The Words The Kwak Family
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The Words The Kwak Family |
As the children's age begins, Father is emphasizing the importance of all members fulfilling their responsibility of home church. Father is also asking leaders to accomplish this responsibility. Leaders must truly be representatives of the True Parents, and not only in the realm of home church. Leaders must take particular care to overcome the barriers of nationality and race. Father has proclaimed that we are to be in the position of tribal messiahs, representing Father and Mother ourselves.
I know you have been nurturing and developing this attitude and have been trying for a long time to inherit Father's tradition. But because Father is still urging us to do this, we must not have accomplished it to his satisfaction yet. I ask you all to search your heart and understand this.
For some years, all of Father's speeches have been connected to the home church providence. Sometimes we feel that we already know what Father is saying and wonder why he continually repeats the same message. But we must overcome the tendency to pass judgment. If Father has to ask us again and again to do something, there must be some reason. We must eventually come to the conclusion that our way of thinking has not reached Father's ideal. If we can humbly accept this, we can make a new start.
As leaders, we should especially feel the desire to become like a branch or a limb of Father's body. It is our constant struggle to keep the same attitude as True Parents and to maintain the tradition of following Father's directions. Our present attitude is not adequate. I know it is hard to be humble to one another and create harmony.
Through this 120-day training we should try to achieve this horizontal standard. Yet the unity we create with our brothers and sisters is not the single most important thing in our life of faith. More important is that we stand in the position of representing True Parents. We may have studied the history of our True Parents, their tradition, and their ideals, but unfortunately we have not understood their heart fully.
Many of us have been leaders for more than 10 or 15 years, yet each of us needs more heart, more knowledge. I have determined that my whole life should be a life of study, since there is no limit in acquiring spiritual wisdom. I'm sure you have had many exciting experiences in your life of faith; no doubt you sometimes touched what I call "the wisdom of faith:' How valuable this is! I hope you can continue to develop a sense of spiritual or vertical wisdom, not just ordinary or horizontal knowledge. The main purpose of gaining such wisdom is to inherit True Parents' tradition.
We may think of tradition in connection with formal services and public life. Yes, the daily rituals we perform are certainly "traditions," but by far the most important tradition is that of unconditional love. The goal of every Unification Church member is faithful attendance to the True Parents and the True Family. Therefore, we need to graduate from performing mere external traditions to developing an internal attitude of "heartle" [a word coined by Father meaning heart and love].
Recently, several scholars connected to our movement have expressed concern about our church's future. They feel that it would be impossible for anyone to take over Father's position, even externally. I have told these scholars not to worry because the tradition of heavenly heart is eternal. However, in one sense no one of us can take Father's place because, although we can represent him in certain ways, we do not possess his quality of parental love. Therefore, I encourage you not to concentrate on your external position, either on keeping it or on changing it. The main thing is to actually inherit Father's heart.
We should not simply copy Father's external methods out of respect. Father is more than just our leader; he is our parent. Sons and daughters automatically inherit their parents' tradition and their love, but we are not the physical children of True Parents. Our problem, our challenge, is to reach the position of true son or daughter of the True Parents.
No one can deny or destroy the position of the True Children. Each of them is True Parents' own, and remains their child no matter what the circumstances. But because we are not the actual sons and daughters of True Parents, Father has had to literally shed tears, sweat, and blood in order to claim us from Satan's dominion. Father made this effort, not us. Through this painful process and the tremendous price he paid, he came to stand in the position of parent to us. In order to substantiate our position as his "real" children, he spends a great deal of time with us and continually sacrifices for us. Throughout his sorrowful course, he has always taken our burdens on his shoulders. This was not done through reason but through his love.
Father loved Won Pil Kim, the first member, more than he showed love to his own children. But because he is the "owner" of love, he cannot help but feel tremendous pain at not having been able to love his own physical children. He had to pay a higher price for our salvation because we are not his real sons and daughters. Our mistake is that we are ignorant about Father and do not understand this main point. Think about his life. Think about the sacrifices he has made, the pain he has endured, all because of us. He has to keep his mind unwavering and constant in order to secure us as his own children.
Therefore, in all circumstances, we have to have unchanging loyalty toward Father -- no matter how much he pushes us, no matter how much he scolds us. We must maintain the heartfelt relationship of a child to his parent. This is the key.
Father has paid such a great price for us that there is no way we could ever repay him. Although we might receive a position of leadership from him, if we fail to inherit his heart we can never become his true son or daughter. After we go to the spirit world, what will remain eternally from all that we achieved in our physical life? Certainly not our position as a leader. Such a title is of no use in the Kingdom of Heaven. The only title of any worth will be that of true son or daughter of God and True Parents. The closest of all relationships is that between a parent and child. If we cannot first have the heart of a child, how can we later possess parental love?
This is our age -- the Children's Age. Our original mind knows exactly what to do -- to become absolutely steadfast in our relationship toward True Parents, to know with complete assurance that Father is my father, Mother is my mother. If there is any separation, we need to find out why and seek to overcome the obstacles.
To become true sons and daughters we should first think about the process of restoration, and second, how True Parents have worked and paid the price for us to become their true children. Under all circumstances we must believe in and attend our True Parents. Through this, we externally lay a foundation for our rebirth. Before our birth, we lived within our physical mother's womb, and even before that we were part of the seed of our physical father. How can we overcome our fallen lineage and become spiritually reborn?
Father has said that on the path of restoration we must pass through the positions of enemy, servant of servants, servant, adopted child, and true child, finally reaching the position of true parent. So even though Father might speak to us harshly, as to an enemy, we must accept this and go beyond this position by becoming first a servant of servants, then a servant, and so forth, on our way to becoming his true child. It is sometimes a shock to us when Father scolds and reprimands us. Often we cannot understand, and we think, "You are my father. How can you say this to me?" Starting out in the enemy position in relationship to Father is a historical challenge, but we must master our emotions in this situation if we are to grow beyond this position and become his true sons and daughters.
Even though we have tried many times to follow Father's directions and to overcome any feelings that create barriers to our growth, such as nationalistic pride, Father still asks us to overcome again and again. In such circumstances we need to keep a constantly loyal and faithful mind. In our day-to-day life of faith we should focus on the goal of attendance and inheritance, and especially we need to feel that True Parents are our parents eternally.