What Should My Family Do?

True Parents’ Birthday Speech
Sun Myung Moon
January 29, 2001
Grand Ballroom, New Yorker Hotel, New York

Translation by Rev. Peter Kim; Unofficial Notes by Tyler Hendricks.
Emcee: Rev. Michael Jenkins
Soloist: Mrs. Yoshimi Kadota
Invocation: Dr. Chang Shik Yang

Congratulatory Address: Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak

(Partial notes of Rev. Kwak’s address)

Dearest True Parents. We congratulate you from the bottom of our hearts. We are truly inadequate, but we have gathered to celebrate this day. Now your kingship coronation has been celebrated and we want to honor your birthday. Please accept our heart and desire.

Today, in the company of all the saints and sages in the spirit world, centered on Heung Jin Nim, and under the watchful eyes of Heaven and Earth, we are honored to celebrate our True Parents’ birthdays.

This year, we should see True Father with completely new eyes. He has liberated God, given God His freedom through the coronation ceremony of God’s kingship. He has liberated God’s han, His eternal heartistic agony and returned Him to His original position of glory. We cannot imagine the level of suffering required to establish this. Before liberating God, True Father had to liberate the entire spirit world, going down to the lowest level, so that every human being had the opportunity to receive the Blessing.

Before True Father could conduct the ceremony to liberate the spirit world, he had to lay all the conditions on Earth. This required unimaginable sacrifice. No one could help him. So how is it possible to think we are celebrating a simple birthday today? We have nothing to offer. Please sacrifice us, pour us, and bestow on us the great grace of the Blessing.

We are your children in name, but in reality we have not attended you enough. Year after year, True Parents celebrate their birthdays together, on the same day, because their oneness is so life giving to us. We naturally are happy they can celebrate on the same day. We pay most attention to True Father, but how about True Mother? It is her birthday, too. But she doesn’t even get to enjoy her own birthday, with any special attention given her. For us, it is convenient that they celebrate on the same day, but we have not thought about how much we should celebrate both Father’s and Mother’s birthdays.

This is a symbol of Mother’s very life, always sacrificing and giving. We often fail to recognize and express our heart to True Mother. She has gone through so much suffering, more than anyone can imagine, but we never see any signs of her suffering. Everyone here can testify that we only see her smile. Whenever we see Mother and are with her, we become peaceful in our minds and have a comfortable feeling. Also she is always faithfully and lovingly beside True Father, and this makes us feel secure and confident. She is not only Father’s wife, but has unimaginable responsibility. She is the mother of the True Children, but also the True Mother of all humanity. How can we possibly comfort her? She doesn’t even have her own birthday.

We must deepen our heart. From now, we will all live our lives with nothing other than the heart steeped in admiration for our True Parents.

Rev. Michael Jenkins read Father’s words given at the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God for Hoon Dok Hae.

Flower and card presentation to True Parents.

True Father:

The topic of today’s message is, "Uri Kajongun Otoke Halkunya?" "What Should My Family Do?" Where are you going to live? In Korea? America? The Kingdom of Heaven? Do you know what the Kingdom of Heaven means? Where does it start? It starts from myself. Within myself there is the Kingdom of God and Hell. Just as in the spirit world there is Heaven and Hell. If we follow the original mind, we will be led to the Kingdom of Heaven. If we follow our physical body’s desire, we will end up in Hell.

Just as we see two kinds of human beings, man and woman, our mind is always struggling between the desires of the mind and body, the good and bad ways. What about you good-looking men and women? Can you say you have no mind and body struggle? (No.)

If Heaven in spirit world resembles God Himself, do you think that the heavenly world struggles? We contain two types of lineage; that is the problem. God’s lineage connects to our original mind, whereas the satanic lineage because of the fall is connected to our body’s desire. There is no way for the two different lineages to become one. Suppose there is a girl who will be a bride in a few days, and she is taken by someone else, marries him and bears a child. The child will not have her true husband’s lineage, but someone else’s. As the original husband, will you want to touch and love that child, who has someone else’s lineage? (No.) Why not? Because you can see that the child carries your enemy’s seed. The enemy’s seed germinated in that child. What kind of enemy is it? It is the enemy of love, the love enemy.

From his point of view, the enemy’s life, love and lineage is in that child. So, Satan is God’s love enemy. He is the adulterer against God. No matter how handsome that child might be, God will turn His back against him. Suppose, then, your husband dies while you are still alive. Can you think of marrying someone else? (No.) Why not? Since we resemble God and have to live like God, and we know God cannot be with His enemy children, therefore if you lose your spouse, you cannot give your love to someone else. Therefore, even if you lose your spouse early, you should keep God’s tradition.

Adam and Eve prior to the fall were to have resembled God. Who is God? God is my Father and your Father. Do you really know that? (Yes.) If you truly think your resemble God, your Father, then does God have mind and body struggle? (No.) The oneness of God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. Do we have that absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love as God does? No. As you continue life on Earth, your mind and body pull you in different directions. So you become shaky. Life becomes complicated, dizzying. You don’t even know whether God exists. Where there is mind and body struggle, there is no connection with God.

What is the meaning of one’s Father? We say we are the children of God, but what does it mean? It begins with the fact that your lineage is connected with your father and mother. Your father’s and mother’s minds and consciences are concentrated in you. The combination of love, life and lineage of my father and mother resulted in me. My lineage is a love string. It is the string of my love. It is attached to my lineage. Life, love and lineage will become one and be pulled by the one string. Do you believe this? (Yes.) Then you are better than God.

Think of God’s situation. How often has He been staggering to correct human beings’ mistakes and correct their history? Did He do that because He had no choice, or in order to accomplish a goal? (…) That means you have done nothing to make God stagger. (For today, no. Father laughs heartily.) Let’s compare young and old people. Who will have more fighting between mind and body? (Young people.) Why not old people? Young people do not have much to worry about, so they go with their energy and ambition and keep going straight. But older people have to think about their family and spouse, and job and future, so they contain themselves more.

Is it easy to believe in the Unification Church? No; how difficult it is! It is a complicated situation in which we are always thinking. What shall I do? I don’t know! (Applause.) Think this way. You think it is difficult to follow the Unification Church, but what about my position, having to rectify mistakes? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of headaches and concerns? What about God’s headaches, not only thinking about Unification Church members but including all humankind, the universe, the cosmos and history? He has more headaches.

You love me? (Yes.) Like, or love? (Love. Applause.) It is a cheap thing to say, "I love you," especially for Americans. I cannot base any formula on the American "I love you." Even if you say it cheaply, still raise your hands if you say it. How deep is it? One finger deep? As the Bible says, "those who seek their life will lose it, and those willing to lose it for my sake will gain it." You should go beyond death. To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, do you want to be in a position higher or lower than mine? (Together.) If I give my life 10 times, then, will you give yours 100 times? (2,000 times.) Don’t laugh.

It is serious. If you say you love me, with your hands up, it is a serious determination. From your mouth to stomach is only 45 centimeters, plus 10 meters of your intestines, and you are representing all your organs, cells, mind, features— raising your hands represents everything. Then, are you still going to say you love me? If I take your handkerchief, will you ask why I have taken it? Is your love that shallow? Or will you give it to me? Will you complain if I take your only suit? Is your "I love you" that shallow? You sisters, when you tell me you love me, how much does it mean to you?

If you meet that standard, you are a warrior. You say you love me, but I am confused and do not know what to believe. If I ask you to buy me a McDonald’s lunch, will you do it cheerfully? (Yes.) I am not sure how much you love me. Do you have two minds or one mind? You don’t even know, because your mind is always going up and down. Your mind is not in the position to shoot like an arrow, straight and unchanging. Does your mind have that piercing force?

When you walk on Fifth Avenue and see a beautiful young woman or man, do your eyes follow her, or do you pay no attention? Just imagine that beautiful person is approaching you and you want not just to look but hear her voice. Then you have to scream, and she will not pass by but will pay attention and see if you are okay. She may touch your forehead and then you can smell and even touch her. Then, can you say you have one mind, two, or several minds? Your mind is complicated and confused in that situation. Confused, if you happen to kiss that beautiful woman, is your mind confused or true? Your state of mind will change from the time of watching the person to the point of kissing, step-by-step. If that happens to you, how evil you are and how complicated.

Are you confident to maintain a true mind? The key point of your mind’s state and behavior is its purpose and direction. You may be confused as you move step-by-step with the person on the street, but if you are doing it in order to help that person, then your mind is vertically straight. Do you think God has a confused mind? Do you resemble God? Just as we do, don’t you think God has a mind that wants to hear, touch, smell and approach from different angles? God may have headaches and confusion at times, but it is for the purpose of saving particular people, so His mind is still vertically true.

What is the definition of true versus false love? (Living for others.) If you have love that is unchanging, such that whatever happens in the world it is solid as a rock and will only go for the sake of humanity and God, then your mind is a true mind. Similarly, God’s mind is never confused. I have a busy schedule everyday. I have to meet hundreds of leaders and hear many reports and these people’s concerns. Think how difficult it is. Am I doing that for my own sake? Do I calculate how much I gain from these meetings? On the contrary, my life is to give for the sake of others and never remember. No matter how difficult and confused my life appears, the path I take has no obstacles and always returns to the original point.

Do you want to live such a life? Ordinary people look to recoup their money if they lose even a few cents. If you lose money many times everyday, how will your life go? Will you be grasping to regain it? Or will you think that that money is going to help hungry people, and feel happy? If you go meet someone important and they are not available, you have to comfort yourself by thinking that you will meet someone MORE important soon. Therefore, the secret for a life like mine is that no matter how complicated a situation may be, think as God thinks. If a goal is missed, you expect something bigger will come. Then you will dwell in the realm of God’s love, feel comfort and have no headaches. Unification Church members know the law of indemnity. If you happen to lose your leg, instead of being sad, think that you lost it for the sake of humanity. Then you can be happy. So is indemnity a good term? (Good.) Is indemnity a good or bad word? How good? (Good.) How precious is it? It is precious even for God.

Is a person who thinks of indemnity as I have explained it happy or sad? Suppose your hands and legs are chained in prison. How will you think of your situation? That it is a tragedy and that your life is over? Or that you are paying indemnity for all humanity or even something greater? Can you think that way? So can you compare the quality of love you offer God with that which God gives to you? Suppose you volunteer to take this indemnity course for the sake of God, in order to offer more love to God? Will God ignore and abandon you, or protect you? (Protect you.)

With six billion people in hundreds of nations, what do you think God wants to do with the world? To see them as one people in one nation and one cosmos under God? Americans think of one nation and that the central country is America. Which does God want, one nation or one cosmos? You know well. One nation or one universe? Well-educated Unification Church members should say one world or one universe under God, not one nation under God. What is your honest answer about being brainwashed by the Unification Church? (Laughter.) You will always counter one nation with one world or one cosmos, because God is my Father of love, life, lineage and the sexual organ too, and I proclaim this forever, amen. With a loud voice, "A"—it means number one, "men"—"Amen"—number one man—Amen!

Americans are proud of their nation and themselves, but there is nothing there. I can create hundreds of Ivy League colleges, whatever America is proud of. How? By the omnipresence of God. Day and night, wherever I go, God is with me and He likes me. No one said amen. (Amen!) Is it "a man" or "a men"? Oneness is everything. Oneness with the central person, with the core.

Do you think I have had an easy or a difficult life? Have you heard the false rumors that you will be brainwashed and sold? Have you even bought lunch for me? Have you really devoted yourself for my sake? There are many parents of Unification Church members who said, "My children were snatched by Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, therefore I must destroy it," and they came to fight us, but most of them have turned around 180 degrees and love their children and grandchildren and even depend upon them. Do you remember those stories and rumors that took place long ago?

You may sometimes think, maybe my parents were right twenty years ago. Do you? (No.) Once you entered the Unification Church door, you were filled with absolute faith, love and obedience, but your life has been shaking since then. Therefore there is always the potential for any of you to go back to your old ways. Isn’t it true that your mind is not crystal clear yet? Suppose I give a nudge to this young lady. Would she run away and call the police? What does "police" mean? It means, those who catch thieves, swindlers and liars. That is the kind of label I’ve dealt with—swindler, liar, brainwasher, whatever. Suppose I really played the role of a swindler to that young sister. Do you think she would have remained faithful in the movement?

Think of it. How may different labels have been thrown at me? Unthinkable names. Probably every possible dirty and evil word has been used as a …