Good morning, brothers and sisters. True Parents went to Hawaii after their birthday celebration and the successful holding of WCSF 2002. They went there to initiate a fishing workshop. Father contacted me to come, but I had not prepared to go, because I am not a national messiah.

Why did True Parents mobilize the Korean national messiahs with only a week's notice for such a long period at this busy time of the providence? Many of us surely wondered about that. Father mobilized them to go fishing not just for a short time but for as long as 120 days. What was the reason for that? It wasn't to introduce the leaders to fishing, because they've done it so many times before. Why did Father call men who are supposed to be busy with their mission? Why did he have to call them to Hawaii to go fishing, a rich man's hobby? All of us wanted to know.

Some people asked me what the providential meaning of fishing is. Frankly, I don't have a clear answer. However, what I understand is that while fishing we can inherit True Father's heart. When you watch Father fishing, you can tell right away that he does not do it to kill time. It's not even a sport for him; it's a battle. He is fighting a war. He always chooses the toughest time and toughest places to fish. He sets goals and stays on the ocean in rain or snow--even in storms. He does not come back to shore until he has fulfilled his goal.

True Parents are teaching and passing on to us various aspects of life in relation to the providence. Fishing is one of them. From fishing, we can learn about the history of God's providence of restoration through indemnity, and the ferocious battles against Satan. It teaches us to develop the spirit to overcome any obstacle on our way to fulfilling our goals. We can watch the earnest conditions and prayers True Parents offer while fishing together with them.

Fishing teaches us a sense of responsibility, and how people can harmonize with nature. In addition, True Parents see the ocean as having the resources needed for humanity's future and take a lot of interest in it. We can learn about True Parents' heart through fishing. Father has chosen fishing as a tool to teach us about his spirit and heart. He calls senior national messiahs to go fishing because they are the ones who must most deeply inherit True Parents' heart.

I once asked my son, "What kind of person do you think I am?" Since he has reached the age at which he is starting middle school, I just felt like asking him something like that. I really wondered what he thought of his father and whether he would understand my position as a church leader. His answer was, "You are a busy man." So I asked him, "What do you think I am always busy for?" He wasn't sure. He's not aware of my world. All he knows is that his dad is busy. From his point of view, he only sees that his dad goes out at dawn and comes back home very late at night.

So, I thought about it. I should teach my son everything about the providence. I should pass my life of faith on to him. The question is: How should I do that? All he knows is that his dad is tremendously busy all the time. That only means that my son and I have not had the time to share our experiences. We have never really talked deeply about things; never had the chance to attend Sunday service side by side; or to share deep feelings with each other. What he knows is that his dad is busy doing something he doesn't understand. That means I have not yet handed down my life of faith to him. Waking up early for pledge service on Sundays, praying and doing Hoon Dok Hae together doesn't mean I have fully passed my life of faith on to him.

True Parents must be in the same situation. So, out of many possible ways of passing on their life of faith to us, they have chosen fishing. That's why, whenever they have time and a chance to bring national messiahs fishing, they do so.

Father said it would be a historic four months of training. However, all of a sudden, the plan was changed on the first of March. Our members are preparing for the April 27th, 144,000-couple blessing of clergy. Father decided to send the Korean national messiahs to help out with the preparation for the blessing ceremony instead of sending them fishing.

I didn't know why they called us Korean, Japanese and American leaders there until we arrived. They have done deep prayer conditions in Hawaii. While doing a prayer condition, they realized that they should do more for the 144,000 clergyman blessing. Korea and Japan are in the position of the father and mother that have given birth to the elder son, America. So, True Parents sent the Korean national messiahs and Japanese missionaries to the U. S. together to prepare for the 144,000 couple blessing ceremony, and True Parents also went to prepare the clergymen for the ceremony. Do you know how precious the blessing is? The blessing doesn't belong to only us. The scope of the blessing has expanded to the worldwide and universal levels. Now, the grace of this providence is being given to clergymen and lay leaders from the different faiths.

Sorry to be speaking about myself, but PWPA-Korea hosted a celebration for my having been conferred with a doctoral degree. My brother and relatives attended, and they said they were really inspired by the meeting. I asked them what they were inspired by. They said what I had said in my short speech to greet the guests that day was what had most touched their hearts.

What I had said was, "Although I now have a Ph.D. and I hold the position of president of the FFWPU, I am not proud of my position or my degree. The only thing that I am proud of is my blessing and the ideal of a true family. I have been married for twenty years now. I have never been unfaithful to my wife and I never will be. No matter how humble it looks, I am going to teach and pass on to my children the tradition of a true family's purity. As flawed as I am, I will devote my life to putting the teachings of True Parents into practice." This seemed to touch the hearts of those present who were not members.

Many things are important in our lives - -material possessions, power and honor, but what is the most important thing in this world? What doesn't the world have? What is the world most afraid of? It is pure love, a true family. It's our strongest weapon and pride. The world feels this message of ours the most strongly. This amazing pride of ours will be passed on to the clergymen in America in 2002.

Secondly, True Parents made an important proclamation recently. In Hawaii at 11:00 pm on the night of March 1st, they proclaimed the unification of the spiritual and physical worlds. As you know, True Parents' lives have historic and universal significance. We also know that there have been numerous proclamations in their lives. What is the meaning of this proclamation of the unification of the spiritual and physical worlds?

True Parents had restored worldwide elder-sonship through the 30,000-couple blessing in 1992, worldwide parentship through the 360,000-couple blessing in 1995, and the great victory of kingship through the 3.6 million-couple blessing [which was included in the 40 million-couple blessing] in 1997. On those foundations, they proclaimed the Cosmic Sabbath for the Parents of Heaven and Earth at 7 seconds and 7 minutes after 7 in the morning of the seventh day of the seventh month [by the lunar calendar] of 1997. After that, starting with the 40 million-couple blessing on November 29th, the door to giving the blessing in the spirit world was opened and the grace of the spirit world blessings began in 1998.

A ceremony for the liberation and unification of the spirit world was held on October 14, 2000, and a ceremony to dispense with hell and paradise took place on December 1st, followed by workshops and blessings led by Heung-Jin Nim and Dae Mo Nim. On the foundation of being able to organize the spiritual and physical worlds, True Parents are proclaiming the unification of the two worlds.

True Parents have made a substantial foundation on earth. As a result, the providence of restoration for elder-sonship, parentship and kingship were completed. This was followed by the restoration of the spiritual and physical worlds. As a result of the restoration of the spirit world, True Parents broke down all the barriers in hell and paradise, liberated the spirit world and held the unification ceremony.

Thirdly, our present focus is on unifying the spiritual world and physical worlds in accordance with the Principle. Father told us that resurrection of the spiritual world would gradually become substantial. Our ancestors will guide us - they will scold us when we aren't on the right track. Religious leaders in the spiritual world will return to those of the same faith and work toward the unification of religions centering on True Parents. I feel that really dramatic changes await us.

Brothers and sisters, the providence is not easy to comprehend at first. When Father told us that he had made Heung-Jin Nim Commander-in-Chief in the spirit world when he passed away in 1984, we didn't quite understand what it meant. However, as time passes we find that what Father says turns out to be correct. On their own foundation, True Parents have regained control of the spiritual and physical realms and have now started the work of binding the two worlds together. This will be more understandable and visible to us as time goes by.

At our recent meeting in Hawaii, Father spoke very strongly. The message was to live not for ourselves, but for others, True Parents' most fundamental teaching. All things living on earth find the original value of their creation by living for the sake of theirs. This is the amazing key point with which we can ultimately solve all the problems on earth....

Let us think about the words of Father's that we read this morning: He told us that God's situation was miserable, and he asked us what we would do if we were God. This one question itself has the most revolutionary theological significance. What would we do if we were God? This may not seem very special to our ears, but, in the Christian way of thinking, this is an impossible question to ask. How could a mere mortal put himself in the position of God? This is downright blasphemy. How could a human being ever even be in a position comparable to God's? Christian theology has focused on differentiating between God and man rather than on finding their common characteristics. So much energy has been put into separating God and man, in order to emphasize God's holiness: We are evil but God is good. We are limited but God is unlimited. There is distance between us. His grace is the only way to overcome the differences. His grace alone can enable us to change. This is the modern Christian perspective.

If St. Augustine's wife, Kang Hyun-Shil were here, I would have liked to talk to him! This theological view was begun by Augustine [354-430 AD], though I believe he was a very warm-hearted man. The Donatist schism occurred in Augustine's time. The early church was severely persecuted and because of that, many left. When the persecution ended, those who had betrayed the church wished to return. The church had to decide whether or not to accept them. That was what the Donatist schism was all about. Some people were willing to accept them and others were not. St. Augustine insisted that the church must accept those who had left.

Those who were opposed to accepting them back insisted that the church was a holy place for only holy people. They thought that the church was too holy to have any place for those who had betrayed it. Augustine argued that the church was the holy place where sinful, chosen people must come to be sanctified. The church was the precise place for sinners to be sanctified, therefore, they must accept those who had once betrayed the church. Eventually, St. Augustine's view was adopted.

Augustine displayed generosity towards those who had once betrayed the church. That generosity stemmed from the kind of life he had led as a young man. He had lived a very reckless life and credited the grace of God with his transformation to holiness. This would explain his warm-hearted forgiveness of others. It was natural that the grace of God became the center of his focus as being fundamental to Christian theology, and natural, too, that he would contrast the grace of God with the sinfulness of man.

At that time, there was one group who adhered to the teachings of a man named Pelagius. They were considered to be heretics by the Augustinian group that then was considered to be orthodox. Those who professed Pelagianism believed that people determined whether or not they lived in harmony with God and reached salvation. Augustine's group opposed this view and stressed that by God's grace alone could we be saved and come to live in harmony with God. It was God that could open the door, not people. That was the Augustinian view.

That was how things stood in the early church. Modern theology tends to focus more on the qualities we share with God rather than our differences. What does the Principle teach us? What is the teaching of True Parents? The Principle speaks of how God's 95 percent responsibility and our 5 percent responsibility should come together to bring about a desired result. The Principle shows the way toward a solution to the conflict between the two opposing views on God.

Some people might wonder why we Unification Church members pray in our own names as if we are reporting directly to God: they might wonder how we dare pray to God in our own name. How revolutionary this is!

As long as man has existed on earth there has been some form of religion. The most significant characteristic of religions is that they all pursue an absolute being. And there have always been mediums with the role of connecting man and the absolute. The medium could be Jesus, Buddha, Grandma Sam Shin [from Korean Shamanism] or even a big rock. The most revolutionary thing in religion would be to get rid of the medium. What we have done in our church is the most revolutionary occurrence in the history of religion.

Herein lies the perfection of our life of faith, the ultimate life of faith. Where can we find the restoration of humankind? What we are doing now is pioneering the road toward that ultimate human recovery by following True Parents' teachings. If you really think deeply about what's going on, it can give you chills. This is an amazing change. This ultimate miracle was possible because of the common qualities God and people share. There are obvious differences between God and us. However, the more important thing we should recognize is not that we have fallen nature but that we are endowed with the original nature of creation. We should nourish it so that we become ones who can meet God one-to-one as child to Parent. To be able to reach that point, we should learn to live our lives in accord with the original nature of creation as True Parents have taught us. That is, to live for the sake of others.

What is sin? Sin is hurting others. However, that is a moral or ethical view of sin. If we look at sin from the religious point of view, it holds a much deeper meaning. What is the fundamental understanding of sin from the religious point of view? It is going against the heavenly way. What does it mean to go against the heavenly way? It means breaking away from the original nature of God's creation, breaking away from the harmony of living for the sake of others.

From the moral and ethical perspective, individualism is not sin, because it doesn't hurt those around you. However, from the religious perspective, as Father puts it, individualism is the most fearful manifestation of sin after communism. Being interested only in oneself means going against the heavenly way. Caring about others is God's way. It is the essential and original way of existence. Going against that is sin. Therefore, at this time when we can report to God directly and recognizing the common qualities between God and us, we should live our lives not for ourselves but for others. We must restore our originally created nature.

At the meetings we had in Hawaii, Father emphasized that we should restore our own tribes. Our positions and our locations are only temporary, not ultimate ones. Moreover, the completion of the providence lies in the restoration of our tribes. I am the international president of the FFWPU. However, my position does not ensure that I will enter heaven. This is just a temporary job. No matter what positions you hold in the church, your main job is to establish your tradition based on the heavenly blood lineage. Father told us that the most important job we should do in this age is to restore our tribes to God's side. That is our ultimate course.

We should make our own blessed-family tribes. You should create your own tribe of goodness. The first step is to establish 36 blessed couples. Among these, at least 3 should be made up of single men and women who are matched and blessed together. Centering on your own clans, you should establish a total of 36 blessed families, followed by 72, 124 and 430-couple blessed families. On the first day of March, Father gave us this direction at the proclamation ceremony of the unification of the spiritual and physical worlds.

Beloved brothers and sisters, new buds are coming out. The earth was frozen in winter. New plants are coming out, penetrating the once frozen earth. In due time, nature always follow its course. No matter how dark the night is, in time the sun comes up. No matter how cold the winter has been, new plants grow out of the earth in spring. The providence works in the same way. Please think about the 1960s, when members were afraid to give lectures on resurrection. How about now? How much have things changed? We have experienced such changes many times. Many times, we have been proven to be right. The message that the spiritual and physical worlds will be one will prove itself. You'll see how things are in three or four years' time. You will experience amazing things.

Spring comes no matter what, following the order of creation. True Parents have opened a new chapter for us. At this hopeful time, I would like to pray for you to experience a great victory this month.

[Originally published in Today's World, March 2002]

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