Ep 468 - America - The Elder Son's Responsibility Part 4
America -- The Elder Son's Responsibility 103-28-12-40 - February 5, 2022
Finally my seven-day period of quarantine is going to be finished. I am telling you very good news. I will be able to attend True Parents’ birthday anniversary tomorrow with True Mother.
I am so excited to see our beloved True Mother. Some of you will join by zoom. I am really happy. For a long time I did not see True Mother. On behalf of the North American continent I can meet our beloved True Mother tomorrow.
Today I’d like to talk again about “America -- the elder son's responsibility” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 1.
I think this is the last in the series about the elder son’s responsibility.
You members were chosen, just as America was chosen. You, however, owe a great debt to Heaven and humanity. It is a debt that you cannot pay back in full during your lifetime. So great is the debt you owe that, no matter how much you pay back, it will still not be enough.
In the history of the providence, the failures by a central figure or chosen person to fulfill his responsibility have been followed without exception by the need for indemnity. What is the status of America today? For 60 years following the founding of our church, True Father worked publicly and earnestly for the sake of God's providence. It is not an overstatement to say that he spent two-thirds of that time, 40 years of his life, in America. Our eternal homeland is Korea, but he invested more in America. This is because he was thinking about all of humankind. The great blessing that America has received as the eldest son nation means it has the responsibility to gather all the brothers and sisters and bring them to the parents. (2012.11.05, Manhattan Center, New York)
Let’s study Father’s word. He is speaking about America and True Americans.
America and True Americans
<Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, P. 1313> America is a microcosm of the world. Transcending nationality and race, America has created a model for the ideal world. God Himself had purposely hidden this land of America from the rest of the world until His time was full, and then upon this land God raised up this model nation. In His providence, God anointed America with oil; He poured out abundant blessing upon this land. In a short two hundred years, God raised this nation to be the mightiest nation on earth. But blessing always comes with responsibility. If one forsakes the responsibility, one also forsakes God’s blessing. Inevitably the blessing of God will leave, and the nation doing this will decline.
Is it not true that the signs of such decline are already apparent in America today? Beloved American people, the time has come for us to repent. We must fear the wrath of God. In reality, who are the true Americans? True Americans are those who have a universal mind. True Americans are those who believe in the one family of humankind, transcendent of color and nationality as willed by God. True Americans are those who are proud of international families and churches, and a nation consisting of all peoples. In the sight of God, there is no black, there is no white, there is no yellow. We must look at the human race as God sees it.
Let’s summarize what Father sees about America and Americans here. America and true Americans.
1. America does not discriminate against race, religion, or cultural background.
2. America is a country you can call “my home” no matter where on earth you came from.
3. America is a miniature world, a model of an ideal that transcends races and nationalities.
4. America is a country that God directly founded on a new continent that God has kept hidden for a long time.
5. America is a country that has been blessed with abundant blessings in a short 200 years by specially anointing it, protecting it, and nurturing it in the will of the providence.
6. Blessings never come alone. It is always accompanied by responsibility .
7. If you cannot fulfill and abandon the responsibilities of being blessed, it is abandoning God. Then the blessings of heaven will be taken away, and the country will become the most miserable country of despair.
8. The time has come for America to repent greatly in fear of God's wrath.
9. Who is the true American? A true American is a transracialist, transnationalist, transcosmist, and a person who is proud to have such a family, a church, and a nation.
True Parents describe what America is and who Americans are.
How do you feel when you hear True Parents’ words about America?
You and I, Dr. Yong, have a great mission to take responsibility for this America and for Americans. True Father no longer exists (physically). True Mother is already 80 years old in Korean age by tomorrow.
If our America (is to) fulfill its responsibilities, when should we do it? It must be done when True Mother is on the earth.
Will America be a country of despair or a country of hope? Will America be a nation blessed by God or a nation cursed? The fact is that it all depends on you and me, our current blessed families, blessed children and Dr. Yong.
So we are starting with the morning devotion to save America and the American people. Therefore, this morning devotion offered every morning is not just a condition of prayer and jeongseong.
I believe that only our utmost sincerity, prayer, and filial piety towards Heavenly Parent and True Parents can save this country and this people.
Even though Father gave a warning, I understand, whenever Father and Mother talk (like this) about America. For me, I have a really serious determination to put our utmost jeongseong together and work together with American brothers and sisters to awaken America and to make great unity among different religions and different people from different countries. If we internally make an incredible unity condition through our jeongseong, definitely God will show us the way to do it.
You are chosen guys. I am also chosen, as the continental director of North America. Now even though it is a little late, you and I working together centered on True Mother, definitely we can bring our Heavenly Father back to America. America can become the center of the world, the light for the world. I have such a strong determination and great vision. I can see great potential in our American brothers and sisters.
Even though many people are talking about second generation problems, I am full of hope for them. There is a lot of opportunity. We need to (invest) our jeongseong until God is moved because of the degree of our jeongseong. Then the spiritual world will have no choice. It will need to help us. Then we can really revive our nation of America.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: Principle of Creation 16 - The Life of 4 Position Foundation
Let’s read from the EDP content.
When the origin, the subject partner and the object partner projected from the origin, and their union all fulfill the three object purpose, the four position foundation is established.
Father’s word:
In Order to Form a Familial Four-Position-Foundation
<46-95> When each of you look at your families, the family is not constituted by you alone. Alone, you can starve and it would not matter. However, once you have a family, you cannot live like that. Once you become the owner of a family, you must offer devotion for that family more than anybody else. That is the issue. Among those who received the blessing as Unificationists and bound as a couple under the name of the heavenly family, how much have you offered devotion for the sake of your partner? There is no other way in the course of restoration. You must offer devotion.
True Father said that if you become the owner of a family, you have to offer more devotion, more jeongseong, for the family more than anyone else.
Our blessed families are not ordinary families that are just centered on our physical lineage. We are public families because we are families chosen by God and True Parents in the course of God's 6,000-year providence of restoration.
It is the first time in six thousand years for a family to realize the four position foundation and go on the formula course together. Being blessed families, since it is the first time in history for a family to go on the formula course together, there can be many trials and errors. That is why you need to offer very special jeongseong.
God, the spirit world, and all ancestors watch with great attention because the formula course of a couple who receive the blessing and realize a family goes beyond the top of the growth stage and goes through the completion course, the original course of creation that even Adam and Eve could not go through.
Therefore, you must offer jeongseong for your family more than for any public mission, and you must create families that God can live and work in.
How much do the blessed families who are woven in the name of the heavenly family put so much effort into each other? It cannot be helped in the process of restoration. You have to offer incredible jeongseong.
In order for the family to become one, it takes a lot of tears, sacrifice, and utmost sincerity. This is because it is most difficult for a couple to become one. Don't think that Heaven is protecting you. I am telling you again and again, now the old testament era, new testament era and completed testament era are gone. Now is the era of cheon il guk. We are the owners of cheon il guk.
Therefore, Father asked us to be responsible for our own family as the owner of cheon il guk. From now on I have to take responsibility for my family. My family must be protected by me. The children of my family must be raised by me. I have to take responsibility for my family and move forward with sincerity. Gone are the days of relying on anyone. Don't try to depend on the church or headquarters any more. This is the era of the owner of Cheon Il Guk, the era in which I take full responsibility for everything. We are the owners of cheon il guk. We are not the servants. We are not on the level of the adopted son. We are now the owners of cheon il guk.
Do you want to rely on someone (else) for your family? (Rely) on the Church? On Headquarters? Do you want to blame our American National Hq (for your problems)? Do you want to blame your Abel, “Why don’t you take care of our church? Why don’t you take care of our blessed families?” That is the servant’s spirit. Now is the era of the owners of cheon il guk. Ownership means I have to be fully responsible no matter what. Many people say, “Dr. Yong, your mission is continental director. How about your family -- this and that?” I have to be responsible for my family no matter what. I need to protect them. I need to take care of them. I need to raise them. No matter what, nobody (else) can be responsible for them. I am the owner of cheon il guk. Being a blessed family means that you have already entered the stage of completion -- not the formation stage, not the growth stage. Already we have received the blessing. Adam and Eve never received the blessing. The blessing means you have already entered the completion stage. Adam and Eve never went that way.
We are the ones who pioneered centering on God’s original creation. That is why we can make mistakes and a lot of errors, (and have) a lot of problems. That is why Father said it is not simple to create unity in our family because of this transition time period. All kinds of cases come out. However, no matter what, we have to be responsible. Some have problems. There are blessed child problems. No connection with our church. Do not blame (people). We need to accept reality: how should we deal with this situation? We may need to start from zero. We have to accept reality rather than complain because this is the era of the cheon il guk.
Didn’t Adam and Eve fall while trying to take advantage of each other? Eve took advantage of Adam and fell. The archangel took advantage of Eve and fell. Isn’t their exploitation of each other the cause of the fall? You shall perish if you take advantage of others. When you consider the rules and principles between couples, any husband or wife who is out to take advantage of his or her spouse shall perish. If they do, they cannot be restored. This is what you must know.
I am saying that you should take care of your partner, thinking of her as if she were your daughter, your mother, and your younger or older sister. Taking care of her in this way is the way of restoration of the heart. How much you live for the sake of your partner is important. Consequently, you should not try to force your partner into submission or bring her to submission through fear but do so by allowing her to attain a standard of immobilizing her because of the emotion she feels welling up from the marrow of her bones. Without doing so, you will not attain peace of mind. This is the way to bring restoration of the heart. By doing this, you can establish discipline in the family.
As a blessed couple starting family life, the most important thing they should be careful about is not to use each other like Adam and Eve did, Father said.
Couples should not use each other as a sexual means (object?). The archangel, Adam, and Eve each fell while trying to use the other as a sexual means (object?). If we do not truly care for and love each other, and try to use each other, we will surely perish.
The husband should think of his wife, Father said, as a mother, sometimes younger sister, and sometimes you need to treat her as a daughter. And the wife should think of her husband as a father, older brother, and son.
Since Conjugal love represents parents’ love, sibling’s love, and children's love, depending on the circumstances you should adjust to their position and love and live for the sake of each other. On some days, you must become a father or older brother or even a son in front of your wife. “OK, I am your husband. I am your wife.”
Don’t fix your position as the wife or as the husband. According to the situation you need to adapt. Sometimes the man wants to be like a baby or son. Then the wife (may) say, “Why does my husband do such unusual things?” Don’t blame them. “Today my husband looks like my son, like my baby;” then embrace him in the mother position. “Wow! Today my husband wants to date with me;” then treat each other as husband and wife. Sometimes my wife embraces me and gives me everything like my mother. How beautiful! According to the situation you need to adjust. You need to be flexible, not (in a) fixed position as husband and wife. Father gives incredible encouragement about this.
The first most important thing between a husband and wife is the restoration of the heart. It is not (about) forcing your partner into submission; it is not (about) surrendering out of fear; but it is (about) touching their hearts so much that they can’t help but feel moved (with emotions) welling up from the marrow of their bones,
The restoration of the heart does not only happen when moving your partner’s heart. My partner being touched through me means that I made a condition for heartistically bringing my partner to natural submission. Natural submission is only possible through shimjeong, the heart, and (through) moving the heart. There is no other way.
How can I touch my spouse’s heart? Loving is touching. Loving is moving the heart.
When you move your spouse’s heart, then you already win over her. That is why the important thing between husband and wife is how to cultivate our hearts and always move my spouse’s heart? If we show that kind of beautiful relationship between husband and wife, touching each other, moving each other, surely our children will follow the parents.
In order to form the four position foundation, we need to be responsible for our family: for my children, for my spouse, for my parents. At the same time, the most important thing is the relationship between husband and wife. We need to create a heartistic relationship, not just a conditional relationship, not just an instinctive … relationship. That is what Father is talking about.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: The True Three Great Loves Centered on Freedom
1, Let's learn about the true three great loves of humans centered on freedom. The three great loves include parental love, conjugal love, and children’s love. First is parents’ love for their children. If a parent's feelings fluctuate due to their child, feel nervous for them then suddenly treat them well according to their mood, the parent has no freedom in their mind because they cannot control their feelings. It's just a love that responds instinctively without freedom. Love without freedom can be seen as close to animal love. Because many parents love instinctively, their children go on the wrong path and make their parents worry. The love of fickle parents has no peace in mind because they cannot properly manage the freedom granted to them.
2. Parents who treat their children with instinctive love from physical emotions see their children negatively when they throw tantrums or misbehave. However, parents who own freedom always have a constant love for their children, even if they misbehave. Always educate with tears in your eyes. The heart to value children is always the same in the past or in the present. Don't lose that standard until now of loving your children. Even if a child goes the wrong way, the parent that still loves that lost child with tears is the love of parents with true freedom.
Why is God’s love so great? Because it is eternal, unchanging and absolute. Satan accuses God, “God, You are the God of unchanging, eternal, absolute (love). Even though I betray you, according to your law of the Principle, no matter what, you need to love me. Before the fall and after the fall, you are an unchanging God. Your love should be the same all the time. Otherwise you cannot be God.” Wow! Satan accuses God in such a way.
Then what does God say? “That’s true. Before the fall and after the fall I need to love you all the time. Even though you made a mistake, even though you misused the children, my heart should be the same. My love should be the same.
If God (were to) change his love according to the object partner, then he is not an unchanging God, not an eternal God, not an absolute God. Once God set up his law, no matter what, even though it is an evil environment, a good environment, a bad environment, his love should be the same all the time.
Why can’t we raise our children properly? Because our children are angry and the parents are angry with them. The parents relate to the children’s situation and their physical emotions. That is instinctive parental love. Then we spoil our children.
You need to inherit God’s eternal love, spiritual love, true love. Even though (your) children may disappoint you so much, sometimes betray you and persecute you and do all kinds of evil and insult you, no matter what, (you need to maintain) your love continuously with tears. “That is my mistake, my problem.” If your love is always the same toward your children, your children will surely come back and surely repent.
Because we respond (adjust?) to the children’s situation -- They are angry, and “I am so angry! Get out of my home! I don’t have such a son! I don’t have such a daughter! I don’t have such a boy! Let’s cut off the relationship between parents and child. Get out of my home.” We call such immature love “instinctive love.” We really spoil our children.(?) There is no freedom.
If you can control your emotions, no matter when your children also respond with such bad things, you are still adjusting, then your love is more tearful than before. Everyone will surrender to such unchanging love.
3. Higher-level unchanging love with freedom never wavers even if the object is fickle. The love of parents with freedom will of course get surprised and worry if their child is disobedient, but it is not relativistic to the child’s disobedient behavior itself. Even if the dimension of parental love within the fallen realm is low, it still has the original form of the original nature of creation. Parental love within the fallen realm is low class and immature, but it contains the potential seed to reach a desired state of completion. On this basis, today's religion is to educate people with truth and raise their standards to create people with freedom who can control their emotions.
Control of the parents' emotions is very important. If you relate to your children’s emotions the same (way) as your children, what is the difference between parents and children? Parents should be different. Children always change like the weather. Their emotions are uncontrollable. If you adjust to their uncontrolled love(?emotions?), then what is the difference between parents and children? Parents need to be mature. “No matter what, I need to love them.”
Maybe in some cases in some families your children connect to a different group, this or that group, a spiritual group or left the church … and don’t connect to (our) church any more. But your love should be the same; not only the same, you (should) love them more than before without giving up. Parental love never gives up. More tears. More jeongseong. Their fall is my fall. Their problem is my problem. Repent instead of them.
As long as parents have unchanging, eternal love, I am telling you, a perfect plus can create a perfect minus. Your children are spiritual beings. They know how much their father is concerned about them, and how much their mother loves them. They are very sensitive. That is why as a parent if you change your attitude and have more of that lasting love, I am telling you, this is the only way our children can come back. Without giving up, “No matter what, I am the one. I am their parents. I have to be responsible. They come from us, from our sexual organ, love organ. No matter what, we have to be responsible for them, continuously pray for them, and shed tears and (offer) jeongseong.”
If we have instinctive love, immature love, our children will never come back.
4. If you can't manage your feelings even in conjugal love, there is no freedom there. Today, conjugal love has changed a lot. This is because people always live centered on instinctive love. When the husband is angry, the wife gets angry, and when the wife is angry, the husband gets angry, too. Since we can't control our emotions, there is no freedom and no peace of mind. The love of a free couple is the freedom to always unchangingly love the spouse even if the other person easily gets angry, irritated, and fickle depending on the environment. Even if one of the spouses has unchanging love for the other, and if there is freedom in it, it is not dominated by any environment. Love for the partner is always unchanging and wells up like a spring.
If at least one of the spouses has more faith, if you know how to deny yourself, you understand the meaning of self-denial, and are quiet and serving and loving, no matter what, if you absolutely obey your spouse, if at least one side of the spouses (does this), then the atmosphere will completely change. But fallen people always argue with each other and get angry at each other. They are at the same level. At least if one side is more principled, has more love, is more unchanging, with this kind of attitude surely the other partner will change.
Why are you (both) struggling and struggling? Because you are on the same level. You always blame each other. “This Is your problem. That is your problem.” Always blame each other, speak ill of each other. That is the problem. Then the problems will never end.
5. Pain comes when you try to enjoy freedom without being dominated by the environment. This is because you have to endure and dominate everything. But if we control the pain well, the pain makes us human. The more you try to dominate physical love, and the more you struggle to set unchanging standards in accordance with the Principle, the more painful it is. When you look at central figures in the providence of restoration, they all digested such pain. Jesus was like that. True Parents were like that. The higher the level of the person's spirit and the higher the standard of heart, the greater the pain. People who live their lives without this standard, just follow the flow of the wind and water, and try to avoid pain always stay in the standard of instinctive love.
Pain comes when you try to enjoy freedom without being dominated by the environment. Especially between husband and wife, maybe you think you are right and your wife is wrong. Even if from God’s point of view your wife is wrong, you know that you need to be humble and unite with your wife. In order to make unity, definitely. pain will come. To overcome (the environment), surely pain is coming. The more you try to dominate physical love, the more you set an unchanging standard in accordance with the Principle, the more painful it is. You need to accept that kind of pain. Otherwise how can you overcome? We are not perfect beings. We are not perfect husbands or wives. In order to overcome, there is always that kind of pain. We need to pay a price. In order to pay the price I need to feel that kind of pain. Otherwise, if “I (try to) avoid the pain, seek to be released from the pain,” then your standard is just instinctive love. You cannot help each other.
6. Therefore, a person who has no pain to overcome physical love while living a life of faith is a person within the realm of instinctive love. If you try to live in principle by the standards required by original nature and live without compromising with the world, you will have more enemies, more persecution, and more pain. So, if you look at the extent or size of the persecution that that person suffers, you can see how righteous they live.
We can go the easy way. Just follow physical laws. But the bible says to enter the kingdom of heaven, the door is very narrow. People misunderstand you, persecute you because you never compromise. There all kinds of difficult situations and persecution. You have so many enemies against you. The door to the kingdom of heaven is very narrow.
Those who go along the wide road -- everyone goes that way -- that road is a disaster.
7. People live without distinguishing whether they live centered on instinctive love or spiritual love. People live without distinguishing whether their love comes from the heart or is dominated and controlled by the environment. They just say it's good if the environment is good and bad if the atmosphere is bad. After living in such a changing environment, they lament that they deceived themselves. People who live within the realm of instinctive love lament repeatedly. Everyone says they couldn't help it. God’s true love is always eternal, unchanging and absolute. Therefore, in our life of faith we must go beyond the body-centered instinctive world and become parents who are not controlled by the body and the environment. We must also become such a couple and children.
Aju! Today we learned important things.♦
(Response to sharing): Sometimes when we relate to our spouse and children and close family members, we take them for granted. So there is no appreciation. That is really a problem. It sometimes becomes habitual. How can we share our appreciation from our heart -- even (in) small things. Always say from the heart, “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Appreciate even small, small things. Then that becomes a good habit creating a beautiful environment.
(Comment): The Central America continental director, Dr. Ki Sang Sou and Dr. Yang (South America continental director) said they really appreciate the monthly support from Sub-region two. And they receive a monthly donation from America, they say this is really helping the Dominica youth movement incredibly.
Thank you, American brothers and sisters, for helping the entire worldwide providence.♦
NOTE: This lightly edited transcription may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable or uncertain words and guesses are tagged with a “(?)” and indecipherable phrases, with an ellipsis “ ...”. First, second and third person pronouns have been left as spoken if the meaning is clear, and other apparently Korean English expressions have been preserved. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated. This text and the powerpoint slides from this speech are available as pdf files at the top of this text and at text.morndev.com & yong.hoondok.com. Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com.♦