Chapter 7 Part 3
The Life Of The Blessed Family
1. The Blessed Family Should Be A Good Example
Blessed families should feel the mission to determine the future of the whole. A couple and children are in a family. The family should not become a slave of habit. The family is the starting point of the four position foundation. Oneness of husband and wife is absolutely needed here. You should unite with the original standard which God desires.
In establishing a family-level foundation, when a wife fits into the husband, when a husband fits into the wife, and when the children become one, the family will be blessed. Now is the age of family salvation. We should restore the family; there's no better witnessing than that. A couple should pray in tears holding the children's hands at the break of day, so that the children sing songs of yearning for their parents when they are away from home.
From now on, we should anathematize things worthy of cutting with a dagger. You are not supposed to do it on your own. The Unification Church is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven; that's why we are to look for the family, not an individual. Do you understand? The family department will be the most important post in our church. A person who cannot be a good example in family life will receive worldwide and cosmic blame.
The Blessing is precious after fulfilling the condition of responsibility. Men shouldn't create fist fights and women should be careful with their mouths. They should not use the abusive language of the secular world. They should be different in some way. The family is the micro-church; it should be the agency of heaven. It should be the family that God wants to visit. At least three families should run one household. First, a family should be the place where many people can come and go; the harmony among men is most important. Second, heavenly families should be united into one. At least a trinity of families should be completely one.
We center on the family, not on the individual. This doesn't mean that everything is to be cut off centering upon a family; rather, the whole should be linked up centering upon a family. The effort to cultivate a solitary moral life is not enough. You should determine to make several times more effort than before.
We are apt to be tired and retreat from the life of challenging evil. After having a family, you should make several times more effort than you did when you were single.
The family is the axis for fixing the focus. We cannot escape this reality. The relationship of "front and rear," "right and left," and "up and down" should be established in a family.
The form of faith that you had in the past is not enough, nor is your former one-sided attitude of faith enough.
Individual prayer worked when you were single; but if there's even one opposing person in a family, the family has to penetrate the problem together, shouldering the cross of disunity until the original standard is met. An individual is like a railroad car and a family is like a locomotive. It is simple to restore an individual mistake but the mistake of a family leads directly to rupture.
The family is important. If one partner fails, no relationship can be made. When a virgin and a bachelor are in love, they usually forget all their ideals. The starting point of everything for us is the family. When you fight insisting on your own opinions, the nation and Heaven and earth will perish. The family is the hole through which we can breathe.
Individual faith can grow well when one meets a good leader; but in a family, everybody should be the leader to one another. For whom and for what a family exists is the problem. **
The nest of Sabbath for children is the love and pride that they have toward their parents.
We need a foundation of complete unity between parents and children in a family. But what will it be worth if there's no nation, even though you have many children? Nothing will be useful if there's no nation.
When the loyal subjects a long time ago received something good, they offered it to the king of the nation first. That was the regulation of the life of loyalty in Korea.
In that perspective, Korean courtesy has heavenly contents which are not found in any other nation. The Confucianists follow Confucianism and there are quite a lot of manners prescribed in Confucian teachings which are similar to heavenly law.
You should make your descendants perform a sacrificial rite for you. So far, the regulations of life and the procedure for holding a funeral have not been established centering upon the Principle; but from the time the standard is set up, you shouldn't behave on your own. You should develop and keep the vitality of life to survive and grow no matter what kind of storm comes, overcoming your environment and taking root deeply centering upon the mind that God is always with us in every situation. If you become like that, heavenly law will not be a big problem; but if you don't become like that, problems will arise.
Don't treat your ancestors as real ancestors. There were good forefathers among the ancestors born after Adam, but anyway they were unfaithful to God -- that's why you shouldn't treat them as your ancestors. Then who is our ancestor? Our fallen ancestors cannot be considered as such. But among them, there were outstanding chosen ancestors. We have focused upon Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus in the Bible in order to honor their hard work for God. So centering upon such faithful ancestors, we are to unite. Let's serve and attend the Father whom they were calling, whom they were attending and whom they were living for, as our Father.
2. The Family Life Of Blessed Families
Pledge of the Families:
We families, the center of the cosmos, brothers and sisters vertically connected and flesh and blood of the True Parents before the new heaven, pledge and swear before the True Parents to become worthy of possessing the glory of victors by maintaining our positions in responsible activities and by observing the family laws and traditions decreed by heaven. This I pledge.
Because original human beings are born through the bond represented by the content of the "Pledge of the Families," they are to live and die within this Pledge. We should be able to read this Pledge without any guilt.
We have been living and speaking carelessly, but now we should establish regulations in our families. Parents shouldn't beat their children due to anger or speak secular words of condemnation to them. Now, everybody should be one. Words, attitudes and way of life should be one, centering upon God.
The Blessing doesn't have any meaning in one generation itself. It is no more than one man and one woman living together. Then, what is the providential content of an individual's Blessing? It is not enough for the blessed families to live according to their original minds, but they should establish a four position foundation centering upon God. Because human history started from the fall centering upon Satan, it should be restored centering upon God. It is inevitable for fallen man.
In order for the head family to thrive, the family members are to accept and conscientiously practice the family rules and etiquette. But people with an attitude such as, "Those rules have nothing to do with me," cannot be the offspring of the head family. Such a one cannot be the heir of the head family even if he is born as its eldest son.
How to maintain the pure blood lineage coming from God is the challenge. It is significant to keep the pure blood lineage in an unchangeable condition, not as blood which has the possibility to fall. We must care sincerely about this. It is very difficult to become pure in this fallen world; the first human beings fell even though they were in the unstained Garden of Eden. Various problems are involved here. The blessed parents born in the fallen world, in spite of their suffering, should make an unstained environment for their blessed children. It is Father's thought to prepare such an environment as quickly as possible for the second generation, no matter what sacrifices are entailed. We have to hurry.
In order for you Americans to be liberated from the sinful world, you shouldn't have the concept that you are American citizens. Instead of thinking that you are American or Korean, you should have the concept that "I'm God's person, the object of Heaven." You should dedicate your life as if you are sharpening a dagger to cut cruelly the sinful nature which permeates the customs and habits of the fallen world, including the language, clothes, shoes and women's cosmetics. This dedicated life can liberate the sinful world. There's no way to subjugate the sinful world unless we get victory over the secular history, habits and bad customs which pervade the environment.
You will have to be liberated from such bad environmental conditions if you want to become a true person, restore a true nation and to go to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Your family shouldn't become secularized and slaves of habit. You shouldn't think, "Things will be better in the future even though it's terrible now." You are to be perfect now; the present is the problem. When the past and the present are perfect, the future will be perfect. Not having a perfect day in the Garden of Eden is the evidence which corroborates the fall. The place where the past, the present and the future can be united into one is the ideal.
You should be able to offer "the Present." God's desire is to set up the eternal stepping stone on earth. This is the historical synthetic point.
If you lead one year with the standard of sincerity which you felt on God's Day, your daily life will be influenced. And if you lead the family tradition with such a sincere heart, your offspring will never diminish.
The reason for the destruction of the Israelites after they entered Canaan is that they become routinized and their mental focus settled on the life of eating and luxury. The Israelites who became wealthy even married the Gentiles. They were after power and fond of knowledge. They perished because they assimilated the ready-made Canaanite culture and sold the spirit of the chosen ones to the Gentiles.
Don't become a slave to bad habits. Habits are the worst illness. If you lead a habitual life after marriage while rearing your children, habits become part of your body. You will no longer find time for prayer or special heartistic offerings in such an environment. There is no time for prayer when the children make noise right beside you.
3. The Life Of Husband And Wife In A Blessed Family
Blessed families should renounce the conventional concept of living. The ideal couple that God originally desired was to return glory to God, but instead the fallen couple returned sadness to God. There is the disloyalty of the archangel as well as the irresponsibility of Adam and Eve. The archangel first was supposed to set up the condition of loyalty and filial piety to God, but he failed to do so. Therefore, the restoration providence is to set up the conditions of loyalty, filial piety and virtuous love.
Even though we as fallen people try setting up such conditions of love, we cannot reach the original standard because the enemy interferes with our loyalty, filial piety and virtue. It's easy for us to speak and think of being loyal to the nation, dutiful to our parents and faithful to our spouses, but the original loyalty, filial piety and virtuous love are different from what we imagine. That's why we need the central point.
Because God has been setting up the heartistic center of loyalty, filial piety and virtue in love, all religion and morality must follow this standard. All religious people and Jesus have been trying to establish the family for the purpose of setting up the condition of loyalty, filial piety and virtue in love. God established the nation of Israel in order to look for such a family. Jesus could have made Satan surrender if he first had set up the morality of loyalty, filial piety, and virtue in love, and then had become the priest to expand such conditions.
When children mature, they are to replace God's doctrine with His substance.
Blessed families shouldn't fall behind anyone in establishing loyalty, filial piety and virtue in love. Loyalty, filial piety and virtue in love start from the family. To be blessed is to inherit Father's wishes. In history there have been families of loyalty and filial piety in front of God, but there has been no family of virtue in love. We cannot set up the condition of virtue in love until God's Day comes and Satan's accusation is overcome.
Men gathering here should love their wives more than any other husbands do in the world. Women also should love their husbands more than any other wives do in the world. That is the morality of love that the parents of the blessed families should keep.
Blessed couples are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven when they accomplish horizontal love centering upon the foundation of vertical love.
When a husband or a wife can love his or her object as the representative of Heaven, earth and all humankind, that family can represent all blessed families.
The main thought of the Unification Church is, "Our family doesn't exist for the sake of our family." It is conventional wisdom that women are to follow their husbands, but that doesn't work in the Unification Church. The way of the virtuous women is to live for the nation, abandoning husband and family members if they are centered on the family alone.
Set up the family tradition. Follow the way centering upon the one who stands straight in front of God.
What kind of family is the exemplary family? When a family doesn't fulfill its mission, the whole family will be caught up and the ancestors in the spirit world will not be able to cooperate.
When a family sets up the tradition as the substance of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the national and worldwide tradition can be established.
We shouldn't be sad when one of a couple who worked for the providence dies early.
The blessed couples shouldn't lament, even if their husband or wife dies early. They shouldn't remarry; otherwise, they will be caught up by heavenly law in the spirit world. They must report in front of God and follow what God directs them to do. But nowadays there are many who are not doing so. What will be the result? It doesn't appear on earth, but you'll know when you go to the spirit world. Such a person will stand in a position worse than Satan.
Father knows all of your past experiences. If you ask me, I can tell you right away what happened in your past. Would the bride and the bride. groom ask each other's past? Or would you forget your past? Because Father decides to forget your past, you also should forget your past.
Blessed men should be completely one with Father. Then there is no connection with sin. You as Father's incarnation should start your life in the subjective position; and the object, your wife, should be one with the subject and absolutely obedient.
When you blessed couples start a family, the husband should lead a public life (life of service) and the wife should be in charge of the family life (the domestic life). Will you be a representative and exemplary family? "Moonies" are reflective, "Sunnies" are luminary, and "Kingies" are comprehensive. Therefore, you should be Kingies, the comprehensive family. The ideal should be actualized through God and human beings.
A person who is in debt cannot flourish. A family member who likes to be indebted to others in the family will be isolated. It is the principle of human life that if the family members are indebted to someone else in the family more than to the parents, the parents will give all the authority and power to that someone else. Wives should not be indebted to their husbands; neither husbands to wives. The eternal peaceful world comes from the family in which no one wants to be indebted to another.
When you work in an agricultural community, you are not to work alone. A husband and a wife together are to report the day's schedule to God before going out to work and they are to report to God after work and then eat dinner. You should know how strict is the God-centered standard of life.
There are regulations of family life for women and men respectively. Blessed families are to systemize their lives with such great heavenly regulations; otherwise, they will be in trouble.
Give for the sake of family, nation and world; this is the principle of three objects. In walking, men are to step right foot first and women are to step left foot first. Men are supposed to sit in the East and women in the West. There is always a certain order to do anything -- the order of setting the table or the order of hanging clothes.
Man is to look down upon woman from above, and woman is to look up to man from below. Woman shouldn't look upstream at flowing water, but should look downstream. A woman looking upstream is the type who will be good at playing with love.
Woman is to prepare the place for man to sit. When using a wardrobe, man is to use the right or upper side and woman the left or lower side. Woman shouldn't put her skirt or underwear on the man's upper clothes. The woman's clothes shouldn't be on the man's clothes.
The wife of a leader shouldn't nag her husband when he is about to leave for work in the morning. The disturbing ripple effect from his heart created by his wife's nagging will disturb the world and make it unclean. Woman should nag at night and then all the problems should be solved overnight. A man should launch his battle plan every morning; the wife of such a husband should wake up early and serve him well.
Women always should be beautiful even if it requires using make-up and perfume. A wife should not be indebted to her husband in emotional life, and she should always concern herself with her husband's body and clothes. When a husband looks tired after working, she should prepare water to wash his face, and toothpaste and toothbrush to brush his teeth, and she should be able to wash his feet and comb his hair.
A woman's smile is the flower of the family. In order to establish a harmonious family, the woman should be a first class actress in both comedy and tragedy. She should completely melt her husband all the time, whether he is joyful or sad.
Woman should change her clothes and wash her hair at least once every three days. And always smile. A smile is a mental flower. Always keep your flowers in bloom and give off a sweet smell!
Woman should test the object's response to her hairstyle and make-up. Think of it as a hobby to alter your external appearance if you cannot make the object joyful and attract him to you. Mobilize all the artistic senses like a symphony. You may research woman's physiology by looking at magazines or explain to him about literature after reading several books. Make your husband live inside the width of your skirt like a baby.
Once a man and a woman meet at all, they should be together holding each other's hands regardless of going the way of death or life. As long as you have to go together, be smart and stylish.
After getting married, you cannot act in whatever way you want. Where must you go after marriage? You are to take charge of God's love.
Human beings are born separately as man and woman because of love. Love is to be fruitful by means of a husband and a wife becoming one.
You are the divided substantial bodies coming from God's dual characteristics. In order for divided beings to become a harmonized union, they should look for God's love.
In order to encounter God's love, man and woman should be one in love. Unless man and woman become one, there is no way to meet God's love. Meeting God's love compels us to stay in the same position as God. Staying in the same position as God means standing in front of God.
When you become one centering upon God's love, on the foundation of complete oneness in conjugal love, you are not only to reach God's position but are to possess all of God's belongings. The power of love is such an amazing force. You are to inherit the right of possessing all of God's property, and at the same time He allows you to participate in His authority.
If you focused on loving each other neglecting God's will, you should feel shameful in front of God. This is the life of blessed families. If you lead your family looking after your own happiness, your family will never develop. So, if something good happens in your family, it should be related to the nation, world and Heaven. The joy of the family should become the pride of the nation, world and Heaven.
When they embrace and love their children, blessed parents should know clearly the purpose for which their children were born. They were born because of God; they were born through the affinity of God. Even though you may have a secret talk with your precious husband or your precious wife, you did not meet your spouse by your own decision. You met in the presence of heavenly law. God intervened to create your meeting. So you should understand that the more you become miserable, the more God becomes miserable.
4. The Providential Life Of Blessed Families
The couple should know that they are the elements necessary to accomplish the will of the whole and God's will. If the blessed families live for the benefit and well-being of themselves, not for God's will, their children will be miserable.
Trying to follow the will of God with the motive of fulfilling your own desire doesn't make you go forward but rather makes you go backward. There are so many examples of this. You cannot mix your individual desires into God's will. If a husband and wife live for their own benefit and desire even after the Blessing, they are merely a reappearance of the fallen Adam and Eve. The fall starts from greed. If the Blessing is established in order that it surrender to your subjectivity, the Blessing is not fair.
For what did you come to this mountain peak? If you came here to be successful by listening to the words, you will perish. But if you are here to become a plus to your village, nation, world and heaven by listening to the words, you came to the right place. Even though Father appreciates you if you are here just to enjoy seeing him, this will flow away pretty soon. So you should set up a clear standard to do any sort of work if it benefits God.
If a husband and wife set up the foundation of thorough heartistic oneness, inheriting God's ideology, future descendants will praise you eternally. The standard of such praise shouldn't remain in one nation, but it should be the heartistic pivotal point which can be pursued by the whole world. In order to set up such a standard, your family should start with the determination to overcome any difficult environment.
What road have you walked? If you have been busy taking care of your sons and daughters, you won't be able to meet God in the spirit world. God lost all the created world by losing human beings. Therefore, even though you live with your sons and daughters, your mind should always live to love God and to accomplish God's will. If their parents died through persecution while trying to accomplish God's will, the sons and daughters will be proud of their parents' life.
You should know that the more miserable the place you enter, the closer God is with you. Sometimes when I opened my eyes, a light was radiating in the sky. When God is with us, such phenomena take place. What a beautiful panorama! There are so many handsome men and beautiful women in the world, but they are nothing compared to such a scene. Such beauty can be seen only in the world of dreams. The place where beauty can be expressed completely is the ideal world -- the Kingdom of Heaven we all desire. If a person like Mr. Park here saw such a phenomenon, he would forget to breathe out after once breathing in, keeping his mouth ajar in deep wonderment.
When we silently sacrifice everything for the sake of God, He will protect us. God surely will be at our side.
Your family should be the family of love, and you are to become the public husband and wife or parents centering upon God's love. Don't be the personal husband and wife or parents centering upon yourselves. Usually there is no public husband and wife, no public parents and no public sons and daughters in America. They are not walking the way of public love; instead they are walking the way of private love, in which the love of husband and wife, parents and children is centered upon themselves. Such love destroys the nation and the world.
When you become the center of the world after loving and sacrificing for the sake of the world, you automatically will be able to launch your individual love. Then God will love you.
A great person doesn't only manage the household for his or her own family or nation; he is the one who manages the household for the world. And who could be a person greater than that? The greatest is the one who is willing to manage God's household.
In this respect, saints do not dream centering on the human household; they are the dreamers whose center is God's household. The founders of the religions, Jesus, Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed, realized God as the essence of the household of a dimension higher and more ideal than the human one. That's why they longed for the ideal.
You were called to the providence and received the Blessing. That's due to God's enormous love; that was not founded upon your will. You've gained life for free, due to God's unconditional love. Therefore, all of you are heartistically indebted to God. Even though God doesn't ask you to pay the heartistic debt, you have to participate in His situation and follow His will if you wish to regard yourselves as His children. Interests or consequences cannot intervene in the parent/child relationship. Only love exists between them. Children don't work to pay their debt to their parents; rather they participate in their parents' work because the parents' matters are the children's matters.
We have to reflect upon how much we blessed families have participated in Heavenly Father's concerns. If blessed families think Father's concerns have nothing to do with them, who will inherit Father's work?
If you found Heavenly Father by joining the Unification Church and by meeting Father, you have to be grateful. It was not easy at all to establish the Blessing in the course of the providence. It is not practiced like certain memorial celebrations or annual ceremonies. If you know the value of the Blessing, you should be able to inherit Father's concerns and heart.
A son born of a great father is responsible to succeed with everything of his father's.
Everyone stands upon the same central point, but the horizontal expansion differs, from the family level to the tribal, national or worldwide levels. Father and you stand upon the same central point. The center cannot be two. While Father has the worldwide mission, you have the individual, family, tribal or national mission. By making effort you can extend your level to the broader dimension.
What is your situation after receiving the Blessing? The world to which you have to go is the world to which Father has to go. The nation to which Father has to go is the nation to which his son has to go, isn't it? Likewise, the glory that Father will enjoy is the glory that his child will enjoy.
Then how much have you researched what Father is doing? Have you read Unification News and Today's World all night to find out what is happening to Father and his family? How many pages do you read when you receive those? You have read many worthless books linking to Satan, and carried on worthless research on satanic matters, but how much have you researched about Father? You do not have confidence.
You should know clearly whether or not you have lived for God's will. There are people watching how the blessed families will become compared with non-blessed families. When a baby calls, "Father," God doesn't hear it as one baby's voice, but He hears it as the voice of all babies.
God gives us grace after the trial. When Father looks at my white hair, I feel sad at realizing that I haven't done enough by the time of reaching this age. If Father shed tears ten times, you have to shed tears at least once. The blood, sweat and tears shed at the place where we meet Father are different from the blood, sweat and tears shed by any other people in history. Let us shed tears by meeting and embracing Father in the nation for which Father has been searching.
You shouldn't be the husband and the wife that you were when you didn't know the Principle. If there's a way to receive grace and to inherit God, you should go forward, interested in the greater value of the ideal even if you lose all of your assets. You'll be punished right away if you hide some of your assets in a comer. That is like theft. Thieves who steal another's materials are to be punished. It is a most frightening thing. It is a crime.
Your family shouldn't just exist for your own family but for three million people; and your body is not yours but is the one to go upward by representing three million people. In order to go this way, first of all you should leave everything to do with material things up to God. That is what Father did.
The things that I possess are not mine but belong to God and the universe. All things of the universe are to be resurrected, and you have to raise your children not as your own but with the view that they belong to God and the universe. A husband and wife are not limited to being each other's private possessions; they represent heaven and earth.
Don't just make effort for your own family, but undertake great endeavors for the nation. Because I treat you as people of character, you think I am the teacher of the Unification Church only; but I'm not teaching one church alone. Wait ten years; you'll see what I mean.
Blessed families are precious. You should start in the same position as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. You should start without even clothes, like Adam and Eve, but you have clothes. Did Adam and Eve wear clothes in the Garden of Eden? They hid themselves with nothing but leaves. They didn't have a house. In this respect, blessed families nowadays cannot say that they are suffering. Our blessed families all have houses and clothes.
It is a greater blessing to leave descendants who are determined and proud to gain providential victories by the trillions than to sing joyful songs of blessing. If you came to the Unification Church for your well-being, pack up right away and leave. Such self-centered motivation destroys you. If you are worried about your children and your wife, God's dispensation will not be accomplished. It will perish.
Did you join the Unification Church to eat three meals a day? You are not suffering for your entire life in this church just for the sake of eating three meals a day. If your initial determination to save the nation and live for righteousness was not a lie, you shouldn't hesitate to do anything. Don't forget that you will turn into a pillar of salt if you hesitate due to attachment to the past.
Do you think Father created the Unification Church and endured all the persecution and accusations just so that he could have enough to eat? When I look back upon my life, there was not a single day when I ate enough and slept comfortably. In order not to forget the hunger that others were experiencing, I intentionally starved myself and suffered. I couldn't allow my stomach to be filled and myself to indulge in a comfortable life.
The people who died while trying to fill their own stomach cannot go to Kingdom of Heaven. If I eat enough and sleep well, I will be indebted to all Unification Church members in the world. Such a life is sin.
What's going to happen if you live for yourself? You will lose the world, nation and tribe. Can the people who live for themselves have a family? No, they cannot have a public family. They will completely perish because they won't have the nation and tribe. Where is the place for that multitude to go? It is hell. There are many Unification Church members who will go to hell. That's why you shouldn't live for yourself. You should pray about this matter. It is not time for you to live for your individual self, but to live for the whole.
When you lead a thrifty life even though you have a lot to eat, and work hard for the world even though you can survive comfortably without working, God will feel sympathy and love for you.
For example, let's say a wife suffers greatly for her husband. When they finally achieve the purpose of the suffering and the husband occupies a glorious position, he will want to give credit to his wife for the achievement.
When a desirable purpose is accomplished by a family through the cooperation of all the family members, the father will want to praise his children and give them the credit, and he will want to stay in that position eternally. Likewise, when there are sons and daughters centering upon God's will, God wants to praise them, give them the credit and stay with them eternally.
Some of you may desire to ask me to help pay your children's school tuition, but Father is thinking of the third-world countries where people are dying of starvation. That's why I prefer not to wear neckties, or long underwear in winter. The people who are determined to liberate their brothers and sisters, and are willing to be the next to die in order to do so, cannot die even if they want to.
In the Old Testament age, materials were offered, and in the New Testament age, the son was sacrificed. In the Completed Testament age, parents go the way of sacrifice.
Your responsibility is so heavy. You were chosen earlier than others and received Father's love and education. If you cannot fulfill your responsibility, you'll be accused throughout history. In order not to be accused by your descendants, you'd better fulfill your given responsibility. Don't reject suffering; go forward to establish the tradition by fulfilling your responsibility. You should be the ancestors whom your descendants will praise throughout history, with their heads down in view of your heavenly results.
When the parents make serious effort not to be separated from the heavenly way, the children will never be disobedient.
5. Life Of Faith Of Blessed Families
How many blessed families come earlier than service time and help prepare on Sundays? When the sermon is about to start, after singing all the holy songs, they enter church. How can we call such people followers of God's will? No matter how well they make excuses, they are living a private life, not a public life. We expect no content from such people. You have to make a new resolution for "thorough public life" and "exemplary private life" through this meeting.
Therefore, all the blessed families should come to service earlier than the starting time and make a grace-filled atmosphere for the many types of people who will attend the service. That makes the heartistic foundation for the Regional Leader or minister who will give the sermon, and the speaker will be stimulated by the attitude of the members yearning to listen. The number of such active members determines the development of the church.
And it is so precious to keep the public anniversaries or Holy Days of the church. If you don't consider them as your very life, you will flunk the Blessing.
You shouldn't expect your children to grow well when you don't even keep morning Pledge Service and Sunday Service. Therefore, you should establish the four position foundation centering upon Father. In order to set up descendants, parents should do well.
Let's stand in the straight line with God even at Pledge Service. That moment is truly serious. You should repent if you are late even one second. Prepare holy candies and give them to the children.
Sunday is the day to give the members what you planned and what you saved during the week. It is the day to give something joyful to the members. And on Sundays, you are to share specially prepared food with other families and praise your spouse.
Blessed families should educate their children how to offer the Sabbath day to God by showing them an exemplary life: for example, preparing for Sunday Service from the break of day. But in reality they do whatever they want to do. They don't pray, don't make special offerings, don't study Principle and don't witness in the name of a life of living faith. If the Sunday Service starts at 10:30, they should leave for the church at 9:30 or 10:00. Instead of doing so, they leave home late and attend service from the middle. Such a family will be accused. No matter how much they educate their children, it won't influence them at all.
Parents should be a good example. They should show their children the practical life of faith -- prayer life and family service -- on a more serious level than conventional church members. And they should make children realize the importance of Pledge time. Holding Pledge Service is not enough; they should educate their children centering upon God's will.
At 5 a.m. on the first day of the month, each blessed family is supposed to bow and pledge toward the Headquarters with a joyful atmosphere.
You are to bow and pledge at 5 a.m. on Sundays; at that time you are to report all the contents of your life during the week. Sundays should be the joyful day that you long to have come quickly.
The quickest way to set up the family tradition is to do it when Father is alive. Originally you are supposed to shower every morning, bow and pledge to Father. Without setting up such a tradition, your descendants will perish.
One old blessed man died and his son seemed to feel sorry. The son realized that he never bought even a bowl of noodles for his father when he was alive. The son realized this immediately upon the father's death. It is fallen man's habit to have great regret after someone's death.
Father felt so much emotion after attending the funeral. How will you do when Father goes to spirit world ?
When looking in the mirror, you should ask, "How much do these eyes shed tears of longing to see Parents? How much does this mouth shout for Parents' liberation and the accomplishment of the Will? How much do these hands shed blood working hard for Parents' nation? Have I worked on the foundation which Parents desire until my body collapsed?" When you can repent, realizing that it creates resentment not to have done so, and then determine to look for such a way, you are happy. Happiness lies in trying to go this way and in making the heartistic bond with God. Nobody can subjugate such a person. Only the parents can move, inspire and make such a person happy. And there is nobody except the son who can make the parents happy. The hope of the parents doesn't lie in themselves, but in their son.
In farming, it is the morality of heaven and earth to think, "I'll offer the product to my parents." In love, everything becomes joyful and harmonized; and without love everything becomes unhappy and a dreary wilderness. Isn't that true? The problem lies here. You need to have a heart burning to know anything concerning True Parents and the church, such that you come earliest whenever the church leaders give reports.
You'll get a perfect score if you can show all of your heart to Heavenly Father and the True Parents even when you eat, drink, sit, stand or do any such mundane things. Knowledge or scholarly achievements don't guarantee you a perfect score. Maybe degrees such as a Ph.D. or Master's are needed for the fight, but you don't live by them. Can you justify your life saying to God, "I have a doctorate"? It is not needed. How can we pull God's love? The only way to move God is to devote yourself with absolute seriousness. You must think of True Parents first, whatever you encounter.
When something good happens, a person of filial piety thinks of his parents first. To think of husband or wife first is a fallen custom. Without buying something precious for parents, you cannot buy anything for your wife. Many of the 36 Couples should feel guilty. Before buying new clothes for your wife, you should buy clothes for your parents. A wife cannot ask her husband to buy certain clothes that she likes without buying for the parents first. Before buying himself clothes, a husband should buy for his parents first and then for his wife. The same rule applies to eating. You are to prepare a meal first to eat together with your parents.
The Kingdom of Heaven is not a difficult place; it is a place where we serve God and True Parents and where we receive and give love. Parents want children to love each other. If you have the title of a son of filial piety, but fight with your brothers at the same time, the title is worthless. That's why parents prefer you to love your brothers. People who love brothers and sisters more than they love their parents can eternally live inside the boundary of the Kingdom of Heaven. People who cannot love their brothers more than they do their parents are out of the dominion. By knowing this fact, members should be one.
People who are always prepared to welcome brothers and sisters, waiting for them from morning to night, will be blessed. Since they know that their parents cannot visit all houses, they wait for the heavenly brothers and sisters every day with a heart yearning to serve parents. Long ago there was a similar custom in Korea. Families of the classical scholar rank kept a special room for visitors. Such a custom can be seen only in Korea. Thus a heavenly regulation was shown symbolically in the historical background of the satanic world.
But you may worry whether or not somebody is going to visit you. Do you want guests to visit your house or not? (Yes.) How would you feel if Father visited your house everyday for three months? You would be tired of me. I have so many things to mention. What do you think? Is Father stifled or not knowing exactly how you feel? You don't know your status at all. That's why Father should educate you about such a matter.
6. Life Centering Upon The Trinity
The trinity is made with three men or three women in our church. We create a trinity to make the representative form of Adam's three sons and three daughters-in-law to serve the Lord.
When these three people cannot become one, there is the possibility for more destruction. Especially the three men should be united, spiritually and physically.
The foundation of the trinity shouldn't be limited to the present but should transcend time and make one subjective form. Otherwise you'll be ashamed of standing in front of the Lord of the Second Coming. If the three people in oneness make a principled stepping stone, in other words if the trinity is absolutely determined not to change, God will accomplish His will. In order to prepare this foundation, Father organized trinities.
The fall means the disunity of three brothers. That's why the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be established unless three brothers in unity manage one household according to the principle of restoration.
If the members of a trinity cannot make mental unity, they cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven. The ideology of the Unification Church starts from here. The three who cannot be united mentally cannot register in the Kingdom of Heaven and cannot even look around it. And centering upon the oneness of the three, the minds of twelve people should be united into one.
You cannot go the way of faith alone. You need a like-minded friend in faith. More than three people should be one. That's why a trinity is needed. The subject of human character, God, also wants the triple standard. God cannot teach human beings directly when they make mistakes. He cannot teach us vertically. But if three people become one, when one makes a mistake and the other two don't, He can instruct the mistaken one about what he did wrong. That's the reason God sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Grace comes quickly when more than three people pray in the mountains. After prayer the three should discuss with one another. If they discuss with others outside the trinity, Satan will invade.
When there's a beautiful unity of the three in a true sense and people surrounding them become envious of them, God's will automatically multiplies. The new bud will blossom when there's unity among the three, even without God's help.
Three people together can do anything, even in the outside world. Eight members should move together in our church. When a leader, leader's wife, three men and three women are one in a church, nothing can destroy it. This is an iron rule. Because everyone has the mission to prepare this restored form, Father organized trinities.
In order to set up a four position foundation, a form centering upon the horizontal foundation should be ready: people, church, material and a family should be one in the social environment. That's why the trinity is organized. The mission of the trinity is to be a good example in the family and in the church, and to be responsible for the economy. The trinity should be completely one. When there's a crack in the trinity, the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven is destroyed.
Then what should the trinity do from now on? One representative family should be selected in each trinity. The selected family is an absolute heavenly family of which God dreams. It represents Father's family to the extent that other families should be absolutely obedient to this family; such a tradition should be established. And the families in a trinity should sincerely devote themselves in leading the church more than church leaders. The family also should be more frugal than others in dealing with material. Thus, our ideology aims toward the systematic formation of a social system and economic structure.
The time will come to select a representative family. When selecting one family in a region, a four position foundation should be established centering upon this family. We are to go forward centering upon the four position foundation which can enable us to live together eternally.
Right there, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is to take place. That's the principled world. History developed in order to establish such a Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It is understandable that communists considered their party the absolute center, because everything develops through one center. Communists live or die according to party orders.
You are to fulfill your mission and responsibility centering upon the same principle in your given area. After receiving the Blessing, you have to prepare to become a central family in front of your descendants and heaven and earth.
You are to go forward with the conviction to establish a solid foundation to take responsibility as normal practice, in front of God, through your family. If you can do that, you will not deviate from the living regulation centering upon the Principle.
Father organized trinities. It was not centered upon the families themselves, but centered upon Father. In fact, it is good to form a trinity with your spiritual children. Centering upon Father, internally you form a father son relationship. This is what Father thought of when making trinities.
Blessed families should live by the organization of their trinity. When a son is born in one family, a four position foundation is established. If one of your trinity families doesn't have a son, you should be able to send your son to this family. But when the family finally gives birth to a son, you can bring your son back.
If one family in a trinity cannot give birth to a child, the other families should give a child to the family.
When one husband dies, the trinity should be responsible for the household of his family. From now on, we are to manage three households together; we are not to live alone. When the time comes, three households should be run together.
Consider Father's words as life itself. Be absolutely obedient. Originally the trinity should live together more than three years. The trinity should feel the same even if they exchange their babies. If you feel troubled about this, you will fail. Don't worry if a husband of one family in the trinity dies. In that case, the remaining two families should be responsible.
When Satan recognizes the condition that I loved Cain as much as I loved Abel, then he will go away. When rearing the babies of your trinity partners, you should be two or three times more devoted than with your own babies. If the trinity cannot make oneness, how can we create world unity? Three nations should be one. You have to love the world more than you love the Lord. Father received persecution from three nations, three ages and three sovereignties. The trinity is one brother. Therefore, when the three families become one, they can hold ceremonies instead of Father. If you neglect the trinity and just focus on your family's well-being, you will perish. You shouldn't represent Father just in His name; rather you should represent Father in His responsibility and heart.
Originally one family of a trinity is to be responsible for three households, and the remaining two families are to witness.
The Unification Church uses the noun "family member" (Korean: shik ku). We are all brothers centering upon the trinity. You should repent that you haven't fulfilled this.
Trinities should live together with deep feeling. The families in a trinity in turn should take responsibility for the trinity household one year out of every three. Without establishing the Kingdom of Heaven of the family, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You are in the position of the Messiah who can save the whole family.
Even though three couples gave birth to children, they should be able to rear them as one couple. When you can do so, heartistic unification is possible. Father's heart, Adam's heart and Jesus' heart should be one. If the trinity cannot become like that, you will not be able to stand in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Three families shouldn't fight one another, each centering upon their own children. If that occurs, all should repent. You should be able to move twelve directions while living in one place.
Blessed families in a trinity should get in touch with one another at least once every three to four weeks. You should live centering upon the four position foundation.
One family in a trinity should be in charge during one season; each family in turn should be the responsible center to lead three families' living. In case of building a house, the house should be able to accommodate three families. The trinity is absolutely necessary.
You should be a good example in church and on the economic stage, centering upon the trinity. You should never be dominated by money. The nation which is dominated by money perishes. And when a family deceives the nation in order to fulfill an individual's greed, the family also will perish.
Women are capricious, aren't they? It is the right time for them to be really fickle now. Women want to live only with their spouses, right? Unless we destroy this standard, world unity is impossible. You have to understand this point.
The reason that a clan cannot live together is because of the women. The daughter-in-law who doesn't like her parents-in-law will be a miserable mother-in-law. This creates mutual sadness. To solve this, everything should be reversed.
The three wives of a trinity should be one, so Father disciplines you right now to become one. From now on, twelve families should live together in one house; and then 120 families or 1,200 families should live in one house. You shouldn't fight at all even though you live in the same village. When fighting takes place, a tribal conference should be held to punish the ones who fight. Such a time will come.
Father has disciplined you on a family level. From now on an apartment will come into being to train you on the family level. I'm talking about the modern dwelling, the apartment building. We will make a house which can accommodate more than seven families, so that people can experience collective life and modern life for several months. Such disciplining, residential apartments will come about. Do you understand?
All of you should graduate from such a training school. Three generations are to live together in the apartment. They are to eat and study together. The eight members of the family are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven centering upon the parents. Can a family having less than eight members enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
How many people are there when you add parents and the trinity? (Eight people.) Without setting up the foundation for these eight family members to become one, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is Principle, isn't it? If that's the Principle, we should live according to it.
7. The Collective Life Of The Blessed Families
The Unification Church teaches "parents" in the place of God and the historically unfortunate saints. If you have such parents, God is not needed and saints are not needed. We don't lack anything when we have parents. By becoming one with your brothers and sisters after completely restoring parents, new family members and a new family can start. Therefore, you should create the trinity.
All of you have spiritual parents. The spiritual parents have three spiritual children. You cannot stand in the face of God's will if you cannot be one with them. Do you know the trinity of your spiritual parents? Did you become one with them? If not, you are a fake.
Because you didn't create such a bond, you should create it centering upon Father's family. Become one with the people representing the three brothers in Father's family and make a brotherly bond with Father's children in the Cain and Abel relationship. Is there anyone who cannot do that?
You wear warm clothes whenever you feel cold, and you eat whenever you feel hungry, but have you wondered if Father's children are hungry? There's a formula course for Father to pass through before he can live with his children. Just serve for three years, absolutely serve!
You live centering upon yourselves like satanic babies. That's a serious problem. There are a group of people who think, "We have nothing to do with God or Father or Regional Leaders; we are now just suffering." Is there anyone here who thinks like that?
You should apply the Principle to everything. You are to start by relating things to the principled foundation. To create a loving relationship with brothers, you need such a foundation. "Family members" mean "brothers." Jesus hasn't received parental love, a brother's love or the love of relatives.
Because you have family members, you should make an atmosphere for brothers to give and receive love and live for one another. You should become such exemplary members. You should become a man or woman whom all Unification Church members can worship. Have you become such a person? All different kinds of people gather in this church, so there will be ones who sell the name "members." If such people receive the Blessing, they will sell the name "family." There are a group who are arrogant due to the Blessing that they received. Father didn't suffer until now to create families of such low dimension.
The family is the basic unit representing the whole. The mistake of a family links to the mistake of the whole; so while an individual mistake can be tolerated, the mistake of a family cannot be tolerated. The heart to turn individual joy into joy for the whole should prevail.
When you establish concern, subjectivity and hope for the whole instead of for the individual, you will harmonize with the bigger dimension. The family exists to save the whole; therefore, a family is like a power-transmission line. You should be able to harmonize with the whole through the family. So the trinity should live in one house. It is the time to reorganize the family structure.
Even though you received persecution and were driven out of society because of the Unification Church, you received better friends and brothers. In other words, you are given brothers who don't have the same physical blood lineage through the Blessing.
The relatives in the Unification Church are the blessed families.
Twelve families should create a united form or structure. They should miss one another and want to communicate.
From now on Father wants to hold family workshops. In entering modem life, Father wants to buy a plot of land which can accommodate 100 houses and build an apartment house for workshops to train people to live together. You have to think seriously how your actual life can unite the internal and external standards which God wants your family to establish.
It is Principle that when a blessed family is united like an iron-clad bastion, it will stand as the central nation which only God can subjugate, and will begin to move the world anew with its fortune.
The blessed families are to create one vertical ground with a strong bond of blood and flesh. They should be able to say to each other, "I cannot exist without you and you cannot exist without me." So the families with Unificationism try to make God's glorious ground in complete unity. Each family willingly wants to be the fertilizer for that field. Such a fertile ground of life is an object of pride.
8. The Way For The Descendants To Receive Blessing
What is the Kingdom of Heaven? Our family should be the place where passing beggars want to sleep, dogs want to enter, birds want to make their nest, and people even want to have a bowel movement. Such a place is the Kingdom of Heaven. How are our blessed families? If you cannot be a good example, at least you shouldn't be the bothersome ones of your village.
When you make such a family Kingdom, you will flourish and God will be with you. Why? Because the place where God's love dwells attracts all living things, and it is the peaceful sabbath nest for all existing beings.
When a miserable person visits your house, how do you ladies respond? You should feel dutiful to show hospitality by giving him or her outer clothes and even underclothes if he or she doesn't have clothes. Then your descendants will wear proper clothes. Your descendants will flourish because you treated strangers well.
There is a family precept inherited for a long time in Father's family. It is not to let guests pass my house with hunger. On a cold winter morning when our grandfather heard a beggar supplicating, "I've come to beg breakfast," he would give all that was on his breakfast table to the beggar. And he would start scolding our grandmother, saying, "Imagine that you are a beggar. How difficult it is to beg rice in front of a stranger's house on a cold winter day! Even though rice doesn't cost so much, it must be really hard to beg for it." Father heard those words several times.
It is hard to maintain life, but it is given by God. We should understand the beggar's heart to preserve his life. He does not want to die because he doesn't want to be undutiful to God. If human beings cannot understand a fellow human being's suffering, who will understand it?
When grandfather scolded grandmother for not serving the beggar quickly enough, she would protested by asking, "Who is more precious, your wife or a strange beggar?" When thinking of the offspring, a beggar is more precious.
Our grandfather did so and our father also did so. That was the law of the Moon family. We had to give rice to a beggar before he spoke more than three phrases. If mother didn't give rice to the beggar, father himself would serve the beggar with his own food. Then my mother, whose character was like a man, would fight with my father.
If a wife doesn't serve guests well, the head of a family, the husband, is responsible. When a husband doesn't serve well, he'll be punished, but when a wife doesn't do so, her husband is to correct her. You shouldn't say to a beggar, "What are you doing with your young body?" You should say, giving even a little change, "This is very little, but please receive thousands of blessings from this." If there's a very miserable man who doesn't eat properly in a village, you should do whatever work is possible, even all night, to buy him rice. If you do that, your descendants will stand in the most blessed place to be praised through thousands of generations. When a poor person gives birth to a baby and is starving, you should even sell your cow to help the family. In God's sight, everybody is a brother and a sister.
The President of the Korean Unification Church should give warm hospitality to foreign members when they visit Korea. If you pretend not to know them and sleep with your legs strait, your legs will rot.
Even though you lead a starving life, you should want to share with villagers when you get even one bowl of rice. Then the villagers will pray for your blessing. When you starve because of serving others, somebody will secretly bring a bag of rice to your kitchen. If you develop such a personality, you'll never perish.
You should live for the sake of heaven because heaven lives for the sake of your betterment, and you are to serve members as Father serves you. With respect to this standard, there are many who are like thieves. If you become the scary person who eats what is heaven's and robs church members, your descendants will perish for seven generations.
Have you become a person who is indebted to others, or a person to whom others are indebted? If you've become a person who can make others indebted to you, you will surely develop yourself, because God will cooperate with you.
You should establish the four position foundation even at the time of death.
The problem is: onto whom will you hold when you die? What is the ideal of creation? What is the purpose of creation? Speaking in the human centered view, it is to complete the four position foundation. Is there any rule or principle of death? What are the rules number one, two and three of death? Who will protect you at the most intimate distance during the time of your death? Who has the closest bond with you? Who will cry for you at the time of death? (Your children, spouse and parents.) Then whose tears will be the greatest in degree? (Your parent's tears.) Tears are relative. There are vertical and horizontal tears. Parents' tears flow from the utmost peak.
Upon what will you center when you die? Would you like to die forgetting love or embracing it? Whose love do you want to embrace at the moment of death? You should first of all embrace parental love, and then conjugal love and children's love. The principle of the four position foundation also applies to death.
Whom do people call first when they die? They call God. To call God at the most difficult place is the utmost truth for individuals. For people who truly call God at death, the door of forgiveness will open. Why is that so? Because the principle of death is like that.
When you die holding on to the principle of death, there will be a way for you to sacrifice. That's why everybody calls God at their death. This is the most truthful lesson. It is common that people speak the truth when they die. I don't know who taught that, but anyway it is a really good teaching. It is the truth of truths.
According to heavenly law, at death you are to call parents first and then your husband or wife. After calling your spouse, you are to call your children. You shouldn't let only your children come, preventing your spouse from coming at death. In the satanic world children have had priority over one's spouse. That's because Eve was the key figure of the fall. But in the restored world parents should come first, then the spouse and finally the children. That's the ideal.
Therefore, the four position foundation should be ready at death. People who died without establishing the four position foundation cannot properly go the way of death. That's why certain spirits come and go even after death.
After knowing all of this principle, to whom are you going to hold at death? (God.) Next? (True Parents.) You were born of God and you are to die through Him so that you can live eternally with Him in the spirit world. You were born through Him and you are to be concluded through Him. To live under this principle is the way of loyalty and filial piety. You are to be evaluated in conclusion as a responsible human being when you die, who fulfilled the way of loyalty and filial piety. Life is to be lived this way.
What you have to consider now is what kind of will you are going to leave to your child at your death. What will you express as your dying wishes? Can parents ask children to do what they haven't done? Such parents are the ones who want to take advantage of their children. Therefore, when you leave a will to your children, you should be able to say, "I've lived a life with nothing of which to be ashamed, so please live as I have." Then God will eternally protect your will. Do you have confidence to leave such a will? This is a serious problem.
The legacy of your family shouldn't be your material assets or the education you provided your children. It should be something done in family unity for the sake of the nation and the world.
Be careful that your tomb not be stepped on by your children. If there were Adam and Eve's tomb, I would be the first one to dig it up.
What will you leave your growing child? The greatest legacy is to be able to say, I'll have nothing to leave you except a life lived for the sake of the nation and the world." Things such as wealth or a doctorate are not important at all. You should leave a will saying something like, "Live for the world. Even though you were born in Korea, you are universal. So live for heaven and earth as well as for the world." This is "cosmos-ism." You have such a wonderful ideology and you've heard it and realized the significance of it, so you shouldn't be worthless, small-minded people.
The legacy of your family should be museum pieces for the world. Even though David S. C. Kim has been the president of the Seminary for a long time, he shouldn't leave relics for the school but should leave them for the world.
The world in which you live centering upon yourself is not your treasure. Your treasure is only what you received in the public dimension.