Power through a Providential Perspective (4)

Rev. Hwang chose the theme “The Beauty of Reconciliation” when trying to impart to members the feeling of being directly with True Parents in his sermon on December 9, 2001.

At the very beginning of his speech he asked, “What is faith?” And he offered the following explanation: “Until now there have been many definitions of faith. From the viewpoint of the Principle, however, faith is the recovery of original relationships. In other words, the Fall was the severance of relationships. The Fall cut off the relationship between God and humanist, relationships among people and between people and nature. Faith is the recovery of the original order.

How should I evaluate the degree of my sin or whether I have lived a year well or not? I can evaluate myself by no other measure than to what degree I have recovered an amicable relationship or to what degree I have lived in a way that severs relationships.”

Should we not take this definition of faith close to heart and ask ourselves very honestly, what we have invested for the sake of reconciliation to be manifested in difficult relationships? How serious are we about building bonds of heart that show that we have truly understood what kind of faith we are supposed to practice as members of our movement?

Rev. Hwang continued to explain: “Father said that what is most important in defining ourselves is to decide what is good and bad when we consider ourselves in light of the public environment. Doing that is a valuable exercise.

True Parents are asking us to regard self-examination as the central task in this era: working out the meaning of our existence with public standards and determining our value based on public criteria. In other words, on the question of what to put in the central axis in restoring relationships, he told us to place public matters in the central axis and thereby work towards the recovery of that relationship.”

Let us have a closer look at the quality of our efforts for the sake of recovering true relationships? How seriously do we check ourselves, our motivation and investment in this essential realm which is the foundation for bringing the Four Great Realms of Heart to blossom in our own lives?

Rev. Hwang shared his understanding: “Brothers and sisters, we have to live inside other people to develop a bond of heart. Relationships can be restored when we share experiences. If a person’s situation is different from our own, they are strangers to us though we may be sitting down together.

How do we define the Korean word ‘shikgu’? We do not use the term ‘member’ but rather ‘shikgu’ [literally a ‘mouth to feed’ i.e. someone you eat with – a family member]. We don’t use the term that means ‘fellow believers,’ but rather, ‘shikgu’. But would we be ‘shikgu’ just because we eat together? It means we share the same situation and are in a position to understand one another’s hearts in any circumstances.

… An elder brother is rich and a younger brother is poor, or the older brother is a religious leader and the younger brother is not, if they understand each other’s situation they are ‘shikgu’. Our effort to create a ‘shikgu’ community is to recover the original relationship from heaven in which our circumstances are mutually understood. That is our life and our community of faith. Then we have to reflect, as this year ends, on how we have lived this year for such a true community of ‘shikgu’ and how we have lived the year to understand each other vertically and horizontally.”

Should we not take the time to reflect about the theme of reconciliation most seriously as it stands at the basis of rebuilding relationships among us as God’s children?

Rev. Hwang went on to speak about bonds of heart and told the ones who had gathered to listen to his sermon: “We need to ask ourselves if we are living lives of sacrifice for the sake of the whole. Are we hoping that everything will come under our own realm of dominion or are we living so that we can become part of that everything? In other words, are we self-centered or other-centered?

If we have lived this year in a self-centered way, we will have destroyed many bonds of heart in the course of its passing. If we have led our life for the sake of others, we would have restored many bonds of heart in the past year and become wealthy people – like a fig tree heavy with fruit.

There are many beautiful things in this land. Love is beautiful. Flowers are beautiful as well. However, what do you think is the most beautiful thing? Probably the most beautiful thing is reconciliation. Love is for people who like to meet each other, so that should be easy. Reconciliation, however, is for people who don’t like to meet each other and resist coming together in unity. It is thus, in a sense, the most beautiful thing.”

Don’t we all agree that reconciliation between hearts that have been separated is most precious and therefore worth the trouble and heartfelt investment that is needed in order to go beyond differences and to build heart-to-heart relationships?

In his concluding prayer Rev. Hwang asked e.g. “We always shout ‘True Parents’ but please allow us to look back on whether we now have a bond of heart with them… Father, please let us check if, in keeping with the status of the providences, our life has, in relation to a community of real love and reconciliation centered on Heaven, contributed to our families becoming families that fit into such a community…”

It is my sincere hope that we willingly check ourselves thoroughly in this respect to make sure that we are indeed establishing bonds of heart and contribute substantially to heartfelt reconciliation being manifested in troubled relationships.

When addressing the basic aspect that joy is dependent on the investment of heart Rev. Hwang told brothers and sisters in his speech with the title “Cheon Il Guk: A New Beginning”: “This is the time to be excited. Are we excited? Naturally, this is something we should seriously think about. If we are not excited, it is because we have not been as involved as True Parents have.”

And later in that address he stated: “As much has True Parents have invested themselves, determining to walk the path of the Messiah, True Parents, the Parents of Heaven and Earth and to create God’s Kingdom as if all were a matter of life and death, they genuinely desire for us to do the same in becoming true parents to our own tribes. That is the reason that they have bequeathed all their accomplishments to us. This is indeed a concrete movement to build the heavenly kingdom.”

“Relating to God through Living for Others” is the title of one sermon that reflects some of Rev. Hwang’s insight into how the current providence fits into religious history. In this address he tells his audience that Father calls national messiahs to go fishing because they are the ones who must most deeply inherit True Parent’s heart.

Father stated that messiahship means parentship. From this viewpoint it is clear that national messiahs are the ones who are called to represent God and True Parents on the national level, and they are therefore in a position to show a profound parental heart as a father or mother for the nation they are responsible for.

Not only national messiahs but of course also tribal messiahs are destined to show that they have inherited God’s and True Parents heart. In this respect Father told brothers and sisters already long ago:

“You stand in a fearful position because you are participating in the mission during my lifetime. You must be able to echo my heart. If you do not you will not be able to lift up your face before God when you die.”

On July 14, 2002 Rev. Hwang spoke about the path we are to walk as tribal messiahs whereby he centered his talk on holding feasts for people in line with Father’s guidance, feeding them as a foundation for us to have heart-to-heart communication with them: “Create an atmosphere where people can have heart-to-heart communication. Create the right environment.”

And at the end of that speech he encouraged everybody: “Beloved brothers and sisters, let us host feasts. Let’s be masters of the culture of heart. If we can all establish the True God’s kingship and sovereignty of Cheon Il Guk within our tribes, then on that basis God will grant us rebirth as a heavenly royal family.”

Personally I am convinced that it is our task to check again and again to which extent we have become masters of the culture of heart. We need to ask ourselves very sincerely how well we are doing in manifesting a standard of heart which is fully in line with the desire of our Heavenly Parent.

This basic responsibility was also addressed in Rev. Hwang’s early morning service on August 18, 2002 where he spoke about the essence of True Parent’s work: “God’s will must dwell within our lives now. Our mind and body have to achieve unity, and we have to realize God’s will in our neighbourhood. We have to achieve self-realization. The Realm of Live Rallies signify that God’s will has to permeate our lives to the very core.”

My dear brothers and sisters, let us not get lost in being primarily busy with external activities but invest first and most of all into making sure that the desire of our Heavenly Parent is indeed permeating our lives to the very core, so that we may embody His Heart.