The Words of the Sun Myung Moon from 2007
|
|
The Words of the Sun Myung Moon from 2007 |
Sun
Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han October 3, 2011
Mrs. Dae-hwa Jung is one of our eldest sisters. She and her husband were blessed as one of the 36 couples. She was attending the Ehwa Women's University -- one of the most famous in Korea -- until 1955, when she was suspended from it. This was a part of pressure campaign against the Unification Church members launched by the Christian authorities of the university.
So, Mrs. Jung is a living witness to events of those days. Her husband held leadership positions in our movement for a long time. This morning Mrs. Jung came here because Father asked her to tell other members about the circumstances our church was in back in 1955, when it was severely persecuted. You should be grateful for the fact that you're alive. If you listen to her, you'll understand how miserable our life was back then. Go ahead.
My birthplace is in Hwanghwae-do Province which is now in North Korea, but at the age of 17 I moved to the South together with my mother. I was healthy until in my student years I contracted pleurisy.
This was still in North Korea. After we moved down to Seoul I enrolled into Sookmyung Women's University where my illness re-appeared. Then, finally I transferred to Ehwa, but my pleurisy exacerbated again, so I had to take a legal absence from college. It was during the 2nd semester of my junior year.
Even when I got sick for the third time, I didn't actually know what illness it was. Now I now it was pleurisy, but at that time I didn't know it, so I just took a leave from the university. I was resting and thinking about my life a lot. I was a Christian but not an ardent believer. As I often fell ill I was pessimistic with life and often thought that it would be best to die. I was confident that I could repay the grace I received from my parents.
While still in Hwanghae province I attended Presbyterian church and later in the South Korea I started going to Methodist church. Initially I thought, If I only can avoid death, that is happiness.
While in Ehwa University in chapel hours I did a lot of Bible studies, but I wasn't confident that could meet a good man for husband, become a good daughter-in-law and a good mom for my children. So I thought that maybe the best way is to simply die early. I came to conclusion that I had do my parents better service by simply dying quickly. However before dying I really wanted to know whether there was hell and heaven.
So, even though I was sick I kept attending church services where I continuously hear, How little faith you have! You don't understand because you don't believe. Believe and you will get to know everything. I consulted the school chaplain of Ehwa Women's University but the chaplain's answer was not uplifting; I was told that my faith was weak.
I just couldn't take it. I was on the verge of death and the reverend was telling me simply that I had little faith. So, I thought that something was wrong about it. In such time in my life I met the Unification Church.
I finally came to know the principle in February 1955. I was greatly moved by the lecture given by Rev. Hyo Won Eu, then president of the church. I was so filled with grace that I began to cry and starting wailing without any regard to my surrounding. One deaconess who was spiritual stopped my wailing. Even at home I kept on crying out of gratitude in finding this new truth. I offered a full bow to my parents asking for forgiveness for all my past mistakes that I did since I was young. Seeing me behaving so strangely, my family thought I had gone crazy.
I began to meet people I knew and introduced them to this new truth. I also diligently listened to the Divine Principle lectures. Whenever I listened to Rev. Eu's lecturers I would write it down. Rev. Eu once asked me "Are you making notes, knowing who the center is?" At that time I didn't know who that center was; I didn't know who True Parent were at all. I was just listening to the lectures because I loved the Principle.
After Rev. Eu asked me that question I came to know that center and came to understand who Father was. My health improved and I returned to my studies at Ehwa Women's University.
[Ms. Jung then talked about the Ehwa Women's University incident. She emphasized that the fifteen women who were expelled from Ehwa Women's University at that time were all still alive.]
So, we were suspended from college without much notice. It was so unfair. Do you think our parents could take it easy? Our mothers worked so hard to be able to send their daughters to the university. At that time being a student of Ehwa was not an ordinary thing.
So, when people heard that we were kicked out of school they had think that it is because of our licentious behavior or something like that. Who knew that we actually were suspended because of our faith? So, the fact itself that we were suspended was a big smear on our parents' reputation.
It was a disgrace for family. So our fathers fastened their belts, went to the school and made an uproar there, You have shaman's daughters and communists' daughters studying here, but why did you expel our daughters even though they study well and they are pious towards their parents?
What was so bad about us that we got expelled? We couldn't just stand still. We raised our voiced about this injustice. Even Dong-a Ilbo wrote an article about us, This country has a freedom of religion, but why are students suspended from a university for their faith? So, the Unification Church started to become famous throughout the country. Right, Father?
We were so mortified, so we went to a newspaper company and told them everything we thought about it. We wrote posters with our blood and put them on the walls of the university. Nevertheless, we got expelled.
Some of us were already in their senior year, they just needed to get their graduation papers and that's it, but they were expelled. We had fourth years, third years and sophomores among us. The youngest girls were from freshman year. It was really unfair.
This incident caused a resonance in society. Newspapers were initially on our side. But at that time Maria Park, vice-rector of the university was a wife of Gi-bung Lee, the vice-president of Korea.
So, she has got some influence, didn't she? So, she started turned the tide. She circulated bad rumors about our church, she stirred Christian churches against us, and she raised groundless suspicions about us, so that finally we were expelled from the university. Finally Father and church officials were taken to police custody for a probe.
So, you can imagine how outraged we were. I joined the church in February and on May 10 I got expelled from the university.
In July, our church officials were taken to prison, so that the church was empty. There was no one in the church.
Only Christians would come sometimes to throw stones into our windows, so that we couldn't even worship there. I was determined to keep my faith. I thought, God has saved me, so I must walk this path.
Father once told us to write down all our experiences of the first 40 days in the church when we joined and received grace by listening to God's Word.
Father also told us, This is the eternal path, the way of life and love, but it is a thorny one. There will be ups and downs, so when you are down, remember the moments of joy and go up by yourself! It is so difficult to go up, when you're persecuted by everyone.
That's why Father advised us to write down our moments of inspiration to be able to restore that state of mind. So, when Father was in prison, we held services by ourselves.
I remember when it was my turn to visit Father in prison, my heart was beating fast. Father told me, Study English, because in the future you may need to go abroad to spread the word throughout the world.
It was in prison, mind you. That incident in Ehwa caused our church many problems worldwide later. Well, all of us, students who were expelled at that time, are now over 70 and yet none of us went to the spirit world yet.
Why? I believe it is because we were mistreated then, so we need to be liberated from that grudge before we go! So, we need to live until God's Word is taught from the lecturer's pulpit!
We can't die before our honor is restored and we get graduation certificates! That is what we feel, so we take care of our health even though we are already in our eighties. We live every day with the determination to live until that time.
It should be emphasized, that not even one of those students who had been expelled, died.
Right, all 15 of us are still alive.