Grandmother
Hong arrived at East Garden without any particular fanfare and was
assigned a room in a corner of the top floor of the main house.
Because it was practically an attic, you couldn't stand upright in
parts of the room, and it had an irregular shape because of the
dormer windows. Grandmother's furniture was whatever was no longer
good enough for the True Children. I didn't know then that in Ho Ho
Bin's church she had done 300 and sometimes 3,000 full bows a day as
indemnity.
Grandmother dressed in the most humble of clothes,
like any poor Korean grandma you see on the street. She worked as if
she were part of the house staff, helping in the kitchen and around
the house. She didn't take her meals at the table with True Parents;
rather she would help clear the dishes and eat together with the
kitchen staff. I didn't know then that she helped to sew the garments
to comfort Jesus' heart and lay the foundation for the Messiah to
return, three stitches and a prayer, three stitches and a prayer,
three stitches and a prayer, for endless hours.
One of my main
memories of Grandmother was of her garden. One spring, Grandmother
summoned me to a plot of land out of sight of the main house and told
me that this was where she would grow Korean vegetables for True
Family's table. This was a pretty good-size garden about 100'x35'.
After I broke the soil with a rotary tiller, Grandmother did all the
rest of the work, sometimes with help from whomever she could collar
on any given day. So that year and every year, Grandmother would
plant, cultivate and harvest this large garden. Muddy shoes, dirty
hands, soiled dress, working hour after hour in the hot sun like a
humble farmer.
I didn't know at that time that this woman,
who offered her daughter to become True Father's spouse, was not
allowed to remain in her daughter's new home. I didn't know then that
on the occasion of her rare visits, she had to enter through the back
door like a servant, unseen like a thief in the night.
I
encountered Grandmother around the house and grounds, occasionally
drove her places by car, and sometimes went to her room to fix
something. She always said I was too skinny and tried to shove some
Korean snack into my mouth. If I did any little thing for her at all,
she was so very grateful. I was so ignorant and she was so humble
that I felt I was just helping out a fellow staff member. She was
really at the bottom of the list when it came to special treatment. I
didn't know then that she was the only person in history to be a
member of all three churches preparing the foundation for the Second
Advent: the Holy Lord Order, Mrs. Ho Ho Bin's group, and the
Unification Church.
Grandmother Hong was always taking care of
the needs of others, whether the True Family, the never-ending stream
of guests, or the staff. She didn't take care of people by strutting
around in fine clothes, giving speeches and reminding people of her
position. She took care of people from the back of the room with a
comforting smile, or from the kitchen with a special snack, or from
the prayer room with tears. Grandmother never spoke publicly at all
until one day, without warning, Father asked her to give her
testimony. She stood erect in the middle of the room in the humble
clothes she happened to be wearing, and because it was Father's
order, began to speak about herself for the first and only time. I
don't remember the words Grandmother spoke that day, but I'll never
forget the tears she shed. From the first sentence the tears streamed
forth from her eyes. For the entire time she spoke in sobs and wails.
It was impossible for the translator to translate because he too was
sobbing uncontrollably.
I didn't know then what Grandmother
was like. I thought she was almost like me. She acted more like a
staff member than a True Mother's mother.
The motto of our
church is "Let us go forth in the shoes of a servant, with the
heart of the Father shedding sweat for earth, tears for man, and
blood for heaven." Soon-Ae Hong lived this motto quite
literally. I didn't know then what that meant at all, but Grandmother
Hong knew.
I didn't know then that this humble grandmother who
worked in the garden and ate in the kitchen would become the
designated mediator between heaven and earth, giving rebirth and
liberation to our members. Do you think Soon-Ae Hong knew?