BY MOON MYUNGHO · AUGUST 18, 2014
Thank you. Please be seated.
Distinguished guests from home and abroad and beloved blessed families and members from around the world, I welcome you. I am so pleased to be with you all here.
On this second anniversary of the Universal Seonghwa of Sun Myung Moon, the True Father of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, we feel how much God has loved us until now and how He has given us all His blessings. Yet, for our shortcomings in fulfilling our responsibilities, we repent once more.
As a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of humankind, Heaven had to pass through the providence of restoration through indemnity, a history marked by pain and bitter sorrow. However, not once did God forget about his lost children. To save them, he had to go through a miserable and excruciating history. When he established his chosen people during the long four-thousand-year providence and realized his promise to send his only begotten son, humanity once more committed a mistake in front of this great grace given by God.
However, the only begotten son said he would return. Two thousand years later, God’s only begotten son has emerged again through the providence unfolding throughout Christian history!
It was on this foundation that Heaven prepared his only begotten daughter and elevated us to the position of True Parents. Thanks to this, another page came to be written in human history.
Today’s world is still fallen. It is a world owned by Satan. Hence, even though religions have tried to pursue a life of goodness, they have not known the way to Heaven. Now, thanks to True Parents, we have been able to obtain the name of “Blessed families,” who have been born anew.
How can we describe in words the overwhelming emotions that we feel today? Our True Father, you worked hard so hard. Our True Father, we love you. Our True Father, we miss you. Yet, just as the people, out of ignorance, did not welcome Jesus two thousand years ago, they once more did not accept the True Father, the Messiah at his Second Coming. The providence, however, continues to move on.
In 1971, when True Father went to the United States, he said he came as a doctor and as a firefighter. Heaven had prepared the United States as a stronghold of the free world; yet the nation was moving away from upholding God’s will as Heaven had originally intended it to do. The United States stood at a life-and-death crossroads as a result of a culture of decadence, family breakdown and the communist ideology. True Father, who knew how God had worked hard to raise the United States, had to once more stand on the front line. That was in 1971. In the 1980s, Father aroused the attention of the United States and, all alone, followed the path to save the United States, which was facing the threat to its religious and ideological underpinnings, a threat that came from communism.
He left a lot of accomplishments as his legacy. These were accomplishments that no ordinary human being could have achieved. In trying to save the United States, his goal was to bring salvation to all of humanity in accordance to our Heavenly Parent’s will. That is why Father called the free world, which was wavering, and the United States, whose democracy was wavering, to forgive, love and unite. He awakened all the good people of the United States. He himself practiced the love he preached. Yet, Rev. Moon, who lived for others in such a way, ended up going a suffering course in prison at Danbury.
Even though he did not have to follow that path, he still followed it, calling us to unite. He cried out, “I do not know what blessings Heaven has prepared in the background where I am going. So be strong! Be confident!”
From the perspective of the global providence, True Parents are the only ones who saved the United States and the world.
This second anniversary particularly focuses on the activities True Parents carried out in the Americas. Let us all mobilize all our strength, ability and effort in front of True Parents’ great love and become one in heart, body, mindset and harmony in front of God’s will. It is my hope that we all do our best, as proud citizens of Cheon Il Guk, to lay the substantial foundation Cheon Il Guk. During the first anniversary of Father’s seonghwa, Japan and Korea became one through the Peace Bike Tour. This time, fourteen countries took part in the event and the teams cycled a total distance of six thousand kilometers.
How beautiful is that? Despite the changes in climate and bad weather, the participants were not deterred.
All brothers and sisters present here have become one in heart and vision. With this second anniversary, you have shown the people of the world, and also in front of True Parents’ achievements so far, that you are proud sons and daughters of True Parents.
I thank you all for all the hard work you have done so far. Our goal is now clear.
Do not forget that our Heavenly Parent and True Parents are always with you wherever you are.