December 6 (10.25) Cheon Jeong Gung Special Luncheon with Japanese guests
" ... As I said before, the two thousand year Christian history was the providence of searching for God's only begotten daughter. The only begotten daughter of God needed to be born as God's daughter, separate from the satanic world.I was the one who possessed such a standard.
Dae-mo-nim had a Christian background and understood God's providential history. She lived her whole life in a position similar to that of a nanny who bore God's only begotten daughter. Heavenly Parent knew this.Therefore, what did Dae-mo-nim, who was in the spirit world, do for (God's) blessed children on earth who were ignorant of the providence even when they had been told? She had to choose right? Thus the Cheonpyeong work began.
If you go forward, one in heart, one in body, one in harmony and one ideologically with me, can you be victorious or not?
Therefore, what did Dae-mo-nim, who was in the spirit world, do for (God's) blessed children on earth who were ignorant of the providence even when they had been told? She had to choose right? Thus the Cheonpyeong work began.If you go forward, one in heart, one in body, one in harmony and one ideologically with me, can you be victorious or not?
Father Moon's words about Mother Moon excerpt from As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen An Incomparable Inner Beauty
My wife has such a tremendous heart of love and care that she even gave her wedding ring to someone in need. When she sees someone in need of clothes, she buys that person clothes. When she comes across someone hungry, she buys the person a meal. There have been many times when we have received presents from others that she would give away to someone else without even opening them. Once we were touring the Netherlands and had a chance to visit a factory that processed diamonds. Wanting to express my heart of regret toward my wife for all her sacrifices, I bought her a diamond ring. I didn’t have much money, so I couldn’t buy her a large one. I picked out one I liked and presented it to her. Later, she even gave away that ring. When I saw the ring wasn’t on her finger, I asked her, “Where did the ring go?”
She answered, “You know by now I can’t keep something like that when someone has a greater need.”
Once I saw her pulling out a large wrapping cloth, and she was working quietly to pack some clothes. “What are you going to do with those clothes?” I asked her.
“I have a use for them,” she said.
She filled several wrapping cloths with clothes without telling me what she planned to do with them. When she was finished, she told me she was getting ready to send the clothes to our missionaries working in foreign countries.
“This one’s for Mongolia, this one’s for Africa, and this one’s for Paraguay,” she said.
She had a slightly self-conscious smile that made her look so sweet when she told me. Still today, she takes it upon herself to look after our overseas missionaries.
My wife established the International Relief and Friendship Foundation in 1979. It has done service projects in numerous countries, such as Zaire, Senegal, and Ivory Coast. The foundation gives food to impoverished children, medicine to those who are sick, and clothing to those in need. In Korea, she created the Aewon charity organization in 1994. Its activities include managing a canteen serving free food to the poor and supporting low-wage earners, the handicapped, children taking care of families in place of parents, and others. It also provides aid to the North Korean people. My wife has also been active in women’s organizations for some time. The Women’s Federation for World Peace, which she established in 1992, has branches in some eighty countries and is in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations as a nongovernmental organization.
Throughout history, women have been persecuted, but I predict this will change. The coming world will be one of reconciliation and peace based on women’s maternal character, love, and sociability. The time is coming when the power of women will save the world.
…
It would seem that my wife would be devastated each time she faced such difficult situations, but she always remained unshaken. Even in the most difficult and unbearable circumstances, my wife never lost her serene smile. She always crossed over life’s most difficult peaks successfully. When church members ask my wife’s advice on raising their own children, she tells them: “Be patient and wait. The period when children wander is only temporary. No matter what they do, embrace them, love them, and wait for them. Children will always return to the love of their parents.”
I have never raised my voice toward my wife. This is not because of my character, but because my wife has never given me cause to do so. Throughout our life together, she has labored to care for me with complete, loving devotion. She is even the one to care for my hair. So this great saint of world affairs is also the best barber in the world. Now that I am old I make many new demands on her, and she always responds. If I ask her to cut my toenails, she will do it cheerfully. My toenails are mine, but I can’t see them very well. She sees them perfectly well, though. It’s a strange thing. The older I become, the more precious my wife is to me.
True Mother's Special Tour of Japan for the Victory of Vision 2020 and HJ Cheonwon - True Mother spent 8 daya traveling by car in Japan: Kyushu ( including Huis Ten Bosch (ハウステンボス Hausu Ten Bosu a theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki) and a visit to a famous china factory founded by a Korean master, Lake Hashino and Hakone Owakudoni in Hakone; Oshino Hakkai at Mt. Fuji, Kurobe Dam the largest dam in Japan, Hakuba National Park at Nagano. Kurobe Gorg and Daikanbo Peak and Mt. Tateyama, Mikungaike Lake, All sites are cultural centers in Japan. A trip to further national restoration.
Commemorative on the Second Anniversary of the Cheon Il Guk Foundation Day and the 2015 Cosmic Blessing Ceremony officiated by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind
1.13 in thr 3rd year of Cheon Il Guk (March 3, 2015)
Cheongshim World Peace Center
Main Address
True Mother
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we have ushered in the New Year and with it, the third year of Cheon Il Guk. Heaven has blessed this day with a shower of white snow, as if to say, ‘congratulations’. I take this to be Heaven’s way of telling us to live in pure and unblemished, just like the white snow. Beloved Unificationist families, in the third year of Cheon Il Guk, the year of the blue sheep, what resolutions have you made? Shouldn’t our way of life advance forward in the New Year compared to the previous year? Don’t you think so? On this day, I offer my thanks and congratulations to heaven while feeling the unending grace and love of God. Since True Father’s Seonghwa, I have been endeavoring to offer and dedicate the three great scriptures to Heaven. As of today, the last of the three books, the Cham Bumo Gyeong (True Parents’ Life Course), will find its place among these Holy Scriptures.
I don’t know if you welcome this day with deep gratitude, but, I can tell you that Heaven has waited for this day for six-thousand years. Heaven’s providential course—the providential history of restoration through indemnity—which has guided human history, is, in a word, tragic. Our Heavenly Parent went through many hardships to find one central point at which to wait. Here, He longed for the advancement of the providence. Yet, because of the repeated mistakes made by humankind, Heaven had to wait countless years to find this point.. However, in 1960, a new morning dawned; the True Parents, the first and last of their kind to appear in human history, finally began their course of guiding the providential history. Heaven gave humankind many religions in order to enlighten humankind who had fallen into ignorance after the Human Fall. However, there were limitations to this way of enlightenment. Ignorance of the root of the fall limited religions from resolving the difficult problems of the world.
God went through many pains in order to raise the people of Israel through whom He tried to complete the providence of restoration through indemnity. God sent His only begotten son; however, this son never received the chance to shine. Our Heavenly Parent, God, went through non-stop excruciating pain; His heart was constantly being torn into pieces. God sent His only begotten son to the people whom He raised for four-thousand years. This position remained. Jesus promised to return. That was the start of the two-thousand year providential history of Christianity. Then, must the returning lord come on the clouds? Ignorant people even after the enlightenment of the twentieth century believed that the Lord would return on the clouds. They were unable to conceive of a messiah who would come in the flesh to carry out the dispensation of salvation. That has been the fifty-year history of the Unification Movement. I said that today was a good day so I won’t want to speak of hardships. I will say, we must reveal the truth.
Looking at the world today, have you thought, who is the owner of this world? There is no owner. Is it the democratic world? Is it the communist world? Are the prosperous nations the owners of this world? No. The true owner must appear. The true owner is the one who perfects God’s providential history. That person is the true parent. You know this, right? In the Book of Romans, there is a parable about the wild olive tree and true olive tree. When people read this passage, they do not understand the underlying concept God is trying to express in these verses. A wild olive tree cannot become a true olive tree on its own. When the owner comes it can then engraft itself to the owner, the true olive tree. However, this process of engrafting is not easy. The true olive tree has a responsibility; its roots must be planted deeply so that it can survive in any difficult circumstances. What does this mean? After enduring many difficulties, you were able to receive the Marriage Blessing from True Parents. Then, as a blessed family, what should you do? The Marriage Blessing will hold no meaning if you allow your blessing to extend only to your family, while living in this age of True Parents. , Do you understand? Blessed families must fulfill their responsibility. The Marriage Blessing should not remain within or end up as a blessing that extends only to your family. You must reveal to your neighbors, your tribe, and your nation that True Parents are the true owners. That is the only way for you to go today if you want to receive the crown of glory, the only way to prove that you lived in this era with True Parents. Please engrave this in your hearts.
All the blessed families gathered here today and also those participating via internet throughout the world should proclaim True Parents to all four corners of the world, and fulfill their responsibilities as tribal messiahs practicing true love according to True Parents’ teachings. Humankind is suffering and dying amidst the destructive force of religion, race and national borders that is afflicting tragedies upon the world today. Can you gaze upon them without doing anything? We must educate everyone and raise them up as True Parents’ children. That is the only way to go in order to bring about one united world that we, Heaven, and all humankind have longed for. I sincerely ask that you engrave these goals in your hearts, and do your best.
By Thomas Selover
On September 3, 2012, the Unification Church and movement entered a new and critical phase in its development. Long foretold by sociologists of religion and new religion watchers, the seonghwa (ascension) of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification movement, was accompanied and followed by anguish, confusion and realignment on various levels.
Even a brief review of the history of major religious movements shows that, in each case, the passing of the founder occasioned a fundamental transformation of the religious movement. Those movements that successfully transformed were able to survive and develop; those that did not have disappeared. The crisis of succession, or what sociologist Max Weber termed the problem of “the routinization of charisma,” would seem to be an inevitable turning point in the history of religious movements. The Unification movement is not an exception; this crisis and transformation were unavoidable.
The Unification movement is now in a very new stage of the providence, beyond what has been charted in previous understandings of the Principle and of Rev. Moon’s teachings. Even if events after his passing had unfolded in a different way, the novelty of the situation and its challenges would have been present nonetheless. Unification sources — especially the Divine Principle books, but also True Father’s speech volumes from earlier days — do not give us a comprehensive account of this time, although they do contain insights that we need. So there is a necessity for members to pray, study, and discuss together, seriously and respectfully.
True Mother’s leadership role is unprecedented in the history of world religions. For each of the main central figures — including Confucius, Buddha, the Greek philosophers, Jesus Christ, and the Prophet Muhammad, no spouse held a leading role in the ongoing development of the religious community. This fact is one of the reasons why True Mother’s leadership is controversial. There has naturally been some unfamiliarity and some opposition. In this situation, that opposition has provided an opportunity as well as a necessity to proclaim True Mother’s leadership clearly in providential terms.
The purpose of this two-part article is to put forward some elements for a case that True Mother’s leadership of the Unification movement at this time is a providential necessity.
The Meaning of Providential Necessity
Care must be taken when referring to “necessity.” The concept here is not one of logical, mathematical or causal necessity in a narrow sense. Events surely could have unfolded differently than they did, and nothing in this presentation intends to deny that fact. According to Unification teaching, the providence of God has always unfolded according to specific patterns of restoration, filtered through the degrees of fulfillment of the human portion of responsibility on the part of innumerable known and unknown contributors.
The whole of Unification theology is built on the premise of the providential necessity of True Parents. On that premise, Unification theology is distinguished from traditional Christian theology. The providential necessity of the coming of True Parents implies that their advent is necessary for salvation, restoration and recreation. Moreover, their status and role in the establishment of Cheon Il Guk, the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity, is unique and irreplaceable.
Since 1960, our movement has celebrated True Parents, and placed their picture together at the forefront of our devotional piety and public occasions. There are countless passages in True Father’s sermons which speak of the uniqueness and irreplaceability of True Parents, which must include True Mother as well as True Father. Recognizing that True Mother’s leadership fulfills a providential necessity also means acknowledging that if events had unfolded differently, there would have been a major providentially necessary step missing. More will be said on this point in Part II.
“Only-Begotten”
In expressing the uniqueness and irreplaceability of True Mother, the concept of “only-begotten daughter” (독생녀, 獨生女) that is found in both True Father’s and True Mother’s teachings has become a central issue within the Unification movement. True Mother’s announcement of her status as the “only-begotten daughter” of God is one of the points of debate and division in the movement at present. Although there are precedents for the use of this term in True Father’s speeches, it is also true that the concept is novel in terms of typical expressions of Unification theology and polity. Therefore, it requires a careful process of theological reflection.
The clearest precedent for “only-begotten daughter” is the use of the term “only-begotten son” (독생자, 獨生子) with reference to Jesus and also True Father. For Christianity, the creedal statement referring to Jesus Christ as the “only begotten son” came to mean “begotten before all worlds.” If Unification theology were to develop along the same lines, it would lead us toward the kind of Christological confusions and controversies which have beset Christian theology.
Fortunately, we have the resources of East Asian religious thought to work with as well as the biblical tradition. For example, according to traditional Buddhist sources, at the time Siddhartha Gautama — who would become the Buddha — was born, he took seven steps and spoke the following words: “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.” (천상천하 유아독존, 天上天下 唯我獨尊). These famous words contain the same word 독, 獨 (“only, solely”) as in “only-begotten.” These words might sound like a self-centered claim, but it couldn’t be so, because, according to the tradition, the Buddha has no self. This statement could not be the result of individualistic self-consciousness or self-promotion, which would be a problem. For Unification theology also, a perfected person is not always asking “what about me?” Instead, such a perfected person asks what he or she can do for the sake of others.
The famous first words of the Buddha were often quoted by True Father, and the Divine Principle text also quotes this saying in the section on the value of a person who has fulfilled the purpose of creation:
Every person who has completed the purpose of creation is thus a unique existence in the cosmos. We can thus affirm the truth in the Buddha’s saying, “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.” (Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 164)
We can say, then, that the term 독 獨 in “I alone am the honored one” (唯我獨尊) means that Buddha is the uniquely awakened one, who then sets out to awaken others. Perhaps True Father as only-begotten son (독생자, 獨生子) and True Mother as only-begotten daughter (독생녀, 獨生女) can also be understood similarly as “uniquely born” or “born solely from Heaven.”
Another significant passage in East Asian religious thought that has the term 독獨 is the first chapter of the Confucian “Doctrine of the Mean” (중용, 中庸), containing the concept of shin dok (신독 慎獨) as characterizing the noble or profound person. Literally, shin dok can be translated as “being watchful and careful when alone.”
The contemporary Confucian scholar, Tu Weiming, explains shin dok more fully in terms of “vigilant solitariness,” even when the profound person is surrounded by others. Perhaps this Confucian concept of “vigilant solitariness” can also shed light on the nuances of what it means to be “only begotten.” Though she has had very little time physically alone since the beginning of her mission in 1960, True Mother’s life has been characterized by careful alertness and lonely solitariness.
True Mother speaking at Belvedere on June 5, 2016.
Preparation for Leadership
As detailed in numerous sermons and public talks, True Father deliberately raised True Mother to fulfill her providential and public role. He speaks particularly of preparing her during the crucial first seven years of their mission together as the True Parents, from 1960 to 1967. True Mother began the indemnity course from the position of servant of servants, just as True Father had done earlier. True Mother followed the course laid out for her, consciously, willingly and with determination.
To restore the original position of Eve was a world-historical task. According to the patterns of the providence of restoration recounted in Unification theology, there is first the restoration of Adam, and then Eve. There is an asymmetry between the positions of Adam and Eve during the course of restoration.
The complex course walked by True Father and True Mother since 1960 is a theme for careful, extensive and thorough study, beyond the scope of this article. However, a key point is that True Father proclaimed True Mother as equal with him. At least since the time of the 30,000 Couples Blessing in 1992, True Father and True Mother have stood in equal positions. This is Father’s teaching.
From the equal status of True Father and True Mother, many other implications follow. It becomes clear that the victory of an only-begotten daughter, along with the victory of an only-begotten son, was necessary for the True Parents, unique in history and in the cosmos, to be fully established.
True Mother as Queen
True Mother is not a successor to True Father in terms of leadership; on the contrary, True Mother’s leadership is the continuation of True Parents’ leadership.
That continuation was edified on Foundation Day, when True Mother appeared in royal robes with crown and scepter. Understanding the providential necessity of True Mother’s leadership requires investigating and upholding not only her status as True Mother but also as True Queen.
True Father clearly explained the importance of True Mother’s position as Queen, in the following words:
This daughter [True Mother], who was 17 years old when she was blessed to me, must become the queen (여왕). She must advance to the position of the Queen of the Heavenly Kingdom (하늘나라의 여왕). Therefore, after our Holy Wedding she had to go through the positions of wife, mother and grandmother, and rise up to the position of queen. When I refer to her as True Mother, it is because she is the mother who represents the heavenly nation. When I say she is my wife, it means that she represents the king and therefore must be attended as if attending the king. (Cham Bu Mo Gyeong, p. 206 [Book 2.4.3.10, 593-216, 2008-06-16])
As is clear from this passage, the title True Queen is not simply an honorific term for the wife of the True King. The concept of True Queen includes within it the qualifications for leadership. In other words, it is providentially important that the Queen (여왕) be able to actually reign. In order to manifest and realize her leadership, it has been providentially necessary for her reign to be put into actual practice.♦
