True Mother’s Message at the Blessing and Hyojeong Cultural Festival in Japan
The Long Course to Today’s Blessing Ceremony
The following is an official translation of True Mother’s message at the Hyojeong Cultural Blessing Festival and Nagoya’s 40,000-Person Rally of Hope, October 6, Nagoya Aichi Sky Expo.
Newly-Blessed couples and all our blessed members, I love you! God, our Creator, has waited for a day like this for six thousand years. God created in His image the natural world and a man and a woman, our human ancestors. In particular, He gave human beings the responsibility of maturing through a growth period.
The first human beings were in a position to grow beautifully, through uniting with the Creator in absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, receiving the Marriage Blessing and becoming the true ancestors to humankind. God wanted to be a part of that. In other words, God, the Creator, is our Heavenly Parent.
Heavenly Parent, who only exists in spiritual form, wanted to live with us as our True Parent, within a physical body. He wanted to love humankind and join us in Heaven on Earth and in the eternal world of Heaven in Heaven, both of which He designed. This would have been such a tremendous blessing for human beings.
However, Adam and Eve, who would have become our true human ancestors, did not reach that position. Instead, they became the ancestors of the fallen humankind existing today. Human beings’ original hearts long for God; however, because they do not understand the essence of Heavenly Parent there has not been a single day throughout our six-thousand-year biblical history without war or conflict. Humankind has yearned for a peaceful world, but that world has not come to fruition.
Mistakes cannot remain
God is omniscient and omnipotent. He is everlasting. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The human beings He created, who are now fallen human beings, need to advance to the position in which they can uphold God’s will. They need to pay indemnity for their mistakes. That is how the undesired and painful history of restoration, the providence of salvation through indemnity, began.
The Israelites were chosen to take the course of restoration of God’s providence, the salvation through indemnity, alluded to in the Bible, until they formed foundations to uphold God’s will on the individual, family, tribe, and national level.
We are aware that when Christians read the Old Testament there are many events they cannot understand. We cannot bear to speak of God’s suffering as He endeavored to lead fallen human beings, who were unaware of God’s will, to enlightenment, and finally be able to practice God’s will of their own volition. We are aware of the recurring frustration over how slow the providence has had to move.
Jesus’ course and its conclusion
It took four thousand years for God to send Jesus, His only son, to the fallen world. It wasn’t forty years; it wasn’t four hundred years. It was four thousand years. The great Roman Empire embodied the environment God prepared at the time. If only the Israelites understood God and understood Jesus’ essence, they would have absorbed the Roman Empire, and two thousand years ago, they would have achieved a world of peace. However, Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, did not take responsibility for establishing that foundation. Neither the Israelites nor the Jewish people took responsibility.
Jesus, who had lost his entire environment prepared by God, labored during his three-year public life, but in the end, he was crucified. While Jesus was on the cross, there was one criminal on his right and one on his left. The criminal on the left taunted Jesus. When the one on the right heard his taunts, he said they were hanging on the cross because they had sinned; however, Jesus had not sinned. How did Jesus respond? He said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Paradise. Not heaven, Paradise. Jesus said he would return.
Heaven’s efforts
Christians today do not know how the resurrection will come about or what the results will be. That is why I have come forward to speak these historical truths and the truth of Heaven’s providence. How do you think Heavenly Parent felt when He saw Jesus being crucified? He probably never wanted to see humans again.
However, God had already established that His creation would begin with our human ancestors. Therefore, God had no choice but to take a miserable course of tribulation. Today’s human beings are unfilial children in front of God. Christianity’s mission was to teach and spread God’s truth; however, they are ignorant of this.
Starting over
The Israelites failed to fulfill their responsibilities. Therefore, God set out to find a new people, among whom God’s Only Begotten Daughter could be born for the returning Messiah so that God could hold the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Two thousand years ago, the new people were the Han Tribe in 400 AD. The Han people loved peace and were skilled at astronomy.
Spurred by outer forces and due to their hatred of war, the Han people traveled south and settled on the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese are probably also descendants of the Han tribe. God took two thousand years to lay the foundation of Christianity. On that foundation, God’s Only Begotten Daughter was born in 1943.
According to the Principle of Creation, we need a growth period. Japan occupied Korea during World War II. Because human beings were unaware of God and of Heaven’s providence and simply followed their own desires, their past was miserable. This is true. I was born in 1943 and Korea’s liberation came in 1945.
Joy dampened by separation
Korea experienced liberation in 1945, but then north-south division, communism and democracy separated us. The North was ready to invade the South with the support of the Soviet Union. The South’s democratic government had not yet established a system to deal with this, so the Korean War broke out in 1950.
What did Heaven need to consider first? God’s Only Begotten Daughter, who could complete His providence for the first time in six thousand years, was born after two thousand years. So, Heaven had to protect His Only Begotten Daughter.
Sixteen nations
Korea was not widely known in the world during that time. Also, the Soviet Union was in the United Nations. So, how come 16 nations took part in the Korean War? We call the Korean War a holy war. While foreign nations may not have had any stake in Korea, young people still came to shed their blood and defend our freedom. This was not possible through human power alone. This miracle was possible because God was with us.
Thus, I knew what my mission was. Unable to delay any longer, I rose to the position of a True Parent in 1960. The hope of fallen human beings is to meet the True Parents. They want to be in God’s presence; however, the Fall remains an obstacle. The True Parents exist for this reason. Only through the Marriage Blessing, such as the one we held today, can we begin the journey to becoming sons and daughters of God, our Creator and Heavenly Parent.
True Parents’ appearance was possible because Christianity was the basis of God’s environmental foundation. As a result of their faith, they awaited the Messiah for two thousand years, expecting him to come at any moment. Christians should have been the first to take the lead; however, that did not happen because they did not recognize God’s work. The two-thousand-year Christian history was set in motion through the resurrection by the Holy Spirit and the creation of the bible by the disciples.
Due to human selfishness, the two-thousand-year course was full of failures. How could communism, which claimed that God was dead, stem from a Christian foundation that attended Heaven? The same is true for the Catholic faith. Do you remember the verse [Isaiah 2:4] about turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks? Christians have made many mistakes, which is why people do not trust the Christian church. Today, the only path Christians can take is to accept True Parents’ ideology.
Atonement is needed
Ladies and gentlemen! There is only one path taught by all religions: live a life of goodness! The desire to attend God is the same, whether you are Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim or Christian. However, the Family Federation is the only religion that shows us how we can pay indemnity for our mistakes and enter God’s presence. Neither their home nation nor the Christian foundation supported True Parents. In this position, True Parents began the Marriage Blessing movement in 1960 in search of God’s children. Today, sixty years later, Blessed families are living throughout the world, in over 190 countries.
God’s dream and humankind’s wish is for one human family attending Heavenly Parent, the owner of the universe. The world comprises of more than 200 countries. To the Heavenly Parent, everyone is His son or daughter. Whether they live in a nation large or small, they are still Heavenly Parent’s children. True Parents are opening the way to everyone becoming sons and daughters.
The twenty thousand couples receiving the blessing here today have an important mission—to fulfill your responsibilities as tribal messiahs and to build a Japan that attends Heavenly Parent. This applies to politicians, who are responsible for their nation as well as their country’s greatest leaders. Human intellect has reached its limit. Only when Japan attends Heavenly Parent can it permanently establish itself in front of the world.
This is why I said, “Politics and religion cannot be separated. They must unite.” Those who are responsible for their nation must wake up at dawn, in devotion to God. They must pray. They need to ask God, “As someone who is responsible for this nation, what do You think I should do?” Only then will Japan last forever. Do you understand?
To the new couples
I want to say something new to those of you receiving the Marriage Blessing today. In 2013, True Parents established Foundation Day, marking a new age and a new beginning in history. We are celebrating the seventh year since Foundation Day. I made a promise to God. I promised Him that while I am still alive, I will create many citizens devoted to Heavenly Parent. However, when I think of the 7.7 billion people on earth, I cannot do it alone. How old do you think I am? Do you think that I can remain in good health until I reach 100? I hope so.
Thus, I hope that humankind will remember you as Blessed families forever. I hope that you will be recognized as Blessed families by God and your descendants. I hope your family can enter their records into the Cheonbowon Genealogy Center in Korea.
From now on, I will visit many countries around the world and host national level Marriage Blessing Ceremonies. Families in attendance will become chosen families blessed by God in this era. What an amazing, gratitude-inspiring and glorious day it is! Today, you are the chosen people.
Unity among nations
Reporters from more than one hundred countries are here today to see this rally. I declare, in their presence, the Asia–Pacific Union. All the countries in Asia and Africa should unite. A hundred years ago, India’s poet and saint [Rabindranath] Tagore said that on the day Korea lights its lamp once again, it will become the bright light of the East.
The light he is referring to is the truth of Heavenly Parent; True Parents’ teachings. With this word, I hope that Asia will unite with me and fulfill its mission and become a flame lighting the world.