The Words of Won Pil Kim
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The Words of Won Pil Kim |
Rev.
Won Pil Kim
There are three ways for us to understand who Father is. One way is through truth; the second is through Father's daily life, through his character; and the third is through the spirit world -- through spiritual phenomena. Of these three ways of coming to know Father, I give special weight to the second: knowing Father's character or personality through his daily life. Let me explain why.
No matter how much truth you hear, if the person who is teaching you does not become the embodiment of the truth, it is very hard for you to follow him. And no matter how strong a directive you may receive from spirit world that someone is the Messiah, if that someone's life is quite different from the spiritual vision, you will find it very hard to obey the spiritual guidance.
Suppose you hear someone giving a talk, and what you hear is enlightened truth. But then, suppose the life that person leads is very different. You start to wonder about him; you cannot take his words seriously. Or suppose you receive a vision that you should follow a certain person; you decide to obey the spiritual directive, and you follow him. But then you find the one you are following is not doing anything worthwhile. No matter how powerful that vision was, you will not be able to keep following it. Thus, although we may be directed to follow someone, either because of truth we've learned, or because of spiritual guidance we've received, our final decision as to whether to follow will be made on the basis of that person's character and daily lifestyle.
When I look at Father I can see very clearly both the embodiment of truth and the fulfillment of a spiritual vision. But if someone is following Father only because of spiritual guidance or a vision, and then receives some other spiritual message, that person may go off in another direction. Even when I was very young spiritually, I saw many excellent people come into the church who subsequently had difficulty following Father. I came to feel that the best and fastest way was to see Father directly. I realized that I could both learn the truth and also receive spiritual guidance through Father's daily life. Let me illustrate.
In our daily life we try to separate ourselves and the things we possess from the influence of Satan. For example, we use holy salt to purify things. There are many kinds of purification -- purification of old things, purification of people, purification of the heart. I am going to speak specifically about purification of things of the creation, but everything follows the same pattern.
In our daily life we use holy salt often, but how many of you have wondered how holy salt came about? In the early days when I was in Pusan with Father, I began to notice than whenever Father was presented with food or some other gift he would always breathe on it. In jail it's very difficult to see whether someone is breathing in or breathing out, but when we were in jail together I could definitely see Father breathing out onto the food. At the time I wondered why Father did it, but I didn't think very deeply about it. It was a few years later that the first holy salt was made.
As we all know, we are living in a fallen world. In this fallen world, everything has become tainted; all human beings and all things under human influence have become so sullied that God cannot receive anything directly. Even our hearts are dirty. Satan dominates everything and everyone. Do you think Father can offer these defiled goods to God directly? Please put yourself in Father's position, and think about it.
Suppose I want to offer to God some food that I have prepared. How should I purify the offering? It was prepared by the hands of a fallen human being, namely, by my own hands. No matter how hard I try, it is very difficult to purify it; from the beginning it was handled by fallen beings. Externally I can be pure, thoroughly clean in everything. But the very soil the food came from is dominated by Satan; how can I purify the soil itself?
In this sense, it doesn't matter how much we wash away all the dust and dirt, and it doesn't matter how hard we pray: truly, we cannot totally purify our offering.
What I am getting at is that Father has been doing it for us. Father has tried to clean up everything and offer it to God. But Father realized that for all his sincere prayer and diligent efforts at external purity, still everything came from Satan's dominion. What is the best way, Father wondered, of offering all things to God in purity? So Father asked God if, whenever he breathed out onto something, it might purify it. It is out of such a heart and sincere concern on Father's part that the condition of holy salt has come about. It is very important for us to remember this.
When you put all your soul, heart, spirit, and effort into an endeavor, but still you can't accomplish the goal you set for yourself, that is the moment you can set up a condition. It will be as if you had set up that condition before you began, and all your work will be recognized in front of God and Satan. In view of all your effort, your total investment, even Satan has to recognize the value of the condition.
Since the fall, men and women have been in a midway position between two masters -- God and Sam. Whether a person belongs to God or Satan will be determined by how much that person loves God. Therefore, in our daily life we should be careful not to misuse conditions or treat them lightly. Of course, by establishing a certain condition for purification, we can accomplish something; but we should be mindful or how Father, at the time of first setting up that kind of condition, put all his heart and time of first setting up that kind of condition, put all his heart and soul into it. Without considering the origin of the purifying power of holy salt, for example, we might glibly go on using holy salt for one year or even ten years. But all that activity will be just so much meaningless ritual unless we are mindful of the history behind it.
In the years before God's Day was established, after each New Year's ceremony Father used to give money to each member. One time, as he gave me money, Father asked me to give it to the first needy person I met after I went out from the church. Naturally, I did what Father asked. It was an expression of Father's sincere desire to help the suffering people of the world. Father cannot extend aid directly to each and every person who is in misery. He therefore established a condition to help all of them, by having one person represent all miserable and poor people. That is to say, when Father asked me to give money to the first humble and miserable person I met, he was putting all his heart into helping that one person who represented all the humble and miserable people of the world. We should never underestimate Father's intention and heart behind such actions.
What does it mean to say that Father is the center of the universe? It means that Father, in relating to any one person, treats that person as representative of the universe. This is Father's intention whenever he deals with anyone. At present, Father is still in Danbury. While there, he has been earnestly trying to embrace established Christianity, which has largely opposed him. It is out of his sincere desire to help all Christians, to take care of Christianity itself, that Father is asking all of us to reach out to the very Christians who are persecuting and accusing him.
Father asks much of us; he asks us to live lives of great sacrifice. But this is because he can see that the Unification Church is standing in Abel's position before established Christianity, which is standing in Cain's position, and Father knows clearly that Abel can never go back to God without Cain. According to that principle, Father has strongly urged us to meet with ministers, and that is what we have been doing.
Let me make it clear: Abel, in the position of younger brother, can never go on his own through the indirect dominion of God to reach the direct dominion. This period of the indirect dominion was to be the time when God's first son and first daughter would pass through and reach the direct dominion. Originally Adam and Eve were the first son and daughter of God. They fell, though, down to the position of the second son and second daughter, unable to receive the inheritance from God. Only the first son and daughter can pass through the indirect dominion of God; Adam and Eve, as second son and daughter, cannot possibly go the course through the indirect dominion by themselves.
Who became the first son and first daughter? Actually the archangel took the position of first son and daughter. Substantially, it was Cain who took up that position. Hence, Abel's mission is to restore the birthright.
What does it mean to talk about a first son? Without a second son we cannot refer to a first son. Abel, in restoring the birthright, has to deal with Cain. To learn how Abel can come to deserve the birthright, we have to understand why the first son and daughter lost their position. Whereas we should all love everything centered on God, the first son and daughter treated everything from their own viewpoint, with selfish love. In order to regain the birthright, we have to set up a condition by taking a different attitude: we have to love centered on God instead of ourselves.
In reaching out to Christianity, trying to restore Christian ministers to the best relationship with God, what we are doing serves to restore our own birthright -- on the national level and also on the worldwide level. In this work, this outreach, there is the position of Abel and the position of Cain. If we understand this, what we are doing through ministerial activities is nothing less than restoring the national and world-level birthright.
However, we have to restore the individual birthright at the same time. Let's say you really dedicate yourself for the sake of the nation, and the people of the nation respect you for it, but you have no time to take care of your own family. When you come back to the members of your family, you will find they don't respect you because you didn't take care of them. That kind of thing does happen. A person wins an entire nation, but is a loser in the home. What God wishes for each one of you is that you become a winner on the national level and also a winner on the family level. For if you are a loser on the family level, no matter how hard you work for the nation you will be dragged back by your family; you will not ultimately remain a national- level winner. What this means in practice is that you cannot say, "Okay, I dedicate myself totally to my mission; I don't have to worry about my family." You shouldn't think that way. As we work for the nation and the world, we should work to restore the individual and the family as well.
It is important to gain not just national or worldwide victory but also individual and family-level victory simultaneously. Of course, we should serve our nation and our world, but with the same energy and sincerity we should serve our families too. We could also put it the other way: as we serve our own bodies and love our own families, with the same sincerity we should serve our nation and the world.
In reality, since we cannot take care of all the Christian ministers in this country, Father asks us at least to take care of 120 ministers. But our intensity in serving 120 ministers should be that of serving all the ministers in the entire country. If we can't serve 120 ministers, or 100 ministers, but only 20 ministers, still we should serve them with the kind of intensity that would reach the ministers of the whole nation. It sets up a condition. If we do serve ministers and churches with that kind of fervor, even Satan will acknowledge the condition that we have established.
Let me give you one final example of what I mean by Satan's acknowledging a condition. When the True Parents are in the room with us, Satan cannot enter, but as soon as True Parents leave, Satan is free to come into the room. It is because Satan does not acknowledge our value. But our True Parents' sincere desire is that Satan acknowledge the value of all of us.
Even though Father is in prison, he still loves Cain -- that is, established Christianity. If we understand this heart of Father, and visit the ministers and other leaders of the Christian community, not only will our fellow Christians eventually follow our tradition, but once they realize the value of Father and his teachings, they will be the ones on the front line.
Cain cannot go through the period of indirect dominion alone; nor can Abel. The two need each other. Only by working in cooperation with each other can they restore what was lost in the fall. If we truly fulfill our role as Abel, and sacrifice everything to help Cain in the course of restoration, Satan will recognize the condition we have established, and will acknowledge our eternal value.