The Words of the Hwang Family
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The Words of the Hwang Family |
When first I met Rev. Moon, he was 35 years old and I was 24. I was then a junior at Yonsei University. Now, in 1980, I'm already 50 years old and Rev. Moon celebrated his 60th birthday.
He sacrificed his youth for God's Will and, in spite of our wish that he remain eternally youthful, his forehead is, at 60, full of years and wrinkles.
In retrospect, his path has been a hellishly rocky road and his life one of relentless persecution and continuous opposition. I still remember Rev. Moon's words about his adversaries:
Well, if they have the guts to stand in my way for 30 years, 40 years, let them oppose me... but I am sure they'll run out of steam long before that.
These words show very clearly his inner attitude toward his persecutors.
Behind his victory over all manner of opposition and persecution lie his unshakable faith, his sense of mission, and many other reasons which we find to understand even today. This pen of mine can never do justice to his greatness, but it is with fervent prayers in my heart that I have taken it up.
After reading the Bible countless times, he spent most of his waking hours on prayers and meditation in order to discover the Principle. And the Principle, once discovered by his spiritual life, met with the full approval of sages and God. The noble thought of Rev. Moon is most unmistakably to be found in the Principle.
At 16, Rev. Moon had a personal dialogue with Jesus, in which he took over the latter's unfulfilled mission. Ever since he has never wavered even for a second in his determination and struggle to carry it out.
Who in his rational mind would look upon Abraham as sane and normal, Abraham who obeyed God's command that he sacrifice his son Isaac? He would be considered insane, and his act just as irrational! How closely does Rev. Moon resemble Abraham in their hearts' yearning to obey the command from above! Again, people sneered and jeered at Noah, who prophesied, when there had been drought for 120 years, that God would judge them by the flood and went ahead building an ark! To the people he was an object of contempt and ridicule. They did not understand God's Will, so how could they be right about Noah's action?
The difference between one who understands God's Will and another who does not is like that between Heaven and earth. Thus Rev. Moon, too, has had to suffer ridicule and contempt in the hands of those who did not understand God's will. Rev. Moon stands in the shoes of Abraham and Noah who represent it. While he was imprisoned at Hungnam, North Korea, his loving mother paid a visit to him, and seeing her son clad in prison garb, broke out into weeping. There upon, Rev. Moon sternly told his mother:
Mother, I'm walking on the path of God, so if you don't want to comfort me in my suffering or indeed encourage me to follow this path please, Mother, go back home. I don't want to see your tears!
Rev. Moon is crazy for God's Will. He knows, and wants to know nothing else, for if it is not God's Will, it's utterly insignificant. He opts for anything that is harmonious with God's Will and will not accept or tolerate anything, however attractive, if it goes contrary to it.
Ordinary believers pray to God for blessings or other benefits. On the other hand, Rev. Moon has taught us to pray to God so that we can become the givers of blessings, not their recipients. As for Rev. Moon, I once heard him pray most fervently that if he was on the wrong path to God's Will, then God should impose upon him very steep indemnity conditions through his own children. To parents there is nothing more precious than their children, and yet he was willing to risk the wellbeing of his beloved ones before God! There is absolutely no denying that Rev. Moon is the very person who will do anything and everything, no matter how difficult, if it be in any way for God's Will.
"Time is money," says a very popular saying. Rev. Moon literally lives by it. He sleeps only three to four hours a day, working doggedly for God's will for the last several decades. There is no question in my mind that he counts every minute, nay, every second, so as to fulfill his mission.
However, what I want to stress here is his perfect sense of timing. In the Bible, the numbers such as 3, 4, 7, 12, 21, 40, and 120 are repeated. They are not meaningless but are founded upon the Principle. It is natural, then, that Rev. Moon, who discovered the basis for these numbers, should have his sense of timing. But as we all know, it is not easy at all to make proper preparation for the task after we know when something is supposed to take place.
It is often said that one has three big chances to succeed in one's life. But if one does not recognize them, they are most likely to go down the drain. For he who can recognize these chances and goes about making quiet preparation for them they are not wasted at all. But for another who fails to do so as many chances as may come, no matter how frequent, are of no avail. A task to be done usually requires that it be tackled in a certain order from beginning to end, and to know when and where to start that's genius. And it is certainly Rev. Moon.
In his early beginnings, he used to preach to a group of grandmothers late into the wee hours. They really enjoyed what he had to say, for they knew not that day was dawning when he finished. But as for him, how frustrated he must have been, although he smiled with them when he knew that time had come to fulfill God's dispensation!
While he was devoting all his time and energy in the training of his followers young and old alike individuals as well as families, while he was struggling to bring about the dispensation for families, nations, and the world, he had absolutely no one to help him or to advise him. In the history of divine dispensation, Satan works more destructively and with greater cunning, as the time for its ultimate fulfillment comes closer and closer.
As God reveals His dispensation for salvation through prophets, so Rev. Moon reveals in advance his plan for action, especially if it be of paramount importance. Depending on the circumstances, he talks about what is to be done, sometimes in symbolic terms, in terms of its hyung-sang, or in substantial terms. And it happens that when he refers to it only in passing, some intelligent followers grasp his meaning ahead of time while obtuse ones see it only after it happens. In the beginning, big events such as a dispensational large rally or mass wedding never had big publicity or fanfare of any kind. They just got started and happened to grow in size, that's all, just as one may simply walk out his door and go on a thousand mile journey. In any case, the beginning looked very small and insignificant, yet the outcome turned out to be stupendous. Before we realized what was happening or why, historic events one by one took place.
Ordinary mortals can't help regretting even some things they have done. This is natural. No one can reverse the tide or time, however. Rev. Moon faces each day in an attitude or posture but allows no room for regret. He lives so that even if he died at this very moment he could go to the spirit world with no regret in his heart; rather, thousands of good angels would extend a cordial welcome to him. In other words, this moment could be his last, that's his attitude to life. He is constantly aware that he might breathe his last breath anywhere at any time.
God is perfect, so that He gives no thought to Satan's regret. Take a look at Job. Satan maligns Job before God and God lets Satan do what he wants with Job. But in the end Satan is subjugated and testifies that he would not demur if God showered upon Job all the blessings. Satan is allowed to do everything to his heart's content; otherwise he would have regrets. A prison is like hell on earth, and a prisoner is an enemy of the people in the eyes of the law. Yet Rev. Moon, while imprisoned in Hung Nam, became a model prisoner who received an award for his model behavior. Unless you can do what Satan can't, you can't be freed from his clutches. Satan fears self-sacrifice and death most of all. So when you are willing to lay down your life, even Satan has to flee.
Nowadays, as in the early days of the founding of Unification Church, Rev. Moon sometimes works through the night without a wink of sleep. This is not corroborated by a few of his followers nay, even his enemies admit that he stays up all night in training his doltish followers. He seldom sets time limits when he speaks to us. He lets himself go, whether it may take him ten or twenty hours at a stretch. He makes sure that everyone of his major points is indelibly imprinted on our minds and hearts. Such strenuous schedules neither bore nor tire him out. Indeed, it is his life work, his pleasure. This is true today as it was twenty years ago.
Meals never enter his mind. Breakfast may be delayed till late in the evening. Yet he plugs on, never looking famished. As for sleep, he has no preconceived notion of when to sleep or how long. When he speaks till 4 a.m. we think he may sleep late or have breakfast later. Each time this happens, our guess is off the target. We are more likely on target if we assume that an ordinary mortal can't possibly keep up with such a schedule.
I was with Rev. Moon in Boston in the summer of 1977, when he was engaged in tuna fishing. It was pitch dark when the boat left the dock and he had a bag of ramen noodles for breakfast around 10. Then he kept on fishing. Many on the boat, which was pitching and rolling in a rough sea, threw up or just lay down on the floor for rest, but he alone sat alone fishing on the upper deck till it was too dark to continue. He normally returned around 9 in the evening, and after supper, he began speaking to us from 10 to midnight or till 1 a.m. Then he went to bed, only to get up at 3:00 a.m. to go on the boat. This was not for one or two days. This strenuous schedule lasted 40 to 50 days. What fisherman ever worked so hard, indeed? He set an example for others so that the Church would set up a fishing industry. He always exceeded our expectations when it came to overcoming obstacles or hardships we considered impossible for ordinary people to endure.
Rev. Moon once said, "Speaking of persecution or hostility, I have had a larger share of it than anyone else in history." There is ample proof for this statement. Prisoners at Hungnam were reduced to extreme hunger through paucity of food and through hard labor, and when someone was dying, they were not above grabbing his rice bowl! Rev. Moon witnessed so many dying men and their emaciated corpses there, but he was concerned about God's bleeding heart and in his prayers comforted Him, instead. He really loves God.
Rev. Moon, who discovered the heart of suffering and sorrowful God, always talks about liberating Him. For this purpose, he must bear God's sorrow and hardship on his shoulders. He must be a truly filial son of God, for he thinks of doing nothing else, whether he is awake or asleep. He never wavers in his loyalty to his country that spurns him; nor is his love for the world and mankind changed even when they turn against him. Thus, he is truly a filial and loyal son to God who comes to restore the fallen world.
Divine Principle teaches that in order to attain perfection, one must go through number "3" or three different stages. I have experienced this truth more than once since I became one of his followers that with love, and self-sacrifice for God's Will, one must work on and fulfill at least number the "three". Rev. Moon is not easily satisfied. He always completes what he starts and never gives it up on the way until he finishes. Such a disposition and characteristic seems to be his motivating force to push himself to walk on the rugged path of the Providence for the last 40 years.
When a cup does not have much water in it, it can't overflow: in like manner, before something is accomplished, needed ingredients must first come together and then gel; that is to say, these ingredients are sufficient in quantity and in right combination. For the same reason, it took time for God to create the universe; it takes time for the dispensation for restoration to be fulfilled. Rev. Moon seldom hastens in starting something. But when his heart is stirred, his energy overpowering, he then prays to God for counsel and undertakes his project.
A popular saying has it that, "Well begun is half done". To begin something is, indeed, difficult, but once begun, Rev. Moon never gives up until he brings it to fruition. He believes that if he prays for a very important family member that Heaven needs, then the member in question thinks of nothing else but coming to the church even after the curfew hour. If it be God's work, then it cannot fail. Once one gives his heart to Heaven, no one can take that away.
Rev. Moon built up Tong-il Industries and for three years he worked hard every day. He once went around on an inspection trip three times in one day. It was not set up solely to accumulate wealth. He had it in mind that it was to be an essential industry for his nation, to be God's enterprise for the missionary work throughout the world; he wanted it to grow like a seed into a blooming, fruit-bearing tree for the good of the world. Since it is for God and Heaven, no one can trample on it or take it away.
He has always taught us that one's dedication should be greater than the next fellow's. He should sleep less, eat less, dress less well, and if someone else does one thing, he should do two if someone works one day, he should work two days... always one step ahead of the other. This is his philosophy of dedication. This is easier said than done. To receive one thing and to give back its equivalent cancels each other out. To give but not to receive or to receive less is to put someone in debt. To receive but not to give or to give less is to be indebted to someone.
He has always taught us to become those who put others in a debtor's position, not the other way around. Whatever was to be done never got done unless Rev. Moon pitched in and spearheaded the work. It is his ingrained philosophy to owe nothing even to his own followers and to put them rather in debt. As a result of having sent missionaries to 127 countries all over the world, the sun never set over the Unification Church.
Wherever he happens to be, there are, he knows, missionaries who pray for him; so he stays up to pray for them late into the wee hours, because he does not wish to be in a debtor's position. No one has surpassed him. When it comes to lecturing on the Principle, speaking to family members, going around on an inspection tour, fishing or staying up late into the night or enduring hunger, etc. This is a fact that no one can deny. What "more" did you really do that's the standard of judgment.
Jesus said that one should love him more than one's parents, siblings, husband or wife, children; otherwise one would not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How could Rev. Moon stand sacrificing everything? How could he become the sacrificial offering himself? This is because he loves God with all his heart, he devotes all his being to God's Will, and such being the case, there's nothing he cannot see fit to sacrifice.
One is to be judged by what one loves. If one loves one's parents, wife and children, honor and wealth, position and power, one's own life more than Heaven and God's Will, one is bound to face judgment. As for Rev. Moon, he has only one thing in mind God and His will, so that every thing else, including himself, becomes a sacrificial offering before God.
For the Washington Rally on September 18, 1976, he devoted all his time and energy in making plans and preparations. Everyone near him was amazed at the extent of his devotion. Even Satan must have retreated in amazement and wonder. Even God must have been moved and touched, too. Many times Rev. Moon thought of the hard working family members and spent the night in a chair, dozing off and on. We must pray for him always, so he can enjoy his continued health.
Innocence entails no punishment; in the same way, absence of fall requires no restoration. Punishment may be looked upon as whipping, and enough whipping, so to speak, indemnifies and removes sin. Hence, the law of indemnity is the law of punishment by whipping. No one loves to be whipped, and as one's sin can't be forgiven without whipping, one may hate being whipped yet accept it with gratitude. Adam committed a grave sin and fell. To be restored to his original state of innocence, he must pay the indemnity condition equivalent to death, which his fall had brought about in the first place. To indemnify all the sins caused by so many after Adam for so many generations, they must pay the equivalent indemnity conditions for their restoration.
Who thought of all this even in a dream, except Rev. Moon? So many wise men and prophets before him prayed to God to ferret out the secrets of Heaven, but Rev. Moon must have done more in prayer and spiritual work in order to carry on their failed mission and discover the Heavenly secrets. He must believe more than they and also believe where they dared not.
If one slaves for the sake of God's Will, one must become an even a lower slave willingly doing more work fit for such a slave before one inherits the other's mission. Going from the most sinful state to a sinless state requires that he reach all the way to the position of God's son. To understand people's hearts, he must stand in their shoes for the time being. He cannot possibly guide them all, the friendless and oppressed, despised and trampled, exalted and prosperous unless he experiences the peak of life as well as the lower depth.
Rev. Moon has done about everything there is nothing that he has not tried. He has drunk a bitter cup of life as well as a sweet one. From laundry to heavy work in a factory, from wrapping the skin-bruising chemical fertilizer bags to carrying heavy loads on his shoulders, from knitting to sewing, he has done practically everything. He has been slapped on his face, pushed around by his tormentors; he once was made to address "Sirs" (with respect) to a three year old child. Leaving his wife who had just delivered a baby flecked with blood, he obeyed the command of God and crossed over the 38th parallel into the communist-ruled land.
As Jesus was once persecuted by his enemies, so Rev. Moon was persecuted as a leader of a heterodox religion. While he was in charge of educating people on anti-communism, he was accused of being a communist himself. As the Unification Church believes that the original sin was an act of illicit love between male and female, people accused the Church of indulging in group orgies! No wonder that Rev. Moon, founder of the Church, was the first and foremost to be harassed and persecuted. Whenever such gross injustice was perpetrated against him and the Church, he thought rather of God's bleeding heart and comforted Heaven, instead. Vertically he worships God while horizontally he works for all mankind with a view to the dispensation for restoration. He has never wavered in this mission that God has given to him. He has doggedly fought against all odds for this end.
Nothing can be accomplished through ignorance. Theory for its own sake, theory that has nothing to do with practice, Utopian ideologies that are only theoretical all of them have come and gone. A theory joined to practice has not emerged until now. The Bible, the word of God, has many points that are vague and even contradictory, thus beclouding God's Will. The Divine Principle of the Unification Church is the out come of Rev. Moon's long search for the answer through prayers and ten years of battle with the spirit world.
He finally won the battle. After forty years of long struggle, he finally earned the stamp of approval on his Principle from all the prophets and from God. It is said that even then he was so cautious that he tested the Principle in every conceivable way and under all circumstances. When he was finally convinced of its truth, he began disclosing it little by little to the world.
As God, who created the laws that govern His creation, may not break His own laws, so Rev. Moon, who discovered the Principle, lives in every detail by that Principle. God exists for his creation and man, the central figure in that creation; Rev. Moon exists for the Principle. He is devoted to the very purpose of God's creation. In spite of all his suffering and hardship, Rev. Moon would not be great if all that he has done were for himself. His love, goodness, and blessing are all of the them for all mankind. If you took away this quality, then Rev. Moon would be left with nothing. If you ask what he has done for himself, then he does not have a thing worth mentioning.
Satan uses others and even sacrifices them for his own good, but Heaven allows itself to be used and sacrificed for the good of others. Rev. Moon doesn't have much of a private life. He works day and night. He seldom eats with his own family; he shares his meals mostly with his staff members, so he can receive the reports from them. As his hard work is for Heaven, he does not mind his private life, his family, his personal freedom, all taken away from him. He regards all his sacrifices as well-justified.
Rev. Moon says that he cannot live as he wishes, since "as he wishes" bespeaks individualism. Even God does not rest, so how can he, Rev. Moon rest? This more or less sums up his philosophy. He may be hesitant and even negative when it comes to doing something on his own, but he never hesitates nor does he waver if what he has in mind is for the good of all. He is suddenly bold and courageous and decisive. He puts all his energy and time into it. He is, indeed, the personification of God's Will.
His unremitting toil must exact tolls on him, too, for he sometimes lets out that he wants to go to the spirit world as soon as possible. He has not taken any rest, after all, up to the very moment on his 60th birthday. Rev. Moon is as deep as the deepest ocean, as high and great as the highest mountain. My poor pen can do no justice either to him, to his great work, or to his public life. Let me close this article with a prayer: May God give him good health for many, many more years to come.