As people face death, they may tremble in fear and terror… (if they do not understand the true meaning of passing on)

Sun Myung Moon
July 8, 2010
Heavenly Calendar May 27

Sun Myung Moon, September 11, 2011

World Assembly to Proclaim the Embodiment of God's Word and the Era of the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind

Ladies and gentlemen, as people face death, they may tremble in fear and terror if they do not understand the true meaning of passing on. Although human history has continued for more than six thousand years, no one, unfortunately, has clearly taught the truth regarding death. Now, in the Last Days of history, I have been able to reveal this truth, this heavenly secret, as the True Parent of humankind.

Ladies and gentlemen, the word "death" is sacred. It is not a synonym for "sadness and suffering." True Parents have created the term Seunghwa [ascension] to explain the true significance of death. The moment we enter the spirit world should be a time that we enter a world of joy and victory with the fruits born of our lives on earth. It is a time for those of us remaining on earth to send off the departed with joy. It should be a time for great celebration. We should be shedding tears of joy instead of tears of sadness. That is the way of the sacred and noble Seunghwa Ceremony. The Seunghwa Ceremony is the first step the spirit of the departed takes toward enjoying eternal life in attendance of God, within His embrace. At the moment of death, our spirits should feel more excited and thrilled than a newlywed bride feels when she goes to her groom's home for the first time.

In order to open the door for all people to experience this kind of precious eternal life, I held a Seunghwa Ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 18 in honor of world leaders who had recently passed into the next world.

The following are the names of those commemorated on that occasion:

General Alexander Haig, a former U.S. secretary of state, who with the UN forces saved my life by leading the bombing of the North Korean Hungnam Special Labor Camp where I was imprisoned during the Korean War;

Mr. Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize;

Mr. Hédi Annabi, a Tunisian diplomat and head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, who died in the 2010 Haitian earthquake; the one hundred UN workers who died alongside Mr. Annabi;

Mr. Rodrigo Carazo Odio, a former president of Costa Rica, who is known internationally as "the Peace President";

Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, a former president of Indonesia, who gave his entire life for the sake of his great nation;

Mr. Steingrimur Hermannsson, a former prime minister of Iceland, who helped host the meeting of then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan, which accelerated the end of the Cold War;

Shaykh Hassan Cissé of Senegal, who is respected as a great scholar of Islamic authority; and

Mr. Laxmi Mall Singhvi of India, who is praised as the "Ambassador of Reconciliation and Peace" by India's 1.1 billion people.

There are other people whom we would especially like to remember through this ceremony and send to the spirit world with the Seunghwa Blessing. I'm sure you have already heard about the recent sinking of the ship Cheonan in Korea where 46 sailors suddenly lost their lives in the course of duty. During my four-city speaking tour in Korea in April, my wife and I bestowed the grace of the Seunghwa Blessing on these unfortunate seamen who died.

Later, during another event at Las Vegas, USA, I bestowed the Seunghwa Blessing on one Dr. Reiko Kawasaki, a 17th-generation descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the last shogun in Japanese history, who united the Japanese archipelago in the 17th century. She was a medical doctor from Las Vegas, and recently passed away after living a life of continuous service to others. Before her passing, she played an important role for the sake of the realization of world peace by setting a foundation for the future resolution of various issues in Korea, Japan and the United States, including political and economic issues. Thus, I have included her in the list of those who will receive this sacred Seunghwa Blessing.

Distinguished leaders, although the lives of the people whose names I mentioned were altruistic and philanthropic, none of them can be guaranteed entry into the world of eternal life without receiving the marriage blessing and the Seunghwa Blessing of the True Parent [Rev. Moon] in this world today, in which the parent-child relationship between God and humankind was severed due to the Fall of the first ancestors. Please take this point seriously.