The Words of Hyung Jin Moon
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon |
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters!
Today we are having such a beautiful day to celebrate and worship Heavenly Father and True Parents.
And today we are also very honored to have former President of Costa Rica, Mr. and Mrs. Carazo, here. Let's give them a warm round of applause. And we are also welcoming each one of you who are in this sanctuary. For those who are joining via internet we are welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters.
Welcome, brothers and sisters!
Today we have such a distinguished guest. We are going to introduce him a little later during the worship service. Today President Carazo is going to be our minister; we are going to be able to hear words of God from our President. (Laughter and applause) I've put out my retirement for this weekend but next weekend I will be right back.
Brothers and sisters, it's always such a pleasure to see you here. Today we have such a great occasion where we can feel the foundation we have with our friends all around the world joining together with us. We want to welcome all the brothers and sisters that are joining us via internet from all the different countries of the world. We want to include you and have you participate with us in the service. As we always remind everybody -- let's take this service not only to observe but let's really participate in the service. That means for us to be able to pray, sing, share and listen to the words together. If we do that we will be able to offer that to God and we will be able to glorify God and True Parents with a beautiful heart of love from His children.
We want to encourage you all to be participators today not only to observe but really being able to embrace the words that will come from President Carazo's heart. We really feel that he has such a rich history of serving the different nations of this world, promoting peace and being one of the real global peace activists, working together with True Parents. We are so grateful to him, and we are so honored that he is here with us today in our sanctuary at Headquarters Church. Brothers and sisters, it really is a proud day for us as a Unification Family -- we are truly able to stand together with one of our dearest friends, our most beloved associates and, we will feel the light of God and True Parents in our hearts today. I do pray for that.
Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with. Today we are gathered in this amazing, historic sanctuary. We are attending here as brothers and sisters from around the globe, our Unification Family, that stretches to 190 nations of this world. Today we wish that You may be with us, that we may bring joy to You; that we may learn and be enlightened by Your words, that we may be enlivened by the songs that we will sing for You.
We pray that Your everlasting love, Your everlasting light of hope, may shine in the hearts of each of the families here. And we are praying that You may speak through our dear brother President Carazo, who came all the way from Costa Rica. We are so grateful that you have led this son, that You have allowed to work Your will through him, to spread true and lasting peace across this globe. Thank You for this beautiful brother's life and heart, for his work and for his beautiful wife and children. We pray that your abundant blessings may be with his family; that Your blessings will come and shower through him and may touch the lives of the many brothers and sisters that are gathered here with us today.
Please be with us, Father; we know that you will be encouraged today, that You will find new hope and that You will see that Your children are standing together, that we are leading the way to true victory, true illumination and true peace.
Thank you so much for this day. We pray that You may be here from start to finish, from alpha to omega. We pray that in this sanctuary a historic day may occur and that from now on the world may sing songs of praise and hallelujah, chanting Your beautiful name, so that we may truly become one family here with you. Thank you so much, we pray these things together in the names of all the blessed, central families across this world, in the names of all the saints and sages that have been with us and that have passed, in the name of True Parents, the True Family and in our names. Aju!
Brothers and sisters, I would like to give you a brief testimony before I introduce our very distinguished President. It is about the leaders' conference in Hawaii. Father re-emphasized and gave the mission to the whole movement to move forward on the project of the 210,000 Unification Peace Temple.
As you know, this is the unfinished dream, stemming from 900 plus years before Jesus, with King Solomon building the temple, then again it being destroyed, then it being rebuilt by Cyrus the Second of Persia. And now Father has given us the new task of building the perfection stage level (third level) temple. And that temple will be built here in Korea. That temple will signify not only the unity of all the Abrahamic traditions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam but also of the non-Abrahamic traditions, Buddhism, Hinduism etc.
In this temple we will have all the inter-religious services that we have for our community here, in the Headquarters Church, on a smaller scale. But in this amazing temple we will see come to fruition the prophecy of the Resurrection Chapter in the Principle.
We will be able to see all the religions being able to come into the house of one family and understand the role of True Parents, their role, their providential significance, throughout the course of time. And they will be able to understand the importance of the fatherland, creating and setting the precedence for peace across this world.
Father has said, and our President has reiterated many times, that it is so important that Korea sets the example for peace. If North and South Korea, this incredible divide, create peace here on this peninsula, then this sets a tremendous precedence across the globe for real and lasting peace.
This is Father and Mother Moon's vision, as we explained last time. But now Father has really taken up this task and has handed it down to the worldwide movement and asks us now to go forth and focus to bring this into reality.
Because of this amazing foundation that True Father has created for the last two, three decades, doing inter-religious and reconciliation work, so many friends have been able to come to know True Parents and their amazing work. It is through their tireless efforts, ministering, starting from the humble old Headquarters Church just down the road, that True Parents were able to set the seeds of the world wide global vision that they hold so dear in their hearts.
And as they return to their nation of Korea now, being able to walk forward with the providence, True Parents are showing us the way by illuminating our paths towards a true vision lasting peace in the nation of Korea where we actually have a very diverse religious population.
About a third of the population is Catholic and Christian, a third of the population is Buddhist and another third is from the indigenous Korean traditions. And as we can see even in the modern times, we have a great deal of tension and conflict arising between those different faiths.
It is so timely that True Parents have told us, as a worldwide movement, to focus now here in the Fatherland and create a world level temple where all the religions will be able to converge and come together to talk not only about their differences but also about their similarities that bind us together as brothers and sisters in faith. Because of their incredible foundation True Parents have now given us this amazing vision of creating the World Peace Unification Temple. In it we will have all these different services that we already hold at the Headquarters Church building.
(Hyung Jin Nim greets a Christian minister that just came in and says, "We see the Holy Spirit moving through him every Saturday.") (Applause)
Brothers and sisters, of course we have also Bishop Milingo here with us, participating in our Catholic Unification service, and very soon in our Buddhist Unification service we are going to have many participants from the different Buddhist communities; they will participate with us in worship and will be able to understand the centrality of the nation of Korea and also the vision that Father and Mother Moon have for this world. Because of their amazing work over decades True Parents have come across and come to know our great and dear friend President Carazo.
President Carazo is such a distinguished statesman. He has such an amazing career which I can't even retain in my mind. So I have to refer to my notes to be able to adequately introduce him.
As a statesman, educator, politician and coming from the very humble roots as a farmer, President Rodrigo Carazo is one of the world's best known global activists for peace. He has been constantly concerned for human rights across the different nations of the world. He has dedicated his life for the fulfillment of world peace and he has articulated the philosophy of world peace for secondary schools and university education.
During his four year term as President of the Republic of Costa Rica he created the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, working together with the organization of the American States. He is the founder of the renowned International American Institute of Human Rights and the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. Being a deputy in the Legislative Assembly in 1966, he became Speaker of the House in 1966 and 1967 and was elected and served as the President of Costa Rica from 1978 to 1982.
He expanded Costa Rica's global profile both in the UN and in the relation to other countries. He established for the first time relations with African, Arab and Asian nations and in particular also with Korea. He sought Latin American solidarity and independence from world political and economic power centers.
In the United Nations, in 1978, he proposed the establishment of a University for Peace, saying, "If you want peace, prepare for peace." Two years later the University for Peace, or UPeace, was chartered by the United Nations General Assembly on December 5th 1980. He was the first President of that amazing university.
As an educator he has taught at the University of Costa Rica, the national University of Costa Rica, and at the Central University in Caracas; he has lectured in history, economics, housing administration, planning, general sociology and community development.
He has been a visiting scholar in five different continents. He has taught at campuses here and also in the North! He has taught in the Kim Il Sung University as well, the first delegate from Costa Rica and actually from Latin America to be able to hold such a distinguished honor!
Since 1987 Dr. Carazo has been a member of the former President Jimmy Carter's Council of Freely Elected Heads of the government of the Americas and as such participated as chief of mission and member of mission on several of its election monitoring missions in various countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and CIS countries.
Dr. Carazo has participated in successful negotiations for the release of hostages of guerrillas in Colombia, establishment of peace in Central America and also dedicated efforts towards the entry of South and North Korea as United Nation members in 1991.
His devotion to the creation of institutions for the promotion of friendship and peace in the world has won him international acclaim from around the world. He has been bestowed with so many honorary degrees, including from Seoul National University here in Korea and also from Bridgeport University.
This is only a small part of the amazing activities that this incredible, global leader has participated in. But more than that we have seen that he is a man of tremendous faith, a man coming from very humble backgrounds and a man whose charisma and passion stems from a deep humility before God.
We believe that it is because of that tremendous service that he has given to God, that he has been able to serve the world as God's patron, as God's blessing, to this world. He has been able to touch so many thousands of lives during his career, and we know that his life will become even brighter and will touch even more and more lives as it continues every single year.
Brothers and sisters, let's give it up for President Carazo!
I need to; I must say one more thing. There is a saying, "Standing with every amazing man is a more amazing woman.
There has been somebody who has been the rock of President Carazo's extraordinary career: 61 years of marriage -- President Dr. Carazo and Mrs. Carazo! 61 years!
They are the proud grandparents of 19 grandchildren and also great-grandchildren. So we have here great-grandfather wisdom, truly a tremendous not only statesman but also a tremendous parent, grandfather and great-grandfather. Brothers and sisters, it is my great delight and honor to be able to welcome the honorable President Dr. Carazo. (Applause)
Thank you very much for this very warm welcome. I am really very pleased to be here. Yesterday, 27 years ago, I visited Korea for the first time, a long time before many of you were born. I am very pleased to come here again. Let me make a couple of remarks before I give you some words coming from my heart.
How old I felt, Reverend, listening to you! I realized I have been living for so long because you have to live in this world for many years before being able to share the experience that you get when you go through all of these events, pieces of life.
The second remark has to do with my country. And I suggest to the students, and all of us are students, to look where my country is. We are at the Pacific rim. And we Costa Ricans think that we are the center of the Caribbean.
So in many respects, we have a lot of things in common. I come from a country which was able to abolish slavery even before becoming independent in 1821. The Costa Rican people declared the abolishment of slavery before declaring independence and it was a sign of faith for the future and a commitment for the coming generations.
And we were also able to abolish death penalty in 1882. It was the First Lady of my country who convinced the President that we had to abolish death penalty before doing many other things because she convinced the President to follow the thinking that life cannot be touched by human beings.
And also we abolished the army, which took place in 1948. And we abolished the army thinking that unless it is very, very necessary we better refuse to have an army because armies always try to find places for the encounter, places to become victorious, and they think that a victorious army is the one able to kill more people. We abolished the army. And ever since... let me share a secret with you: We became the strongest nation on earth because nobody can defeat us!
I read this paper this morning, and I want to begin my words by reading the first line of it: "The family is the textbook of love through which we can connect with universal love." Yes, this is absolutely true. It is the only way for us to keep contact with the rest of the planet because members of families here are exactly the same as members of my family. And I am sure that all of the feelings you have are the same feelings we cultivate in my family.
Yes, peace is a way of life. Peace has little to relate with treaties, signed between countries or groups fighting each other. Peace is a way of life, and it begins from within. It begins from ourselves and it continues through generations to come.
For those who live imitating God's teaching, action has to be oriented with a complete respect to others. And this forces us to do the correct thing, which is respecting other people's rights. If you respect other people's rights you live in peace.
This modern civilization of our times leads many to make confusion of material things, while humans' duty is to proclaim that everything is possible with the one that goes along with us. Life must be passion, discipline, will; will and vision end when falling in the comfort of the omission that always emerges from fear.
We as Christians, we imitate Christ, and we must be certain that this demands to fully respect others, and many times in fact, our godliness will lead us into the error of feeling ourselves better then the rest who surrounds us. We must be afraid of being like that.
Albert Einstein used to say: "They sit to watch what passes by." We have to participate! We have to work towards a better future. This civilization forces us to take into consideration that all human beings, no matter what the differences are, belong to a diversity of expressions of only one human race, all of them made by God. There is only one human race. All of us are alike. It is not a matter of respecting but loving.
If we had been able to reach the clear waters in which you can enjoy the real victory of us all, the only real victory when we are ready to work for peace, then we would have defeated fear, refusing what is easy and raising the immaculate banner of love, symbol of truth, of the truth that is God and peace within it.
According to many experts, both past and present, this is the era of the Pacific civilization. And the Korean peninsula, at its center, as I have said before, is responsible in many ways for that peace. When we think about this big ocean, probably the largest lake on earth, we have to bear in mind that it belongs to the human race, that no one has the right to try to defend or to import it because, belonging to humanity, it needs no defense. It has to be respected and, we have to feel that it is ours.
The fish, swimming in the Pacific coastal area of my country, come here not only to swim in your waters but to come to your dishes because you fish our fish down there and you have the right to do so. You have to do it respectfully; you have to protect the multiplication of the fish. We have to respect it but it is ours, yours and ours.
The name of Pacific Ocean, as you know, was used first by Balboa, the so-called discoverer of the Pacific rim. You know, they discovered the Pacific rim after millions of people had already lived here! And when they came here for the first time they noticed that the Pacific Ocean was very peaceful compared to other oceans of the planet. And that's why they gave it that name.
We have to keep it as a peaceful ocean. The ocean of peace, the ocean of the future, the ocean which is becoming the center of the planet. When I talk with my friends and my children I use to tell them that this continent Asia, with respect to us, is not the Far East but the very Close West, and that things have been changing in such a way that we have to remember that the planet is a round ball, and that we are very close one from the other, and that we move very fast from Costa Rica to Korea, no matter if you have to fly 12 or 17 hours in total. So the continent is round and the Pacific Ocean should be peaceful.
We acknowledge the work of Reverend and Mrs. Moon. And I pay a lot of respect to what they have been doing for so many years, and I remember them working for the peaceful world I am talking about, and now I see their children doing the same. Congratulations and thank you! It's a matter of responsibility. You don't feel it that way but for me it's something I really admire because in this kind of world we live in, it's very easy to forget the responsibilities and also very easy to follow the trends of the commercial life of our times.
I thank you very much for your efforts to keep this church alive, to enlarge it, to work for it, to try to take peace towards the rest of the planet and also to live together with us no matter the distance, no matter how many hours of flight you have to make in order to arrive in our countries.
We welcome the idea that the worldwide good will for peace needs one global focus which should be to build a temple of reconciliation and peace so that the world can come together at that temple, and the structures surrounding it are supposed to be not for defense but the fence for our living together.
South Korea should the home country of that temple. No doubt. And I'm sure that, because you talk about it with such emotion, you will make it possible. Count on us. We will try to do our best in order to help because we want to have a common home for humanity.
Religion is an instrument, believing together is peace, and I think that if you reach the goal of building that temple you will step forward in a different world, a world of living together, a world of peace. Heads of states and governments are responsible for bringing peace to their nations, and they should become aware of these efforts, of this project and goal, and they should help both, while in office and afterward.
I used to tell my friends, those who had been Presidents of countries, that being the President of a country is something that lasts just a few days, just a few days, but your responsibility towards the creation of a world of peace is permanent, is permanent, as are permanent all of the goals being followed by human beings.
This temple will represent the internal aspiration of all humanity, of all civil society. As governments endorsed the creation of the United Nations in 1945, we are supposed now to build, as we pronounce it in Spanish, an Abel UN. And the temple should also be the home of the universal values of charity, faith, magnanimity, generosity, fidelity, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, devotion, loyalty, sacrifice and self-denial. These are the faces of true love in practice. They are the common language of all religions. These virtues were originally defined by religion, the language of the heart and the spirit. This temple is where all of us, all humanity, will find a place where to fulfill the positive feelings of life. I am sure that God is shining on us!
President Carazo is such a warrior and has such a spirit! Brothers and sisters, let's give it up again for President Carazo! Let's gather our hearts in prayer, thank you very much:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day that You have blessed upon us. Father, you have given us true faith and strength in this day. We have heard Your words of wisdom, Your words of enlightenment into our hearts. Father, You have spoken through our dear friend, President Carazo, his worldwide vision and his experience. Father, he has come here to truly be able to shed his light of compassion, his heart as a grandparent to all of his children and his family, really standing with a parental heart, facing this world and facing his own future.
Father, we are here today worshiping together as one family, and, Father, we are here overcoming all obstacles that are in our way. Father, we know that in our lives we may be facing challenges, hurdles, but, Father, we pray that You may give us the strength, the perseverance and the confidence to truly be able to overcome them and quickly move forward, to truly be able to establish Your world of peace. Heavenly Father, today is a true and great day.
We pray that You may be with our brothers and sisters all around the world, that all their prayers, their love and devotion may be here with our True Parents in Korea, that Your homeland may be blessed and all Your children that reside here and in other nations connected.
Father, we pray that your light of hope may reach all nations of this globe. Thank You today for our dear brother, President Carazo, his touching words, his amazing wealth of experience he has shared with us. Father, let's not just respect each other but let us learn to love one another, let's be truly global citizen where we can truly set the example for inter-religious, international, interracial harmony and peace.
Father, we truly wish that we may come together into the temple where You reside and truly be able to offer our strengths, our worship, our faith, our discipline, our confidence, Your hope that you imbue into us, and, Father, that we may walk out with more confidence, more strength, more perseverance and more victory.
Father, thank You for this day. We truly are grateful for all that You have blessed us with and pray that Your abundant blessing may be with the Carazo family, with all their beautiful children and grandchildren, and that Your abundant protection, love and abundance and fruition may be with them for ever and ever.
Father, thank You so much for this day, and thank you so much for the words You have shared with us. Father, we take these with us and leave today more enlightened, more enriched and filled with more hope for our futures. We pray all these things with tremendous gratitude and everlasting love in the names of all the blessed central families around this world together here. Aju.