Father and Mother.
When you think of Father and Mother, what comes to mind? Do you feel joy? Do you feel warmth? It's pretty amazing what they have accomplished and are still accomplishing in their lifetime, isn't it? Father and Mother have somehow touched every field of life. What makes Father and Mother able to relate to so many different kinds of people? What do they have that we all seek and want? Isn't it true love? And as sons and daughters of our True Parents, what do we hope to become? Like True Parents, right? Since we are all striving for the same thing -- becoming like True Parents -- I would like to tell you from my own experience what it is like living with our True Parents.
Father and Mother never really talk about their past sufferings or what happened in the early history of our church. Even we, the True Children, know only what we have been told by the elder disciples -- the 36, 72, and 120 Couples. So it is very vague to us what kinds of ordeals True Parents suffered in order to become the True Parents. But I can tell you from experience that whenever I see Father and Mother, they are always doing something for the sake of all of you and for the sake of the whole world. It might seem like a funny concept to you, but when I think of True Parents, I can't really picture them as my physical parents. They are of course tangible, yet in a sense quite intangible to me.
When you are young, you relate to your parents by what they do for you substantially. You want them to be with you and love you and give you things and compliment you and even scold you. It was difficult for us to understand that we had to share our parents with the whole world. The older we got, the more we realized that they came on earth to be the True Parents of all mankind.
Father and Mother have always led a sacrificial life for the sake of God's truth. Even when they are at home, instead of spending time with us, Father is either talking with members or playing pool with them or calling in elders and leaders to give them guidance. Whenever Sunday comes along, even though Father might be tired because he didn't come home until two in the morning, he is always willing to speak to you, to give to you, the members. There is no limit to his giving.
We can easily think of Father and Mother as incredibly magnificent and grand and powerful. They do have a lot of influence in this world, but even though we see them as such great people, I think we forget one thing: that they are at the same time the poorest human beings in this world. How can I say this? Because they do not live even one moment of their lives for their individual benefit or for the benefit of their own family.
When Father received the revelation at age 16, he gave up his own family, his own brothers and sisters whom he had grown up with. You naturally have a strong bond with your siblings that cannot easily break, yet Father was called and had to break that connection. More difficult than that, Father had to break the bond between himself and his parents. His mother came to see him in prison and begged him to stop his crazy life of preaching and dedicating himself to God, and to come back to his hometown where he was well respected. From a very young age, many of Father's own classmates used to follow him around because he had a lot of charisma. Wherever he went, he could make friends easily. Yet he told his mother he would not come back, because he chose to lead this life, a life of suffering. From that time on, I think Father led a very lonely life because he no longer had his brothers and sisters and parents supporting him. He had no followers at that time, and the only one he really had was Heavenly Father -- someone he could not even see or relate to with his five physical senses.
Hyo
Jin Nim, Father, Mother, and Un Jin Nim at a recent celebration.
From such a young age, Father was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of all mankind. That he was able to let go of everything that people need in order to survive, such as love, companionship, and normal amounts of food and sleep, makes it seem almost as if he were not human. Because he was able to sacrifice these things, we forget the fact that he is actually just a man like anyone else, a man who has feelings and desires, a man who feels loneliness, frustration, and anger. Yet I can tell you from experience that I've never seen Father get angry for a personal reason; I've never seen him complain about his mission; and I've never seen him give up.
Every Sunday I watch Father pouring his heart out to you because he loves you so much and because he really knows that he needs to save this world and he doesn't want to see Heavenly Father suffer anymore. Every week Father says he will forgive us one more time, and he asks us to promise that from now on we will make a difference, we will bring results for God. And everybody raises his hand, including me, and yet the next time Father speaks to us, he says the same thing. It seems to be a never-ending cycle. Why is that?
I think we don't fully understand what Father is telling us. We take True Parents very much for granted. We think they can just easily forgive us whenever we make a mistake. We, in the position of children, are always leaning on Father and Mother, needing them to forgive us. To parents, the most important thing is their children. Parents will love and care for and even die for their children. Yet if we really call ourselves the children of True Parents, why are we always hurting them and taking their forgiveness for granted? We must be willing to give our lives for them, as they have willingly been doing for us for so many years.
I'm not complaining about the fact that True Parents spend more time with the members than with their own children, but it's just a matter of the pain in my heart, as well as the pain in all of my brothers' and sisters' hearts, to see them working so hard for all of you and loving you so much while all of us -- even including the True Children too -- are taking them for granted.
"The
most painful thing was that Mother could not complain. That was her
test. She had to indemnify what Eve had done 6,000 years ago."
Because Father and Mother are never going to talk about themselves, I think we are the ones who really have to let the world know what kind of people True Parents are and be proud of them and represent them in the best way possible. I would like to talk a little bit about Mother. Mother's mother received a revelation that her daughter, True Mother, was to meet somebody very great. The Korean War was going on at that time, and they had to escape from North Korea, with True Mother holding onto Grandmother Han's back all the way down to South Korea. They somehow met Father in South Korea.
Mother never thought of Father as a potential spouse in any way, and she certainly never expected to marry somebody who was more than 20 years older than she was. Mother related to us that when she looked at Father's face, she saw the face of her uncle, and because of that she was able to accept Father more easily. You can't imagine how difficult it must have been for a 17-year-old girl just coming into womanhood to marry someone more than twice her senior! That was pretty difficult and amazing in itself, but more incredible was the great persecution she endured following her marriage -- unknown, I think, to all of you. There were many elder sisters in the church who had received revelations that they were to marry Father and become True Mother. They really believed this with all their hearts. When the real True Mother was chosen, nobody could believe it! They said, "Oh my God, she's only 18! She doesn't even know the Principle! What is she doing here!" They despised Mother. None of us can understand how much Mother persevered and how much she went through to achieve the position of True Mother.
Mother was not allowed to stay in the same room or use the same stairs as the other members. She could not stay with Father or even eat with him, and she could not see him whenever she wanted. When Father was giving lectures, or spending time with the members, she always had to sit in the back. She could never think about the conventional image of becoming a wife or a mother. The most painful thing was that she could not complain. That was her test. She had to indemnify what Eve had done 6,000 years ago.
I don't know if you can understand what that must have been like for her. Maybe the sisters can more readily connect to that because, as a woman, being in an object position, there are times when you are lonely and you need someone you can tell all your problems and your sufferings to, someone whose support can help you go on. But at that time, Mother did not have any children yet, and she could not even talk to her own mother whenever she wanted to. She was basically isolated from everyone, and nobody appreciated her. And when she had Ye Jin Onni, she was even persecuted for having a girl first. In Oriental custom, especially in Korea, having a son is very important, because the son carries on the name of the father. Therefore, when Mother had a daughter first, everyone said that Mother was incompetent because she could not produce a son. For that, she was persecuted for two years. She could not be accepted by members or by anyone as True Mother because she had not made a foundation yet.
She had to go through this kind of suffering without a word of complaint basically until all of us were born. Then upon that foundation, she accomplished her position as True Mother. The saying is so true that behind every great man there is a great woman! How much True Parents went through together for the sake of mankind!
Father and Mother have already done what they have come to this earth to do. The only thing that is making them carry on is the fact that we still have not set a strong enough foundation for the whole world to accept Father and Mother. In other words, True Parents have to suffer more because we, as children of our True Parents, cannot become their pillars.
Did you ever stop to think how old Father is physically? Though we are much younger, we feel very tired sometimes. Yet Father and Mother never complain or use anything as an excuse not to do their mission. Somehow, one way or another, all of us seem to be able to justify ourselves if we don't feel like doing something. I'm talking about myself, too. Yet Father and Mother have never ever made an excuse not to do their mission. What I want to say to you is that all of us have absolutely no excuse for not being able to do our work. You cannot be tied down by your spouse or by your own children. Can't you see that those are all strings tying you down?
As human beings, we all have wants and desires. For sisters, it might be jewelry or nice clothes; brothers might wish they had a sporty car or even just a Volkswagen! Or maybe you'd like to have a nice suit, or to be some kind of a leader, or to be able to better support your family. If you have those human desires, then don't you think True Parents have desires too? You cannot put Father and Mother in a different category than we are; they're human beings, too; they have feelings! But what if Father and Mother got frustrated like all of us do? We can't even get along with our own brothers and sisters! We get frustrated, and maybe we don't like the food or we can't seem to get out of bed in the morning, or we're just upset. Yet Father and Mother have no excuse; they can't be that way. They have no outlet. Even at home in East Garden they have no private life. From 7 a.m. until 12 or 2 the following morning, Father is always up working. They've always led a public life. Even though you might think Father is living a life of luxury, you could take that all away from Father and it would not matter to him. In other words, he has absolutely nothing tying him down.
Father,
Mother, Sun Jin Nim, Un Jin Nim and In Jin Nim at Belvedere several
years ago.
Right now Father is faced with the staggering problems of this world. How can we think about our own problems? You have to let go of a part of yourself to be a sacrificial person. When Father was in prison and had no food, do you think he ever cried out, "God, I'm starving! I'm going to die if I don't have more food!" or "Get me out of this cell; I'm innocent!" He couldn't be what he is today if he had done that. Instead, you hear testimonies of how Father gave away the little food that he got, keeping just a mouthful to survive, and how he was grateful for that little amount. I don't think we can understand how much a man's pride must be taken away by being put into a cell, and not only once, but many times. And yet, True Parents never ever complained or hated anyone. They personify true love. That is why so many great, influential people in the world are bowing down to Father.
I think many of you may be going through a "mid-life crisis," where you feel, "I've spent 10 years in the church doing the same thing year after year. It seems like I've been going around in circles and not getting anywhere." We have all felt that. Yet I think we are forgetting that we are looking at our situation based on our five physical senses. I think we're looking at something so small -- our own materialistic, self-centered desires -- that we forget that True Parents have actually given us the biggest and most precious gift that human beings could hope for. We're neglecting the fact that there is a spirit world and that Father and Mother are the king and queen of true love in the spirit world. We're neglecting the fact that Parents are always here to forgive us. Power, money, and materialistic things will all fade away, yet true love remains forever.
If only you understood that in the spirit world there is no gray, only black and white! You can't "kind of be members, or "kind of understand the Principle but not live by it. There is no mercy in the spirit world, no matter who you are. If there were an easier way, I guarantee that Father and Mother would have shown it to us. We all have to do our five percent responsibility. They cannot help us with that; it is something that we, as individuals, must accomplish and fulfill by ourselves.
Actually, Father and Mother have given us all the tools we need in order to save this world; they have shown us the way to live by their daily lives. What are we waiting for? You can't ask them to give you anything greater than true love. With that as our weapon, we can win over this world. We can, in Father and Mother's lifetime, bring about a Kingdom of Heaven on earth. I realize that sometimes our physical body hinders) s from being able to do our mission, yet we have to look beyond our own suffering. No matter how difficult our situation might be or how impossible our goals seem, if we can hold on to the fact that Heavenly Father is on our side and that we have the greatest weapon in all of this universe, then there should be absolutely nothing holding us back. This is not only Father and Mother's battle; it is also our battle. We cannot expect Father and Mother to do any more for us than they have already done.
I just hope that we can all come to Father's speech next time with some kind of a small accomplishment -- something we can offer to our True Parents from the bottom of our hearts. We all owe Parents our lives, because there is absolutely no hope without True Parents, and I think the longer that you live in this world, the more you can see this.
As I look around here, I see more Oriental faces than American faces. I don't know if you Americans can see how sad this fact really is. This is your country, your so-called fatherland, is it not? It is something that you are a part of; it is your heritage, it is your land, yet you have foreigners working here to save your country. I find that kind of ironic! I would presume that, as Americans, you would want to do the most for your land, more than any foreigner. If you truly love America and believe in it and want to save it, you need to be an example to everyone else. Americans believe in democracy and equality, yet how can Americans say that this land belongs to them because they love this land more than anyone else? The American government and people have treated the ones who truly love this land the most -- the True Parents -- as if they were the worst criminals. I don't see any equality or righteousness or justice in that.
I don't think you realize just how much Father and Mother really, really love all of you. I think maybe I'm a little jealous because, at a younger age, I could not understand why they were giving so much to the members. Now I really see how great Parents are, because they love all of you more than their own family.
I'm pouring out my heart to you, begging you to please help our Parents, if not because you love them, then for the fact that they are the only people who can save this world. You cannot just sit and be idle. If you love your own children, you must do it for them, because if you don't, they will have to. If you leave the church, you will never be the same people again, because you have heard the truth -- that is how powerful the Principle is. You cannot run away from it as long as you live.
Heavenly Father must be so frustrated that He must sometimes feel like condemning all of us, yet Father and Mother are intervening with Him, because they believe in this world, because they believe in all of you, because they are our True Parents. If we had realized who True Parents actually are, we would have accomplished much more.
Father asked me to learn horseback riding, so riding is my mission right now. I don't think I would ever do this if it were just for myself. If you judge what I'm doing as if it were based upon my own desire, I think I would resent you for that, because what I do only reflects Father and Mother's desire for me. In other words, if I am doing something, my whole family is doing it with me, in a sense. As a True Family, we all work together based on true love, and you cannot exclude one from the other. You can't say that one of us is great but the others aren't.
If I think about what I am doing just in its physical aspect, I ask myself, "Why am I doing something so strenuously difficult?" Many times I want to quit; many times I feel it's impossible to go into the Olympics and make a respectable showing. But when I see what I am doing as having importance beyond this physical world, then I no longer feel tired. My mission then means something, and it becomes a mission I enjoy doing.
The same should hold true for all of you. It's not as if what I'm doing is more important than what you're doing. Please go back to your missions with hope and with }ride in what you're living and fighting for, and do the best you can. It doesn't mean you will see results in a week; but even if it takes years, please don't let go of that hope and that pride. If you really live this way, you will find happiness and joy and gratification in what you are doing. And I don't want to hear any of you saying you aren't important, because we are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
In your daily life, it doesn't matter what position you hold. You are all important in what you do. If this world were based on true love, it would not matter what position a person held. So please don't complain or feel that you are nothing. You are all very beautiful, precious, and important people in God's eyes, and you all hold the key to saving this world. You must use that key! You cannot be depressed and let these physical five senses hold you down from doing what you're supposed to do and what your future generations and your ancestors want you to do.
Once again, I would like to ask you to promise me that you will all commit your lives to building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth while True Parents are still alive and to bring them some kind of joy, because we at least owe them that. All of you who are willing to go about your mission from this moment, from this day, to bring about such a reality, please raise your hand. Thank you.
Our most beloved Heavenly Father,
I am so sorry that I have not been able to truly express Your heart in talking about our True Parents. Something that seems so simple is yet so difficult because there is no limit to the depth of True Parents. With every day we hope and strive to come closer to our True Parents, yet sometimes it seems so impossible. Father has laid in front of us the Kingdom of Heaven, yet many times because of our physical limitations and because of our own failures, the goal seems so difficult. Please understand that in our hearts, we want so much to bring about a Kingdom of Heaven on earth and to bring You happiness, Heavenly Father.
You have been suffering for so many years and never felt love. We only hope and pray that with each coming day we can do more, and we can strive harder to become more like You, to become the true sons and daughters that You have wanted us to become since the beginning of time.
Even though our True Parents are not here with us today, we know they are here with us in spirit. And even when they are not living in this physical world any more, we know that they will always be here for as long as eternity lasts. We really do have the two greatest people on earth. We really do have a true Messiah. We only hope and pray that as we go on to our separate missions, we can bring about some kind of a victory for You, that we can somehow uphold Your name, and that we can somehow become people You can be proud of.
We thank You so much for being so patient with us, for forgiving us, for still loving us. When all else fails, we know that You will always be there by our side. We thank You so much for all the blessings You have given to us.
Today, on this 100-day celebration of Shin Gil Nim's birth, we pray all these things in the name of our most beloved True Parents.
Amen.