In Jin Moon
June 12, 2010
On June 12, 2010, Rev. In Jin Moon gave a powerful sermon at the Spring Fest, held in Barrytown, New York on the occasion of the 48th Day of All True Things. Having just returned from Brazil, Rev. In Jin Moon spoke on how to turn obstacles into victories. She explains the ultimate importance of our True Parents as the ones who will create One Family Under God through the precious Blessing and the ability for humankind to graft onto God's lineage. She also explains the Proclamation written by True Parents on June 5, 2010 and True Mother's heart of love toward her son, Hyun Jin Moon, after events taken place in Brazil.
Happy Day of All Things, brothers and sisters. To prepare for our performance every Sunday, we make a song list a week in advance. As you can tell, one of the songs was Weather With You: Take the weather wherever you go. I was joking with Mr. Jim Gavin, I guess next time before Day of All Things, we'd better check twice about our song list! Really, today is a celebration of Day of All Things, so how can we not let the rain be a part of the celebration if it wants to join us?
I've always said that for those of you who have some experience fishing and spending time on the ocean, it's the violent storms and the rainy days that you remember more than the beautiful, sunny days on the sea. Perhaps this rain is Heavenly Parent's way of letting us know that the time spent here on the beautiful grounds of Unification Theological Seminary (UTS), which Father purchased more than three decades ago, is a day worthy of remembrance. I'm very happy to see all of you out here.
I just got back from Brazil. There have been quite a few things taking place in South America, so my parents quickly called me and said, You need to go down there and take care of the members. Let them know that we really love them, we are praying for them, and we are thinking about them. So in the position of someone representing North America, I thought it was a great opportunity to go down there with a heart of service, a heart of attendance, and a heart of caring and compassion, to let the South American brothers and sisters know that the two hemispheres, the Northern and Southern, need to work in cooperation with each other.
I think a lot of Brazilian brothers and sisters felt lonely, but this was God's mysterious way of letting the Brazilian members, along with the South American brothers and sisters, know how much they mean to our True Parents and to our movement, to let them know that they are not alone. When there is a call for our True Parents, they respond immediately and with love.
Even though some of the things that took place were incredibly unfortunate, sometimes God puts unfortunate events in our path to allow us to see them as an opportunity and to use them to make something wonderful out of them. It gave me an excuse to spend a couple of days with the Brazilian brothers and sisters. They are really heartistic, and I could tell that they love True Parents so much. At the same time, it was a wonderful opportunity to stand in the united front of the Americas, if you will, and allow ourselves the opportunity to commit ourselves to our Heavenly Parents and our True Parents once again.
I know that there is a lot of confusion in the air. We have transitional problems. When a new church sets out, it has its first group of core members, but as they start having children, you usually have to go through a digesting process. We, too, will settle into an era when we can exist in society as part of a huge community. Even though some difficulties arise, they give us an opportunity to take them and turn them around into little victories.
Despite the shocking situation of two Sundays ago, I think the Brazilian members could come to ask themselves the essential questions Why are we here? Why do we believe the things we believe? What made us join this movement to begin with? Second Generation, if you ask your parents these questions, they will always say, It's because of True Parents. It's because I met the messiah, who came to change the world, who came to lead us into a peaceful world.
Even though our True Parents are in Korea, they were constantly in communication with me during my trip to Brazil, asking, How are the members? How are the leaders? How are people responding to the love, which is our love, that you are bringing to them? I must say that the members were so beautiful. Their heart of attendance to our True Parents was absolute and really a great example for our movement.
Our whole movement was watching Brazil. I told the members there that, the first syllable, bra, in the name Brazil in many languages means the arm. Brazil has in a sense become the cradle of something great. Instead of it becoming a cradle of revolutions like those in history that have degenerated into violence, aggression, and intimidation, Brazil has a great opportunity to be a cradle of love, a revolution of heart.
I shared with the Brazilian brothers and sisters that we are a new movement, and we have a chance to do something right. We don't have to degenerate into what all the major religions have gone through. We don't have to go through a period of bloodbaths, infighting, fear, intimidation, and violence. There is no room for violence in our movement. True Parents came to love humanity. True Parents did not come to teach humanity how to fight, how to be hostile to each other. We can do that all on our own, can't we? Our True Parents' message is one of hope, of love, of empowerment.
If the Brazilian brothers and sisters can be reawakened to the inspired message of what our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents have brought us through the teachings of the Divine Principle, then there is no need to resort to violence. As somebody who has five children of my own, I'm looking toward the future and asking myself, "After our True Parents, what kind of leadership is going to lead our movement and the world into this millennium? Is that leadership going to be characterized by inspiring fear in people? Is that the way we're going to lead humanity into the coming millennium? Is the new leadership going to use violence as a means to an end?"
Anyone who has studied history has seen it over and over again. We have read about the horrors perpetrated by the SS guards under Adolf Hitler. We have read about the Red Guards under Mao Tse-tung. You take an enthusiastic, idealistic group of young people and introduce violence, and it becomes the kind of revolution that we do not want to see again. What we stand for in our movement is a revolution of love, a revolution of heart. There is no room for violence.
If Brazil can be that cradle of heart and love, of compassion and caring, think about what Brazil can do for the rest of South America. If the rest of South America can unite and inherit this true love of God, the spirit of our True Parents, and the teachings of our True Parents, then those of us here in North America are going to see quite a competition. I told the South Americans, Please work hard so you can help the North Americans work harder. So what are we going to do about it, brothers and sisters? Are we going to lose to the Southern hemisphere? Or are we going to work harder and be that much greater?
I think we need to understand clearly on this Day of All Things why our True Parents are important and why it has to be only our True Parents who are going to usher in the new millennium. I have spoken many times about our True Parents being the alpha and the omega, the perfected Adam and Eve who stand in the position of True Parents, the original olive branch onto which we can be engrafted to receive the blessing and for the first time in history substantiate true love, true life, and true lineage. For the first time in history we have a chance at building an ideal family.
When Father goes around the world, many people have called him a great leader of peace. But you know what? Our True Father is much more than that. He is not just a man of peace. He is a man of God, first and foremost. The movement that this incredible man created is not just a peace organization. It is a church. It is a place of worship. It is a sacred and holy sanctuary where we can receive the blessing from our Heavenly Parent through our True Parents -- only through our True Parents -- and thereby partake of something called true lineage.
Because we've been under the banner of the Family Federation for the last decade or so, I think we have lost our identity as a movement and as a church. We have become so engrossed in the sea of interfaith - which is very important - that we have forgotten who we are.
In this great work of service, by wanting to unite the various religions, some of us have forgotten to teach our children who they are, that they are proud Unificationists who belong to an awesome movement called the Unification Church. This identity is something that has been lacking in our worldwide movement for many years. Without a proper identity, the youth of our movement do not know who they are. Without understanding that they are proud Unificationists, they do not have a confident face to present to the world.
It is our job as parents to instill this confidence and faith in our children: that they are special. Not that they are better, but they are special in that God has prepared them, has hand-picked them and hand-crafted them to do great things.
While we continue to work to unite the world's people and bring them to God, the way we create one family is not through a service organization. It's not just through an act of service that somebody becomes a part of a family. Krista became a part of my family, became my daughter-in- law, through marriage. Different people from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and religions become part of our family through marriage. The greatest gift that our True Parents bring to the world is the Holy Blessing. It's the Holy Blessing that allows every man and woman sooner or later to become part of this one family under God.
That is why our True Parents are important; that is why our True Parents are necessary for the salvation of the world. Our True Parents are an integral part of the process that brings the whole world under the banner of One Family Under God. This is something that UPF, GPF, ACLC, CARP, or the Women's Federation cannot do alone. All these organizations are like the fingers of the two hands that belong to our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent. All these organizations are great organizations. They provide a great service to the world and to the community, but they alone cannot bring this world into one family under God. It is only through our True Parents and only the power of the blessing that allow this world to come together as one family under God.
Our True Father is incredibly wise. He can look into each of your faces and understand your character like no one else can. He understands your strengths and weaknesses. He understands the strengths and weaknesses of his children. He can look into the faces of his children and know what kind of people they are going to be.
When our True Father decided that the spiritual head and the inheritor of True Parents would be the youngest son, my father made a wise decision. Why did he pick the youngest son? Because somebody who stands in the position of a leader in the future must be able to inherit and exercise this power of the blessing. This person must be a reverend of a church. This person must have some kind of background in a life of faith, in the study of religion. This person must characterize what love and compassion are all about. This person must be an optimistic person who is always thinking of endless possibility, not always trying to take but always trying to serve. This is the kind of person that Hyung Jin Moon is. This is the kind of a person that our True Father has chosen as our new leader.
What took place in Brazil was highly unfortunate, but for the first time it allowed True Father to write down and proclaim to our community and the world who the spiritual inheritor is and who the next leader is going to be after our True Father. This moment of clarity is very important for us. In the sea of the Internet, where people can post and say whatever they want about anybody, it's been like a war taking place. A lot of Brazilian brothers and sisters didn't know what to believe anymore. But this opportunity allowed our True Parents to make plain who the center must be.
As we move forward under the leadership of Hyung Jin, we will see a leadership of love, we will see a leadership of compassion, and we will see a leadership of hope. As long as we can unite our hearts and minds together with our True Parents in understanding that there is wisdom behind every choice that our True Father makes, then our movement is poised for greatness.
Soon the Family Federation website will make that proclamation available so that all of you can see the video in its entirety, and it will be transcribed and translated so you will hear and understand every word. So do not be confused or discouraged by edited versions of these proclamations. When you see the whole proclamation, with none of the sentences deleted, none of the sentences edited out, you will realize that this is an incredible moment of Father and Mother working together.
One of the things that really inspired me about watching the proclamation video is the heart of our True Mother. When Father made the declaration that Hyung Jin is the spiritual heir and is going to be the center of our church and said that anybody standing against that will be seen as a heretic, there is a part in the video when our True Mother says, Father, that's too strong. The word heretic is too strong. Maybe I should just keep the proclamation quietly to myself. And Father says, No, you must proclaim it to the world. It must be shared with everybody.
If you understand what our True Mother was doing, you can see that despite what has gone on in Brazil, the heart of a mother is the desire to leave some room for her child to be redeemed. Her heart was, "Father, maybe heretic is too strong of a word. Maybe I can just keep this to myself." Even in the crisis moment of what was taking place in Brazil, True Mother was still exercising a heart of love and of embrace. On the Internet she has been called a manipulator, the one seizing power and manipulating True Father, but people who see that proclamation video in its entirety must bow their heads and say, I am truly so sorry, True Mother. What a great woman of God you are, and how lucky we are to have you as our True Mother.
Brothers and sisters, in our True Parents we are so blessed. The only thing we need to do is to absolutely unite with them in our hearts and minds, and fulfill our destiny of becoming the eternal sons and daughters that our Heavenly Parent would like us to be.
For any country that needs our assistance, North America is coming. For anybody who calls for our True Parents in a moment of crisis, North America will be there. And I'm hoping that you can also be there with all the brothers and sisters who are struggling to find themselves, to come to our True Parents again in the midst of so much confusion. So stay connected.
Let us try to enjoy this wonderful day. Even as the rain comes, we have many great activities to get us going for the remainder of the day. So God bless, and Happy Day of All True Things. Thank you.