Celebrating the Messiah's Presence

Interview of Hyung Jin Moon
March 2011

Question: How did you conceive of the Holy Spirit Healing Service?

I was reflecting on the power of the name of "True Parents." I have spoken in sermons about this.

We've been shouting Chambumonim Eog Mansei for a long time, so I didn't really conceive of anything new. One day when True Parents were leaving Korea, and we were on our way to Inchon Airport, I worked out the melody.

Question: This melody came from you...

Yes. We were doing it more as a meditation. I was initially just doing it with the Hoonsa nims. We were meditating on it and practicing in the mornings after the Cheon Bok Shik. This was about ten days before we went to Yeosu. We were practicing in the mornings with the spirit leading us; we sang at different speeds, without any musical instruments, though sometimes, later, with a drum. We were led by the spirit.

Question: You've incorporated this into Sunday service.

Because it really is the encapsulation of our faith. All of our faith as Unificationists is summed up in that phrase, giving love and glory to our True Parents.

Question: Do you see Chambumonim Eog Mansei as a wish for True Parents' long life, or something more than that?

It's much beyond that. It's not that we are delusional about the temporal nature of this world, trying to fight the reality that Father is aging. It doesn't have to do with how many years we can extend Father's life. It's more our posture of faith, how we are loving and caring for the one who died for us to give us eternal life.

The point is that Father has strength today; we love him today. I know the phrase is "Long live," but this is different. It's wishing glory for the king of kings. It's not so much an expression of the desire for the physical extension of the reign of True Parents on earth. Of course, that's included. It's something much more profound. It explains our spiritual indebtedness, gratitude, piety and repentance, faith, confession and concern -- love! All of these are encapsulated in that.

Question: Bu-tae Kim says there absolutely is a difference in Father since the Yeosu workshop when we began these Holy Spirit Healing Services -- because all these people are sending loving energy toward Father each day. And Father feels it, as he has directly testified.

It seems that it is not just our own energy. It is a gift of God to His repentant children, His loving children. It is not our own power. It's a gift. That gift is manifested when the children can love their Parent as he deserves to be loved. The fact that we can do that involves our own free will, but free will is a gift from God, as is our portion of responsibility. So the fact that we can believe and that we can love are gifts. We feel as if we are doing it, but it's important to realize that our being able to do it is a gift.

Question: What were your impressions of the Cheon Bok Festival, how it went, and how True Parents felt about it?

At first, we were not planning for Father to come because he is so busy. He has the Hoon Dok Hae in the morning; sometimes he speaks to the leaders for several hours. To have him travel by car down to Seoul to do this ceremony and then zoom back to Chung Pyung for the next morning, plus all he does in between -- meetings with various leaders, and so on -- we weren't planning for Father to come. It was the day before, when I reported the final time: I said, "Here is the final schedule; we think it's a bit much to ask you to come to this, Father. But this is our final plan. This is the ceremony we will hold." (Over time, I had reported to Father about three times.) Then, Father suddenly said, "Ontina, let's go to this!" Father decided to come, even though it might be too much for him. We had assumed he would stay at the palace and maybe pray over the holy soil from the holy lands. We had brought the holy soil there, but Father wanted to come in person. That was grace.

Father came to Cheon Bok Gung three times in all during the Cheon Bok Festival -- though it was not planned. He would say, "I'm going." So we would get ready that day. We are so grateful that he came, that he was able to be present and see it, and that he trusted us.

Question: I saw that when he arrived at Cheon Bok Gung, he immediately wrote on a lantern paper! He seemed very joyful.

Yes. We had planned for it to be done by the religious leaders, plus other aspects of the ceremony. But Father decided to grace the occasion. That was huge.

Question: Some people ask about the different worship traditions that are emerging. For example, your services at Cheon Bok Gung are a certain style; in the U.S., Lovin' Life Ministries is a certain style. Can you comment on this?

Yes. Here we started with a more American Christian style service, with Two Rivers Choir. That's great for the international congregation, but it's a little tough for Koreans to get into.

The differences have to do with existing religious traditions in those countries. In Korea we have a very large monastic community. So we have many Buddhist monks, and also Catholic priests. It's a totally different landscape from the United States, with different standards for what a pastor or spiritual leader has to do. Christian pastors in the United States can basically live like normal people, doing the same things as ordinary families do. No one has a big problem with that. A Catholic priest cannot live like an ordinary person. For one thing, he's celibate. In populations where there are more monastic traditions, you have different standards of spiritual leadership. That has an influence. Even the Protestant ministry in Korea has to be conscious of and relate with the monastic community. There are very serious spiritual practices, and a life of self discipline. Although many American pastors are great people and have great families, that dimension is not as emphasized, whereas in monastic communities it is the central mode of spirituality. In that context, you have to raise yourself, to become conversant with the spiritual community. There has to be a sense of excellence that supersedes what you can currently touch.

The Holy Spirit Healing Service seems to be aligned with this process, in that it is meditative, a chant of sorts. Yes.... Usually, in monastic practices, there is not as much ergotropic religious experience, which is very ecstatic. It's always the more calming, meditative form -- trophotropic -because they have to meditate on the word, offer devotions and discipline for usually the whole day. Usually monastic practitioners are focusing on repetitious, contemplative materials -- they are not normally spirit filled.

But the thing that's interesting about the Holy Spirit Healing Service is that it's so spirit filled. I mean, it's so ecstatic. It has the dimension of the meditative side, with a calmness, with vibration going through your body. Then there is a very high state, an ecstatic period, when we stand up to send the energy. Then, it gets fiery. People in the congregation let go of themselves. There is wailing; there is slaying of the spirit.

Question: People are filled with the spirit.

One member brought a Christian lady. She had some kind of thyroid cancer. She became filled with the spirit. She was chanting Chambumonim Eog Mansei with us. She fell backward and then fell forward with the slaying of the spirit, and banged her head on the pew in front of her. One of our Hoonsa nims later went to visit her. She had a big bandage on her head. It didn't look good, and our Hoonsa nim was worried. But she said, "I could not be happier." Because her thyroid cancer was gone.

There is healing. These are gifts and fruits of the spirit, evidence of the spirit. They can only come with the right posture and the right heart. So we don't focus on requesting healing for ourselves, but we focus on giving ourselves away for the one who has done this for us. When we do that, an amazing give and take happens. God can bless that, and that's why you see these healings.

Question: It's amazing that a Christian lady would sing "Eog mansei for True Parents"!

Yes. We had another Christian lady from the Sarang Church, one of the big churches in Gangnam. She has been trying to witness to her younger sister, who has been a Unificationist for the last twenty years or so. The Christian sister was in her service at Sarang Church. And the pastor said that he had thought that Unificationism was dead, but that nowadays it looks as if there are many people coming.

This lady then felt she should reconnect with her younger sister. She contacted her, and somehow this Christian lady ended up coming to our service -- and it turned out to be a Holy Spirit Healing Service that day. Her younger sister did not know how she would react. This lady's an evangelical Christian. She attends one of the biggest mega-churches in the world! The Unificationist younger sister was worried and wondered what she would think. "She'll think I'm crazy."

They listened to the sermon together -- the sermon in which I was talking about our being sinners and that it is unavoidable that we must admit that if we look at ourselves honestly. I spoke about the difference between religion and truth. She heard this and then she participated in singing Chambumonim Eog Mansei. She said she felt holy fire come through her back. She had had a back problem and testified that it was completely cured. She'd never felt such a powerful spirit.

Now this lady, who had been trying to evangelize her younger sister, has signed up to study the Divine Principle. She signed up because she cannot explain what happened and because it is evidence of the Holy Spirit that Christ sends to the church.

When we watch Christian services on television, they are thirsting for the love of Christ, the Holy Spirit. They are starving for the spirit and truth. We feel that the Christians coming forward are very important. These are evangelical Christians. They don't know the Divine Principle yet, but just the experience of the Holy Spirit Healing Service, because they feel the spirit so powerfully, compels them to want to study the truth.

Another three Christian ladies are also coming to the church. They attend the church that the president of Korea goes to. They are fundamentalist Christians, lifelong Christians. Now, coming to this service, they are feeling the power of the Holy Spirit, which is a testimony of Christ's presence in the church, and they want to know why this is happening. They want to learn the Divine Principle, and as they do, they realize it answers fundamental questions they have been wrestling with -- from Christ's divinity, to Christ's purpose, to Christ's mission. That's very exciting.

We have Buddhists too. One is Professor Hwang. She was totally overwhelmed by the spirit. They don't know how to explain it. Buddhist guests who join us just say, I can't believe it, my body is on fire; my body is vibrating, I can feel the electricity coming through me.

This is a gift to the church because it allows people not only to have an intellectual experience of the truth, it allows them to have a spiritual experience. As you know, without spiritual experience, people don't remain with us.

I found it very exciting to hold a Holy Spirit Healing Service with all the national leaders. That was very powerful. I don't know if they fully grasped it in such a short time.

It takes time to understand fully the layers of what is going on, and I think those are constantly being revealed as we continue to cherish True Parents and send our love to them. More and more enlightenment, and realization of the truth, is coming from that experience of the spirit.