Farewell Remarks

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Translation: Rev. Peter Kim
Unofficial Notes: Tyler Hendricks
Washington Hilton and Towers
Nov. 29, 1997

Some of you probably are seeing me for the first time, and had heard that I am a monster with horns. But as you look at me, you see I am a handsome man. You may not think I am handsome, but God thinks I am. Therefore He gives me a mission to deal with the world's problems. The organizations' representatives gave me gifts, and as you remember, our goal was 39.6 million couples, but we reached 70 million. This was by God.

In reality, there is no difference between you and me. The only difference may be that I have a direct connection to God. There have been many historians and leaders, none of whom have been successful. But if we connect to God, we can solve all the world's problems. And yet, have you seen God?

We all have love, life, conscience, and sperm or egg within us to bequeath our lineage. Have you seen any of these things? We have them, but don't see them. Where is God? How can we ask that, if we cannot see these other things but know they exist? What is God? He is the origin of love, of life and of lineage. The origin of the conscience is God, too. To find God, we must pour out every ounce of our life, love, conscience for others. Then we find God.

Godism

The purpose of religion is to find God, so religious people should be sacrificial, living for others. Why? It is because you cannot feel your own life, love lineage and conscience, and if you enjoy these by yourself, people consider you crazy. It is only in relation to your partner, that you encounter these hidden essences. In fact, they will emerge and explode with you both together. Then you become one, uniting together. You can explode and become one with your partner. You need them all mobilized in order to become one with your partner.

Will your love, life, lineage and conscience demand that your partner give their love, life, lineage and conscience to you, or will they leap out to your partner, rushing forward head first? Have you experienced that? They rush forward all together and your partner cannot resist. Amen. Once you experience these things in God, then you will always be hanging around God, glued to Him. You will have no choice in this.

The root of love, life, lineage and conscience is our parents, and our ultimate parent is God. On that point, we can be united. Even Adam and Eve will be totally united with us. I am the fruit of all the unification of my parents and ancestors. If I unite with God, then they all and the universe will follow me. Beginning with God and Adam and Eve, all the saints and sages are here. This is Godism. Godism is that God teaches us how to unify man and woman as such. Through what can we unite them? Through Godism. That is the teaching of Godism.

Do husband and wife want to be united, not separated? [Yes.] It is the same for parents and children. Once we are truly united with God, nothing can separate us as husband and wife, parents and children. Such an ideal couple goes to the Kingdom of God on Earth and Heaven. Godism is the way of the Garden of Eden with no fall.

Created for Our Partner

The worst disease is to not know God. The symptom of this disease is communism, humanism, the common liberal thinking. What is the medicine to cure this? Knowledge? Money? Power? God does not need these. What does God need? God has life, love, lineage and conscience which He cannot activate by Himself. He needs the love partner to help Him activate this force. Is the partner a monkey? Is it material?

Why are we born? Man is born for women, and woman for man. No one disagrees with this, because this is God's teaching. Universal law takes away those who disagree. Homosexuality is a problem bigger than war because its universal practice will destroy humankind in a generation.

Man and woman have nothing belonging to themselves. To whom do the woman's breasts belong? To the children. Women usually have well-developed hips and they shake them. These hips exist for the sake of their children and future generations, so that your baby in the womb will have a comfortable life there. Your womb belongs to your children.

Your face's soft skin is liked by your husband, not yourself. Also the unique organ that man doesn't have is for your husband. What is your own? Everything is there for your husband, vertically, and looked at horizontally everything is for your children. Do you menstruate for yourself, because you enjoy doing that once a month? It is so you can change your blood, and replace it with new blood. So, a woman who tries to live cut off from others will perish.

You all need your nation. A nation is born not on the basis of individuals but of families. Without Americans understanding that their nation was born on the foundation of families, this great nation will perish.

Then who owns your sexual organ? Your spouse. If anyone disagrees, show you hands and I will ask you a question. No hands. It means you all are brainwashed by Rev. Moon. Do you feel bad or good? There is only one key to your sexual organ. It is owned by your absolute, unchanging and eternal spouse.

The Human Condition

We all are broken machines, no matter how handsome we may be. God never found an ideal man, therefore, no ideal family or nation exists yet. The fall resulted in the loss of God's family and nation. If there is Satan, will he want what God and human beings want most? He will go after the treasure most valuable to God and human beings. What is it? It is God's love and human love.

The origin of God's absolute love and human love should be one point. Absolute and absolute meet at one point. The Bible calls Satan the father of fallen man. and king of the fallen world. He took everything from God; God has no possessions. What did God lose? Love.

Human beings lose love because we have two fathers. We have the wrong lineage. Lineage is the line which comes through life and love. We inherited false life and love, hence we inherited false lineage. If Adam and Eve had committed some crime other than the misuse of love, God could have married them first, then sent them out.

God lost His beloved son and daughter. The fruit is a symbol. They fell as youths. Therefore, immorality has spread all over the world among young people. This is the family of Adam all over the world, full of free sex and homosexuality. If you follow this, your country will be doomed to perish. If the first love is lost, all kinds of social crimes result.

All of us desire to reach the top. It has never been fulfilled. Have you seen free sex animals or homosexuals? This is a warning. Man's symbol belongs to his wife. If you misuse it, your are a thief. God is absolute love, absolute sex. This is Godism; it is the eternal reality. If you really understand this, then your trip here was well worth it. Without this, all the conferences are not worth anything.

Headwing Unites Left and Right

The second thought is Headwing ideology, which unites left and right. God should have been on right, but fall pushed Him to the left hand side. Adam and Eve went left instead of right. Cain was left and Abel right. So God hated Cain, although He originally wanted to work through the first son. God fell to the bottom and worked through second son.

The division of left and right in the modern world started from Jesus' crucifixion. The right hand thief was the first to go into paradise. Rev. Moon has fought communism, not to kill them but to unite them. Also he is working to uplift America, so that America can overcome communism and its residue. Communism influenced Christianity. Christianity should be the bride's position. Democracy is to show humankind the right way, centering on God through the Messiah. The right way is through good parenting, through all people having a parental heart toward others.

Developed countries must embrace the undeveloped countries. If I had been received after World War II, then the human race would be in good shape now. But Christianity rejected Rev. Moon.

Headwing will unite and lead the world. The base is our families. To take back what we lost and restore the youth. Centering on Godism and Headwing, Rev. Moon has been working his entire life to restore the true family and change the blood lineage from Satan to God. We have to reverse it. To practice Godism, invest and forget about yourself, just as God did when He created humankind. If you lose your life, you will be saved. Invest everything to recreate yourself. This is greater than a parents' love for their children.

To sacrifice for your family is filial piety. To sacrifice for your nation is to be a patriot. To sacrifice for the world is to be a saint. To sacrifice for heaven and earth is to be a divine son and daughter. This is the same message Jesus taught. I do not give in order to gain recognition. Those who practice extreme selfishness will benefit if they understand all that I have been saying. I am giving a warning. I want to liberate the young people.

The Purpose of WCSF

You can grow to become as God. God wants to bequeath to someone on His level. Living for others is Godism and Headwing. Why did Rev. Moon spend so much money on the WCSF? To educate you about this. If this succeeds, it is worth it. These meetings are set up in order to create true families and a true nation. The purpose of the Blessing is to cut off Satan's lineage. There will be no trace of hatred and immorality, and we will live with each other in peace and freedom through God's true love lineage in True Parents. The lineage was switched before the fall, so God could not intervene. It was as if a bride was on her way to meet her husband but ran away to meet Satan.

The Blessing solves problems of right and left, race, economy, culture, and so forth. This is because of God, not Rev. Moon. When you return home, inspire your nation. I am establishing many organizations for world peace, including martial arts and literature. As communism followed democracy, democracy will follow Godism and Headwing.

Please apply these ideas fully. Please work hard to build the true family, country and world. May God be with you.

February 1998

 
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Youth Federation for World Peace - Third World Congress

From November 27 through November 30, over 300 delegates and observers from 140 countries gathered at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill for the 3rd World Congress of the Youth Federation for World Peace. The theme of the conference was "Youth for the Family, Nation, and World."

A spirit of family was created the first evening when, after dinner, Dr. "Jin Sung Nim" Park-Moon, President of YFWP/USA, shared a deep and personal testimony, entitled "Love, Sex, and Marriage."

Jin Sung Nim began by relating how he maintained his purity through high school and college. He then shared anecdotes of his matching and blessing to Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon’s daughter, In Jin Nim Moon. His account was poignant, touching, and laced with humor. The audience listened intently.

"Fourteen years have gone by. Now, I find that every day my wife and I are bursting with joy in our marriage."

Offering advice on how to become men and women of peace capable of fulfilling the broad mission of YFWP, Jin Sung Nim said, "Follow your conscience. Do the right thing."

In conclusion, he shared insights on True Parents and ideal family gained through living with Rev. and Mrs. Moon’s family. The True Parents embody God’s love. Rev. and Mrs. Moon are assuming responsibility for world problems, national problems, societal problems, and family problems and are constantly finding ways to solve these problems with a true love approach.

General Assembly Meeting

Proceedings began in earnest the following morning at the General Assembly. Mr. Thomas P. McDevitt, Secretary General of YFWP, introduced Mr. Dong Moon Joo, World President of YFWP, to share his welcoming remarks.

Mr. Joo outlined the vision of YFWP as the organization that would solve the world’s problems in the coming century. He reviewed the growth of YFWP and explained the criteria for the World Youth Service Awards. Mr. Joo and Mr. McDevitt also explained the basis of the International Peace Fund Scholarships. These scholarships, endowed by the Co-Founders of YFWP, are conferred on selected organizations from around the world "for exemplary conduct to support and inspire the next generation of world leaders in service to God and humanity."

Reverend John Gehring, Conference Program Coordinator, announced the seven World Youth Service Award winners: YFWP/Korea, YFWP/United Kingdom, YFWP/Japan, YFWP/Kenya, Pure Love Alliance/USA, YFWP/Taiwan, and YFWP/Zambia. Mr. Joo presented to individuals representing these award-winning organizations with a beautiful crystal globe together with a leather-bound certificate. Certificates of honorable mention were awarded to YFWP/Ivory Coast, YFWP/Malaysia, and YFWP/Ghana.

Reports by Award Winners

Participants heard reports from Korea, Kenya, Japan, Zambia, and the United Kingdom.

Mr. Bong Tae Kim, President of YFWP/Korea showed a moving video of a Friendship Seminar between North and South Korean students in Beijing and outlined Korea’s development of 3,768 chapters performing a variety of educational, cultural, sports and service activities.

Mr. Yufnalis Okubo, Vice-Chairman of YFWP/Kenya, told of Kenya’s nationwide AIDS education program in the schools, 100-day leadership training seminars, service projects, and participation in a conference on the Constitution of Kenya.

Mr. Ichiro Inamori, President of YFWP/Japan, gave an extensive report on friendship seminars with Korea, Pure Love Alliance activities, and Japan’s educational and volunteer programs.

Felix Muzungu, Secretary General of YFWP/Zambia, explained how YFWP in Zambia researched the Internet to find out what activities other youth groups were doing, and then developed a series of conferences, fundraising pageants, environmental projects, and service activities in six out of seven of the provinces of Zambia.

Rev. Marshall D. de Souza, National Director of Religious Youth Services in Great Britain, and Dr. David E. Earle, Project Coordinator of Religious Youth Services in Great Britain, together gave a moving presentation including a slide show detailing the many Religious Youth Services projects which have been held in the United Kingdom.

These reports not only demonstrated the substantial results which YFWP is achieving throughout the world, but inspired the delegates from all of the countries with a standard of excellence to guide their development.

Opening Plenary Session

The Congress was so fortunate to have Dr. Robert Muller, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and currently Chancellor of the University for Peace in Costa Rica, as its keynote speaker. Dr. Muller knew the horrors of World War II, of being a refugee, and of Nazi occupation and imprisonment. After the war, an internship with the United Nations led to a forty-year-long career focusing his energies on world peace. He has been called the "Philosopher" and "Prophet of Hope" of the United Nations.

In his address Dr. Muller shared his optimism that, for the first time in human history, true peace is possible for mankind. He said that his perception of events and his hopes have led him to a conclusion that is strikingly similar to Rev. Moon’s thinking. Love, he announced is the next step in man’s development. We are going to enter an age of love. We need new wisdom and new values. Dr. Muller said that he was especially pleased to learn of the work of the Pure Love Alliance. He advised young people to love themselves, keep a journal, be faithful to their dreams, and never to complain or consider anything to be impossible.

"If you render service, the invisible forces of the universe will recognize and assist you," he told the audience, and concluded with the comment, "People like Rev. Moon and I never grow old."

After finishing his speech and just about when the next speaker was to be introduced, Dr. Muller jumped back to the microphone with his harmonica and played to the delight of all participants a lively rendering of Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy."

Founder’s Address

Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein, President of the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut), and a highly distinguished American theologian and educator, introduced The Rev. Sun Myung Moon to deliver the Founder’s Address entitled "Youth for the True Family, Nation, and World."

Rev. Moon shared his conviction that it is the pure-hearted young people of YFWP who will put into practice the results of all the conferences taking place as a part of the World Culture and Sports Festival III. He praised the participants who, together with Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), and Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) members and friends, helped to exceed the goal of the 3.6 and 36 million couples. Rev. Moon encouraged the members of YFWP to work even harder to achieve the victory of the 360 million couple blessing.

Rev. Moon emphasized the power of sacrificial love. He explained that the strength of a nation is not measured in political, military, or economic might, or the degree of cultural influence, but in the temperament and patriotic loyalty of its youth. The ultimate problems of all countries are the problems concerning youth. The solution to all of these problems is true love.

"When young people acquire a new outlook on their country that is centered on true love, then that country will discover new possibilities for advancement. When diverse groups in the nation adopt an attitude based on true love, they will be able to rise above the limits of their conflicting interests and bring about a society of cooperation, harmony, and progress," said Rev. Moon.

He pointed out that the world is becoming one community through the global revolution in communications technology. In this situation, true love is the key to unlocking the problems of the individual, the family, the nation and the world. It is youth who are to be the principle actors in putting such true love into practice and creating a new age.

Rev. Moon concluded his address by encouraging all of the participants to return to their countries, to create supporting organizations, and to work enthusiastically for this effort.

Filial Piety Program

Following Rev. Moon’s speech, participants visited three senior citizens homes. The Mayor of the District of Columbia, Mr. Marion Barry, Jr., issued a special Proclamation declaring Friday, November 28, 1997, A Day of Filial Piety in the city of Washington, DC, as a day of appreciation and recognition by youth for the elders. Introductions were made, and conference participants and senior residents enjoyed a time of fellowship and friendship as conference participants presented gifts from their native countries to the senior citizens and shared their stories and refreshments.

After dinner, Dr. Stoyan Ganev spoke on the central peacekeeping role of the United Nations. Dr. Ganev was President of the United National General Assembly from 1992 – 1993, and is currently Vice President for International Affairs and Director of the New England Center for International and Regional Studies at the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut).

Blessing ’97 at RFK Stadium

Conference participants devoted this entire day to attending the International Blessing Ceremony at RFK together with all the other events scheduled for the day.

As Blessing ’97 took place, participants of the Youth Congress rose and shouted "Yes!" to each of the four vows.

Conference participants attended the Celebration Banquet at the Washington Hilton and Towers, which provided an opportunity to share with those who had been attending other WCSF III conferences and to hear a profound talk by Rev. Moon on the essential principles of absolute sex and a public minded lifestyle.

The SportsFest

On Sunday morning, participants attended the closing ceremony of WCSF III and heard the final remarks of its Founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Youth Federation representatives arrived in time to see the procession of 1,000 athletes from around the world and hear Mr. Jin Hun Park, the President of Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), introduce Rev. Moon.

Rev. Moon described his experience at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, inspiring him to create the World Culture and Sports Festival that would bring together leaders from all sectors of society in a spirit of true love to seek a peaceful world and a new culture. Rev. Moon spoke of the value of the Pure Love Movement. Once the ideals of the Pure Love Movement become the standard, then the True Family Movement will emerge as the central standard for mankind. Rev. Moon encouraged everyone to become more active so that the ideal of Pure Love could become the root for the world.

After Reverend Moon concluded his remarks, YFWP participants witnessed an exciting performance of step dancing, a sample of world class double dutch, and a thrilling demonstration of martial arts.

Breakout Sessions

Sundays sessions were devoted to practical presentations on "Youth for the Family," "Youth for the Nation," and Youth for the World." Speakers included Dr. Marie-Pologne J. Rene, President of the Haitian Academy and of the University of the Haitian Academy: Rev. Nancy M. Burton, Ed. S., an educator and Mother of the Year from the State of Georgia (1994-5); Dr. P. Bertrand Phillips, President of Bermultinational Limited, and Acting President of the U. S. Committee for UNICEF; Mr. Tatsuya Matsumoto, Vice Chairman of Kinki Area Policy Guidance Committee in Japan; Mr. Godwin Hlatshwayo, an Organization Development and Management Consultant and Global Ministries Partner-in-Residence; Dr. Anthony J. Guerra, Dean of the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies and Vice Provost of Academic Affairs at the University of Bridgeport; and Mr. Massimo Trombin, Director of the International Relief Friendship Foundation in Italy.

Mr. Robert L. Woodson, Sr., was the Sunday luncheon speaker. Mr. Woodson, Founder and President of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE), is a leader in the effort to empower low-income communities through faith-based action. Mr. Woodson testified that the attacks against Rev. Moon in the Washington Post strengthened his conviction to attend the Congress. "Only the planes flying over the target get shot at," he told the participants.

Mr. Woodson emphasized that the root of society’s problems is spiritual and must be solved by people of faith living and working within the neighborhoods themselves.

Sunday afternoon, delegates met by region to discuss strategies for development of YFWP within their nations. Each session elected a committee chairperson who reported their conclusions in the evening to the Congress.

Concluding Celebration

The conference concluded with joyful celebration. Mr. Joo opened the evening by encouraging participants to work together with CARP, to build their national chapters, and to lead the way into the 21st century.

A representative of the District of Columbia’s Mayor’s Office shared a testimony that he saw his involvement as a way God is guiding his life and expressed his eagerness to work with YFWP in the future.

And then ... joyful entertainment and dance. Entertainment was provided by four vocalists from Maxim Sound; namely, June Maxim, Jeff Benson, Patsy Casino, and Yoshimi Kadota. A number of participants offered lively and moving songs from their native countries in their native languages. All joined hands and began dancing around the room as June Maxim led everyone in singing "Love Can Build a Bridge."

Secretary General Mr. Tom McDevitt offered a moving prayer of gratitude and determination. In the words of Mr. Joo, "We had truly become one family in the eyes of God." We had been blessed with a taste of Heaven. Now we were ready like seeds exploding from a pod to go forth and make the vision of true love that we had experienced a reality in the world. 

What Makes Us Human? Contemplating Unification Thought

Jennifer P. Tanabe, Ph.D.

Just recently I read an article in the American Psychological Association Monitor entitled "Defining the trait that makes us human." My first expectation was that it would be another article on consciousness, which is often cited as the defining human characteristic. However, the trait described in this article turned out to be empathy, the ability to observe the feelings of another and take them on as your own. The psychologists involved in the research conclude that while some of the mechanisms involved in empathy appear to be more instinctive and are evidenced in several species of mammals, others appear to be restricted to human beings. For example, they note that mediated association, i.e. when people hear of about another’s tragedy or good fortune and are reminded of a similar personal experience which triggers an emotional response, and role taking, i.e. where someone puts themselves in another’s situation and imagines how they would feel, or uses what they know about the person to imagine their feelings in the situation, require cognitive abilities that are only present in humans. Interestingly, another article in the same issue discussed forgiveness, another uniquely human ability, which at least one researcher believes to be mediated by empathy. So, I thought, is empathy the key to what makes us human? And, how does Unification Thought address the issue of what makes us human?

Well, to review the Theory of Original Human Nature, Unification Thought identifies three aspects of human nature: Divine Image, Divine Character, and Position. These are further divided such that Divine Image includes united Sung Sang and Hyung Sang, harmonious Yang and Yin, and individuality; Divine Character includes Heart, Logos, and Creativity; and Position includes two relationships to others, that of subject and of object. The details of all these characteristics are discussed in my earlier article on Original Human Nature in this series. By contrast, Unification Thought Ontology explains that other beings have Divine Image and Position. Thus, Unification Thought states that human beings are unique in their Divine Character. Additionally, the Divine Image of human beings contains specifically human elements beyond those included in other beings. To summarize, then, human beings have the following attributes in comparison with other beings: additional Sung Sang and Hyung Sang and Yang and Yin elements; unique individuality; and Divine Character of Heart, Logos, and Creativity.

So, let us look in more detail at these aspects that make humans different from other beings. Regarding the Sung Sang and Hyung Sang, Unification Thought explains that human beings contain those elements found in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, and in addition we have the uniquely human elements of "spirit mind" and "spirit body" (Essentials of Unification Thought, p. 44-48, 93-95). In other words, human beings are unique among beings in this physical world because they also have elements that exist in the spiritual realm.

So, what are these spiritual elements? Well, the other characteristic that I mentioned at the beginning of this article that is often thought of as exclusively human is that of self-awareness or consciousness. Current artificial intelligence, whether it is the Deep Blue type that plays chess or the "microwave oven" type like Sojourner that explores Mars, as Martin Gardiner puts it, has no more awareness of what it is doing than a vacuum cleaner has that it is cleaning a rug. When it comes to animals, the problem may be a little different in that their level of self-awareness seems to cause them to view themselves differently than we do. Many people have found that ducklings imprint on the first being they see, with the result that they may follow a human being religiously as their "mother." Also, the joke in my veterinarian’s office, "Dogs think they are human and cats think they are God" rings true to dog and cat owners. One could conclude that the human invention of mirrors has assisted the development of our self-awareness! Actually, though, it is the level of self-awareness we have that allows us to recognize ourselves in a mirror, unlike my parakeet who is convinced he is seeing another bird.

Unification Thought explains that consciousness is a quality of all living beings, not just human beings. Unification Epistemology states that there is always a purposeful element of Sung Sang, namely consciousness, working in parallel to every physiological process, even on the level of the cell. In other words, cells are "aware" of their own structure and content. However, many actions take place simply as reflexes, i.e. without connecting to consciousness on a higher level in the brain. This means that lower levels of life function exclusively without being aware of what they are doing. Human beings, too, can operate on this level, but we usually also process information and make decisions at higher levels that are purposefully controlled by our consciousness. Consciousness, then, in Unification Thought, is an essential element of life, operating on all levels. Self-consciousness, the awareness of the whole being as a self making decisions and value judgments, however, is limited to human beings because it is a function of the spirit mind which animals do not have.

Unification Thought also explains that the spirit mind pursues truth, goodness, beauty, and love and, in the original human nature (as opposed to the depraved fallen human nature evidenced in today’s society) these values would be primary. Thus, the unique nature of human Sung Sang and Hyung Sang is that human beings have eternal life after the death of their physical body (for a fuller discussion see my article entitled "Life After Death" in this series), self-consciousness, and that they seek the spiritual values of truth, goodness, beauty, and love not just the material needs of the physical world, i.e., food, clothing, shelter, and sex.

On this distinction let me note a couple of experiences I have had. When my daughter was young, still in a high chair at meal times, she took delight in using her spoon to drop food from the high chair to the floor. She would observe carefully where it landed (usually on the carpet of course!) and then take another scoop and repeat the procedure. It reminded me of my efforts in physics lab trying to determine the laws of gravity. If the spoon or plate or other such item fell down she would demand that I pick it up and return it to her, whereupon she would immediately begin the game of dropping it deliberately for me to retrieve. Funnily enough she never asked for any of the food to be returned.

On the other hand, we now have a kitten, maybe at an equivalent stage of development, and she takes delight in climbing onto the coffee table and carefully extracting nuts one at a time from the bowl and pushing them onto the floor. The fun does not stop there, however. She then jumps down and pounces on them, pushing them so she can pretend to chase them, until they disappear under something from which she can’t extract them. Then she gets another one and repeats the performance. Is there a difference here? Yes, I say there certainly is. The cat is merely acting on her instincts in pouncing on a moving object and patting it (as cats do when they catch a mouse or such like) to make it move some more. She is not learning about gravity, or even how to retrieve objects that have disappeared. All her activities are related to her method of acquiring food. My daughter, on the other hand, was clearly fascinated by the fact that something, presented on a plate as food, when dropped from a height fell down to the floor and she was quite happy to leave it there, in fact wanted to add to the mess. My impression was that she was engaged in pursuit of knowledge or truth about the world, in particular about the laws of the physical world. The cat, on the other hand, merely practices the skills that she would need to obtain food if I failed to feed her.

On this point of the priority of values, I would like to note that as a psychology student I carried out experiments with both animals and young children. In order to train and test animals it is standard practice to keep them hungry, to use food as rewards, and to feed them after the session is over. With infants and young children, however, the situation is very different. Can any parent imagine working with a hungry infant! Forget it. And, the best reward for infants is not food, but interesting sights or sounds, one of the best being the appearance of the mother. But, finally, even the appearance of the mother seems not to be the real motivator, but rather they seemed to be more interested in figuring out which action on their part caused the mother’s face to appear, often hardly looking at the mother beyond ascertaining that she appeared. And you can give young children candies or other food as rewards, but they almost never eat them but rather gather them in a pile, thus making a new game. So, given the strange situation of the psychology lab, it seems that animals continue in their search for food, providing the experimenters with the behavior they want in order to get it, while humans, at least young ones, are entertained by the complexity of the tasks devised by the experimenters, and gather the food or even the sight of their mother as trophies rather than enjoying them as such.

Continuing with the differences between humans and other beings, there are also additional aspects of Yang and Yin. In this context let me mention that Unification Thought explains that the union of Yang and Yin in human beings is not simply the union of male and female for the purpose of reproduction, as it is with other beings. Rather, there are four points of uniqueness in the harmony of Yang and Yin in human beings: (1) husband and wife each represents one of God’s dual characteristics so that their conjugal union signifies the manifestation of God; (2) husband and wife each represents half of the universe, so that their perfected union completes the creation of the universe; (3) husband and wife each represents one half of humankind so that their unity represents the unity of humankind; and (4) husband and wife each represents half of the family so that their union signifies the perfection of the family. Thus, harmonious unity between husband and wife is equivalent to the world becoming united (Essentials of Unification Thought, p.96-97). For a fuller discussion of what these mean, see my earlier article "Original Human Nature" in this series.

Individuality is also on a higher level in human beings than other beings. In the mineral kingdom, individuality does not refer to the specific characteristics of each molecule, atom or particle, but rather to their category because these are component elements of beings of higher levels. On the lowest levels of life there is little distinction among bacteria or amoebae of the same category, whereas as we ascend to higher levels of plant and animal life individuality increases. When we reach the level of human beings, each human being is unique; our individuality is unique to each individual human being. Now, of course, we share many characteristics with our parents, ancestors, and siblings especially twins, but when we look at all three categories of appearance, behavior, and creative activity we find that no two people are ever identical. Unification Thought states that human individuality is absolute, not dependent on environmental influences, because it comes from God’s Individual Image, which is the Universal Image individualized for each unique human being (Essentials of Unification Thought, p.14-16). Thus, human beings are unique because they are unique!

Finally, then, let us look at Divine Character. As mentioned above, there are three aspects here: Heart, Logos, and Creativity. Again, these are described more fully in my previous article. Here let us look at what defines human character as distinct from other beings. Heart is "the emotional impulse to seek joy through love; it is the source of love and the core of God’s character" (Essentials of Unification Thought, p.99). Now the empathy that was mentioned at the outset of this article, suggested by psychologists as the trait that distinguishes us from other beings, is connected to the Heart element of human character. But Heart, as the source of love, is much more than empathy. Unification Thought emphasizes the importance of Heart in human character, noting that all human activities should be based on Heart in order to succeed in bringing joy. Thus, Unification Thought contends that the true human being has Heart as the core of their character, and should be described as homo amans, the loving being, rather than homo sapiens, the knowing being.

Logos is the aspect of human character that includes free will. A being of Logos is defined as one in whom free will and law are united; in other words, a person whose behavior never violates the laws of the universe, or society, out of their own free will. Now, free will has long been considered an important human trait. In religious discussions it is often the fact that God gave us free will that is held responsible for the unfortunate state of affairs in the world today. And free will is something that is lacking in artificial intelligence, at least in the non-fictional kind.

Do animals have free will? Well, when dealing with our cat I often think so! Cats have the tendency to be perverse and choose whether to respond or not. But is this the same as human free will? If we look back at the previous characteristic, namely harmony of Yang and Yin, we can find an indication of the answer. There it was noted that the harmony of Yang and Yin is more than just the physical union of husband and wife for the sake of procreation. In the case of human beings, the union of husband and wife is so much more. And, is this not the place where free will has the greatest consequence? Free sex became the way of life in much of the world in recent years, meaning that people used their free will to choose sexual partners without any responsibility to the laws or norms of society. According to Unification Thought, this affects the manifestation of God, the completion of the creation of the universe, the unity of humankind, and the perfection of the family. This is really serious! And we can see this in the vast numbers of broken marriages, unwanted pregnancies, teenage pregnancies, and general breakdown of the family that has resulted. Perhaps my cat’s perversity is free will on a lower, less important, level. Free will in human beings can be seen as distinct from that of other beings when we see the consequences of irresponsible choices in human life.

So, if we have free will, what guides our choices? Well, there is the conscience. However, Unification Thought points out that the conscience is insufficient to guarantee that we will live according to our original nature. The conscience guides us to do what we believe to be good, and this standard of goodness varies according to each individual. Thus, a very selfish person will regard actions that benefit himself as good, even when they do not lead to the benefit of others, or worse, lead to exploitation or harm of others. The conscience is not infallible; it must be developed through experience and education. It does, however, stand as something that distinguishes us from other beings.

Creativity is the final characteristic noted by Unification Thought that sets human beings aside from other beings. Let me just mention a couple of current approaches to creativity. Silvano Arieti, in his work Creativity: The Magic Synthesis, notes that creativity is a human prerogative. He concludes, "although creativity is by no means the only way in which the human being can grow, it is one of the most important. The growth occurs not only in the creative person but in all those who are affected by the innovation." Gil Noam, in his chapter "Reconceptualizing Maturity: The Search for Deeper Meaning" in Development and Vulnerability an Close Relationships, concludes that "creativity has become essential – the basic life force. Life without it is not worth living."

These researchers both observe that creativity is an essential aspect of human character. Why? From the Unification Thought viewpoint we can understand that it is because creativity is surely the closest we can come to being like God, the Creator. Now, human creativity may indeed be a "humble counterpart" of God’s creativity, as Arieti notes, "Whereas theologians and religious people in general believe that God’s creation comes ex nihilo, from spatial and temporal nothingness, human creativity uses what is already existing and available and changes it in unpredictable ways."

Unification Thought explains that creativity has two stages, equivalent to the two-stage structure in the Original Being, God, in His creative process. It is also noted that Heart should be the center of creativity, as it is in God’s creativity. The two stages involve the formation of inner and outer four-position bases (Essentials of Unification Thought, p. 32-34, and 185). The formation of the inner four-position base is the development of a plan, idea, or design, and is equivalent to the Logos in God’s creation. The formation of the outer four-position base is the construction or substantiation of the plan, idea, or design into an actual object such as a work of art. Development of creativity, therefore, requires development both of the ability to make plans or designs, through the acquisition of knowledge and qualitative enhancement of the mind, and of the technical skills required in actualizing the designs. Thus, Unification Thought holds the position that all human beings have the potential to be creative, but that the extent to which they will actually be creative depends upon their experience and education. The fact that those people who fail to develop their creativity, or who are denied the opportunity to express it, suffer almost as if deprived of oxygen or sunlight, as Noam suggests, indicates that beyond being a distinguishing characteristic of human nature it may even be essential to our humanity.

So, let us conclude with a summary of how Unification Thought defines what makes us human: we are created to resemble God, whereas other beings are but reflections of aspects of God. How do we resemble God? Like God, we are creators: we have as an innate capacity the ability and even desire or need to create in order to experience our true human nature. We are eternal beings: our spirit continues to exist forever in the spiritual realm, which transcends space and time, just like God’s realm of existence. We are beings of Heart, or love. The ability to empathize, and even to forgive, while uniquely human indeed, are hardly sufficient to define human nature. And, interestingly, the researchers who concluded that empathy was uniquely human did so based on the cognitive abilities required in certain mechanisms of empathy. Unification Thought takes a very different view, seeing human beings as primarily beings of heart not merely superior cognitive, or intellectual, abilities. We are also beings of free will, responsibility, self-awareness, and conscience. In other words, although we are created, or resultant beings, not our own creators, nonetheless, our Creator gave us the right to choose how to make use of our abilities, how to live our lives, even whether to relate to our Creator or not. The evidence of that is apparent: have we created heaven or hell in this world? So, we are beings with so much more than any other species. How we choose to use those great qualities, abilities, etc., is up to us. We can live lower than the lowest animal, or higher than the angels. But, ultimately, the greatest difference between all other beings and us is that it is our choice; and in that sense, we become our own creators.

Universal Ballet Comes of Age-Tour of United States Planned

by Anne Inoue-Seoul, Korea

The ballet company which appeared in a quiet rehearsal room on the third floor of the Little Angels School in the spring and summer months of 1984 in Seoul has been advancing with every passing season. Now, in its 14th season, Universal Ballet has grown into a strong troupe of 52 well-trained dancers. Under the direction of artistic director Bruce Steivel and prima ballerina Julia H. Moon, the company now offers about 80 performances a year, including regulars seasons in Seoul, overseas tours, and performances in other Korean cities. Mr. Steivel became the artistic director of Universal Ballet in 1995, after working as the director of the Hong Kong Ballet. He had earlier danced with ballet companies in the US, Canada and Europe, and worked on the artistic staff of several companies in Europe.

Julia Moon studied ballet in her native Washington, DC before traveling to Korea to attend the Little Angels School, where she learned Korean folk dance; she then traveled to many countries to perform as a member of the Little Angels. She picked up her ballet studies a few years later in Korea when ballet was added to the curriculum of the school, and continued studying ballet at the Royal Ballet School in London and L’Academie de Danse Classique de Princess Grace in Monaco.

Her career as a dancer began in the United States at the Ohio Ballet, followed by the Washington Ballet. When Universal Ballet was founded in 1984, she returned once again to Korea, where she became one of the company’s founding members. During her years as a principal dancer with Universal Ballet, she has traveled to many cities around the world, including St. Petersburg, Russia and Bucharest, Romania to perform as a guest dancer, performing the lead roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and other works.

Universal Ballet’s performance scheduled for March 13 of this year at the Luckman Fine Arts Center in Los Angeles marks the company’s US premiere, and opens a seven-week tour which will take the company to 12 North American cities. Since its first tour to Southeast Asia in 1985, Universal Ballet has done ten tours of Japan, Italy, Austria and Taiwan. For this first North American tour, the company will present two full-length ballets, Swan Lake and Shim Chung.

Universal Ballet was founded by Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon in 1984, and from its early years until the present, the company’s featured principal dancer has been Julia Moon, who more recently also took on the responsibility of serving as General Director in addition to her dancing. In its early years, the company was under the direction of Adrienne Dellas, who had been teaching ballet at Sun Hwa Arts School (formerly the Little Angels School) for several years prior to the company’s appearance, training a corps of students who became the founding members and the core of the company. Assisted by fellow Sun Hwa ballet teachers Francis Drayton and Judy Breen, Ms. Dellas directed the company’s first performance, Cinderella, which was presented at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in July 1984, and later she returned to her native United States, where she is now teaching on the faculty of the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. In addition to Julia Moon, principal dancers Jae-Hong Park and Sun-Hee Park and soloists Sook-Kyung Jeon and Yoo-Mi Lee are still remaining in the company from that beginning core.

Since the first season in 1984, the company has added many other works to its repertory, both full-length story ballets and one-act works. Focusing its attention during its early years on the well-known classic masterpieces of ballet, the company has performed Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Fille Mal Gardee, La Sylphide, Coppelia, The Nutcracker, and others. Beginning in 1986, and continuing through several revisions until the current version was completed in 1988 for the Seoul Olympics Arts Festival, the ballet Shim Chung-The Blindman’s Daughter, based on a favorite Korean folk tale, was created especially for Universal Ballet, with choreography by Adrienne Dellas, and new music by American composer Kevin Pickard which was commissioned for the project. Shim Chung and The Nutcracker, which has become a holiday classic in Seoul, as it is in so many cities around the U.S., have been joined by Swan Lake, unquestionably the best-known ballet in the world, as the company’s three most often performed ballets.

The ballet Shim Chung is based on an old folk tale which is as well known in Korea as the story of Cinderella is in the United States. The story tells of a young girl, Shim Chung, whose mother dies soon after she is born. Her blind father raises her alone, surviving by begging for food from the local villagers. Learning that an offering of three hundred bags of rice to the local temple will restore her father’s sight, Shim Chung contracts herself to the captain of a sea-going ship as a sacrifice, to be thrown into the raging sea in a storm, in order to protect the ship from the anger of the Sea Dragon King. Receiving the money from the ship captain, she gives it to the monk at the temple, and leaves her sobbing father to accompany the sailors back to their ship.

A storm arises, and at the peak of the ocean’s rages, she prays and jumps overboard. Immediately, the sea is calmed. Although she is received with great ceremony by the Sea Dragon King, Shim Chung is concerned when she discovers that her father’s sight has not been restored, and begs to return to the surface to find out what went wrong. In the final act, she is finally reunited with her father after a long search, and in his joy at seeing her alive, his sight is finally restored. The choreography used by Adrienne Dellas in transforming this folk story into a ballet, in combination with Kevin Pickard’s music, have produced a wonderful evening of ballet, which has moved audience members to tears both in its native Korea and in all the other countries where the company has performed it on tour.

Swan Lake has become classic fare for every major ballet company since it was first choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1894 at the Maryinski Theater in St. Petersburg. Along with Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, it is one of the three great ballet works that have survived from the collaboration between Petipa and Tchaikovsky which have taken their place in history as the best known ballet music in the world today. The choreography in Universal Ballet’s version follows the original very closely, with some additions and adaptations made by Oleg Vinogradov, who has been the artistic director of the Kirov Ballet, the resident company at the Maryinski Theater where Swan Lake was first performed, for over twenty years. The sets and costumes for UBC’s production, although constructed in Seoul, were designed by designers from the Kirov, Simon Pastukh and Gallina Solovieva.

Swan Lake tells the tale of a young maiden, Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician Baron von Rothbart. She is discovered, along with her swan maidens, by the young Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with her. Returning to the palace from the lake, Siegfried’s eye is again caught by the daughter of von Rothbart, and he pledges his love to her, too. Suddenly, remembering Odette, Siegfried runs back to the lake, where he and Odette over their time together, until they are interrupted by the reappearance of von Rothbart. They struggle with him, finally killing him and breaking the spell.

In addition to the classical story ballets, the company’s repertory also includes a number of more contemporary ballets including George Balanchine’s Serenade, La Sonnambula, Who Cares?; A Handel Celebration by Vicente Nebrada; In the Glow of the Night by Choo San Goh, the most successful Asian ballet choreographer; Wedding Party, Pulcinella and several other works by Roy Tobias, who served as the artistic director from 1987 until 1995.

Universal Ballet is comprised primarily of Korean dancers, trained in the best ballet schools in Korea; it includes graduates from the Sun Hwa Arts School ballet department, graduates from many of the more than 20 colleges and universities in Korea which offer a major in ballet, and Korean dancers who studied ballet abroad before returning to Korea to join the company. In addition to the Korean dancers, the company currently has dancers from Italy, Japan, Taiwan, China, Romania, the United States, Mexico and New Zealand. In the past few years, five graduates of the Kirov Ballet Academy in Washington DC have joined the company, including principal dancer Yena Kang, a native of Korea, and soloist Dragos Mihalcea, from Romania.

The artistic staff of Universal Ballet and the two ballet schools in Korea which are affiliated with the company-Sun Hwa Arts School’s ballet department and the Universal Ballet Academy, located nearby-also include a combination of international and Korean talent. Former UBC principal dancer Min-Hwa Choi serves as the director of the Universal Ballet Academy, while another former dancer from the company, Mi-Na Kim, is now one of the UBC’s ballet mistresses, along with Galina Kekisheva, a former soloist with the Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg. Belgian ballet master Daniel Job and Korean pianists Jung-Min Ryu and Eun-Kyung Oh round out the artistic staff.

The company’s preparations for the tour are currently under way in new rehearsal facilities built adjacent to the Little Angels Performing Arts Center and dedicated in May 1995. Everything from rehearsal tapes to sets, costumes, props, toe shoes, orchestra parts and scores, and of course every step of the dancing, is being readied for the trip. A pair of 40-foot ocean freight containers will carry the hundreds of costumes, ballet barres, special dance flooring, Korean houses, grand chandeliers, candelabras, work boxes and special effects equipment needed to produce the two full-length ballets which the company will perform on the U.S. tour-Shim Chung and Swan Lake-when they leave the port of Pusan in early February for their month-long journey to the port of Long Beach, while the dancers and musicians remain behind to continue rehearsing the ballets until every step and every phrasing is perfect.

Everyone, ballet fans and newcomers alike, is sure to enjoy an evening at the theater with Universal Ballet in Swan Lake or Shim Chung. Keep your eyes open for news of our performances and bring along your friends.

Universal Ballet 1998 North American Tour

List of Performance Dates and Theaters

March 13-15 Los Angeles, California Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA

March 17 Spokane, Washington Spokane Opera House

March 19 Victoria, British Columbia Royal Theater

March 21-22 Riverside, California Memorial Auditorium

March 24 St. George, Utah Cox Auditorium, Dixie College

March 27 Lake Charles, Louisiana Civic Center

March 28 Shreveport, Louisiana Strand Theatre

April 3-4 Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

April 10-11 Fairfax, Virginia Concert Hall, George Mason University

April 14-19 New York City City Center

April 25-26 Norfolk, Virginia Chrysler Hall

April 28 Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas Academy of International Studies

True God's Day 1998 and Leader’s Meeting in Uruguay

by Michael Kiely-Chesnut Ridge, NY

"Do you want younger, energetic leaders or more mature leaders 60 years old or older?" True Father asked suddenly in the middle of a speech to a gathering of over 600 National Messiahs and other Unification Leaders from around the world. The leaders stood on a grassy slop outside True Father's home in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on the Day of Victory of Love, January 2, 1998.

The Koreans in the crowd responded immediately. The rest of the crowd, straining to hear translations in English, Japanese and other languages, was unable to answer before True Father launched into a new topic. For two days he said nothing more about this.

Then at a meeting on January 4 in a large temporary amphitheater constructed by the Uruguayan family for the True God's Day celebration, True Father called Korean continental leaders and national messiahs to the stage. He began to list the qualifications of a continental leader. As he spoke, the leaders left the stage one by one to disqualify themselves until only eight remained, all 60 years old or older. Just as he had done in matching national messiahs with their countries over a year earlier at Chung Pyung Lake, True Father assigned a continent to each of these eight remaining elders by lottery.

"As in the past, Father allowed God, through the lottery, to choose the new continental directors," one leader observed afterwards. But it appears none of the leaders present had anticipated True Father's replacement of the continental directors.

With just a few weeks notice for many leaders, True Father had invited continental leaders, all four members of the national messiah team in each country, ACC and state leaders to fly to Uruguay for the True God's Day 1998 celebration and the official launching of the 360 Million-Couple Blessing. They were to bring tents, sleeping bags, surf casting rods, summer clothing and, oh yes, "a sweater in case there is an evening chill after a hot summer day."

And chill there was. A phenomenon locals said was impossible at this time of year occurred. They said it could only have been the child of El Nino. First, on December 30 a relentless, chilling wind froze thinly clad leaders as they listened in the amphitheater to True Father speak till 4:30 a.m. the next morning. Many of the African contingent and others from warm climates were shaking with cold and stamping their feet for warmth.

Then the next day after a morning of practice surf-casting at the beach a 40-minute bus ride away, wind-driven rain began to fall. A city of tents, in neat rows by the continent of their inhabitants, had sprung up almost overnight on a long grassy slope overlooking a lake near True Father's house. As the rain became torrential, tend dwellers dug ditches uphill from their tents. But the grass was gradually transformed into slippery mud. Some smaller tents whose pegs had become loose in the rain-drenched earth were blown over. Of those tents that survived, many leaked, and sleeping bags and suitcases inside were soon drenched.

Asked afterwards what stood out in his mind about his stay in Punta del Este, David Payer, ACC member and owner of an Internet Service Provider in Iowa, quipped: "Mud!"

Umbrellas were of little use to those standing in the half hour-long line for God's Day Eve dinner because the wind blew them inside out and the wind-driven rain fell sideways. Even the best-prepared were not to keep dry that night as all experienced a drenching of near biblical proportions.

But delicious gourmet dishes by Father's Montevideo Plaza Hotel five-star chefs, who were imported for the holy day, made dinner festive nonetheless, even as wooden outdoor tables around which diners stood to eat glistened with rain.

Those who huddled afterwards around a log bonfire in their hooded ponchos for a moment of respite from the chill rain looked like monks in prayer. But the conversation among them was in anticipation of Father's midnight prayer and speech.

"Do you suppose the rain will stop at midnight as Father prays?" one hooded figure asked.

A half-dozen heads nodded their agreement that it might. The monk-like figures then sloshed away to their tents to don Sunday suits, dresses and soon-to-be-mud-encrusted dress shoes for the midnight prayer and speech.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. the area around the back door of Father's house was a sea of umbrellas and parasols. Even from 20 feet away it was impossible to see what was happening under the open-sided marquis which had been erected for the celebration. The only sound was the splash of rain on hundreds of umbrellas as people waited in silent anticipation of Father's ushering in of the New Year.

At the drop of midnight as fireworks crackled from neighborhood homes, Father began to pray. His voice was low at first, then grew to a crescendo as the rain slowed to a drizzle. Within minutes after he had ended his prayer, the rain, which had poured down steadily for hours unrelentingly, stopped and did not fall again during the speech and for hours afterwards. It was, as one participant observed afterwards, as if the rain had completed its task of cleansing the earth in preparation for the new year.

After Father had written the 1998 motto on a long table with an oriental brush and ink and as he launched into his midnight address, the umbrellas began to be folded and lowered, and soon Father became visible to the whole assembly as if a curtain had been drawn back. It was an awesome moment reminiscent of Jesus' quieting a stormy sea as the apparent master of the weather began to make his first speech of 1998.

As Father spoke, a handful of Koreans throughout the crowd sacrificed their own note taking to translate for Westerners and Japanese. It was a struggle to hear them as they spoke in low tones in order not to disturb the speech and to hear Father's words above the sound of their own voices. Even Peter Kim, Father's translator in America, put away his notebook and translated for those around him. The challenge for each of them was that Father did not stop speaking as they translated, so they had to hear in one language and speak in another simultaneously.

"Without understanding the beauty of convex and concave, you cannot understand the Universe," Father was saying. "Adam and Eve could have understood about love by observing (this in) nature."

He said God wanted to experience marriage through humankind. "Adam and Eve's marriage should have been God's marriage," he said with True Mother sitting next to him. After the Fall, "The Old Testament is about God's search for the pure marriage that was never realized in the Garden of Eden," he said. "God wanted his marriage and could not find it."

Reflecting on his own difficult course, he said, "Sacrifice is bleeding and total giving. Even though we bleed, we should not have (self-)pity. That is the nature of the offering … On the foundation (of the blood) of thousands of martyrs in the New Testament era True Parents have appeared."

Emphasizing the importance of marriage and the family, he said, "The time has come when all Buddhist and Catholic monks, priests (and nuns) should marry. We must have a family."

Through the 360 Million-Couple Blessing all things will return to God if "we cut off completely from all things of this world, even from our children and `myself,' " he said. "Even if we become like Gypsies, we must restore all things."

Father concluded on an upbeat note: "A new day of blessing is coming," he predicted.

A few hours -- and a short sleep -- later that morning after the main ceremony and the traditional cutting of the cake, a Korean elder read a long speech in Korean with little or no translation. As they stood in the intermittent rain around the back of Father's house opening and closing umbrellas and shifting from one aching leg to the other, the two-thirds of the listeners who did not understand the reading may well have been strengthening their new year's resolve to master Korean.

"How many times have I started to learn the language," one listener said afterwards, "only to forget it a year later!"

During their six or so days with Father, he reminded leaders regularly that they should master Korean and told them that in the future there would be only one unified language.. "I do not like hearing the sound of translation," he had said last year at True God's Day in Sao Paulo. And at other times he has said he will only meet with those who understand the language.

In his wide-ranging True God's Day speech, Father addressed the need for a religious United Nations, proclaimed that True Parents Day should be celebrated around the world, waxed enthusiastic about True Love, and offered a solution to loneliness.

"The solution to loneliness," he said, "is that the self must disappear."

Exploring various manifestations of True Love in nature, True Father likened thunder and lightning to a true love marriage in nature. "In the Amazon there are 3,000 kinds of insects all trying to fulfill God's love," he said. Only True Love can create "eternal relationships," he said.

Looking toward the coming Kingdom of Heaven on earth, True Father said, "If the world is united and God can use all his power, how much better (a place) the world will be!"

After a five-star lunch, earnest but mostly first-time fishermen launched Father's world fishing championship contest at the beach in quest of Dorado, Boga, Putado or Paku. The biting issue in preparing to fish was how to hold a squirming silver-dollar-sized crab, whose only purpose in life was to pinch freshmen fishermen's fingers, on a large hook long enough to tie him to it. A few nips from his powerful pinchers was all it took to brush away any tears of sympathy one might have shed for the little fella becoming a Dorado's dinner.

"If you do not catch 160 fish, you cannot be a Unification leader," Father said in an ocean-side chat with would-be fishermen seated around him on the sand. Sitting cross-legged on the edge of a platform next to a small tent, he tapped members on their heads with a fishing pole to emphasize his points. "To catch 160 fish you should leave your tent and tackle here (in Punta del Este) with your name on them," he said. "The next time you come, bring 10 friends for each of the four kinds of fish," he suggested. With these 40 friends a member could start a business of bringing people to Punta del Este for fishing, he said. To push his point home, he added, "True Father will keep his word. What he says will come to pass."

"Whatever you do," he said with a broad smile, "please enjoy it."

As he was speaking, a passerby on the beach stopped to ask Regis Hanna, a national to Panama and former missionary to Mexico, "What's going on here?"

"That's Rev. Moon talking to members," Regis replied.

"You're kidding! That's not really Rev. Moon, is it?" the passerby replied in astonishment.

Then Regis witnessed to him about Family Federation, the Blessing and other Unification activities.

Clearly impressed, he responded, "Wow! I'll have something to tell my friends now! I just met the Rev. Moon!"

Back at camp after another melt-in-your-mouth dinner the bilingual team of Larry Moffit and Steven Boyd co-hosted a generous three hours of evening entertainment. Larry, the manager of Tiempos del Mundo in Argentina and assistant publisher of the hemispheric edition of the paper, spoke English or Spanish and Steven, longtime missionary to Uruguay, translated Larry's untranslatable humor into Spanish or English as needed - to the delight of their multilingual audience. Some wondered out loud if the inimitable Larry Moffit had met his match in Seven Boyd! Troop after troop of Latin and international dancers, singers and martial arts teams shared their art with True Parents and the assembled leaders. As a finale Hyung Jin Nim sang Jose Feliciano's La Bamba, and Hyun Jin Nim offered a thoroughly interactive rendition of Elvis Presley's Blue Suede Shoes.

The next morning, January 2, leaders gathered again outside Father's house in mud-spattered suits and dresses for the celebration of Day of Victory of Love. After the Main Ceremony, the cutting of the cake, and a recitation of Heung Jin Nim's biography, Father again had a long speech read in Korean. Known as Hoon Dok Hwe, the daily morning reading of Father's speeches is what Rev. C.H. Kwak called "the precious tradition of Unification Families in the future." Rev. Kwak said the speech should ideally be read in Korean, but a translation is also acceptable. Father himself reads his speeches with his own children each morning at 6 a.m.

In his celebration speech afterwards True Father said that no one is able to take responsibility for those who break the Blessing and warned that families which do not pay the blessing fee will be "in trouble" and will have a hard time when they arrive in spiritual world. He suggested that if a couple does not have enough money for the fee, they should go fund raising to get it. If all couples pay their fee, he said, then he will be able to restore the whole world. After the 360 Million-Couple Blessing, he said, "the whole world will automatically turn around."

Turning again to the family, Father said, "Now is the age of family-centeredness. No matter how great a man is, without a family he cannot take responsibility." Father said that the president of a country must first be president of a family. Then his wife will become the vice-president and his sons will be ministers. If a person wants to succeed in school or in his career, he said, he must first be centered on his family.

"From now on in the Unification Movement you will be recognized according to the state of your family," he said.

He said that members will need to write autobiographical reports about their family lives which "must be approved by people both on earth and in the spiritual world."

In his Victory of Love speech Father also announced the formation of a Special Dedication Fund to help Korea. Each member of a family, he said, should make a donation that includes the number 12 (like $120 or $1200), at least half of which should be sent before True Father's birthday February 2.

Throughout the afternoons of January 2 and 3, the fishing contest continued. Each day Father visited and spoke intimately with members on the beach. While most members assigned to one of ten teams fished on the beach with 12 foot surf-casting rods, a small group picked from each team went out on a boat each day. Because almost no fish were caught from the beach, it was those who went out on the boat who won the fishing contest.

On January 3 the ten teams competed in track, soccer, volley ball and a tug-of-war for the championship. That evening with the Uruguayan Minister of Tourism and other dignitaries present, winners of the fishing contest received awards, and the next morning the winning teams received substantial cash prizes from True Father.

During Father's annual reading of directions for the year he said that the era of "great migration" is about to begin. Previously Father has said that in the future he will ask many members to move to Africa and other developing areas. It may be that Father is saying that he may give that direction in the near future.

Father also said, "For the National Blessing to take place, we need (True Father's) worldwide tour." This appears to suggest that the his coming world tour is a foundation for the National Blessing to occur, although he did not say whether there were other foundations or when the blessing would take place. In the past Father has spoken about three levels of Blessing that must eventually take place, namely, church level, national level and world level. This was apparently a reference to that second level.

Finally, he counseled listeners to "be grateful every day without complaining." He said, "When you live with gratefulness, you will prosper."

On the final day, January 4, when leaders were free to leave and after Hoon Dok Hwe, Father gave his final speech. Speaking of God's plight and our relationship with him, True Father said God has no ancestors and bears everything on his shoulders. "One tear that is shed can glorify God," he said. "Even if I die 10,000 times, I must be grateful to God. He then can come to comfort me."

He called on leaders to follow the path on which "God cannot abandon you" without excuses. "You must have the depth to face persecution as a given," he said. "That is the path of a messiah." God is looking for "the filial son of the filial son, a historical son," he said. "Even though you are not qualified, you are called to the position of a Holy Son."

Concerning our clans, True Father said that it is critically important to bless our own kinsmen "even if they resist." He said, "You cannot leave them in the path of death, even if you must fight or drag them." He said once they are blessed, relatives can support ones mission.

On a hopeful note, Father said, "The period of going around and around without results is over. (Now) you will have results according to your effort."

After the six-day celebration on their return home, some members toured Montevideo to see Father's foundation there. They visited Father's Five Star Plaza Hotel complete with sky restaurant on the 25th floor and a swimming pool and spa. They also saw Father's Banco de Commerce, which has 23 branches in Uruguay, and visited his industrial park and educational facility where Father will train Uruguayans to use machine tools to help increase the manufacturing capabilities of the nation. Also, the site will manufacture parts for cars produced in Argentina and elsewhere. Finally, the group visited the Montevideo editorial and production offices of Ultimas Noticias and Tiempos del Mundo, Father's two newspapers in Uruguay. 

Titanic and the Culture War

UViews Jan 98:

We are fighting principalities and powers, as the apostle Paul postulated. This is nowhere more true than in America's culture wars. The ideology of fallen man, is informing our culture in ways both mighty and subtle. Take, for example, that wonderful and hugely popular film Titanic. It’s a great flick. We eat it up. But what is its message? What values does it express? What does it teach us?

We can look at Titanic on three levels. The first and most typically "Hollywood" is as an exemplary gospel of the politically correct.

Take, for example, the dolphins. Are there dolphins off the coast of Ireland in April? In any case, it is a nice plug for environmentalism. Are they necessary for the story? Not really, except to tell us that young Jack Dawson is, yes, a friend of the dolphins.

A second politically correct gesture: no furs, even in the coldest weather among the richest people on earth in 1912. This is hardly believable.

Third, the heroine, Rose, a sixteen year old in 1912, is a reader of Freud and collector of Picasso. She likes his art because it has no logic. How twentieth century! In other words, Rose is a member of what was to become the cutting edge of the American degradation, excuse me, liberation of the 1920s when free sex, relativism and youth rebellion entered the culture full swing.

The only politically questionable behavior on the part of the protagonists was Jack’s and Rose’s tobacco habit,. But the pitch for drug use, which entered America in the twenties, outweighed the value of health. Jack and Rose are not health nuts; at least we can be thankful for that!

It hardly merits mention that Titanic champions the traditional Hollywood messages that businessmen and industrialists are corrupt, wealth is suspect (except in the hands of artists), parents are backwards and use their children for their own purposes, engineers are good, entrepreneurs are evil, and so forth. Poor Irish immigrants are good, but not Muslims, who cannot read English.

Justifying the Fall

The movie’s second level is its justification and reinforcement of the course and motivation of the human fall. We observe an amazingly accurate recapitulation of the fall narrative in Titanic. The fact that it is digested so easily and enjoyed so much by the audience testifies to the truth of the claim that this narrative is the deep structure of the human psyche.

Consider the narrative of the fall, which Reverend Sun Myung Moon fought to discover, and challenged God and Satan to deny. It explains that an innocent but immature mother of the human race, Eve, was seduced by the mature but selfish archangel, Lucifer. She lost her innocence and gained carnal knowledge. She was very aware of what she had lost, and, amid guilt, shame and fear, tried to recover it.

To recover it, she approached her brother and to-be-husband Adam. Adam is an immature yet beautiful young man. He is intoxicated with God and the world, even to the expense of his responsibility for Eve. Eve approaches him and, finding him susceptible to her charms, seduces him. She thinks that by uniting with him, she can regain her lost virginity and her lost position as God's daughter.

She is wrong. The seduction merely pulls Adam down into the realm of the fall with her. Cast from the garden, they face a future tossed in the waves of a world without God.

Let’s see how this works in Titanic. Cal, the archangel, is the heartless millionaire who has already seduced Rose, now his fiancee. Rose (fallen Eve) is sick of Cal’s selfish love but is tainted by it. She sees Jack (immature Adam), an untamed young man, as a way to escape the false world of Cal and return to her original purity. But through her tainted love and selfish motivation, she violates her betrothal, her relationship with her mother, and, not becoming Jack’s wife, seduces him to fall with her. They have no future but to run away from everything.

We love Jack because we love immature Adam's zest for life, his reckless faith that each day will bring its own reward, his abandonment of his life to the winds of an exciting world.

We love Rose because we see in her the longing of Eve to return to her state of purity, to escape the claws of Satan, who has seduced her.

We ignore the fact that Rose is no girl from Chippewa Falls. She is a woman of the world, a student of Freudian free sex and the bohemian Parisian culture of the fin de siecle. Jack, with his drawings of nudes, is a member of the same club. But he maintains his status as immature Adam by demurring that he had had no affair with his models, one of whom was a real fallen woman (contrary to the sophisticated and still girlish Rose), a "one-legged prostitute."

We like to believe that Jack is a virgin, and that Rose is too, despite Cal's entreaty, "I thought that you would come to me last night." Last night she was in fact dancing in drunken yet innocent abandon with Jack and the salt of the earth–politically correct Irish step dancers! (And of course, Jack is an accomplished step-dancer.)

So Rose seduces Jack, first by offering herself as his nude model and then by dragging him into the back seat of her fiancé’s car. It is the archetypal American fornication. Yes, sympathetic though they are, courageous, idealistic and pure-hearted as they are, what it amounts to is an act of fornication.

And they go laughing away, free-spirits into the night. Rose has violated her engagement to be married. Marriage? What does that matter? Husbands are boorish and violent. This is love! Rose has betrayed her mother. Mothers? What do they matter? Mothers are clinging and petty. Rose is a much better person than her demented mother! Rose has pushed herself and Jack into an abyss. What does that matter? This is a new world! This is love!

Here is where things become interesting. The ship's lookouts are distracted by the laughter and kissing of these young lovers below them on the deck. At that moment, the iceberg came into vision, but they did not see it while they looked at the kissing Jack and Rose. When they turned back to their watch, there was the iceberg, dead ahead.

Consequence of Fall

Here we enter upon the third level of meaning, and the most encouraging from a cultural message point of view. The movie on this level is an allegory for the fate of the world. (Here I am indebted to insights from Rev. Joong Hyun Pak.)

The ship Titanic is human civilization in all its grandeur and pride evoking majesty. The captain and crew steering the ship are America. The fate of the world is, like it or not, in America's hands. The iceberg is the destruction lying ahead on the path we are pursuing.

The captain (America) is tempted by the illusion of fame offered by the entrepreneur (capitalism). "Just imagine if we arrive in New York Tuesday night! It will be in all the papers. We have not just the biggest ship, but the fastest ship." So is America deluded by her own seeming invincibility: is this a great country or what? Nothing can sink the Titanic!

Thus, the Titanic did not have by half the proper number of lifeboats. The engineer tells Rose, they thought the full number of lifeboats would make the deck too cluttered. Arrogance combined with a sharp eye for appearances.

Distracted by the titillation of immorality, the watchmen gawked at the illicit lovers. So too is our culture distracted by petty entertainments, cheap expressions of love.

The bowels of the ship represent hell, the realm of brute and brutal labor necessary in the fallen order of things to keep the rich and famous pampered in their self-indulgent ways. Titanic is a microcosm of the fallen world. On the top floor, for a price in today's currency of $200,000 per ticket, are the elites, Cal and his friends the industrialists. In the middle are the steerage, the immigrants, the salt of the earth sharing accommodations with the rats. At the bottom are the laborers sweating like dogs, feeding the dynamos which keep the ship moving forward … to its doom.

When the ship hits the iceberg, the laborers in hell are the first to die, washed away by the initial engulfment of the ship's lower holds. Next to go are the people in steerage, locked up like cattle by the boat's policemen until the decent people on the upper decks are all on lifeboats. Class consciousness receives new life!

The actions of the captain and crew are most interesting, for they represent America here, custodians of the ship of the world. There are several types of responses to the disaster for which they must take responsibility. The captain and engineer are most noble, each stoically going down with the ship, thinking not of their own safety. The officers have the thankless task of loading the insufficient number of lifeboats. One of the officers is overcome by the moral weight of his deciding who is to live and who is to die, and shoots himself. Two officers wind up on lifeboats. One, representing 19 of the 20 lifeboats, viciously threatens a woman pleading that they return to the scene to pick up the wretches floating in the icy sea. One of the twenty turns his boat around to rescue them, but too late. He finds but one still alive ... Rose.

Resurrection

Now, in the final chapter, we enter the realm of the resurrection, the second generation, as we pass through death into the next life. The world as we knew it is destroyed. Cal clings to the old rules, in vain. Lucifer has become Cain. He virtually insured Jack's death, and himself survived by cunning. He maintains his wealth and status but meets a miserable end later when the stock market crashes. Jack is Abel, killed by Cain and by his premature love for Rose. But his death for the sake of saving Rose makes him a Christ figure, humankind’s ultimate Abel. Rose, representing fallen humanity, strives even in her self-centered confusion to find salvation through true love. A betrayer of her mother and fiancé, she is redeemed only by her love for Jack, the Christ-figure, whom she (unwittingly?) leads to his death.

And yet Rose, fallen humankind, is the only trace of nobility left from the Titanic. She did not opt for a lifeboat, but rather abandoned her seat for the sake of love. Her life support now is no longer a million ton behemoth called Titanic, but a shard of wood. Jack's last breath of life imbues in her the strength to live, as his bride in spirit.

When she disembarks in New York, she gives her name as Rose Dawson, taking on Jack's last name. She has a new identity in a new world, with a husband in spirit. And she pursues the life of a liberated woman, marries and has children, and lives to over 100 in order to tell her story.

Well, you might say, the story of the star-crossed lovers is nothing new in the west. Look at Romeo and Juliet. Innocent love is a valid justification for abandoning parents, tradition and morality. A compelling argument, that. It connects with the most morally ambiguous phase of the fall: Eve’s striving to return to God. This was a virtuous desire, but it was rooted in a selfish mind. Thus it resulted in Adam’s fall, which extinguished the possibility of her salvation. By her action taken to save herself, she damned herself.

But the gallant attempt at liberation itself is appealing to the fallen world. We all are in the position of fallen Eve, striving to save ourselves but that very striving comes out of the selfish mind. We end up destroying that which might save us.

The ultimate appeal is that of Eve for Adam: the temptation of love. Whether Romeo and Juliet or Jack and Rose, it all seems justified by that tremendous, eternal moment of physical love. Jack and Rose in the back seat of the car, in infinite ecstasy, Rose’s hand stiffly, involuntarily arching upon the steam-covered window. Wow, it must have been good!

That’s the lie. It was not good. It’s a made-up story, folks. The love of fallen Eve and immature Adam was a let-down. Rose and Jack go laughing into the night? Forget it; Adam and Eve hid themselves in shame, guilt and fear. Suddenly alienated from their bodies, they grabbed leaves to cover their sexual parts, they felt so bad. The vision of exultant illicit lovers, whose selfish love is legitimated by the joy they experience: this is where the Bible tells the truth and Titanic retells a destructive myth. 

The Work Begins in Pusan

by Linna Rapkins

The calendars said January 27, 1951. The old train rattled to a stop at Pusan station. The two young men who climbed stiffly down from the front of the train were so blackened by soot and dirt, and so frozen by the January wind, that even their own parents could not have recognized them.

For two long months they had been crawling over snowy mountains carrying a man with a broken leg and trudging through rocky valleys and icy waters. For two long months they had been eating roots from the ground and buying small servings of rice whenever someone gave them a little money. For two endless months they had been sleeping on frozen ground without a warm blanket or coat. They had pushed themselves to their limits-and then they had pushed some more.

They peered out into the darkness; then looked at each other and smiled. Their smiles said, "Pusan at last!" But their weary bodies cried out to them, "A little rest, please! Some sleep!"

They looked all around the cold train station and found an old butter can left by the United Nations soldiers. In this, they made a fire and soon received a little warmth. Although they felt as if they were still rocking and bumping with the train, they soon fell into an exhausted sleep.

As soon as the morning sky began to lighten, Father and his beloved disciple, Won Pil Kim, woke up and wasted no time in venturing out onto the chilled gray streets of Pusan. On three sides they could just make out a city that seemed to wrap itself around the steep hills, and on the remaining side was a body of water. Pusan was a port city, and ships were being loaded and unloaded even at this early hour.

Father’s first thought was, "How can I quickly find those who worked with me in Seoul and Pyongyang? Heavenly Father, you have been crying for them. I must find them quickly, quickly!"

As they pushed their tired bodies along, Father thought of the separation from his followers while in prison. He thought about his search for them in Pyongyang afterwards and his heartbreaking disappointment when he found so few. He thought about the possibility of finding them in Pusan, and new strength came to him.

Father and Won Pil Kim spent their first day walking the streets and looking hopefully into the thousands of faces. With the little money they had left, they bought a small snack, which was their meal for the day. It didn’t give them much energy for climbing up and down the steep hills, but they kept climbing anyway.

Pusan was the only city in all Korea where no Chinese soldiers swarmed through the streets. It was crowded with thousands and thousands of people who had left their homes in the North to escape the threats of the communist soldiers. If they were very lucky, they had moved in with relatives or friends in Pusan. If they were a little lucky, they were living in tents outside the city. Others slept in corners, gateways, or any small space they could find. Since Father and Won Pil Kim were among the last refugees to arrive in Pusan, every spot seemed to be taken.

They soon found someone Father had taught in Seoul about five years earlier, and they were invited to spend the night in his house. What a treat to sleep in an actual room and eat some steaming rice. It wasn’t the white clean rice we eat today. It was hard and gritty and mixed with barley, but it was all that was available to most Koreans during those difficult war years.

Father looked around at the crowded room. He didn’t want to cause more hardship for these already suffering people, so the next day he insisted on leaving.

Won Pil Kim thought to himself, "Because there are two of us, it will be very difficult for people to invite us in. I must find a way to take care of myself, so it will be easier for Father to find a place to stay." He told Father what he wanted to do, and soon he found a job in a restaurant with a place to sleep nearby.

Meanwhile, within a day, Father noticed a man looking at him. He was looking at Father’s ragged dirty clothes and rubber shoes and thinking, "Who is that man? He looks familiar. But I don’t know any beggars." Then his eyes lit up in recognition.

"Moon!" he cried excitedly as he came up to Father. Then Father recognized his schoolmate, Duk Moon Aum. They had gone to the university in Japan together years before. They laughed and embraced with joy.

Mr. Aum immediately invited Father to his home. He had become a professor and architect; yet, he lived with his family in only a small apartment. There was hardly any heat, and the food was simple, but at least it was a place to get out of the cold wind, and Father was grateful.

Instead of relaxing, however, Father immediately began talking to Mr. Aum about the ideal world, and he talked about Jesus. Mr. Aum was a Buddhist, so he didn’t know much about Jesus.

That night he had a surprising dream. In this dream Jesus’ sister spoke to him. "When Jesus was alive," she said, "his mother-our mother-didn’t understand him. She kept fussing at him to stay home and become a good carpenter. Now in spirit world, Jesus feels resentment toward her. It might have been possible for him to succeed, if his mother had prepared him and supported him as the Messiah. The only person who can help Jesus now is your friend, Sun Myung Moon. Please, listen to him and help him!"

The next morning Mr. Aum told Father his dream. Father responded, "I have many things to explain to you." So they sat in Mr. Aum’s little home, and Father told him all about the ideal world, the Fall, Jesus’ mission, and God’s heart. When Mr. Aum heard the wise words of Father, he came to understand that Father was very special. Even though they had been just friends before, he began calling Father "Sungsangnim" (honorable teacher).

After about a week, Father told Mr. Aum he had to go visit some other people. Actually, he had no place to go, but he saw how crowded it was for Mr. Aum’s family, and he didn’t want to be a burden.

As he walked through the streets, Father prayed earnestly. It was a miracle, that among the thousands of people he met, he quickly found another friend from his earlier days. It was Mr. Kim who had been in Hungnam prison (the one who had followed Father’s advice about working in an easier part of the prison and escaping when something looked suspicious).

They were also overjoyed to see each other. "I’ve been wishing all this time I could report to you," said Mr. Kim excitedly, "that I followed your advice in prison, and when the communists started killing prisoners, I was able to escape. At last, I have the opportunity to thank you for my life."

Father looked at him with a big smile.

"As you can see, I eventually made it to Pusan. I got a job, and now I’m happy to tell you I just got married. Will you please come to my house and meet my bride? We would be most honored to have you stay with us."

Father agreed to go. When they arrived, he saw that Mr. Kim had indeed a nice wife, but he saw also that they had only one small room. He stayed two weeks so he could talk to his friend about Heavenly Father’s plan for Korea and the world. But he understood how difficult it was for the newly married couple to have another man living in the same room with them. Again he moved on.

Father’s first desire was to find more of his followers. However, there was no one to attend him, so he had to get a job. He found work at the docks, where he spent his precious time loading and unloading ships. It was backbreaking work, and he was still in a weakened condition from prison life and the long trip to Pusan. Although spring was just around the corner, the icy winds still whistled through this port city.

Father learned that, if he worked during the night when it was coldest, it helped to keep him warm. Then he could sleep during the day when it was warmer. Sometimes, he would sleep under someone’s porch, but often he would climb one of the mountains, where he could pray and sleep undisturbed.

He also continued to visit Mr. Aum and Mr. Kim, and often he went to see how Won Pil Kim was doing at the restaurant. One day, he brought Mr. Aum and Mr. Kim along to the restaurant. Won Pil Kim went to his boss and asked, "May I offer this man and his guests some food? He is my honorable teacher."

"Alright," said the understanding owner. "They can use the private room in the back, and you may serve them rice and a few things."

Won Pil Kim eagerly pressed the rice down tightly into the bowls, so he could pile more on top. He felt so much joy to be able to serve. Father thanked him cheerfully and asked how he was doing.

"I’m doing well," answered Won Pil Kim. It seemed like only a moment and Father’s rice was all eaten. Won Pil Kim refilled the bowl, and again the rice was eaten almost immediately. Then he understood that, even though Father looked happy and well and didn’t ask for anything, he was actually starving.

"Why didn’t he tell me he was so hungry?" wondered Won Pil Kim. "Why didn’t he ask for something special? He just accepts whatever I set before him." Then he promised himself, "I will make sure to prepare plenty of food for him whenever he comes." And he always did.

They had been in Pusan almost four months. In May, Father found a cheap room in a boarding house for homeless workers. He came to Won Pil Kim and suggested, "We could rent a room together at this boarding house. Then we could be together again, and save money, as well. How does that sound?"

"It sounds wonderful," said Won Pil Kim enthusiastically, for he missed being with his beloved teacher so very much.

When they moved in, they found that the room was more like a closet. They couldn’t even stretch out full length to sleep. Later, when Mr. Aum sometimes spent the night with them, he had to sleep leaning against the wall. But they didn’t care. It was such a great comfort to be together again.

As time went on, Won Pil Kim came to appreciate much more deeply the greatness of Father. He saw how he was always thinking of others. He saw that Father never complained about the cold that had chilled his bones day and night. He never mentioned the prison wounds that still caused him pain. He never mentioned the pangs of hunger in his shrunken stomach. He never said, "Oh, I wish I could taste some pulgogi and fresh kimchee and some really good quality white rice." Instead, he would look kindly at Won Pil Kim and ask, "Are you alright? Did you get something to eat today? Are you warm enough?"

Won Pil Kim always reassured him he was fine. But actually, he was hungry and tired most of the time, also. Neither one wanted to worry the other-so great was their love.

The pain in Father’s heart was greater than the pain in his body when he looked at his young faithful disciple. "I’m sorry you must suffer so much," he said silently. "You gave up everything. Now you are in rags, and your stomach cries out constantly for food." Father’s tears flowed for this dear young man who had come so many miles with him.

This is the kind of person Father was. This is the kind of person he is. When we suffer, he suffers. Perhaps we can say to him, "It’s alright, Father. Don’t worry about me. I want to help you. I want to be your disciple."

Then his eyes will fill with tears, and he will feel better. And God’s eyes will fill with tears, and He will feel better.