Hello to all members of the Family Federation across Japan.
I express my heartfelt gratitude and respect to each and every one of you for your unwavering devotion in your daily life of faith and amidst the current difficult circumstances. Over the past month, we have studied a special subject: the Epic History of the Chosen Han People of Korea. True Mother is currently in a highly restricted environment within a detention center. Yet, she has clearly shown us that her foremost wish for us in Japan is precisely this education on the Epic History of the Chosen Han People of Korea. However, True Mother’s wish is not simply for us to participate in this education, to merely hear it or learn it. Her earnest expectation lies in how each of us individually digests and internalizes its content, and with the resolve that we are now the Chosen people, how we restart from this moment.
We now face various difficult situations. Social headwinds, seemingly unreasonable accusations and persecution, and many realities that appear utterly absurd from an external perspective. Yet, when we look back on the history of the Epic History of the Chosen Han People of Korea, persecution did not necessarily occur solely because we were wrong or failed. Rather, it often becomes clear that it was a cross they had to bear precisely because they were the chosen people—to establish more conditions, to prepare more conditions for salvation. Throughout history, when such persecution has come, there has rarely been sufficient explanation or clear guidance given as to why it happened or what caused it. However, having undergone such education thoroughly, we can now overcome this persecution. How did our predecessors, the Israelites and the Korean people, overcome these trials? The core that enabled the Korean people to become the chosen people lay beyond theory or logic. It was their upright faith toward Heaven, filial devotion toward ancestors and parents, and the patriotic and ethnic love for their people. This did not stem from coercion by others but arose from their own hearts. Herein lies the magnificent essence of the Korean people. And the Heavenly Parent loved these qualities, nurturing the Korean people ever more as the chosen people. As a people who survived by embodying the Principle in an age without it, using their heart as a base, the Heavenly Parent placed great expectations upon them.
Now, what about us? We already know the Principle. We know God’s Words. And we attend living True Parents. True Mother has expectations for us through this Epic History of the Chosen Han People of Korea. It is a faith of a grand framework that sees God’s providence from a bigger time axis and perspective, rather than being tossed about by each immediate event. Looking back through the ages, for the vast majority living in each era, Jesus’s path must have seemed incomprehensible, even bothersome—something they wanted to cover up and end quickly. 2000 years ago, Jesus’s movement was likely a nuisance even to the Jews themselves. Already under Roman rule, a movement seeking a new spiritual awakening within Judaism would have been a nuisance to the existing Jewish religious leaders. Likewise, for the Roman rulers, the leader of such an annoying little group must have been someone they wanted to get rid of quickly, thinking it a bother. This directly connects to our situation today. As a result, Jesus seemed buried in the darkness of history. Yet, as generations passed and viewed over centuries and millennia, a grand current emerges clearly—God’s Will, transcending human calculations, guiding humanity. While it is important to consider who succeeded and who failed in each individual instance, within the larger framework, God established the Korean people as His chosen people. Centered on the heart that propelled this people forward, True Parents were able to come to this earth. That is the providence of Heaven, and the Principle unravels this providence together with God’s heart. The reality we face today is also an interplay between the truths expounded in the “Exposition of the Divine Principle” and new words of truth that have yet to be fully articulated.
Furthermore, there is another point we must face frankly. Apart from the persecution that comes with being the chosen people, there is indeed an aspect where our lack of understanding and lack of preparation regarding True Parents’ providence and who True Parents truly are has expanded the damage. Representative Lee Gi-shik called this cosmic resistance. Whether each word spoken by True Mother can enter us 100% or not depends entirely on our heart’s posture, our heart’s preparation. When they don’t enter well, haven’t we sometimes felt as if perhaps True Mother’s words themselves were problematic? Or that perhaps there was something odd about the way True Mother spoke? In truth, this cosmic resistance has gradually built up within our hearts, and it has become one major factor leading to True Mother’s detention in today’s providence. Our initial motivation for faith was noble, and our subsequent achievements were remarkable. However, we did not begin our journey having fully understood everything. We advanced boldly without sufficient understanding. As a result, difficulties that could have been minimal became much greater. We must not avert our eyes from this self-inflicted aspect. We are now walking in the completion stage, a stage of a different dimension than before. Having finished the stages of formation and growth, we cannot reach the completed substance in the completion stage by proceeding as we have done until now. The question being posed here is precisely this: even if our own frameworks collapse, can we still walk together with True Parents? Even Jesus’ disciples faced a situation at the very end that exceeded the framework they had envisioned, and they became confused. When their framework crumbled, they could not believe in Jesus and walk with Him to the end; they scattered and fell apart. It was not because they lacked love. It was because true oneness had not yet reached that level. Peter did not betray Jesus because he wanted to. But he was not one with Jesus. Precisely because of this, he found himself in a situation where he betrayed the Jesus he loved.
Now, Japan’s responsible leaders are gathered at Cheon Won Gung receiving education on the Epic History. They will return to Japan carrying that very vibration. We must never forget this fact: True Mother’s current detention is for our sake. We must not become mere beings who only wait for True Mother’s liberation. We must become beings who share the same heart as True Mother, bearing this trial together and overcoming it together. Right now, we are placed in a situation where it is only natural to be trapped by feelings of despair, as if everything from the past decades of the Unification Movement and the Family Federation’s journey is crumbling before us. However, what I wish to share with you today is this: this is not the end; this is where the true beginning starts. What I mean is this: this very sense of despair is the fundamental state of heart that Heavenly Parent and True Parents themselves felt before they could guide us, before they could engage in witnessing, love us, and let us stand. Before Heavenly Parent and True Parents could love us and save humanity on Earth, they first experienced this profound world of heart. Now, at the end of our long life of faith, are we not facing precisely the kind of heart described by True Parents, especially True Mother—a heart that feels as if we must find a single short needle in a desert sandstorm? If so, this is not a bad thing. Rather, it leads us to recognize: “Ah, this is the heart True Mother passed through. True Father overcame each of these hearts one by one to love us.” I believe our understanding will shift to this. Isn’t this the time for us to remember that Heavenly Parent’ six thousand years of investment was precisely a succession of such things? I believe it is time for us to pray together and think together once more, from this perspective, about how much we have been able to unite with True Mother. The time has come for us to truly become one with True Mother, to share and move forward together with her earnest heart—that heart which faced and overcame, alone, those desperate situations she carried. She overcame them solely through her filial devotion to Heavenly Parent. Now, let us become a flock of filial children, pure water, who stand with True Mother, not merely following her or sharing her joys and sorrows based on her circumstances, but advancing together toward our common goal with an unshakable heart.
As the starting point for this resolve, let us absorb and share this Epic History of the Chosen Han People of Korea to the very core of our hearts, and begin a new journey. This is what I sincerely wish for and call upon you today. Earlier today, the verdict was announced in the trial of Defendant Yamagami. Today, feeling these two sentiments—our reflection on where our love fell short, and our resolve that providential work must not stop because of this, but that we must walk with True Mother to the very end—let us, here in Cheon Won Gung, above all, with hearts united with Heavenly Parent, press on together without giving up, striving until the very last moment. That concludes today’s message. Thank you.