Introduction
On the first Sunday in June (6/2), a video sermon by President Tomihiro Tanaka, which was directed to all members and blessed families, was streamed nationwide. President Tanaka summarized the main points of a life of faith in five keywords, and called on the audience to “be children who can appreciate the joy of being alive in this miraculous time when True Parents are on earth, and walk with the same outlook as True Mother, who is taking responsibility for the providence on earth.”
Editorial Department
Keep an eye on where the providential compass is pointed while walking the path
Good morning, brothers and sisters of the Family Federation from all over the country. We are now in the first Sunday of June. The title of today’s sermon is Faith in Daily Life.
Have you read the book Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, and Education in Daily Life? It contains important guidelines for our lives of faith.
Let me share with you what is written at the beginning of the book.
…they had lived for 430 years and needed to pass through 40 years of hardship in the wilderness to enter the age of being established in God’s promised land of Canaan, we must realize that the providential compass is now changing its course greatly and pointing towards the firm establishment and settlement of Cheon Il Guk.
Japanese Edition, p. 4
The providence is always in motion. We have learned time and again not to misjudge the “times” as the providence changes. Where is the providence heading now? I am compelled once again that we must face the “times” with our eyes firmly fixed on where the providential compass is pointed.
To summarize the current times that we are in, we are in the “age of welcoming Cheon Il Guk.” This is our view of the providence.
Every day we say the date according to the heavenly calendar of Cheon Il Guk, so the age of Cheon Il Guk has already begun. The Completed Testament Age has passed, and the Age of Cheon Il Guk has arrived. Therefore, I would like to summarize the life we should be fortifying at the turning point of this (new) age.
Making faith blossom in the family
We have learned that the purpose of religion is to create individuals without the need for religion, families without the need for religion, and societies without the need for religion. Religion itself would not have been necessary had the first human ancestors not fallen. However, religion has played a major role in reconnecting our hearts to God. We can understand that through religion, humankind has overcome one hurdle at a time in order to return to the Heavenly Parent (God).
True Father said that this is truly the time of living out the word. Also, True Mother often mentions the way we should lead our lives. As people who have met the True Parents of humankind and have faced their words, we must reexamine ourselves and ask what kind of life we are leading.
The purpose of the word is to substantiate it, and the purpose of substance is heart. True Mother has called us “treasures of heaven, and weapons of heaven’s providence.”
Are you all substantiating the word in your personal and family lives? Where should True Parents’ teachings take root as we enter the age of the Cheon Il Guk? On the cover of the same book, it says, “To be a family where faith blooms.” That’s right. The flower of faith must blossom in the family. It is precisely at this moment that we must look back and reflect on our past with the family as the center of our lives.
We cannot attain completion alone as individuals. We are completed centering on the family. Jesus said, “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). In the Family Federation, “Heaven is in the family.” This is the teaching of True Parents.
So, as long as we keep our eyes on the family, will heaven (on earth) be established automatically? We know from experience that it is not that simple. I am sure you will all agree.
True Father said, “Hence our previous efforts to cultivate our spirituality while living alone are now not enough. We must be determined and resolute to make much greater effort than before.” (Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, p. 24)
Individual efforts have been made to build up one’s faith: people have sacrificed the things that they loved while devoting their lives to heaven, striving towards God’s will. These are very precious things. However, the efforts of a religious life are not enough.
When you have a family, you have more things to protect and more things you don’t want to lose than when you were by yourself. That is where Satan will come in. You will face many conflicts and new challenges. That is why True Father says that we need to work much harder than when we did not have families.
Then, what kind of life should we lead at home in the family to be blessed from heaven? I will try to summarize the key points of faith in daily life in the following five keywords.
Become your own self, centered on True Parents’ heart
The first keyword is “service.”
This word may sound too familiar, but it is the one thing that we must not compromise in our daily lives of faith. Now is the time of “righteous service” or “being righteous through service.” True Father said that we have entered the age of salvation through service, rather than the age of salvation through indemnity.
For a long time, we have been running at full speed toward heaven’s will with the perspective of faith based on indemnity. Now that we have entered the Age of Cheon Il Guk, we place emphasis on serving God as our Parents, and on welcoming the True Parents of humankind into our families and serving them. Through service, we will experience salvation. True Father said the following.
When this happens, what we know as religion will disappear. We will receive salvation by attending the True Parents. This means that the age of salvation through attendance is coming. Therefore True Parents’ words should become the root of our words. All True Parents’ feelings, physical and emotional, should become our feelings. True Parents’ lifestyle should become the basis for the tradition of our own families; that is, it should become our family culture.
Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, p. 30
To “serve the True Parents” means that everything we say, including the motive and purpose of our words, must be directed in a way that is consistent with True Parents’ wishes. Also, True Parents’ wishes, thoughts, and feelings must become our wishes, thoughts, and feelings. In other words, it means that we are becoming those who live centered on True Parents’ heart.
What kind of life does True Parents lead 24 hours a day? Are the traditions that True Parents established firmly rooted in your lives? If you wish to become more like True Parents, let us incorporate even a tiny fraction of True Parents’ lives into our own lives and put it into practice.
In addition to serving True Parents in this manner, what I would like you to value in your home is for husbands and wives to serve each other. You should share your feelings, wishes, and dreams with each other, think from the other’s viewpoint, and live for the sake of the other.
The basis for welcoming God and True Parents into our homes is for both, husband and wife, to put themselves in the other’s shoes and try to understand what lies behind their words. I believe that this will be questioned more than ever. Service is the cornerstone of a life of faith. We are to build a family that serves God, serves True Parents who came to serve God, and serves each other who have welcomed the True Parents.
People are happiest when they live for the sake of others
The second key phrase is “live for the sake of others.”
It will seem as obvious as air. Do you know the vision of our denomination? Many churches have it printed and posted on their walls. “Happy families living for the sake of others, a church existing together with the community, and a family federation contributing to the nation and the world.” This is our vision.
The foundation of this vision is “happy families living for the sake of others.” In the past, we would only say, “happy families.” We all feel happiness in different ways. So what is happiness based on the principle? It is that we can be happiest by living for the sake of others. The happiness we feel when we live for the sake of others is lasting. On the other hand, the happiness we feel when we are loved disappears when we are no longer loved, and conflict arises.
Living for the sake others is the greatest “brand” of values that True Father and True Mother have shown and taught us throughout their lives. That’s where happiness is, and it is up to us to grasp it.
What does the first line of the Introduction to The Divine Principle say?
Everyone is struggling to attain happiness and avoid misfortune. From the commonplace affairs of individuals to the great events that shape the course of history, each is at root an expression of the human aspiration for ever greater happiness.
Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 1.
The beginning of these eternal words of truth given to us says that every human being is in search of happiness. And what follows are some things that prevent us from attaining happiness. Is the Principle the truth or not? Happiness is mentioned at the beginning (of the Principle) but if it cannot offer a way to achieve happiness, then it is not the truth.
The path to happiness that the Principle have shown us and that True Parents have taught us is very simple: live for the sake of others. We must prove that the happiness that comes from living for the sake of others is the greatest form of happiness. I feel that is our mission. What do you think?
One of the people I often mention is a Jewish person named Victor Frankl. He was a psychiatrist and psychologist who was imprisoned for about three years by the Nazis. His experience is written in the book From Death-Camp to Existentialism. He said that he realized “a person who lives solely for the sake of someone irreplaceable can endure all things” (translated from Japanese).
We suddenly find ourselves in the midst of happiness when we live like crazy for someone else. Happiness is not waiting for us beyond the mountains; it is waiting for us in our daily lives. The key phrase needed to seize happiness is to “live for the sake of others.”
From a different perspective, it may appear to be sacrificing (your life). This type of happiness certainly cannot be done without the word “sacrifice.” Sacrifice your time for someone else. Sacrifice money. Sacrifice bodily energy through your efforts…Either way, you are surely giving something to the other person.
In her autobiography, True Mother said, “Thinking back as the person called to live as the Mother of Peace, I realize that, over time, ‘sacrifice’ became a name I could call myself. (Mother of Peace, p. 66). Mother’s life has been a series of sacrifices to those around her. True Father also lived such a life. However, why don’t you ask him, “Was your life an unhappy one”? He will probably answer, “After it all passed, it was all love.” I am sure that if you ask Mother, she will never say, “I was unhappy.”
Every day, we cite the Family Pledge and say, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk…” We can be an owner because we make sacrifices. True Father said that the more you sacrifice for something greater, the higher the grade of your love becomes. In the Family Pledge, it is expressed as “filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth.” The essence of filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters is the same: live for the sake of others. Living for the greater good increases the grade of love. You will be asked whether you lived a life of sacrifice at the familial level, at the national level, at the world level, or at the cosmic level, including the spirit world.
We must experience that true happiness can be found in a life of living for the sake of others, in our daily lives. We are happy because we live for our husband or wife. We are happy because we live for our children and parents. We are happy because we live for our neighbors and friends. We are happy because we live for our country and the world. At what level can we experience this kind of happiness and love in this one shot we have at life? It is time we deeply explore how to live this kind of life.
God who has spoken to the human conscience through religion
The third keyword is “conscience.”
Conscience is the “second God” and it is always with you. This has been the fundamental force upon which religion is built.
Everyone desires peace and happiness. At the core of this is the conscience that is within everyone. Therefore, human beings seek God, who is the subject of conscience. God has been speaking to the human conscience through religion. The purpose of religion is to teach that God is the master of human beings. This is the major role of religion.
Conscience was not created by man. It was already given to us when we were born into this world. It cannot be drowned out by any thought or force. Not even by violence that can destroy the body. For six thousand years, God has been guiding human beings in the direction of heaven’s providence while speaking to their conscience.
True Father described it as “high noon settlement” and called on us not to create shadows in our consciences and not to lead lives in such a way that puts our conscience in debt. If we seal off our conscience and its desires and act in our own selfish ways, we will have remorse. It will cast shadows which will accumulate in our hearts.
We must listen to the voice of conscience and by extension to the voice of God. Therefore, prayer is necessary.
True Father spoke of the secret on how to avoid creating shadows: “If we can all shine as we live in the light, we will not cast the shadow of sin.” (Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, p. 48)
I mentioned earlier about a life of living for the sake of others. The conscience also desires to do so. If we live according to the voice of our conscience, we will eventually become luminous. Isn’t it dazzling when you see your brothers and sisters around you? Let us become luminaries ourselves, that can brightly illuminate 360 degrees around us, making everyone want to approach us.
When we are placed in a difficult position, we must look at it from the perspective of heaven’s providence
The fourth keyword is “gratitude.”
A life of gratitude. In the Divine Principle, you describe it as “willingly endure”. To confirm the importance of gratitude, I would like to introduce True Mother’s words.
My lifelong motto has been: Live today with utmost gratitude, more than yesterday. I have tried to live with more gratitude today than I did yesterday, and will live with more gratitude tomorrow than I do today. This has been my life’s goal: to be grateful every day.
Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, p. 50
You cannot defeat someone who accepts everything with gratitude. Even if you put a sword through them, if they are thankful, you will lose the will to fight, won’t you? No matter what trials and difficulties we face, we should be more grateful than we were yesterday, and tomorrow we should be more grateful than we are today. True Mother testified that this is what True Father conveyed when he entered Danbury Prison.
Father gave a parting word to me at the last moment before he left for Danbury. He said that “you must not complain about the situation. Rather, you must live in gratitude about it. When you are completely united in gratitude, this will create a foundation for true, lasting unity. When there is unity a great miracle will come”.
Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, pp. 50 – 51
When True Father was facing prison, the guideline he placed in his mind was gratitude. No matter what position you are placed in, be thankful. That is where the next step begins.
In fact, there are many times we try to be grateful when it is not easy. But what if we look at these situations from the perspective of a larger vessel, from the perspective of heaven’s providence? If you are able to think, “If I accept these trials I am facing now with gratitude, God’s will will advance further,” then your attitude will definitely change and be grateful. Something that may be painful if done alone, can be turned into gratefulness if you can understand that it is a blessing in the main.
Those who appreciate the small things in daily life can also appreciate the big things. When we are grateful for our relationships with our husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, and even small things that happen in the home; we value the word “thank you.” I am convinced that the future will blossom on the foundation of family life built in this manner.
When the traditions established in the age of indemnity merge with the traditions of the Age of Cheon Il Guk
The fourth keyword is “tradition.”
…we need to replace the traditions that existed during the age of indemnity. This new tradition is what we will follow for eternity in the kingdom of heaven. Centering on the family, we should establish the ways of true filial sons and daughters, true husbands and wives who are faithful to each other, and true patriots, and prepare the ways of saints and divine sons and daughters. We have to prepare these ways here on earth.
Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, p. 52
Many senior families left for world missions with feelings of unrivaled joy and gratitude that they had learned the word and had met the True Parents of humankind. Some left their loved ones behind, others took a break from their studies.
How precious is the tradition of standing up for a larger, more public cause, even at the cost of something valuable? Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the global foundation of our denomination has been created.
After the age of indemnity, we have entered the age of salvation through service. Now, a new tradition of the ideal world—a tradition suitable for the Age of Cheon Il Guk—is required. We must let heaven’s will blossom in our own families. God’s ideal of creation was the family. As people who have heard God’s word and recipients of the blessing from heaven, we have the great mission of fulfilling heaven’s ideal in our families.
Our precious senior members who left their loved ones behind and risked their lives to go out into the world. We will now multiply that faith and passion by tenfold and give ourselves for the sake of those we love. Husbands will properly love their wives, wives will properly love their husbands, parents will properly deal with their children, children will properly respect their parents, and grandparents will be cherished. In this way, the tradition of the realm of three-generations will be established.
The ideal of creation will not be fulfilled if the family just faces each other. Please keep in mind the four keywords mentioned so far and practice them. Mutually serve each other properly. Live for the sake of others. Listen to the voice of your conscience when dealing with each other. Treat each other with gratitude. That is where our traditions will be established for eternity. True Father emphasized, “What is there to educate without tradition? Education is born out of tradition.”
What should we educate the second, third, and fourth generations on?
Before thinking about that, let us first establish a tradition. We must serve the Heavenly Parent and serve True Parents. Then, the proper traditions will take root in the family. This is the key to passing on our faith to the second and third generations.
Now is the time for the traditions, that have been established and that are to be inherited, blend with those that are newly being formed in the family and in our lives of faith. Pledge service, worship services, tithings, prayer, and the Family Pledge…This will be the cornerstone that we pass these traditions down properly and observe a sacrament life. We must also remember that there are traditions that can be established by becoming one in heart with True Mother who walks on earth.
We are living in the greatest realm of hope in history
Lastly, I would like to share this word with you.
The hope of all humankind is to meet the True Parents. This encounter with the True Parents is the fruit of history, the center of this age and the foundation for the future. You who are engrafted to them will become their branches.
Faith in Daily Life, Witnessing in Daily Life, Education in Daily Life, Japanese Edition, pp. 130 – 131
Let us be grateful for these miraculous times of having True Parents on earth. We were not born of our own volition. Let us be children who are grateful for the joy of being born in this age and walk with the same view True Mother has, who is responsible for the providence on earth.
The time will eventually come when True Mother will depart for the spirit world. When that time comes, would we have built a tradition that she can be proud of for the second, third, and fourth generations? The core of this tradition will surely be our attitude of service toward True Parents. There is only one pair of True Parents of humankind, and that is President Sun Myung Moon and President Hak Ja Han. This will not change in 300 or 500 years.
We have been shown the way by True Parents to stand in God’s lineage. Whether in the spirit world or on earth, the way has been opened for those with life to return to God’s lineage.
We are living in the greatest realm of hope in history. Let us be fully aware of this blessing and testify of True Parents to as many people as possible so that people will not go to the spirit world without knowing that the True Mother of humankind is right in front of them.
If there is someone you feel like you want to testify True Parents to or you want to share the truth with, pray diligently at the Cheon Shim Won Special Prayer Room and be sure to lead them to True Parents.
I sincerely hope that Heaven’s blessings will be with you and your family.
