Special Sermon:”Let Us be the Righteous Person of CBG” and “God’s Calling and our Mission” May 16, 2010, Cheon Bok Gung, Yongsan Seoul Korea

Guest Speakers: CBG East Region Pastor – Rev. Man Woong Cho and    CBG West Region Pastor – Hoonsa Yong Ha Kim

Welcoming Remarks:

Yeon Ah Nim:

Welcome to our international service!

Before we say anything, could we give a warm applause to our beautiful Japanese sisters for their beautiful song? (Applause)

Last week we were with True Parents in America for the world level ascension ceremony. We were so glad to attend True Parents, and it was so nice to see In-jin nim and In-jin nim’s family and American members. Today we sincerely hope and pray that through this worship service we can become better sons and daughters of True Parents and Heavenly Father. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Good evening brothers and sisters. Let us begin by manifesting the Principle: give and receive action, four position foundation; may I inherit the true love of God! Aju!

“You can reach the kingdom of heaven through the church,” Father says, “the family must pass through the church, so the church is a foundation for families to bring victories. It is a place where family laws emerge, a place where the nobility of character is recognized and it is a training ground for the kingdom of heaven.” This is from “The way of the spiritual leader” p 238 number 10, 12 and 13.

Brothers and sisters, we are really so blessed to be able to be in a community, to have people around us who share the same faith, who are walking with us on the path towards heaven. It is in that community that we can find so many riches and such wisdom.

Once a week we are meeting some of our wonderful Unificationists families who are in the background. These families are not necessarily in any leadership role in the church but they contribute so greatly to the community and they stand as examples within the community; so we love to highlight these beautiful families.

This week we are going to have the chance to meet Mr. Kim Tae-son and his family. He is a Korean husband ands his wife is Japanese. They have 5 wonderful children and through this video we are going to have the chance to meet them. Let’s go meet one of our Unificationists!

Video:

This is a copy of Mr. Kim’s Cheong Seong Gyeong. God’s words gave me a great shock. It’s not something that we take lightly. This is our weapon, a weapon among weapons so we need to be very bold and proud of this.

This is in Kyung Gi province, Go-Yang city and this is some award. This is a massage center. He is 46 years old, he was blessed in 1992 and he operates a massage center. He was a body guard for True Parents for a number of years and he has been copying the Cheong Seong Gyeong.

“I was very serious about the word of God because I had been living in a world that had nothing to do with God’s word. I was really in a position where I might die, but with the word I could live again. It made me very excited to think that way. It gave me a deep shock and stimulus. So I read the word all through the night. This kind of precious word – once I heard it I didn’t want to be the end of it, but I wanted to make it a part of me; I wanted to write it down with my own hand. That is how I began. Later I began working at Han Nam Dong, and after I worked in the day attending True Parents then I would always do this.

When we look at the words of our international president, he says that in the place where we are, we are far from God’s love, and I felt that very much, very deeply in myself. So what I can do is be close to God’s word and write God’s word, really delve into it and immerse myself in God’s word. These are words that we could continuously read for tens of thousands of years like that.

“True love and true family”.

I have 5 children. I intended to have five children and I had to convince my wife to do that. She is Japanese and she listened to my word and decided to do it.

Mrs. Kim:

He said that he wanted to do it that way so we did it that way. We had the first and the second. Till we had the third I was wanting but…

Mr. Kim:

She is very grateful; she is very wonderful, very straight. The way we were able to endure is because of the word, because we have the word. In that sense she is much greater than I am.

We are a true love family. Before, the mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak, who is now president of Korea, invited multicultural families. We went there as a multicultural family, and as a man and woman who have good character. These kinds of families were invited by the major’s office. We wanted to say that we had to be true parents and have true children.  Parents have to be the model for everything and teach the children by being a model. The mayor said that he wished us well and said that all the parents gathered there that day should be models to their family. And he said,”Let us establish true love together.” So everyone stood up and applauded.

We also had a chance to take a photograph with him. At that time he was mayor and he realized, “Oh this is the kind of people that are in the Unification church!” He used the word “true family” in his remarks that day and I was very happy about that.

Words are weapon among weapons.

Some people ask me, “How did you come to join the Unification church?” I would say,”Well it’s a good place. Why do you say that? It’s not just a heresy.”  A heresy in Korea means the second level, third level, or fourth level. I testify to our Father, “You can tell what kind of person he is. He liberated the Soviet Union and he also went to North Korea. They say, “Oh! Is that what has been going on? Is that what happened?” They understand why I am a Unification church member.

When we go outside and when we talk about the Unification church, we have to be very proud because everyone knows. I don’t give a massage to a person who does not like the Unification church.

Please be reborn in the word. We love all members of the Unification church! (Applause)

My son asked me,”Why do you do this?” I said, “Because the word is precious and important”. My son told me that he is very proud of me for doing this.

Hyung-Jin Nim:

Let’s give it up for Mr. Kim Tae Son and Mrs. Kim. Mrs. Kim is up here. She is part of the choir today. (Applause)

It was not mentioned in the video but after he left Han Nam Dong where he was attending True Parents as a bodyguard, he felt so empty in his heart, so when he started his business and created his massage clinic he started writing all of True Parents’ words. He did Cheong Seong Gyeong; this huge text, he wrote it by hand. He wrote the Divine Principle four times by hand, the peace messages, – a very big text – he also did that by hand. He has really had his own spiritual practice all centered on True Parents’ words. We are so thankful for Mr. Kim’s family.

Hyung-Jin Nim’s introduction of guest speakers:

Brothers and sisters, today we have a special service. As you know the organization at Cheon Bok Gung is now four districts from the previous seven districts. We are organized now by East, West, North, and South. Seoul is now divided up into four regions. It’s divided up into these regions according to how True Parents divided up the four regions in the past; it also coincides with the education centers that they have in each district. For example, the police centers also separate the four districts in the same way that we have. It is very easy for somebody who is a new member or for somebody who is entering into the church to know which region they are in within the four districts.

So we have now four districts and today we are going to hear from the Hoonsa Nims, the people who are the head ministers of the East region and the West region. First we’ll be hearing from Cho Man-woong Moksa Nim. He has done ministry for over thirty- three years out of a total of being in the church 43 years; 43 years of working as a teacher and also a minister.

He retired last year. He was our regional director for Gangnam region which is a very important region here in Seoul, and he was the regional director there for many years. He has shown exceptional leadership amongst the ministers. When he retired, I was very saddened by that, so I asked him to please come and walk with us on the Hoonsa Nim training, on the Hoonsa track. “Even though you are done with ministry, please walk together with us on the Hoonsa track” which is of course as you may know 33 years of ministry, and then after that they have to walk 400 day training. And if you miss 3 days you go back to day one, so you can’t miss out any day. And it is every day at 2:30 in the morning that we start and train!

Moksa Nim has been walking with us, training with us for 307 days now and he is walking on the Hoonsa track.

He will come as the representative of East Seoul and of our brothers and sisters who reside there. He will speak to us for about fifteen minutes with some words of encouragement, particularly for the Eastern region, and in the next fifteen minutes we are going to have Kim Yong-ha Hoonsa Nim who is the regional pastor for the Western region of Seoul.

He has done over 33 years of ministry. He has completed the 400 day Hoonsa training so he was ordained as a Hoonsa Nim last year. He will then speak as the representative of the Western region for fifteen minutes.

So let’s take time now to now invite Mr. Cho Man-woong Moksa Nim. When he comes up, let’s give him a big round of applause! (Applause) Eastern region!

Cho Man-Woong Moksa Nim -East Region:

Hallelujah! I am glad to see you! I would like for Tim Elder here to convey to you all the content that I want to communicate to you today. First I will read to you quotes from True Father’s words and from the Bible.

True Father’s words:

“We have now entered a new age. What kind of attitude should we have? The conviction to restore independence to our homeland more than anything else should be burning in our chest. In other words you should become the standard bearers for building the homeland that God has been impatiently waiting for since the past six thousand years. You should take pride in being a pioneer in being the special forces sent into battle as the advance guard to reclaim the land and take responsibility for this incredible mission. Aju!”

Bible:

Genesis 18:26 The LORD said, “If I find 50 righteous people inside the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 32 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” Aju!

I entered the Unification church in 1963 in April in Chungnam province. I am working now as a pastor for 43 years. There are three points to the words that I would like to convey to you today. I have been called by our international president to train here as a Hoonsa and to work here in that capacity. There are a number of miracles that are happening here and I would like to introduce some of those to you.

Back in 1977 I went through a period where working as a public official was so difficult that I wanted to leave that position. I wanted to go to work in a company outside the church. But when I went to receive some counseling regarding that and I stood up, God struck me in the waist. For the next month I had to stay lying down. I could not get up. I was just lying down for a month.

Again in 2008 on February 26^th I had another trial. That was the time of our True Parents’ birthday, and we were conducting education sessions around the country. On the morning of the 26^th of February I tried to get out of bed but I had such pain in my waist! I went to the hospital, and received the diagnosis that I had a disc that was out of place. And it was even not in the primary stage but it was in the middle stage of my becoming crippled, and it was not easy to cure that.

That was also the time when Hyo-jin nim passed into the spiritual world but I could not go to the Seung Hwa ceremony because of that pain. Finally I did find a hospital that was able to treat my condition, to some extent, but not fully, so always there was a chance for it to recur. My doctor said,”Don’t walk a lot! Don’t stay seated in a chair for a long time!” He gave me a lot of limitations on my daily activities.

When I was living like that, on May 1^st of last year, I went into convulsions. It was right then that the international president told me that I should go the way of Hoonsa. I could not answer him right away at that point but I was struggling in my heart how to answer. How could I give one hundred and twenty bows in my condition? Also my wife had a problem with her knee, and she was having an operation. Hoonsa involves husband and wife doing it together, and both of us, husband and wife had situations that would prevent us from going the way of Hoonsa. So we struggled a lot with that issue.

During the service, the international president spoke out from the stage,”I want to meet you after the service”, and after the service, he took me by the hand and took me to his office. The first thing he said to me then was, “My meeting you is fate”. [Fate means that it is not a way that I could go because I did not want to or not go if I didn’t want to.] So my wife and I decided right then and there that we would go ahead and do this.

We had attended True Parents all the time and we decided that we would attend the second generation of True Parents’ family and go the way of Hoonsa. Beginning July 1^st we offered a hundred and twenty bows. We thought that we would never be able to offer one hundred and twenty bows but we were able to do it. And even as we were doing our training I was able to be in a situation where I was sitting down and leaning back and bend my joints in ways that I thought I would never be able to do. This was truly God’s miraculous healing of our condition.

Right now in Cheon Bok Gung many miracles are happening like this. So I want to tell you about those miracles during my time with you today. Right now in Cheon Bok Gung, the miracle of Cheong Seong is giving the spirit of salvation to all of humanity. We are attending the international president every morning and after the bows the international president strikes the gong, and he strikes the drum and another instrument that you bang. These are God’s sounds. These sounds resonate from here in the Cheon Bok Gung to the city of Seoul and to the people all around Korea and all throughout the world like a wave.

If there are any among you who have physical illness, come to the Cheon Bok Gung and pray and I am sure that you will be cured like a miracle. And if you are struggling over some problem come to the Cheon Bok Gung, offer your Cheong Seong, and that issue will be resolved.

So the first message that I want to give you today is that this Cheon Bok Gung is where miracles are born. And the second message that I want to give to you is that you are righteous people chosen by God for this time.

God established Noah, and he had Noah build an ark at the top of the mountain. Many people at that time did not believe in God and they made fun of Noah, “If you are going to build a boat, you should build it by the sea. Why do you build a boat on a mountain?” But God gave the flood judgment with rain for 40 days, and the water rose till it reached the top of the mountain. Then the ark began to float on the water. The rain was there and then the waves were calmed. And God saved the eight members of Noah’s family.

Abraham was also a righteous man. God told Abraham to leave his homeland. How can we so easily leave our homeland where we were born and raised? But Abraham left his homeland just after hearing that one word from God.

Lot was another righteous man. When God judged Sodom, He first told Lot and his family to leave Sodom before He passed judgment on that city.  There were many people living in Sodom but there were no righteous people. Not even ten righteous men could be found. Ten is not a large number. Among the hundreds who are gathered here today, ten would be a very small proportion. A “Righteous Person” means a person who is able to follow God’s Will and follows God’s Word, but not even ten righteous men could be found in Sodom.  And before God had to pass judgment on Sodom He first brought the family of Lot out of that city.

Unification church members, you who are gathered here today, you truly are the righteous people of this day! We have the responsibility to save this world in this era. We have the responsibility to build Cheon Il Guk. When Lot came out with his wife, God told them, “Do not look back!” I am sure that as they left Sodom they could hear their friends, their neighbors, and their relatives crying to them from behind. They could hear the city being destroyed, but they still had a feeling of attachment to the city. Finally, when Lot’s wife turned around to look at the city, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

As for us also today, we are often tempted to look back and to feel attachment to the world around us. We may want to have that honor, or power and authority, or to feel yearning for money and material. But it is more important for us to place God’s Word at the center of our heart rather than those secular things. So in that sense we can say that you who are here today are the righteous people of this age who are chosen for this age. We have a mission that is given to us. This is an incredible mission which is to build Cheon Il Guk.

My 3rd message is about our goal to first build a congregation of 21,000 members, which will be the foundation to receive 210,000 new members.  Our new organization in dividing Korea into 4 districts is a principled way to have God work with us. Similarly, in the Tongil symbol, 4 positions are also represented.   So according to where you live in Korea, please find out which district you belong and join the team!  True Father says that in the east, we see the sun rise first.  The sun represents God and hope.  So this will be our motto.  Our first goal is to witness.  In order to make the goal of 21,000 new members, we must witness continually without resting.  All unification members must do this.  True Father says we are in a new era.  We are pioneers.  Pioneers must continue to move forward no matter what difficulties they face.  With this attitude, let us claim victory!  Mansei!”

Kim Yong-ha Hoonsa Nim – West Region :

„I’d like to tell you my story in my early years in the church, while I was a missionary in Japan.  First, I’d like to read from Ephesians (Bible):  “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spririt-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Aju

I joined in 1964 while I was a senior in high school.  I had seen True Father in a vision.  I experienced the Holy Spirit spiritually.  When I heard the Divine Principle conclusion for the first time, I was very certain that True Father was the Lord of the Second Advent.  Writing in my journal, I made a promise to God that I would testify to this fact.  So after I graduated high school, I started missionary work in the villages of Japan.  I thought I would be welcomed in sharing this exciting news of a savior, but I was mocked.  The villagers would not let me drink clean water.  They threw rocks at me and stole my clothes.  Yet I continued to serve them by teaching and tutoring the farm children who were not allowed to go to school.  I would also work in the fields for free.  I was able to bring in many new members, but my health declined due to malnutrition.  I thought the only way I could survive was to eventually leave my mission and the church.  So I packed my bags.

But that very night of my packing, True Father came to me in a dream and spoke to me, giving me his love and guidance.  He reminded me that when you take on the responsibility of being a missionary, you cannot abandon it.  The region of your work is spiritually depending on you.  Therefore, if you are still alive, you must never give up.  You must die trying to help and witness to the people.  Then when you die, they will erect a tombstone in your honor. After this dream, I awoke and unpacked my bags and renewed by determination.  But instead of improving, the persecution increased.  My health continued to decline.  So I packed my bags again!  When I tried to return to my own home where my parents were, I was turned away.  I ended up sleeping at a temple where I cried all night.  This time, True Mother appeared to me in a vision to comfort me, embracing me by nursing me at her breast.

After that vision, I never thought of leaving.  I realized that True Parents sacrificed not only physically but also spiritually for me.  In my 45 years of public service, I have received many special graces from them.  So I offered to help our international president by making 3000 bows while he was resting from his 21,000 bows.  Each of our bows was a commitment to bring in 21,000 new members.  By the way, Satan did not sit by and give us an easy time of it.  He tried every way to stop us!  But in the end, we had victory and won over him!  In the same way, True Parents have had victory over Satan in their 7 resurrections.  During our continuous commitments of service, we came to realize how True Parents sacrificed in this spiritual and physical way to pave the path for us members and for all of humanity.  They passed thru 8 stages of indemnity from the individual to the cosmic level, each level requiring more sacrifice than the one before.  So in order to receive peace and joy in my life, I have determined to support them in this endeavor.

As representatives of our True Parents, we wear the HoonnSa clothing.  This is very humble attire, which reminds us to become more humble and serving as we come close to TP.  As model members, we should keep our heads low and bow to others.  To train our bodies and minds, we do 210 bows every morning.  I may be sleepy, but after our bows I feel energized and ready to work.  To train our minds, we immerse ourselves in True Fathers words.  The affect is that all our personal troubles then take care of themselves.  Would you like to join us?

At our World Headquarters Center here in Korea, this is the place where God’s blessing is shared.  You can receive God’s salvation in a substantial way.  We also can return glory and joy to True Parents by visiting here.

As Unification members, we must first become unified ourselves.  If we can’t unite, then we will never bring new members.  We must resolve to serve more than any other church.  That’s why we have started a bowing condition at 2:00 am.  Every time I offer bows in the presence of the 4 saints (Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and Jesus) I think I have to go beyond what they did.  I have to serve more than they did.  If I can accomplish this, then the saints will help me.  People will start to join like waves of clouds!

God has called us to work to unite all religions.  We have to join together and offer our unique abilities.  Let us make a solid determination right now to make our 21,000 member congregation!”

Hyung-jin nim:

“I want to remind everyone that this effort is not about one person or one leader.  It will require everyone’s participation to move this nation.  So let’s pray now for our True Parents and give glory to them!  Today we heard from the East and West leaders.  Here in Seoul, let us make a foundation for our goal to establish 21,000 new members to expand to 210,000.  This will grow to become the largest sect of a religion in the world.  We want to build a holy United Nations as well.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for speaking thru our leaders today.  Help us to see how we are all connected, especially while True Parents are still on this earth.  We pray for the victory and safety of all members around the world.  AJU.”

AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN

R E V E R E N D  S U N  M Y U N G  M O O N

Excerpts from the 2009 English language edition

AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN

REVEREND  SUN  MYUNG  MOON

Introduction to this booklet of excerpts from the English language edition, published in the USA

The autobiography of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, known to many UPF Ambassadors for Peace as Father Moon, and to his religious followers as True Father, and with his wife Hak Ja Han Moon as True Parents, was published in Korea in March 2009, by the well-known and highly respected Gimm-Young Publishers, consider by many to be the premier Korean publishing house. The female president took note of Rev. Moon’s contributions to world peace when she was studying in the US in the early 90’s. She says she realized that the bad publicity surrounding Rev. Moon's work was based on disinformation and prejudice. It is then that the idea of publishing an objective book about Rev. Moon entered her mind.

The president herself is a devout Buddhist. People close to her say that before coming to the decision to accept a book for publication the president does serious soul-searching by visiting the temple and asking Buddha whether this is the right course of action. In the case with Rev. Moon’s biography, she reportedly received the inspiration that this was a good and special book and that, yes, she should publish it.

The company is well-known in Korea for producing numerous bestsellers covering wide range of topics including those on historical and contemporary Christian figures. Some have even jokingly called it a “Christian publisher.” The company, however, states that its main purpose is to enlighten Korean society and in, this particular case, those under the spell of religious bigotry. Accordingly, this book, as others put out by GimmYoungSa, should be viewed as a contribution toward the creation of a fairer and more tolerant society.

The book quickly became a best seller in Korea and later in the year a limited English language edition, from which these excerpts are taken, was published in the United States of America.

The English edition runs to more than 340 pages. Rev. Moon not only recounts many events, but gives new insights into his motives and the reasons for his decisions and actions, from his earliest beginnings to today.

This excerpt contains Rev. Moon's Foreword and two sub-chapters, “The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven” and “Dreaming of a Peaceful World”, also the chapter & sub-chapter headings to give some idea of the content. The English language edition, re-edited, for Western readers has been republished, and the book is currently being translated into Dutch. Contact UPF Nederland for more information.

We hope you will find this short excerpt interesting, inspiring and enlightening.

Willem A. Koetsier

Secretary General, Universal Peace Federation Nederland

Foreword

A steady spring rain fell all last night, ending a winter drought. It was so nice to have had the rain that I spent all this morning walking about in the garden. The ground had that fragrant aroma of moist earth I had missed all through the winter, and the weeping willow and cherry trees were showing signs of new spring buds. I felt I could hear the popping sounds of new life sprouting here and there around the garden. Before I knew it, my wife, who had followed me out, was picking young mugwort shoots that had managed to poke their heads up through the dry lawn. The night’s rain had turned the whole world into a fragrant spring garden.

No matter how much commotion there may be in the world, when the calendar turns to March, spring is on its way. The older I become, the more it means to me that in nature spring follows winter and brings with it flowers in full bloom. What am I that God, in each season, allows the flowers to bloom and the snow to fall, so I might know the joy of being alive? Love wells up from within the deepest recesses of my heart, and I am overcome with emotion. I am moved to tears to think that everything of real value has been given to me freely. In my life, I have circled the globe many times over in my efforts to bring about a world of peace, and yet it is here in this garden in spring that I am able to taste real peace. Peace, too, was given to us by God, but we lost it somewhere and now spend our lives looking for it in all the wrong places.

To bring a world of peace, I have spent my life going to the most lowly and secluded places. I met mothers in Africa who could only watch helplessly as their children died of hunger, and I met fathers in South America who lived by a river full of fish but couldn’t support their families by fishing. At first, all I did was simply share my food, but they granted me their love in return. Intoxicated with the power of love I went on to plant seeds and cultivate forests. Together we caught fish to feed hungry children, and these trees were used to build schools. I was happy even as mosquitoes bit me all over as I fished all through the night. Even when I was sinking knee-deep into mud, I was happy because I could see the shadows of despair disappear from the faces of my neighbors.

Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace, I devoted myself to inspiring change in the political process and to changing people’s ways of thinking. I met then-President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union as part of my effort to bring reconciliation between communism and democracy, and I met then-President Kim Il Sung of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. I went to a United States in moral decline and played the role of a fireman responding to a call in an effort to reawaken its Puritan spirit. I dedicated myself to resolving various conflicts in the world. In my work for peace among Muslims and Jews, I was not deterred by rampant terror. As a result of my efforts, thousands have gathered for rallies and peace marches, with Jews, Muslims, and Christians all joining together. Sadly, however, the conflict continues.

I see hope, though, that an age of peace is about to be inaugurated in Korea. The Korean peninsula has been trained through endless suffering and the tragedy of division, and I can feel in every cell of my body that a powerful energy has been stored here and is ready to burst out. In the same way that no one can stop a new season of spring from coming, no human power can stop heavenly fortune from coming to the Korean peninsula and spreading throughout the world. People need to prepare themselves so that they may rise with the tide of heavenly fortune when it arrives.

I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes trouble in the world. I never sought money or fame but have spent my life speaking only of peace. The world, though, has associated many different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me. Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only oppose me.

I have been unjustly imprisoned six times in my life-by imperial Japan, in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, by South Korea’s Syngman Rhee government, and even in the United States-and at times I was beaten so hard that the flesh was torn from my body. Today, though, not even the slightest wound remains in my heart. Wounds easily disappear in the presence of true love. Even enemies melt away without a trace in the presence of true love. True love is a heart that gives and gives and wants to continuing giving. True love is a love that even forgets that it already gave love and gives love again. I have lived my entire life intoxicated in such love. I wanted nothing aside from love, and I threw my entire being into the effort to share love with my impoverished neighbors. At times, the path of love was so difficult that my knees buckled under me, but even then I felt happy in my heart, dedicated to loving humanity.

Even now, I am filled with love that I have not yet been able to give. It is with a prayer that this love will become a river of peace saturating the drought-stricken land and flowing to the ends of the earth that I now place this book before the world. Recently a growing number of people have been seeking to know more about me. For the sake of those who are curious, I have looked back on my life and recorded my candid recollections in this book. As for the stories that could not be included in this volume, I hope there will be other opportunities for me to convey them.

I send boundless love to all those who have put their faith in me, remained by my side, and lived their lives with me—and especially to my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, to whom I am deeply grateful for struggling with me to scale the most difficult peaks.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eun Ju Park, president of Gimm-Young Publishers Inc., who poured out much sincerity and dedication in the process of bringing this book to publication, and to everyone in the publishing company who labored in editing the words I spoke so that the often complex content could be easily understood by readers.

Sun Myung Moon,

Cheongpyeong, South Korea, March 1, 2009

______________________________________________

The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven

Many Western people live truly lonely lives. Their children leave home once they turn eighteen, and the parents may only get to see their faces at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Many children never visit their parents to just find out how they are doing. Once people marry, they live with their spouse, independent from their family, until their parents become so old they can no longer take care of themselves. At that point, they move into a nursing home. So it is understandable that some Westerners envy the culture of the East. Many elderly people in the West think, “In the East, the grandparents live in the family as the senior members of the family, and it is really wonderful. The children respect their old parents. This is how people are supposed to live. What good is it to be lying in a nursing home, not able to see my children, not even knowing what day it is, just staying alive?”

Unfortunately, though, the Eastern family structure is also gradually deteriorating. We too are abandoning traditions that have been handed down to us for thousands of years. We have thrown away our traditional clothing, our food, and our family structure. The number of senior citizens living alone in Korea is on the rise. Each time I see stories in the news of senior citizens alone, it makes me sad. The family is where generations live together. If family members are scattered and the parents are left alone, then that is no longer a family. The extended family system is a beautiful Korean tradition.

I recommend that three generations live together as one family. I do so, not simply because it is a way of maintaining our country’s tradition. When a husband and wife have a child, they pass on all they can to that child. There is a limit, however, to how much the parents can pass on. The parents represent the present and the children the future. The grandparents represent the past. So it is only when the grandparents, parents, and children live together that the children can inherit all the fortune of the past and present. To love and respect your grandfather is to inherit the history of the past and to learn from the world of the past. The children learn precious wisdom from their parents on how to live in the present, while the parents prepare for the future by loving their children.

The grandfather is in a position to represent God. No matter how intelligent a young man may be, he cannot know all the secrets of this big world. Young people cannot know all the different secrets of life that come to us as we grow older. This is the reason the grandfather represents the history of the family. The grandfather is a precious teacher who passes on to the grandchildren all the wisdom he has acquired through the experiences he has accumulated during the course of his life.

The world’s oldest grandfather is God. So a life of receiving the grandfather’s love and of living for the sake of the grandfather is a life of coming to understand God’s love and of living for His sake. We need to maintain such a tradition in order to open the secret storehouse of God’s Kingdom and receive His treasure of love. Any country that ignores its old people abandons its national character and ignores its roots.

When autumn comes, the chestnut tree gradually loses its moisture, and its leaves begin to fall. The outer shell of the chestnut falls off, and even the inner shell that surrounds the actual nut dries up. This is the cycle of life. Human beings are the same way. We are born as infants, grow up on the love of our parents, meet a wonderful partner, and get married. All this occurs in the chain of life made up of love. In the end, we become like chestnuts becoming dry in the autumn. Old people are not a separate category of people. We all become old. We must not treat old people disrespectfully, no matter how senile they may become. There is a saying, “Anything can be accomplished when there is harmony in the home.” When there is peace in the family, everything goes well. The peaceful family is the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. The family operates on the power of love. If we love the universe as we love our families, then there is nothing to stop us from going anywhere we want. God exists in the center of love, as the Parent of the entire universe. That is why the love in the family needs to link directly to God. When the family is completed in love, the universe will be completed.

__________________________________________________

Dreaming of a Peaceful World

For years I have called for a world where all religions live together as one, all races live as one, and all nations exist as one. For thousands of years history has seen the continuous increase of divisions. Each time a different religion was adopted or a new regime came into power, more boundaries were drawn and wars were fought. Now, however, we live in an age of globalism. For the sake of the future we must become one.

One way I propose to facilitate that is through the International Peace Highway, a huge undertaking. It will link Korea and Japan by an undersea tunnel and create a bridge across the Bering Strait that separates Russia and North America. These great links can unify the world. When the highway is completed it will be possible to travel by car from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to Santiago, Chile, and from London to New York. There will be no roadblocks; the entire world will be interconnected as if by capillary vessels.

The world will become one integrated community, and everyone will be able to travel freely across international borders. Borders that give free passage to anyone will lose their significance as borders. Something similar will be true for religion. As the frequency of exchanges among religions increases, greater mutual understanding will arise, conflict will disappear, and the walls of separation will crumble. When different types of people live together in a single global community, barriers between races will come down. Interaction between races will occur despite differences in appearance and language. This cultural revolution will bring the world into one.

The Silk Road was not simply a trade route that people used in order to sell silk and buy spices. It was also a vehicle for the peoples of the East and West to meet and for Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity to meet. These different cultures intermingled and gave rise to a new culture. The International Peace Highway will play a similar role in the twentyfirst century.

Rome could thrive because all roads led to Rome. This illustrates the importance of roads. When a road is built, people use it to travel. It is used to transport culture and ideology. That is why when a road is built it changes the course of history. When the International Peace Highway is completed, the world can be physically bound together as one. The road will make this possible. I cannot overemphasize the importance of bringing the world together. Some may think that this is an idea ahead of its time. Religious people, however, foresee the future and prepare for it. So it is only natural that we are ahead of our time. The world may not understand us and may cause us to suffer, but religious believers must persevere to lead the way to the future. Completing the International Peace Highway will require the cooperation of many nations. China, which was a victim of Japanese aggression, may not welcome the idea of being connected to Japan by a highway. Japan and Korea, however, cannot connect to the rest of the world without going through China, so we need to make efforts to win China’s trust. Who will do this? Those of us who will take spiritual ownership over the International Peace Highway in the twenty-first century need to take the lead in this effort.

How about bridging the Bering Strait? It will cost a great deal, but this should not cause concern. The amount of money that the United States has spent in Iraq would be more than enough to build such a bridge. We must stop waging war and forcing people to suffer. It is perverse to start wars and squander hundreds of billions of dollars. The time has come for us to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.

The International Peace Highway is a project to bring the world together as one. To become one means more than simply connecting continents by tunnels and bridges. It refers to an equalization of the world’s standards of living. When someone monopolizes a technology and keeps the profit for himself, the balance of the world is upset. The International Peace Highway will rearrange the current inequality by creating access to existing natural and human resources. This will bring about a leveling of wealth. Leveling means that a little is taken off places that are high and added to places that are low. As a result, the two have the same height. This will require sacrifice from those with greater material possessions or knowledge. Building a world of peace cannot be done with one-time charitable acts or donations. Only sincere love and continuous sacrifice is capable of creating a world of peace. We must be willing to offer everything.

Building the International Peace Highway does more than just provide the world with a physical means of communication. Human beings are created so that their mind and body become one. Something similar is true for the world we live in. The world can be completely unified only when there is both physical communication and communication of heart.

The United Nations has done much for world peace. More than sixty years after its founding, however, the United Nations is losing sight of its original purpose and is now an organization that works for the interests of a few powerful countries. The U.N. was created to solve the conflicts that arise in the world, so it must put the world’s interests before the interests of one side or the other. It only leads to further conflict when a powerful country insists on its own way and uses force to pursue it. Unfortunately, the U.N. today is unable to do much about such situations.

In this light, I have proposed a restructuring of the United Nations as a bicameral institution. In addition to the General Assembly there would be a religious, or cultural, assembly or council. This body would consist of respected spiritual leaders in fields such as religion, culture, and education. The members of this interreligious assembly would need to demonstrate an ability to transcend the limited interests of particular religions and cultures and to speak for the spiritual and moral purposes of all humanity. I maintain that the two chambers, working together in mutual respect and cooperation, will be able to make great advances in ushering in a world of peace.

Some may oppose this, saying, “Why should religious people become involved in world affairs?” My answer is that the world today is in a period when the participation of religious people is crucial. Those who have achieved deep self-awareness through religious practice are needed now more than ever. It is only truly religious people who can stand up to the unrighteousness and evil of the world and practice true love. It is only when the knowledge and experience of political leaders are combined with the wisdom of interreligious leaders that the world will be able to find the path to true peace.

Again today I set out on my path with renewed determination to achieve that goal. My prayer is that every person on earth will be reborn as a peace-loving global citizen, transcending barriers of religion, ideology, and race.

____________________________________________________

CHAPTER HEADINGS

1: Food is Love; What I Learned about Peace While Being Carried on My Father’s Back; The Joy of Giving Food to Others; Being a Friend to All; A Definite Compass for My Life; A Stubborn Child Who Never Gives Up; Loving Nature to Learn from It; Talking about the Universe with the Insects; Ardent Student

2: A River of Heart Flows with Tears; Between Fear and Inspiration; The More It Hurts, the More You Should Love; A Knife Not Sharpened Grows Dull; A Key to Unlock a Great Secret; Like a Fireball Burning Hot; Befriending Laborers by Sharing Their Suffering; The Calm Sea of the Heart; “Please Don’t Die”; A Command That Must Be Obeyed; A Grain of Rice Is Greater Than the Earth; Heungnam Prison in the Snow; U.N. Forces Open the Prison Gate

3: The Man with the Fullest Stomach; “You Are My Spiritual Teacher”; The Crazy, Handsome Man by the Well; A Church with No Denomination; Two Universities Expel Students and Professors; New Buds Grow on Scorched Branches; We Are Trained by Our Wounds; A Sincere Heart Is Most Important

4: Why We Work Globally; Paying the Ultimate Price to Follow God’s Path; Money Earned Honorably, Used Prayerfully; Power of Dance Moves the World; Angels Open a Path through a Dark Forest; World Tour Last Plane to America; Our Future Lies with the Ocean; Reverend Moon, Seed for a New American Revolution; Washington Monument, 1976; Cry Not for Me but for the World; “Why Does My Father Have to Go to Jail?”

5: True Families Create True People; My Wife, Hak Ja Han Moon; An Incomparable Inner Beauty; Promises That Must Never Be Broken; To Love Is to Give and Forget; The Peaceful Family Is the Building Block of Heaven; Ten Years of Tears Melt a Father-in-Law’s Heart; The True Meaning of Marriage; True Love Is Found in True Families; Leaving Behind a Legacy of Love

6: Love Will Bring Unification; The Power of Religion to Turn People to Goodness; The River Does Not Reject the Waters That Flow into It; “Allow Freedom of Religion in the Soviet Union”; Korea’s Unification Will Bring World Unification; My Meeting with President Kim Il Sung; The Land May Be Divided, but Not Its People; Not by Guns or Swords, but by True Love

7: Future of Korea, Future of the World; World Harmony and the Korean Peninsula; From Suffering and Tears to Peace and Love; The Ultimate Purpose of Twenty-first-Century Religion; Cultural Projects Express God’s Creativity; Master of the Seas and the Future of the World; Great Opportunity in the Oceanic Era; A Single Dandelion Is More Precious Than Gold; Solution to Poverty and Hunger; More Than Giving Bread, Teaching How to Make Bread

8: Message for Young People; Find Your Purpose, Change Your Life; Embrace the World; Everything We Have Is Borrowed from Heaven; Happiness Is a Life Lived for Others; Dreaming of a Peaceful World.

________________________________________________

Some testimonies from readers in Korea

“I am a Christian. My church tells me that Rev. Moon is a devil. I love to read GimmYoungSa books. I felt betrayed by the company, asked why did it sell its soul to the devil? Strange… This is the best company in Korea. It published so many Christian books, too. What a contradiction. They say the company spent three years preparing the publication. I had to find out for myself. So I bought the book. I couldn’t stop reading it. Was this stuff true or a fabrication? This is not one man’s life, this is an epic! I felt sorrow, sadness, pride – I was overcome by a whole range of emotions, and I could not lay down the book until I finished it at 4 o’clock in the morning. My conclusion – this man is real. Next question is – who is this man?! Whatever the answer is, everyone who loves peace and wants to do away with prejudice should read this book. I read it again and underlined all the important passages for myself. Who can persevere through so much persecution, prison, torture other than a saint? Thank you GimmYoungSa - I can believe in you again!”

“Once I started reading, I could not stop until I finished it all. It is not your regular page-turner – the book touches the depth of your soul, pierces your heart… I never believed people like Rev. Moon could live in this day and age... His attitude and the scale of things he accomplished go way out of the range of other contemporary outstanding individuals such as Cardinal Kim Su Hwan or monk Seong Cheol. I feel he is the first real, true religious person.”

“This book is going to be a great hit.  After reading this book myself, I went to the room where my middle-school-aged son was busy preparing for his tests. I gave him Rev. Moon’s autobiography and said, “Son, put down your textbooks, this reading comes first!”

________________________________________________

This booklet is excerpted from  AS A PEACE-LOVING GLOBAL CITIZEN by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, translated and produced in the United States of America, by The Washington Times Foundation, Inc., 3600 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002

Copyright 2009 by The Washington Times Foundation, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except for use in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

This edition is a limited advance release for presentation and review purposes, and not for commercial distribution or sale. Effort has been made by translators, editors and the producer to accurately represent the Korean edition, but this edition is not considered final.

Original publication was in the Korean language by Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc., Seoul, Korea, March 9, 2009

Thanks to Mission Foundation, Inc. of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. for their permission and support of this English edition

-----------------------------------------------------

Africa Day Celebrated in New York

“Africa Reshaping Global Agenda,” says UN Secretary-General on Africa Day
Speaking at the New York City celebration of Africa Day, May 25 2010 hosted by the African Union in partnership with the Universal Peace Federation , United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that peace and sustainable development in Africa was one of the world body’s priorities, and outlined a major personal effort that will take him to the continent no less than three times in the coming month.
A crowd of over 600 gathered for a glittering celebration of Africa Day at the Manhattan Center in  New York
“By consistently reminding the international community of its responsibility to the most vulnerable, and affirming that we are all members of a global family of nations, Africa has helped to reshape the global agenda,” he said. “That partnership continues, and every UN entity is working closely with African partners to tackle internal strife, attempts at unconstitutional changes of power, violence against civilians — especially women — the challenges of youth unemployment, and the burdens of disease, climate change and food insecurity.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Africa Day celebration congratulating the Ambassadors of  the African Union
Ban Ki Moon said that Africa is helping to reshape the global agenda by reminding us we are one family.	H.E. Tommo Monthe, Vice President of the UN General Assembly and Chair of the Africa Group for May
“Still, we must do more, and we will,” he said. Next month the UN Secretary-General is scheduled to visit a Millennium Village in Malawi to assess first-hand the progress being made towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. “The evidence is encouraging,” he said, “and suggests that when we make real efforts, we can succeed. But we don’t, we fail.”
Mme.Desiree Juliette Tendeng Badji	H.E. Téte António, African Union	Taj Hamad, UPF
Earlier, messages marking the 47th Africa Day and the 50th Anniversary of Independence for 17 African nations were read on behalf of the President of the General Assembly by H.E. Mr. Michel Tommo Monthe, Ambassador of Cameroon, Vice-President of the UN General Assembly and Chair of the Africa Group for the month of May. He was followed by H.E. Mr. Téte António, Permanent Representative of the African Union.
“As we join with the nations celebrating their 50th Anniversary of Independence,”  Téte António said, “it is also time to strategically assess the challenges and opportunities facing our continent, especially with regard to the twin issues of peace and security.” Mr. Taj Hamad, Secretary-General of the Universal Peace Federation spoke about the role of the family in creating a world of peace.”It is in the family that we learn to see the face of God in each other,” he said.
H.E. Ban Ki Moon with some of the women leaders who made the evening possible
After cutting the cake celebrating the 50 years of Independence of 17 African nations, the more than 600 guests in attendance turned their attention to an amazing and festive banquet featuring food from all 53 African nations, prepared with a great deal of care and attention by respective members of the UN African Ambassadors Spouses Group and the President, Madame Desiree Juliette Tendeng Badji, who also addressed the gathering.
As the evening continued the Manhattan Center resonated with the sounds of a  musical journey across Africa with songs from Senegal, rhythmical drum beats of Nigeria and Ghana and dances from Egypt; Rai music from Algeria brings in movement and dance, griot singers from Mali and Gnaowa singers from Morocco and many, many more. It was indeed a worthy celebration of the contribution that Africa has made and is making to the world community.
The growing role of Africa as a sporting power was another theme of the evening, with several speakers looking forward to the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This year Africa has an unprecedented six teams competing in the world’s biggest sporting event. “By presenting sport as a powerful instrument for peace promotion, we would like to reassert our faith in the values inherent to sports which are consonant with universal values and our shared African values.” said African Union President Jean Ping, in written remarks.
UPF Worldwide Africa Day Celebrations: In Moscow, UPF joined the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Africa in a conference “Africa Day – 50 years of Freedom”. In partnership with the largest Russian interethnic NGO “The Assembly of the Peoples of Russia” UPF then celebrated Africa Day in the House of the People of Russia in a joyful program attended by many African ambassadors. Other UPF celebrations took place in Washington DC and as far afield as Lagos, Luanda, London, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Stockholm, Delhi and Kathmandu.
Africa Day Celebration with Ambassadors in Washington DC	Africa Day celebration in the Russian Hall of the People
UPF Seminar on Peace & Security, London	UPF Peace Seminar, Lagos University, Nigeria

Dr. Michael Balcomb
Communications Director
Universal Peace Federation

Rev. In Jin Moon's Sermon on June 21, 2009

 

---

Good morning, brothers and sisters. Welcome to Lovin’ Life Ministry. We’re delighted to have you here. Wasn’t the band incredible? And wasn’t Il Hwa Yokpore incredible? There’s a lot of woman power in the house, brothers and sisters. But we know that today is a very special Sunday because we are celebrating Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all the men in the room.

Here at Lovin’ Life Ministry we have lots of exciting things going on all the time. This last weekend was no exception. On Friday we had an open mike night at headquarters at 43^rd Street, where a whole group of young people got together. My husband said to me, “I never knew there was so much talent in one room.” He said the drummers were fantastic, the singers were fantastic. But more important than the talent that was congregating in the room was the spirit of truly sharing this precious time with one another and sharing in the joy that artistic expression can bring to one another. My husband had a wonderful time.

That’s one of the advantages of being married to Rev. In Jin Moon because while I have to attend to matters of faith and take care of a lot of things that concern headquarters or our congregation, my husband gets to go and attend open mike night with the young people. He had a fantastic time. Whenever he comes back from a meeting like that, his eyes are glowing, and he’s so excited. And even though he is well known in my family for not being able to even carry a note, he starts singing and humming. I say to myself, “I guess the spirit is really moving in my husband tonight.”

When I think about fathers, my thoughts always turn to my father, who is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. He’s a very special person in my life. He’s a wonderful man and a very compelling man. He’s also a very funny man; he loves to crack jokes all the time. One of the things that I’ve noticed from a very young age is that he is really an absolute man in the sense that he’s a real human being. He can be sitting across a table, talking to Mikhail Gorbachev, or he can be sitting in the room talking to Margaret Thatcher or sitting next to a homeless person. The man, his integrity, and his character are always the same. He is absolute, no matter what the environment or where the situation takes him.

It’s so unusual for a man to be so real and so comfortable in his own skin. I remember one time he was meeting with a group of scientists, and one scientist got up and asked, “Reverend Moon, what’s your favorite color?” Then my father said, “I see no color. I see light.” But then the scientist pressed further and said, “Yes, but Reverend Moon, there are so many wonderful crayons in the crayon box to choose from. Which color would you choose?”

My father gave such an interesting answer—from a woman’s point of view one I thought was incredibly delicious. He said, “My favorite color is pink.” I kid you not! You could have heard a pin drop. And the scientist had to ask my father again, “Reverend Moon, what is your favorite color?” My father said so confidently and with so much pride, “My favorite color is pink.” Then the scientist pressed a little further and asked, “Why is your favorite color pink?” My father gave what I thought was an incredibly profound answer, one that I remember to this day. It is the reason why I love to buy my husband pink shirts, pink socks, pink underwear, and pink neckties. Anything in the men’s store that I can find in pink, you can be sure that my husband has in his closet.

The answer that my father gave is, “Pink is the color of love. It is like the color on the skin when a man first spots a beautiful woman and in her beauty is so overtaken by her light and who she is that he blushes when she gazes upon his face. It’s the color of first love.”

This is a beautiful, beautiful answer. I’ve thought about it from time to time. That is a true man, a man who can get up in front of a room full of scientists and declare to the whole room that his favorite color is pink because it is the color of true love. He is so real with himself and with all of us and so absolute in knowing who he is, especially in understanding that he is God’s son, that no matter where this man goes, he brings the gift of true love. He brings the gift of service, he brings the gift of excellence, and he shares with us the gift of his integrity and character.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my father was that he is forever unchanging and uncompromising. When he turned 16 and was praying on Easter Sunday morning, Jesus Christ came to him and said, “I need you to fulfill my mission.” Jesus told him the story of how he did not come to die but came to fulfill the true love of God, to inherit the true love of God, and become the true olive branch through which all humanity can engraft themselves and find true life, true love, and true lineage. Jesus Christ asked my father, “Please, fulfill my mission in perfecting yourself as an individual, and then find a perfect Eve, a perfect woman. Together please stand in the position as the True Parents of humankind, representing the feminine and the masculine qualities of our Heavenly Parent, God. Help everyone graft onto the true olive tree and bring this world into God’s family, one family under God.”

Ever since that time, when my father responded yes, he has never wavered. Here he is at the ripe old age of 90, and he is still going strong. He is forever unchanging. Once this man commits, he commits for life. And once this man devotes his life to a cause, to bringing world peace, he will not stop until his last breath. This is the kind of man that my father is.

Here is a man who is unchanging, uncompromising, and unwavering, smack in the middle of our lives, where everything is changing and in flux. Many times our relationships are going through difficulties, so it’s incredibly wonderful to know that you have a secure man in the room who will always be unchanging, uncompromising, and unwavering. He becomes an anchor not just for my life but also in yours when you accept him as your father.

In this way my father has helped a lot of us overcome our individual difficulties. Whenever we’re going through difficult times, we think about our True Parents. But, more importantly, we think about our Heavenly Parent, who is God.

My father is a man who has been in and out of prison six times in his life. I read an interview that he gave a long time ago about his experiences in Hung Nam prison, which was the notorious concentration camp of North Korea. He was thrown into jail for speaking the word of God in a communist country, for wanting to teach the people, for gathering them in Bible study. Most recently he was thrown into prison in Danbury, Connecticut, and served over a year there. But probably the most difficult prison that my father had to survive was Hung Nam prison, where he was for over three years.

My father told the story about how there were so many people in Hung Nam and so much work to be done, moving 40 or 50-pound sacks of lime on their backs each and every day for a fertilizer factory. And depending on how many sacks they were able to move to a particular storage area, they would be allotted a certain amount of food and water. But there was very little. They got only one meal a day, and it would be a very salty soup. My father likes to call it water with a bit of salt. That was the soup. And a rice ball the size of a tennis ball. That was all they had to eat.

In a place like that, where you have very little but you are so tired and you’re always hoping that they would feed you more, my father said that the sense of hunger becomes so acute, the only thing that people think about is when they’re going to be fed. In Hung Nam, when the rice balls came around, human beings literally turned into a pack of wolves, diving upon the person bringing the rice balls, trying to take them from other people, literally clawing another person’s eyes. Or if a poor exhausted soul happened to fall down, choking on his rice ball because he ate it too quickly, then the other prisoners would scoop the remainder of that rice ball out of his mouth, as if this man were a limp carcass. This was the kind of environment that my father survived for over three years.

He explained how he survived. He said, “The only reason I survived is because I had an absolute faith in God, and because I was practicing putting my mind over my body, over the desires of the flesh for that rice ball.” My father trained his mind to think of that rice ball as a huge feast such as what you have at the beginning of the year or at a family celebration. He imagined that every grain of rice symbolized a fantastic dish. One grain of rice became hot and sour soup, stir-fried rice, orange beef, Buddha’s delight. This was how he ate and appreciated each grain of rice.

He said another way that he was able to constantly keep his spirit was, after receiving that rice ball in his hand, immediately cutting it in half and sharing the other half with other prisoners. He would eat only one half of the ration allotted a prisoner. But when he ate this half, he said to himself, “I’m eating more than that other person. I gave only a spoonful of my rice ball to him, but I get half a rice ball. I gave another person another spoonful, but I still have half. And I gave the sick man sitting over there against the wall another spoonful, but I have half a rice ball.”

He taught himself how to be grateful. He taught himself to take less, to give himself a little less, but to reward himself spiritually in exercising his creativity to say he’s enjoying an incredible feast.

As time wore on and the work got more and more difficult, my father would add that one tablespoon of rice that he used to give another person onto his own rice. Then that became a feast upon a feast. As the years wore on and he became weak and tired, he would take that other tablespoon of rice and eat it along with his half ration, and he would feel another reward, another blessing. In this way he was able to keep on going.

He said that his eternal spirit, his absolute belief in God, his unchanging commitment and his loyalty to what he believed he was given this life for were the reason he survived. When he was released from Hung Nam prison because of the Allied forces and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, he gave the greatest thanks to Heavenly Father by truly honoring Him with his life.

He decided to come to this country and give his life for America. He brought all of us here together with him. I’ve seen my father over the last three decades go through a lot of difficult situations and deal with a lot of challenging issues that arise from leading a worldwide movement such as ours. But one thing I have always known is that my father is an incredibly grounded and solid man.
I still remember an instance when he was giving a speech, I believe in California, and there was a heckler in the audience. Because my father is a public man, whenever he gives a public speech there is usually a security person standing on the side of the stage and in the back. In this instance, the heckler starting verbally attacking my father, calling him a brainwasher. He rushed onto the stage, and we saw the security men rushing to grab him, tackling him. All the while my father was serene, still at the pulpit, very much himself, very real, very solid. He reminded me of an Indian chief who basically said to the white man, “No move.” There was nothing that could push my father around because he was so complete in knowing that he was God’s son, that he had every right to be there, and that he had every right to share our Heavenly Parent’s glory to the world.

That left a visual imprint for me as to how I need to live my life. Being a mother, raising five kids, dealing with all the things that go on in my house, I visualize this image of my no-move father, who has such conviction, dignity, and the pride that he is God’s son. When I visualize this, I realize that I am my father’s daughter, that I am God’s daughter.

I think if you were to take a moment and visualize this image of my father, you would come to realize that you are God’s son or God’s daughter and that you are an absolutely incredible human being. As a daughter, I marvel at this man who has been in and out of prison six times. In his recent autobiography, he describes himself as the fullest man, meaning he is so full. If you eat a big meal, you are the fullest person in the room, right? But what he means by this is he is the most full in the world in that he has been the most persecuted, the most misunderstood, and the most accused.

He said in his autobiography that they say in Asia that when you receive a pouch full of persecution and accusation, it should last you a lifetime, meaning that it takes a lifetime to digest so much accusation, misunderstanding, and persecution. But my father said, “I am so full of that misunderstanding and persecution, it would probably take one hundred lifetimes to digest all the persecution and accusation that I received over the years”.

When I read this, I asked myself, “What drives this incredible man to do what he does, when he is the fullest man in the world?” You know what it is? Jesus asked my father to fulfill his responsibility because Jesus was not able to finish it because he was crucified, and Heavenly Father is asking my father to substantiate one true family on earth. What my father is doing is what is inside his heart, going through his life of faith, going through these difficulties. He has come to realize this through many hours and years of prayer, getting callused elbows and knees. He realized that God is our parent; he is just like us in that he needs love. He wants love. He wants to experience happiness. But my father has come to realize that because of the human Fall, God lost his children and has become the God of suffering.

When my father first said this to us children, that our Heavenly Parent is a God of suffering, that profoundly moved me. I started to visualize God and asked myself, “If God could truly express what he was feeling through music, how would he express himself?” I thought, if God were a musician, he would play the blues. I very much saw God as somebody like Duke Ellington or like B. B. King, who takes an old, lean guitar, speaks to it, and plays it with all his soul, singing about how his heart is gone, how he’s suffering because he lost his children, “My child is gone.” This is what I heard in my mind, set to the beat of the blues. This is what God has been playing for the last 6,000 years because he lost his children to the Fall.

God, as a Heavenly Parent, is creating the world because he wants to realize true love, and he creates men and women, sons and daughters, because he wants to realize and actualize true love, wants to have an object through which he can experience the joys of fatherhood, the joys of motherhood. As great as God is, as omniscient and omnipotent as he might be, and as beautiful and as handsome as you might be, it doesn’t matter if you’re all alone in the world, sitting on a throne all by yourself, saying “I’m so powerful, I’m so all-knowing, am I not magnificent?” You can’t even ask a question without it coming back to you. “Yes, you are, Mommy; yes, you are, Daddy.”

It doesn’t matter how beautiful or handsome you are. If you have nobody to share that beauty or handsomeness with, you can stand in front of a mirror for all of eternity but you will never feel love. You will never feel satisfied; you will never feel full.

When children become teens, they spend a great deal of time in front of a mirror. Sometimes I would be passing through my kids’ rooms and I would see my lovely daughter Arianna brushing her hair. Looking at her face, such a beautiful face, I would say to myself, “I have this beautiful daughter whom I adore. As a mother, what do I want for her? I don’t want her to be beautiful forever in front of a mirror, enjoying her beauty herself. I want her to share that beauty with an absolutely handsome, exciting man, so that she can experience how it feels to be loved, how it feels to be embraced, how it feels to be kissed, how it feels to be told, ‘I love you more than life itself.’ This is what I want for my child.”

That’s the heart of a parent. When each of you young ones become older and wiser and mature in love and you are ready for this wonderful thing called marriage, it means that you have prepared your life for that special day, for that special someone. This is when you can really practice and experience the life of true love that God wanted his first son and daughter, Adam and Eve, to experience so much.

Why is God broken-hearted? When God thought about his children, he wanted to give them the three blessings of being fruitful, multiplying, and having dominion over creation. These are kind of archaic words, but if you really think about it, what God wanted for Adam and Eve is no different from what we as parents today want for our sons and daughters. We want them to be fruitful—to perfect themselves individually, to become the perfect embodiment of this quality called true love so they can properly mature enough to be a fruit that’s ripe enough to be eaten.

The most damaging thing, the thing we want least for our children, is for them to be broken-hearted, to be broken people. There is nothing in the universe more powerful than love. Love has the power to create, but it also has the power to destroy. That’s why when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful then multiply, and then have dominion, he was talking to his children about the process that a child, a son or daughter, would naturally go through in the stages of life.

Nowadays when we talk about teenagers, the notions of keeping pure, waiting, and abstinence are almost dirty words. But if you really think about it and if you really think about what your parents are asking you to do, it’s not a denial but simply preparation, waiting and growing yourself, finding out who you are before you take on the responsibility to love another human being. You’ve got to know who you are before you can extend yourself and love another person.

You see, this didn’t happen with Adam and Eve. They were supposed to grow up and be fruitful, work on themselves, work on putting their mind over their body, work on how to subjugate and overcome the desires of the flesh with the power of the spirit. They were meant to work on that on a daily basis, practice, and apply the principles of true love by sacrificing, by living for the sake of others, by learning how to understand the importance of delayed gratification. These are the things that God wanted Adam and Eve to do in their individual stage. The Heavenly Parent wanted Adam and Eve to be a perfect man and a perfect woman in becoming mature in love.

But we know that God gave Adam and Eve another commandment, “Eat of any fruit in the garden, but do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Many people have had theological debates about what the fruit actually was. Some people have understood it to be an apple. When I was a little girl I had a debate with my younger sister, trying to figure out what fruit Adam and Eve bit into. I was giving my reasons why it should be a peach, not an apple. My sister was saying no, it’s got to be a banana. We had this debate in front of my father and mother, and then my little brother chimed in and said, “No, it’s got to be a pineapple because a pineapple has all these cones and it really, really hurts. So that’s why God told Adam and Eve not to bite into a pineapple.”

We were all just elementary school age, trying to figure out what this fruit was. In the corner of the room my parents were watching with a bit of curiosity and smiling. My father said, “So you think it’s a pineapple, eh? And you think it’s a peach?” I gave my reasons why it would be a peach, which is so beautiful and even has protective fur around it. It almost looks like God is giving it extra special attention. An apple just has a skin, but a peach has fur.

My younger sister said, “But it’s got to be a banana because it comes in a pack. It doesn’t come alone; and it has all these pieces, representing the different days of the week.” The banana she had that day came from a bunch of seven bananas on a little vine. She said, “See, it’s like seven days of the week, so it’s providential. It’s got to be a banana.”

My father let this conversation continue and did not tell us for a long time exactly what the fruit was. But when we learn the Divine Principle and realize that the greatest power in the universe is love, which God wanted to actualize through the form of a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, we can begin to understand why the fruit must symbolize sexual love. The sexual love that’s not misused, that’s properly prepared, that’s properly eaten, and that’s properly enjoyed gives the greatest satisfaction and a feeling of fulfillment to a man and a woman as a couple as they start their family life.

When God was asking Adam and Eve to wait a while, what God was saying was, “Eve, look, you’re developing into a beautiful woman. You’re no longer a child. You’re developing breasts, you’re developing hips, you’re developing a gleam in your eye. Your eyelashes are becoming longer to attract that special someone every time you blink.” God was saying, “Look, Adam, how incredible you are.” Maybe Adam was working out with a five-pound rock in the garden. You never know. I know that my boys and a lot others out there spend an inordinate amount of time with barbells. Maybe our first ancestor didn’t have a barbell, but I’m sure he had a rock. Maybe God saw with great delight Adam working on his biceps, working on his legs, working on his abs. Maybe he was doing abdominal crunches.

God was basically saying, “Look, just as much as you work on your biceps, and just as much as Eve, you are preparing physically to give birth as a mother, you need to understand that the most important thing that you can do as a man and a woman is to come together as husband and wife, and to take part in a creative expression of love that can result in a beautiful family.” That’s what God wanted for Adam and Eve.

God asked them to please not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because God wanted them to wait for the proper time when they could fully experience the glory of being one with God, of being one with each other.

We know that this did not happen, and we know that there was a misuse of love. Adam and Eve bit into the apple, they “ate” sexual love before God said that they were ready to be husband and wife. That is the reason why the heavenly lineage that our Heavenly Parent wanted to pass down through Adam and Eve was lost forever. That’s why God has been a suffering God, playing the blues for 6,000 years, because he lost his children to the satanic realm. He’s been waiting all this time. He’s raised up great champions along the way—Abraham, Noah, Isaac, and especially Jesus Christ.

God waited 2,000 years for his son, Jesus. But God did not have the pleasure of seeing that son build an ideal family of his own. So God had to wait another 2,000 years for this opportunity that we have now, when we have our True Parents here, the first man and first woman who have restored providential history and can absolutely stand in the position as the first True Parents. That’s why our True Parents are so important; they represent the true lineage through which we ourselves can have and share in the true lineage of God and thereby literally become one family under God.

When your parents are asking you to wait a little, to please work on yourself, they’re not taking anything away from you by saying, “Please don’t have a boyfriend. Please don’t have a broken heart. Please don’t be a broken person.” Nothing destroys a person like the wounds of love that happen when you are broken in love, when you date one man and another, when you have casual relationships.

Men start looking at women as a composite of body parts. When you start serial dating, you’re not treating each and every girl you meet as the daughter of God, as a daughter who has absolute divinity in her and will become a wonderful wife and wonderful mother some day. You’re not looking at that woman as a specimen of true love that comes from God, our Heavenly Parent. You’re looking at her in terms of her body parts. You’re looking at those gorgeous eyes, at the breasts, or, as my sisters call them, the kajungas. You’re looking at the kajungas and not realizing that this is a daughter of God. Or you’re looking at the bun-buns and not realizing that she is a daughter of God.

The reason why my father and your parents are asking you to wait is because we don’t want you to be just another object that a person uses and throws out. This is because you are an incredible person. You are an incredible daughter. You are an incredible specimen of a human being that deserves to be honored, loved, and appreciated as God’s daughter, not somebody who is to be used for immediate gratification and then tossed aside like garbage. This is what our Heavenly Parent doesn’t want

The Heavenly Parent, your parents, or my father and mother are asking the gentlemen in the audience to wait. The problem is, if you don’t wait and start dating and go through women like a Rolodex file, then you don’t realize that you’re denying yourself the pleasure of having a truly transcendent experience. No matter how great sex might be for young people, it’s just mechanical if you don’t have love. Then we are no different from animals. If you don’t have love, you cannot feel this incredible power that comes from knowing that you’re loving somebody who is going to be there, committed to you for eternity, whether you’re having a bad hair day or a good one, whether you’re sick or whether you’re happy because this person made a commitment to God. And he made a commitment to live his life to honor and appreciate you as the true daughter that you really are.

When a man waits, then he learns to value a woman as something other than the body parts. The man learns that just as he loves his sister, he sees a woman as someone who might be a sister of someone else. Or she could be a mother of a child or the wife of a future husband. When you start seeing human beings in the proper roles that they are meant to play, then they’re no longer objects. They become the incredibly gifted, talented, and awesome human beings that we all are. That’s the gift that our parents and your parents want for you.

It took a tremendous amount of work just to get to where we are. Your parents sacrificed so much to give you this opportunity to graft onto the true olive branch and to be a part of this worldwide community. This precious time is not going to come again. This is a great opportunity for us to share with the world that we are not meant to waste our lives in casual relationships, in relationships where we use and abuse each other. The meaning and the mission of our lives is to perfect ourselves individually, to be fruitful, and to multiply, finding that special someone who has the same commitment as you do to God, our Heavenly Parent. This means that the qualities of God, such as being absolute, unchanging, and eternal, are the very qualities that you will have in your marriage. And this will give you security so that you will have the strength and the anchor with which you can go through life as a proud son or daughter of God.

Brothers and sisters, when I speak to my children, I say to them, “You need to work on yourself. That’s going to take a little time. Then you’ll meet this really awesome person who’s going to honor, love, and cherish you for the rest of your life. And you know what? It’s not going to be easy, but if you work on yourself, then you will know how difficult it is to become a perfect embodiment of true love. So when you meet another person, you will see it as an opportunity to grow as a couple, an opportunity to grow as a family, and not just something that you receive.”

I always tell my children, “We want to have a marriage that lasts forever, but in order to have a marriage that lasts forever, you’ve got to practice the meaning of absolute, unchanging, and eternal. Do you want just fast food and not the gorgeous restaurant with candlelight, violins serenading in the background, a delectable six-course full meal?” This is the difference that God is asking you to look at. Do you want sex, do you want the mechanics? Or do you want love? Do you want to experience true love and create something wonderful like these munchkins that I call my kids, who are absolutely the joy of my life? They are so delicious; it’s like biting into a peach, a banana, a grapefruit, and a pineapple all in one.

This is what our Heavenly Parent wants. And those children become great people, great in their chosen area, for instance a swimmer like Michael Phelps, who won all those gold medals. Not only will they bring pride and honor to their families but to the community, and not just to the community but to the world. And in this natural way of growth and prosperity, they will come to own their own world and not be controlling people but take ownership of their lives, communities, country, and the world by truly taking care of it, nurturing it, and serving it.

If everybody does this, brothers and sisters, the world peace that we’re waiting for will be just around the bend. It is truly within our hands.

When we gaze into the beautiful eyes of our children, we’re always teaching them, “Look, you guys are awesome kids. You are so talented—reach for the moon and beyond.” But those of you sitting in the audience have already touched the moon. Have you not met Reverend Moon? Are you not in the room with another Reverend Moon? You’ve not only reached the moon, you’ve touched the moon, and you’ve harvested on the moon.

So think about what you can do in your life. The sky’s the limit. The kind of people that your children can be, the sky’s the limit. Here we are in the middle of New York City. The Italians have it right. They have a beautiful song that is sung everywhere. When I go to the Italian section of New York, I always hear someone singing it somewhere. The words go something like this: “When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.” It’s true love time.

When the moon hits your eye like the big pizza pie, what my father is throwing at you is saying, it’s amore. It’s love, and it’s true love, which is the most important thing. It is something worth waiting for.

So young people in the audience, reach for the moon, go beyond, and become the great sons and daughters that you are and that you were meant to be. Have a blessed Sunday. God bless.