Power through a Providential Perspective (5)

Rev. Hwang encouraged his congregation like many times before to invest for the purpose of deepening one’s relationship with God in his address on October 13, 2002 when he spoke about “The Mystical Dimension of Our Lives”:

“Dear members, we are already experiencing and realizing not merely partial spiritual salvation but substantial, total earthly salvation. Our encounter with True Parents has to be of a different kind than from those in the past. Just as there was a different quality of mystical experience when Jesus disciples met him for the first time and when they met him after his resurrection, our encounter with True Parents in the age of Cheon Il Guk has to be at a completely different level from that when we first joined the church.

This is not a spiritual encounter like the one between the resurrected Jesus and his disciples. Our experience of True Parents is substantial and of the heart. Just as the Israelites held the circumcision ceremony and started anew when they entered Canaan, as we enter this new age we need to meet the True Parents in a new state – through a new consciousness and self-determination – and bring the providence to a conclusion.

Ninety-five percent of our relationship with God’s will and of our going this course is already predestined. Only five percent is a matter of choice. In being connected with the providence, being granted a providential mission and following God’s way. The choices resulting from our own will are only five percent of the whole. Ninety-five percent of the work of God and the spiritual fruit achieved by our ancestors. Representing our family trees, the world and all history, we should maintain a deep awareness of our relationship to God’s providence.”

Rev. Hwang’s encouragement included the following appeal: “Beloved members, what attitude should we have as we confront this remarkable time of transition? First of all, we must go back to having the pure unsoiled heart of a child. Just as new wine must be put into new wineskins, we who are welcoming a new age must go back to our true selves.”

Rev. Hwang emphasizes a lot to look at the Larger Picture. When he gave a sermon in line with this theme on November 17, 2002 he expressed his desire that all members realize that we live at the beginning time of the original spring that should have come with the Creation, a time when we must have Heaven’s original nature:

“If we are in substance people of Cheon Il Guk we must be able to reveal Heaven’s original nature to the world. So far, religions have taught people that things that were holy or heavenly were not to do with this material world but transcendent of ordinary reality. However, True Parents’ teaching is different. What is holiness? What holiness attended the Creation?

True Father once said, ‘A holy thing is a natural thing. Likewise, a natural thing is a holy thing. A bird singing is holy, a butterfly flying is holy, the blowing wind is holy. When a person blinks his eyes, moves his hand or breathes, these are holy things. It is the same with people. The holiest person must be the most natural person.’”

I suppose it is not difficult for us to see that being holy means having the nature God gave at the Creation, and to fulfil the purpose for what we were created. Rev. Hwang quoted from Father’s speech, “What Should We Leave Behind?”, offering the following excerpt:

“The eternal legacy you should leave behind in history cannot be achieved by living solely for yourselves, but by living for the world, God’s will and heaven and earth. For you to fulfil the purpose of life, you must connect your everyday life to God. No matter how difficult the crises you face along the way are you must think of a strategy to overcome them and be successful. For that reason, you should not worry about present difficulties, but be always hopeful about the future.

It is important to be curious about what will happen after the crisis you’re presently facing is over. If the excitement you feel about the future is greater than the ordeal you’re going through you will be victorious”

Every one of us would like to leave a legacy behind of which we can be proud eternally and finish our days here on earth victoriously. True Parents have not only taught us but also shown us through their example what kind of attitude is needed in order to lead a victorious life. Therefore it is decisive that we do take their guidance close to heart and make it our own, so that we may live according to God’s desire out of our own conviction.

Towards the end of his sermon, Rev. Hwang encouraged brothers and sisters, “Let’s love the world with true love. With a devoted and sacrificial way of life, with true love between our husbands and wives, and between parents and children, we must proclaim the ideal of a true family to our tribes and neighbours. This is the time to do so.”

Even though we may not feel victorious in one way or another among the Four Great Realms of Heart, nothing should stop us from perfecting the other realms of loving relationships which we are supposed to develop during our life-time on this earth and continuing in the eternal world. In order to do so successfully we need to develop most of all our ability to love with true love, to invest ourselves totally for the happiness of our fellow men.

At the end of 2002 Rev. Hwang addressed the key issue of our times, “Becoming Owners of Cheon Il Guk”, where he asked: “Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think the owners of Cheon Il Guk should be like? First, they should embody the heart of God. In order to feel the heart of God, they should get rid of prejudice. If we feel hatred toward someone, we cannot be an owner of Cheon Il Guk. If we build walls in my heart to block out others, we cannot be owner of Cheon Il Guk.”

Again and again each one of us is challenged to ask ourselves to which extent we embody the heart of God and we are called to make sure that there are no walls whatsoever in our hearts that separate us from our brothers and sisters, from other children of God, no matter what kind of religious beliefs they may have.

Rev. Hwang emphasized in that speech the importance of possessing Heaven’s heart, whereby he explained: “Ordinary people usually only want to be responsible for what is theirs, but we want to be responsible not only for ourselves, but also for other people. This is the heavenly law that we have to follow in order to become a true Abel, a true owner of Cheon Il Guk…

Owners are thus people who take responsibility. So we must anguish deeply over the question of whether we are in the position of owners who live through taking responsibility for our tribes, our

communities, our neighbourhoods, our spiritual children and for Cain – or whether we are just focusing on living in the position of Cain ourselves. In particular, if we can take responsibility for God’s providence, we can surely be considered owners.”

My dear brothers and sisters, for what do we feel responsible? Each one of us must answer this question for himself or herself: either we live our lives accordingly with a deep desire for God’s will to be accomplished or we do not care so much beyond personal issues and matters related to our own immediate family members. Accordingly each one of us decides to which extent we grow in our ability to love, while we have the precious chance to develop our heart and mind to be all-embracing just like our Heavenly Parent.

As in many of his sermons, Rev. Hwang encouraged all members to be victorious in their lives, when he gave an address on February 16, 2003 asking, “Who are we? We are people of God. We are messiahs and true parents to our tribes. We all are owners of Cheon Il Guk. We should inherit the qualification and truth as owners and accomplish what is required to fulfil the task of liberating the whole…”

Exactly one month later Rev. Hwang spoke “On Sovereignty and Cheon Il Guk”, offering the following explanation: “The history of the providence has now led into the age of Cheon Il Guk. Strictly speaking, now is the age of God’s direct dominion, as we move on from the Completed Testament era. Now is the era of the fourth Adam in which we are to communicate with Heaven directly and realize oneness between our mind and body. This is the new historic age in which we are to attend God directly.”

Meanwhile Father has emphasized to the people of the world in public speeches that the era has dawned in which we can finally live under the direct dominion of God, embodying His Heart and expressing His Love to His children.

In line with this reality Rev. Hwang stated on March 16, 2003: “Therefore, we should all become one with God. We must think and feel solely centered on God.” His final words were: “I sincerely pray that we will become a community that will take responsibility for the new providence in this new era.”

Father had asked us repeatedly in recent years that we become new people, that we leave our old thinking behind and embrace the Heavenly way of life wholeheartedly. This challenge remains a key issue for each one of us, depending upon our basic conviction concerning God’s will, how we invest totally with absolute faith and true love in our hearts or we go our own way hesitantly with no clear vision of the kind of people that we are supposed to be; and the kind of attitude that we should manifest.

It is my earnest desire that every one of us make great progress in this essential task of being completely clear about Heaven’s desire and acting in line with Heaven’s Heart.