On the occasion of the 52nd True Parents' Day

As we celebrate this year’s anniversary of True Parents’ Day we do well to reflect on the reality with which our True Father and True Mother are faced. In this respect I would like to invite you to take the explanations by our international President Hyung Jin Nim to heart which he offered for the Sunday Service on March 27, 2011 which you find uploaded at: vimeo.com/21827497

When you watch this video you can hear Hyung Jin Nim speak about how he felt about True Father and True Mother when he saw them recently: “I was really sorry that I could not be with True Parents when they really felt so lonely…”

Hyung Jin Nim mentioned that True Father got upset at a recent Hoondokhae saying: “There are only thieves around me.” And in connection with this statement Hyung Jin Nim explained: “When I saw him get upset like this I felt: ‘Ah, his son has to be with him… If True Parents have such lonely feelings I have to beside them…’”

Later in his sharing Hyung Jin Nim repeated: “Father recently feels very, very lonely. He said things like he can’t believe anyone, or that ‘there are only thieves around me.’”

What does this mean? Who is around True Parents? Mainly leaders, whom he entrusted with certain responsibilities but who disappointed him greatly. Why does he call them thieves? Should we not take such an evaluation to heart and realize that we do have a serious problem in our church – which we caused and not True Parents or True Children.

Why does Father say that he cannot believe or trust anyone? Not because he is a person who does not like to trust others but because he has been disappointed so very greatly by the ones who should have shown a responsible attitude.

We are celebrating that we have True Parents here on this earth, but where are the true children – the members of their extended family – our worldwide membership, who has grown to stand in the position of true sons and daughters?

Already many years ago the Children’s course was proclaimed, the era where we as children are in the position to take full responsibility for the restoration of this world based on True Parents having laid a precious foundation while going through the 21 year course from 1960 to 1981 victoriously. But how does our contribution look in reality? How well have we been doing in fulfilling our portion of responsibility during the past 30 years?

We heard not long ago from our international president that the Holy Spirit has left our church three decades ago and is returning now – there where our members are repenting with a humble heart.

Shouldn’t we ask ourselves on the occasion of this 52nd True Parents’ Day why our True Parents are in such a lonely position, surrounded by thieves who steal rather than give with the same heart and dedication as True Father and True Mother have shown to us?

When I sent out a reflection on the theme “Are We One In The Love Of God?” on February 17, 2011, I quoted from what Father said on September 5, 2010 as published in the January 2011 edition of the Today’s World magazine under the subject “True Father at the Forefront”: “We still have some distance to go… Who is supposed to complete the unfinished tasks that remain? It is our friendless Heavenly Father and the friendless Rev. Moon.”

Such a statement challenges us just as well to reflect about the question why True Father has to speak about the loneliness of God and his own lonely situation - about God being friendless and also him being without friends?

Hyung Jin Nim reminded us in the above mentioned Sunday Service that we must have a clean heart, mind and motivation. He asked: “Is it a place where God dwells or where God does not dwell? It’s totally different whether God and the Holy Spirit dwell there or not.

If we truly hope to have a church that repents, a church filled with the Holy Spirit, a church full of love, then we should begin with our own temple, from our heart… It is so very important that we look at ourselves honestly… Let us all as Unificationists become true brothers and sisters.”

This task remains to be accomplished by us as members of our True Parents’ extended family. We may praise our True Parents without end but they will only be happy and inspired when they see that we are truly their children who follow in their footsteps, living like them totally for the sake of the establishment of a tradition that is centered on True Love.

When we take these clear words by our international president to heart then we will be really serious about becoming brothers and sisters who are truly united and one in heart, who are completely honest and humble in our relationships with each other. Very sadly, the present reality is not characterized through such a standard of relating to each other but we experience concrete divisions on many levels – because the task of purifying our heart and soul has widely not been realized so that it is not a crystal clear conscience in the hearts of brothers and sisters that prevails but a standard of which we surely cannot be proud of in front of Heaven.

As Hyung Jin Nim emphasized once again within this mentioned recent Sunday Service, we must go the way of repentance with a humble heart in front of God and one another as fellow Unificationists who profess the same or similar belief but in reality we are rather distant in the realm of heart because distrust is not overcome and reconciliation not accomplished.

May we all become deeply aware of the level we are at heartistically when True Father has to say that he is very lonely and there are only thieves around him. Whether we are near to True Parents externally or not is surely not the decisive point, but: What kind of heart do we embody? Are we a true friend of heart for True Father and True Mother, bringing profound

comfort to their hearts, or are we living on another level, more or less distant from them and from each other?

With this question I would like to conclude this short reflection and wish every one of you a Blessed True Parents’ Day and many uplifting days ahead in which your hearts will be filled with the all-embracing Love of our Eternal Creator in whose image we are made as His beloved sons and daughters,

Sincerely yours,