The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2011
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2011 |
Your Excellencies, respected political leaders, distinguished religious leaders and ambassadors for peace from throughout Africa and the world: It is a distinct honor to have this opportunity to address you this morning on behalf of UPF's founders, my parents, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon. I feel very blessed to be here in Africa at this time. This is my first visit to Nigeria. We had the great opportunity with Father and Mother Moon to meet your president, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday. I'd like to share with you True Parents message to your great president. As you know, when many delegates of different nations, leaders, come to visit the president of a nation, some requests usually come with the discussion.
Yet when Father Moon came to this country to meet your president, he came not to request anything but instead to give three key points that are key to Father Moon's own revelation and understanding of God's will. The first is that Nigeria must create the tradition of God. He challenged the leaders that were present at the table to inherit the tradition of God. The second point was to understand the value of lineage, divine lineage. The third point was that True Father has created the holy textbooks that guide us spiritually, socially and politically as entities from individuals, to families to nations in order to resemble and center upon God as we move forward into prosperity and progress. These are the holy books and sacred texts that are beyond what you would normally see as spiritual teachings. They go on to describe how parents should treat their children, how children should treat their parents, the importance of filial piety, the importance of responsibility to the nation, and so forth. He said that the third point was to resemble these teachings....
I think it is essential to understand Father Moon's identity in order to understand what he means by tradition and lineage (divine lineage) and what he means by resembling the teachings. Followers of Father and Mother Moon, commonly known as Unificationists, do not see Father and Mother Moon as simply great peace leaders, or simply great teachers and educators of the world -- which they are, of course. We see them as the returning Christ, as the Messiah to the world. This is True Parents' fundamental identity. Without understanding the implications of this identity and that from this identity comes their revelation, their fundamental teachings, their great scope and vision for the world, it is impossible to understand the depth of Father and Mother Moon.
We were so blessed yesterday to drive, with Father and Mother Moon, through your country. We saw the beautiful churches and mosques all around. I do believe that the Nigerian people -- indeed African people in general -- are deeply religious. This is the right place and the right time for this meeting.
We are gathered here at a critical time in history and a critical time for Africa. Of course, we have all been observing the very serious developments that have unfolded recently in North African nations such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. However, at the same time, dramatic, largely positive and transformative changes are taking place all across Africa.
Father and Mother Moon have visited Africa many times and have had representatives working here for more than forty years in every country on this continent. Recently, UPF has been working closely with the African Union, not only in convening Africa Day programs each year, but in working to assist in the eradication of diseases such as sleeping sickness.' UPF has also been at the forefront of HIV /AIDS prevention programs, character education and "service learning" for youth.
It is important for us to reflect on what is meant by peace, especially through the vision and eyes of Father Moon. Is peace simply a cessation of conflict? Is peace goodwill amongst men and nations, or is it more fundamental to our human condition? When Father Moon talks about peace, he is not just speaking about peace between communities, between tribes and between nations; he is talking about peace with our Creator. This is fundamental to understanding Father Moon's great passion for the world, his unceasing love for this world.
Because in True Father's revelation, he has unlocked the nature, the secrets of the Fall. Through the Fall, as taught by True Parents, Adam and Eve -- the first ancestors of humankind -- were taken from God's lineage and connected to Lucifer's lineage. Because they were tempted and fell into sin, they took on not the will of their father, God, but the will of a tempter. This lineage has continued throughout history....
Father Moon transcends the boundaries of human limitations and of human suffering. He has been through every form of torture devised, experienced every single type of scorn expressed. Yet he has not only maintained a heart of love toward his fellow man; in prayer he has always told his Father, God, Father may You not be angry with your children. May You have hope. Even though I bear the burdens of torture and the pain thrown upon me by men, may You never worry, may You never cry over my pain....
In our minds, we have thoughts that we should not think. On a daily basis, we separate ourselves from God. This has been the classic definition of sin: separation from God. So, if there is to be peace with our Maker, this separation must be addressed. It must be addressed if there is to be fundamental peace between God and man -- not the pain that God must experience when He looks at children who should have been His, but that have separated from Him, that obey a different master, that obey the flesh, their desires, their lusts, their impetus to love, adore and worship ourselves. Under those circumstances, God must feel pain. God must feel sadness. God must be heartbroken.
If simply on our own effort, simply on the strength of the goodwill of men and women, we could arrive at peace with our Maker, it would have been done a long time ago. Father Moon's fundamental insight is that man cannot do it alone. We cannot approach an all-perfect, all-good God when we are full of sin. When our hearts and minds yearn to do things that are not godly, we cannot approach a perfect and all-good God. The only way we can approach and be in the presence of such a holy, righteous, good and perfect God is to have His grace, His mercy and His compassion....
The Marriage Blessing Ceremonies led by Father Moon are as important as the Passover Feast led by Jesus Christ. The Blessing Ceremony -- in which husbands and wives of different faiths, different nationalities and backgrounds, different world- views and communities are bound eternally as husband and wife -- is a fundamental sacrament in our tradition.
This blessing of marriage is the fulfillment of the mission of Christ. It is what Jesus was here to do -- to take us away from the lineage of Satan and to engraft us onto the lineage of God. He was not to just accept us as friends in the house of the Lord, but to bring us in as the children of God. This is why we believe True Parents have come with a remarkable mission, not simply the mission of an educator or peace activist. It is the fundamental mission for the salvation of souls.
One of True Parents' most profound teachings is on the conscience. Father Moon teaches that our conscience knows before our parents, before our teachers and gurus, and even before God, what is right or wrong. The example he gives is that when Adam and Eve had fallen, they were bathed in sin. They disobeyed God's commandments, which were made through His love. When God called out to Adam and Eve, asking where they were, they already knew and felt ashamed of their sin. Father Moon's teaching is connected to the teaching in Romans 2 where the scripture says that even the gentiles have the commandments of God written on their hearts, that they already know within their hearts what is right and wrong.
This teaching is very relevant for our understanding of how to create a world of peace. Father Moon differentiates the conscience from our original mind. Because we were made in the image of God, we receive God's attributes, the attributes of heart, emotion, intellect and will. This is what Father Moon refers to as our original mind, which leans toward God, which yearns for God based on the heart, emotion, intellect and will. The conscience is written upon that, as an instrument to differentiate between what is good and what is evil, what yearnings of the heart are sinful, evil, ungodly and lead to destruction, and which ones lead to everlasting peace and joy.
True Parents teach that the conscience allows us to discern whether what we feel is right. Father Moon's teaching is very practical because it gives us the key to trusting our conscience. Conscience has challenged each person in this room. Sometimes we have made decisions that have turned out to be the wrong one. At other times, we have made the right decisions. But in those times of making decisions we have struggled to decipher what our conscience is telling us. Father Moon's fundamental understanding of the original mind gives us the key to understand when we are moving in line with our conscience, which is God's instrument to lead us away from evil and toward good....
Our intellect allows us balance, allows us to see our feelings in light of revelation from God -- God's word. Balancing the aspects of emotion, or feeling, and intellect that grasp and apply the gift of scripture, finally then our heart inclines toward bringing joy to God.... We must come to him not only as servants, as friends, but as his humble and repentant children. Through God's grace and though Christ whom he has sent, our sins are covered, we are led into the presence of God not as enemies but not just as friends, but as His children....
Since Father Moon challenged the UN in 2000, the General Assembly has passed a number of resolutions in line with his hopes, and with his call for interfaith cooperation. Father Moon challenges those who follow him to go beyond even their own ideas, to cooperate with and love the rest of the world's people as brothers and sisters.
As you may know, one of the key aspects of the Unification faith has been inter-religious activity, again stemming from Father and Moon's understanding of the importance of religion. Religion stands in the Abel position, in the search of man to understand his God, and science stands in the Cain position to understand man through nature, through the universe.
True Parents have built a temple in the middle of Seoul, which has images representing each of the great traditions. All Unificationists must love Christ, the Buddha, the Prophet Mohammed and Confucius. That is one of the core aspects of our faith. Father Moon sees religion in the role of guiding humanity to a deeper understanding of God....
At the Assembly of the World's Religions, convened in 1985, True Father gathered leaders from all faiths and called for the publishing of a book of sacred texts, expressing the common values shared by all religions. This resulted in the publication of World Scripture: An Anthology of Sacred Texts, a volume that shows the universal spiritual values shared by the world's religions. True Father considers World Scripture to be one of the essential texts in the canon of Unificationism.
Recently, True Father also published his autobiography, entitled, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen. It was at the top of the best-seller lists in Korea for almost two years. It has now been published in English and many other languages.
It is my plea to you today to not stop with this plenary. Don't stop. You've come, God has guided you this far, I urge you to deeply study the teachings of Father and Mother Moon, who are not simply prophets of this age, who are not simply teachers and great educators but who have a more profound identity and truth that will transform our lives. Through this autobiography and through his teachings, we will understand more about Father Moon's vision, character and mission at this time in history. These texts reveal deep understanding and allow one to probe his heart, his mission for building the kingdom of God.
In conclusion, I want to thank each one of you for participating in this important conference. I believe your deliberations here can bear great fruit and can have a great impact on Africa. They can have a great impact on the world. I pray that you remember that Father Moon, when he talks about universal peace, is talking about reconciling God and man, bringing us all back to the restored position as God's children. If we understand this truth, that from this first commandment to love God with all our might, soul and strength, out flows the second commandment, which is to love your neighbor and to love each other as brothers and sisters. When we understand that fundamental core our relationship with God as the central aspect for peace -- we are already brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters, God surely loves the people of Africa, and His hand is guiding the providence here. I believe that it is no accident that we are here together. It is no accident that my parents, True Parents, are here and that tomorrow we can be challenged by their words. They will never talk to us with soothing words. They come to challenge us to our very core. They will chastise us, they will, like Christ in John chapter 8, challenge us fundamentally. They will not be politically correct -- something Father has never been! They will call us to love God. They will call us to enter into God's family, to build families centered on Him and to build a kingdom for Him.