Struggles of Unificationism rise from the inability to process Rev. Moon's death

For a while now I have been feeling that the struggles plaguing Unificationism today arise from a collective inability to process Rev. Moon’s death. A recent discussion with John brought a parallel with Jesus’ time more sharply into focus for me.

Divine Principle suggests that Jesus’ death did not meet his disciples expectations about the nature of his mission. It suggests they expected an external physical kingdom and so lost faith when he died without realizing that. Even after the Pentecost his followers in Jerusalem were not successful and Christianity would probably not have survived without Paul.

Paul did not meet Jesus physically, but after his conversion on the road to Damascus what he did was to redefine the meaning of Jesus’ life to make it relevant to people who were not Jewish and who were coming to Jesus after his death.

So, the parallel with Unificationism. We Unificationists too have expected a physical Kingdom in Rev. Moon’s lifetime, but clearly that has not happened. How has Unificationism coped with Rev. Moon dying before seeing a physical Kingdom? In my opinion it hasn’t. All the factions are still trying to establish a physical Kingdom - but surely this tends to invalidate the meaning of Rev. Moon’s life. It questions the very messianic quality of his mission.

In my opinion if Unification is to survive we need to do something similar to what Paul did for Christianity. That is to find meaning in Rev. Moon’s life that is relevant to people now that may be different to what was meaningful (and expected) for members in the past.

Any thought’s? Are any Unificationists willing to even go down this path? For me this means moving away from a necessarily physical component of “the Kingdom,” just as in Jesus’ time.