Dr. Pak glues a beautiful testimony during morning service for the staff of the 15th American Leadership Conference, describing the Holy Wedding of 138 Couples and stressing the incredible power of our individual conscience.

April 7 we had a beautiful celebration of a Holy Wedding in New York. There were three tiers of the wedding: those matched couples who could not go to Korea to attend the Holy Wedding; then we had a married couples Blessing, which was the second or third in the United States and the largest in our history, 138 couples; and we had an elderly single Blessing, which was unique in American history. So a lot of history was made.

The day of Blessing started out as hell, an incredibly difficult time. I am sure those sitting there listening to Father for three hours really felt they were in hell. Father showed us how unworthy we are to stand before our True Parents to receive the Blessing. About 400 brothers and sisters, candidates for the Blessing, were in that room listening to Father talk about the meaning of the heavenly Blessing and True Parents. Not one, I am sure, felt worthy of sitting in that room. In secular language, I have to say that all hell broke loose.

This is Father. This is what common people could not do. Father did not hesitate to completely open up the wounds. He didn't hesitate to shake us down to our naked, inner selves. He made it so clear how unworthy we are. He explained absolutely the meaning of the Blessing. Even elder Blessed couples like myself attended that sermon. We rededicated and reconnected through knowing the preciousness of the Blessing and lineage transfer, of changing from one root to another, completely belonging to a different lineage, coming back home to Heavenly Father's blood lineage.

Some members who were not worthy of sitting there were kicked out. The uncompromising standard of selection and judgment came down from heaven. It was hard for everyone, and it was hard for me to translate. But Father gave an uncompromising standard of how important the Holy Wine ceremony and Blessing are. Each Blessed couple can stand before God and True Parents now. Ambassador Phillip Sanchez and his lovely wife went through all that hellish fire.

A little after 10:00 a.m., the ceremony took place. The Holy Wine ceremony was very meaningful and beautiful. Then we had two separate weddings: a matched couples Blessing first, then the married couples Blessing and the single individuals, mostly those over 60 years of age. One lady has served Father for 25 years. One came in a wheelchair.

I want you to know that never before anywhere in the world has the married couple Blessing been conducted in that formal way. Father and Mother wore the ceremonial gowns with their crowns. The setting was beautiful, everyone all lined up, and the sequence of ceremonies was absolutely prepared. We had never before gone through that perfect and most dignified wedding for married couples. In Korea there were several Holy Weddings for married couples, and they were conducted in a simple way, completely different from the matched couple ceremony. They just got together and Father gave them a short talk and then lifted up his hand and Blessed them. That is all. Finished. There was no master of ceremonies, no formal ceremonial gown for Father and Mother.

I had always had the impression that the married couples Blessing is secondary, but this time it was not. Father really gave a tremendous gift to the married couples, making a formal proclamation of the Blessing. In the name of God and True Parents, before the world and humanity and the cosmos, he granted the Blessing to these 138 married couples and 57 single individuals. That was beautiful. This was liberation for many of them. Many of them waited for 10 or 15 years, and all at least seven years. At that point they really felt liberated.

That evening there was a most beautiful banquet that True Parents and True Family attended. This had never happened for married couple Blessings in the past. But this time everybody got together at the Manhattan Center and had a beautiful celebration, songs, dancing. But most important of all, each one was dedicated to the True Parents and each one had a special testimony to make. A Japanese professor, Kyoshi Natsu, is an old journalist who wrote the two books The Messiah Appeared and The Messiah in Prison. He and his wife were another celebrity couple Blessed along with Ambassador Sanchez and his wife. They gave a beautiful testimony and a grand bow to our True Parents. Absolutely beautiful.

You and I simply don't realize, even now, how precious is the Blessing that we have received. But this is what sets us apart from others. Our lineage is different. We are dealing with original sin and with the basic surgical operation to get rid of that original sin. True Parents came to this world empowered to do away with original sin.

AFC had some members who had not been Blessed and went to Korea and received the Blessing. Those who went to Korea, stand up, please. They had extraordinary experiences. All the state leaders are Blessed now. Pamela Kuhl, your husband came or not? [Yes.] God bless you. Where is he? Come, stand beside her. What a good-looking couple. Your husband is really a handsome man, isn't he? Do you truly deserve such a beautiful wife? OK, sit down, right there together.

The spouses of some of you who were Blessed in Korea have not yet come to join you. Does anybody have a problem? Where are they? Korea. Your wife is in Korea? Is she doing well? [Very well.] Good. In that respect we are so fortunate and more solid because we have the most incredible, powerful spiritual bond through the Holy Wedding. That is actually our ultimate secret, and this time our dear Ambassador Phillip Sanchez and Juanita Sanchez found that out and enjoyed it. Let's give them a big hand.

The Unification Church life is almost like the study of Tae Kwon Do. You start out with the white belt, novice level, then you can achieve a blue belt, yellow belt, green belt, brown belt, and finally go for the black belt. People who get a black belt can advance to second-degree black belt, third-degree black belt, etc. The reason I am saying this, Phillip, is you have got them all. You have a black belt now. There are no more surprises. All you have to do is advance in black belt status, second degree, third degree, fourth degree. That is all you need to do. The experience you went through, all of us went through, including myself and my wife, everybody. Normally we do not speak about it, but inside we know what we received and that becomes an unbreakable bond.

Many people throughout the history of the Unification Church have tried to say that the church is a clandestine organization. They criticize us, saying that we are brainwashed and zombies and mind controlled and so forth. You know and I know what we all have gone through. We are not controlled by any brainwashing. We are not controlled by any unholy or immoral or peculiar mechanism to mold a person in a special way and put us in a prison that we can't get out of. Actually, the Unification Church door is wide open, probably more so than any other church in the world. Our doors are open 24 hours a day, and you have every right to walk out that door any time. And you have the privilege to walk in.

This is the reason we have so many ex-Moonies. That is one proof that we are free people. In a way we are really free people in that respect. We have the freedom that St. Paul was seeking. He was seeking true freedom and he agonized over the bondage of sin. Oh wretched man that I am. I can't get rid of these shackles of sin. Inside of me two selves are fighting. One is following the law of the devil, the other is following the law of God. What an agonizing life. That was the confession of St. Paul.

This is exactly what is really binding us and controlling us. It is not Father, it is not even God, it is not even the regulations of the church or a piece of paper or any law in the church. No. What is really controlling us and makes us remain here, what inspires us day after day to do our best, our own conscience. Father recently described conscience as your vertical self. Your body is the horizontal self. Your mind is the vertical self, which is directly connected to the vertical giant self, who is God. So your vertical true love self, your conscience, is supported by your horizontal true love self, your body. We are seeking harmony and unity between the vertical and the horizontal. The conscience always hurts when this crossing point is not 90 degrees. That is why 90 degrees is so emphasized by Father. What comes down from God is always vertical. If the crossing is 90 degrees, your conscience is perfectly clear. You become perfectly satisfied. That will make you exhilarated.

This is what is driving me. Nothing else. No whip is driving me. No threat is driving me. No pressure is driving me. If any pressure is coming from somewhere, it is from within me: my conscience, which is united with Heavenly Father, God. Your conscience becomes your vertical self. Your vertical self has homing devices; it knows where to go, where God wants you to go. That is the secret.

This is why many ex-Moonies are suffering. They thought they could leave the Unification Church and be freer and happier than they were in the church. When they severed the relationship with the church, they thought, now I am free, I can grow my beard and I can smoke cigarettes and I can drink. Oh, I can do anything. Usually they get out of the church and do that for three days. Grow beards, drink beers, thinking, I am free. But what happens? Day after day they become more imprisoned. Who imprisoned them? Their own conscience. Their own vertical self keeps saying, no, no, you are wrong. Their homing device is saying you are going in the wrong direction. And they begin to suffer. Even if you are high on drugs or liquor or whatever, trying to forget and enjoy, you can't do it.

More than 20 years ago I was pioneering in Washington, D.C., like a state leader. At that time one member who joined was Joe Badra. Joe was here in 1965 when Father came to America. He was like the head of the church in Washington area. He was a powerful senior member of the church and is the one who fund-raised and donated the money so that we could welcome Father. Today, we have the New Yorker and East Garden and Belvedere, and in Washington we have Capital Gardens and Jefferson House. But in those days, we had 3421 North Utah Street, a small house. My house, actually, and at the same time the church center and the regional headquarters. And that became Father's quarters when he visited in 1965. Joe Badra was there attending.

To make a long story short, some years later Joe Badra left the church and married outside. That happened about 20 years ago. But he couldn't get away from the church. His vertical self took him to task and punished him. He was literally in hell for 20 years. Joe is a very good businessman, and he made a lot of money. But nothing satisfied him until he came back and was accepted by the True Parents. He was dying to be Blessed this time as a married couple. He was waiting and waiting. Of course, his wife was ready, too, after she came to know the Principle.

Joe and his wife were one of the 138 couples in New York this time. Father was looking around, walking around; Father's eyes were everywhere. He said, "Joe." "Yes sir." Father gave him a very hard time. "Your wife was like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, like the archangel. She was responsible, wasn't she?" He really gave him a hard time. They went to the bottom of hell. Father scolded both of them, yet Father approved them. That is the beautiful thing. In other words, they were not just quietly included in the 138 couples. No. Father actually questioned them and scolded them and then Father accepted them. This gave them such a liberation. So after they were Blessed, I talked to Joe and he said, "My wife and I are floating six feet high. I am so liberated." You see, this is how things work in the Unification Church. Nobody is governing you except your vertical self, your own conscience, which is the dwelling place of God. This is the way it works.

During that 20 years of suffering, how many times did Joe try to get out of it and completely forget it? He couldn't do it. Many other ex-Moonies are suffering today exactly the same suffering that Joe Badra went through. But they do not have a way out or the courage or momentum to come back and renew themselves. Therefore, the time has come to become a tribal messiah. If you become a tribal messiah, you can liberate them. You can bring them in. This is the time for ex-Moonies to come home. They are like the prodigal son coming home. We are the ones to welcome them. They are not cursed. They should not remain cursed. No. They should be liberated. This is very, very important. Don't hesitate to do that. Give your embrace, your warm embrace to these ex-Moonies out there in your area. Communicate with them. This is very, very important.

So if we have any secret power, this is it. It comes from the Divine Principle. Once you know the Divine Principle, you cannot get the Divine Principle out of your brain cells for eternity. You cannot. This is not an ordinary book. This is not fiction. This is what Kyoshi Natsu said: "When I read Divine Principle, I think how in the world could any man's brain come up with this kind of principle? It's impossible. God must be speaking to this man." Kyoshi Natsu testified, "I came to the conclusion that Reverend Moon is half God and half man." What a beautiful expression. He must be half God and half man. Otherwise, we could not have the Divine Principle.

Divine Principle gets inside your bones. You cannot get it out of your body. There's no way to take it out. The best way for you to succeed in the Unification Church, therefore, is to commit all the way. This is my way of life. My wife and I are doing it every day. It gives your vertical self such freedom. That is where you feel exhilaration, joy. That is where you can sleep at night. Even if your body is tired, your spirit says, you are OK.

Your conscience is like a compass. No matter what, the compass needle always faces north. Wherever you turn, your vertical self always points due north. So when you contribute more, dedicate yourself more, sacrifice more, you know you are going in the right direction. Your vertical self says yes. You are now due north. Everybody has a compass. We are sailing north together now.

It is such a long time since we gathered together. We have not seen each other for five months. That worries me. Not because anything is going wrong, but because I want to see you. You reassure me and I reassure you. We are mutually pledged to each other. That is the meaning of our gathering. If you see me and think, oh, Bo Hi Pak looks weak somehow, then I have failed. At the same time when I see you, simply shaking hands tells a lot of stories. Don't try and tell me all the stories by your mouth. Tell me by your handshake. It is amazing. Your spirit is reflected everywhere. Just look at you, look at me, look at your behavior. Just one word reveals so much. You reveal where you are.

We are gathered here this morning, mutually pledging together our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor for the mission given by the True Parents. That is all there is to it. That is all the sermon I can give you. Nothing more. Nothing is more important or powerful. I am reassured by you and I reassure you. We are unique, chosen people, special brothers and sisters. We are going to renew ourselves and go forward pledged to help each other fulfill the mission given by God through the True Parents. That is the purpose of this service.

Some of you look almost too good. Like Bob Spitz. Stand up. What have you been doing? It is almost like you are trying to become an 800 pound gorilla, not physically, but in power and influence. You are a big man now so you can cover more territory. Thank you. You can sit down.

Don't allow me to get too heavy. That is no good. Mike Leone is always making the effort to look a little smaller, but it doesn't work too well. Father likes strong, tall, big people. No question about it. This is one thing Father likes about America. Tall, big, and heavy. But not this heavy. Really solid and tall, with a lot of muscle, no fat anywhere. As the Marines say, "lean, mean fighting machine." That is what we are. Lean and mean fighting machines. We are really heavenly soldiers. So this AFC, top to bottom, is complete now. More blessing is coming to the American Leadership Conference this year because look at what we have here: the number one chairman, Ambassador Sanchez, who is now a Blessed couple.

Therefore, from top to bottom, everything is conducted by Blessed people. Isn't that special? So outside people can't help but recognize what wonderful people you are. What a well-organized conference. We are doing such a professional job. You cannot end any better emcee in all of the United States than Phillip Sanchez. Heavenly Father is working through him. More and more spirit is pouring upon him. God is giving more inspiration. Every loophole has been plugged. No more loopholes in ALC, ACC, AFC, Global Images Associates, all these organizations.

In your daily life, where is the leak that dissipates energy? When energy goes the wrong direction, you lose energy. You have to plug the hole. In this respect ALC and AFC have completely plugged the hole. The ambassador opens the conference. I will give the keynote speech and testimony about Father. You are winning the people in your state and region. Then they are being connected to two great lecturers, Tom Ward and Bill Lay. Their lectures are getting better and better, more inspiring. Father instructed them not to teach intellectually. Don't try to teach them by the brain. Teach the heart. Look at it as evangelical speaking. Tears must come out. That is the only secret for success we have. We plug into the spirit of God. God's reservoir of true love. True Parents' spirit. That is where the power comes from. It will never fail you.

I understand that one brother resigned from his AFC post. When he was appointed we were already worried because he is a young member. It takes a black belt to be able to stand up in the lonely battle. Unless you yourself become a dynamo, you cannot deal with the lonely battle. Only one member in each state. Very lonely. When you are together, you can compensate for a lot of things. But when you are all alone, it is entirely different. You have to be a dynamo, an energy-producing, light-giving, heat-producing entity. You must become a small sun. Not a moon. A moon is a reflecting entity. The moon does not give out light. It does not give out heat. The sun does.

Unification Church members always start out as moons. They receive light and reflect it. That is the way it starts. In the moon era, you cannot be an independent leader because when the sun disappears, the moon has no light to give. You run out of energy. The American term is "burned out." You burn out unless you have a constant source of energy by yourself. In the Divine Principle we call that a divine spirit. You have to become a life-giving object. Then you can be successfully independent.

This is why this kind of reunion is so important. We renew ourselves. Even if we are a small shining sun, we sure still need refilling. We need to come to the filling station and refill ourselves. That is the power of True Parents. We always get that from True Parents.

The morning service will start soon, so I will not speak too long. This morning I wanted to pour out to you my heart and my feelings and tell you how precious you are and how wonderful you are to look at and give congratulations to you all.

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