Ep 509 - Peace in the Middle East Part 2
Peace in the Middle East 144-29-13-40 - March 18, 2022
We are now communicating with our global family every morning, every day. It is really amazing! We are living in such a beautiful era.
I had breakfast with our members in Austin, Texas, yesterday even though there are not many members there. We had beautiful and heartistic sharing.
After that, we visited the Austin Holy Ground with our members. I could see it is such a beautiful place, an incredible view. I really appreciate God for such a beautiful nature and environment.
Also, we went to the University of Texas Austin. We prayed together to be able to establish CARP Chapter Austin and to activate young people through campus witnessing.
Today I’d like to talk about “Peace in the Middle East” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 1.
The only person who can resolve the situation of the Middle East is Father. Many of the ambassadors for peace who are active there would remember that right after I visited the Middle East in July 2006, a war broke out between Lebanon and Israel. Whenever I think about this, I feel so much sorrow. I cannot understand how brothers could kill one another. If they had been attending True Parents, they would not have been able to do so. One thing that all these world issues have in common is that they are missing the element of Parents.
When all the nations and all the people of the world know True Parents, are educated about them, and receive True Parents' love, it is only a matter of time until God's world is actualized. You must prevent human casualties even if it means investing all your fortune and resources. You need to be able to save everyone. When happy people share their happiness, more happiness comes back to them. It is your responsibility, as blessed members engrafted as true olive trees, to expand the foundation True Parents have laid. (2006.08.09, Lima, Peru)
True Mother, the mother of all humankind, was truly heartbroken over the sacrifices of so many people due to war in the Middle East. Today we will study True Father’s word about Middle East peace again.
<Chambumo Gyeong, P. 1265> At the Second Assembly of the World ’s Religions that opened in San Francisco on August 16, 1990, True Parents proposed the establishment of the Interreligious Leadership Seminars as an education project that would internally bind together the world ’s faiths. Connected to that, the following year a 40-day workshop was held for 40 Muslim leaders from Syria at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City from December 2, 1991 until January 10, 1992. True Parents implored the attending leaders to strive to resolve the long-standing impediments among Judaism, Christianity and Islam and take the lead in realizing peace in the Middle East.
The Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) brought thousands of Christian ministers and faith leaders from the United States to the Middle East. They began as efforts for interfaith reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and developed into efforts to reconcile Jews and Palestinians, including peace marches in Jerusalem proclaiming peace among the Abrahamic faiths.
On December 22, 2003, in accordance with True Parents ’ guidance, thousands of people, including religious leaders from around the world, gathered and held historic events for peace in Israel and Palestine. This laid the foundation for True Parents to later conduct the Ceremony for Total Unity, which created a victorious realm in which the First, Second, Third and Fourth Israel can be united
True Parents came to this earth and pushed forward with many peace initiatives. They went around and put many peace movements into action, including peace in the Middle East where there is the most conflict.
We have no idea how much manpower, material and economic power they invested for the sake of these peace movements. Looking from this perspective, True Parents are really the savior of humankind, the Messiah and God’s true son and daughter.
Even in the Bible, people who work for peace are referred to as the sons of God.
This will be forever praised by future generations for such dedication and commitment to the world peace movement.
Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
Our True Parents invested their entire life for the sake of world peace. That is why no one can deny what the Bible is talking about: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Our True Parents are really God’s son and God’s daughter. We cannot deny that.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: Principle of Creation 26 - Family Perfection is the Completion of the 4 Great Realms of Heart
Let’s study EDP content first.
• In order to fulfill God's second blessing, individually-perfected Adam and Eve, by joining in loving oneness as husband and wife and raising children, should have constructed a God-centered four position foundation in their family.
• A family or society that has formed the four position foundation in line with God's ideal is patterned after the image of a perfect individual. It thus becomes the substantial object partner to the individual who lives in oneness with God, and consequently, it also becomes the substantial object partner to God.
• The individual feels joy, and likewise God feels joy, when each perceives in this family or community the manifestation of his own internal nature and external form.
• Thus, when God's second blessing is fulfilled, this family or community also becomes a good object partner giving joy to God.
(5) Connotations of Love
1. Children’s love is included in sibling’s love. This is because as siblings grow as children, they form a relationship of brother and sister.
2. Sibling’s love and children’s love is included in conjugal love. This is because couples are formed through the growth of brothers and sisters.
3. Parental love includes all the above loves. In other words it includes children’s love, sibling’s love, and conjugal love.
In order to become true parents, you must go through the process of children’s love, siblings’ love, and conjugal love well and grow. Therefore, everyone needs to reach the position of the true parents. That is our final goal.
The course to become true parents is the course of the completion of love. Not only that, it is the position of the completion of the 4 great realms of heart.
If you complete the four great realms of heart in this way, you will fully understand what God's love is and experience that God is truly the parent of all humankind.
Therefore, in order to become True Parents, everyone must follow the course of the child well. When walking on the course of children, you must cultivate a filial heart that can love their parents more than anyone else.
When we grow up and walk the course of brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters should stand in the position of parents and serve each other.
When you love your brother and sister always centering on the position of the parents -- “I love my younger brother (just as) my father and mother love him” -- we always need to have that kind of love.
When walking on the course of a husband and wife, they should serve their partner (spouse) as if they were attending God. Ultimately, through this process of growth in love, they become True Parents.
4. Consequently, the realm of heart, or from the viewpoint of the scope of shimjeong’s subject we can understand that the realm of heart of the child is the most confined, the realm of heart of siblings is broader, the realm of heart of couples is even greater, and the realm of heart of the parent is the broadest
5. The parent is the only subject of children’s love (shimjeong). There is only one subject. The subject of sibling’s love (shimjeong) is at least two or more. How many subjects are there for the couple? It may feel like there is only one subject for the couples love (shimjeong), but it is not so.
The course of our life expands and grows from the heart of a child to the heart of brothers and sisters, the heart of brothers and sisters to the heart of a married couple, and the heart of a couple to the heart of parents.
Therefore, all human beings cannot complete the family and fully experience the heart of God unless they go through this course of the 4 great realms of heart.
In completing these four realms of the heart, all human beings should have children, should have brothers and sisters, should marry, and should become parents. This is a path that everyone has to go through.
6. In the view of a couple of the unification principle, the husband represents all the men of a family, and the woman represents all women of a family.
7. The husband represents the grandfather, father older brother and son. The wife represents the grandmother, mother, older sister and daughter. Consequently, the object of each of the couple’s love(shimjeong) is more than three. It may seem like there is only one object to a couple’s love but in fact it is over three.
In order to give and receive peaceful conjugal love between husband and wife, a wife needs give and receive with her husband like a father, sometimes like an older brother, sometimes like a son
Before his wife, a husband is not just standing in the position of her husband. When the wife stands in the daughter’s position, the husband must embrace the wife in the position of the wife’s father. When the wife stands in the mother's position, the husband has to serve his wife by standing in the son’s position. In this way conjugal love is not fixed with the husband as the husband and the wife as wife, but they should give and receive smoothly, going up and down, according to the partner’s positions and the environment. In this way, the couple's love is ever-changing and harmonious.
For Koreans it is not easy to change this concept. If you are the husband, you should be the husband. If you are the father, then you only keep the father’s position. But according to True Parents’ guidance in conjugal love, we need to adapt according to the situation of our partner. When the husband stands in the position of the father, then how should the wife relate to her husband? You should be in the daughter position in front of your husband. Love is … going up and down and adjusting to the environment. How beautiful it is! Then our conjugal love is more harmonious and (there can be) more beautiful give and take.
8. The scope of subjects in parents' love is even greater and includes all of the subjects mentioned above. That is to say, children, siblings, couples are all subject to parents love.
9. The four loves, children’s love, siblings love, conjugal love, and parents love are all performed under God’s love and therefore at the same time as offering gratitude, they consciously and unconsciously become subject to God’s love.
God's love is a subjective love that includes all four great loves. Therefore, since God's love is the love of parents of all parents, when human beings become parents, they can experience God's parenthood the most.
That’s why without becoming father and mother, without becoming parents, you will never understand that God is our parent.
Humans should become parents in order to experience the heart and love of God, the parent. Unless man goes through the process of becoming a parent, it only stays as a concept when you say that God is man's eternal parent.
God is not just a conceptual God. He is really our reality. He is really our parent. We are really children of God. When we are raising our children and they become brothers and sisters and then couples and finally become parents, they truly understand what parental heart is. Love and heart are experience. Without going through that process of growth, we never understand God’s heart. Very beautiful!
… The “four great realms of heart” is powerful content. How can we complete the four position foundation? Through experiencing the four great realms of heart. In that sense without my children I cannot complete (the four position foundation). I also cannot experience the four great realms of heart. (So) my children are my God.
Without my brothers and sisters I cannot complete the four great realms of heart. In that sense my brothers and sisters are my God. Without my spouse, my wife, my husband, I cannot experience the four great realms of heart. In that sense my spouse is my eternal God. Without receiving my father’s and mother’s love, I cannot complete the four great realms of heart. In that sense, they are my God.
Wow! The family is so beautiful! This is God’s original blueprint. But no one has accomplished God’s blueprint. So since True Parents have come to the earth and discovered this principle and taught us, we need to know the value of the family, not just the individual. The structure of the kingdom of heaven is the family. The external structure is the four position foundation. However, the internal structure of the four position foundation is the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships. We need to know the internal and external structure.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: Three Kinds of Crosses (Series 3)
Recently I have spoken about the three kinds of crosses.
1. 1) Luke 23:39-42 “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Although the three were crucified at the same time, the content of each cross was different. The thief on the left slandered Jesus, but the thief on the right, even when he was bleeding and dying, gave an amazing testimony that what Jesus was doing was right.
2. However, the sad thing is that the thief on the right asked Jesus for his salvation, that Jesus remember him when the kingdom of God came. The position of the thief on the right can be seen as the same as us believers today who live a life of faith yet ask God to take charge of our own circumstances, our cross, and our sufferings first, without trying to know God's circumstances. When we see that we acknowledge that the Lord is right but ask Him to know our circumstances, we are not in a position to fully bear the cross. The Bible describes such people as thieves. This shows that they are not yet in the position of a perfect filial son, do not know their parents’ heart, and think of their circumstances and difficulties first.
However, the only sad thing is that the thief on the right asked Jesus for his salvation and for him to remember him when the kingdom of God came
When the thief on the right asked Jesus to take care of his suffering first, it is because he did not fully understand the circumstances of God and the Lord.
Even though the right side thief’s faith acknowledges that the Lord is right about faith, when he asks for his own circumstances to be known, we can see that he could not bear the cross of the Lord on behalf of the him. But he testified that the Lord was righteous. However, it can be seen that he did not reach the stage of embodying the heart of the Lord and God.
The adopted son calls the people who raised him his father and mother, but they are not completely heartistically united.
However, the filial son does not put his circumstances and difficulties on his parents under any circumstances.
He puts his parents first in any situation and tries to hide his worries and problems. He is going to take his cross himself. He never tries to make him depend on his parents.
This is the difference between the adopted son and the filial son.
3. Some church members carry the cross with True Parents and complain like the thief on the left, while others put their circumstances and wishes first and bear the cross like the thief on the right. The precious point about the thief on the right is that he knew what was right and wrong. This is truly precious and commendable. The thief on the right knew the value of the Lord in his heart. However, he was completely unaware of the Lord's sorrows, wishes, and circumstances. When the thief on the right recognized Jesus and testified that he was right, it meant that he felt affection and value for the Lord. This means that he saw the true face of Jesus and resurrected internally.
The faith of the right side thief is the faith of the adopted son. They call parents who raised them as parents, but there is a heartistic distance.
They still have their own wishes and circumstances, so they cannot give 100% of their heart to their parents.
The adopted son knows the value of parents outwardly; he can distinguish right from wrong, and he is making an effort to obey his parents.
However, the filial son’s faith is well aware of the Lord’s sorrows, wishes, and circumstances, and takes up the cross instead of the parents and tries to comfort them.
4. The thief on the right looked at Jesus’ cross with compassion and sympathy. The faith of the thief on the right cross can be seen as a faith that had a heart to feel the Lord’s circumstances, and cherish and hold on to the Lord. The thief on the right became very close heartistically to Jesus. So when he begged Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” Jesus replied, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” It means that they would go to paradise together because they became very close in heart. It means that Jesus and the thief on the right were in the same realm of heart.
Today’s main point is here. This is very important. How can the right-hand thief go to paradise together with Jesus? For what reason? Jesus and the thief on the right were in the same realm of heart.
The faith of (the thief on) the cross on the left is on the servant-level in the formation stage faith. The faith of the (thief on the) cross on the right is on the adopted son level in the growth stage. The faith of the central cross, like Jesus, is at the filial son level in the completion stage.
True Father said that even if the leaders of our church become believers of the growth stage, the church will bring about a lot of development.
However, Father had such a sorrowful feeling that most church leaders were at formation stage. (If) our church leaders and members grow up at least into the second stage, the growth stage, and at least understand what True Parents are doing, (then) they (will be able to) distinguish what is righteous and what is not righteous.
This is because it is the stage of the adopted son going past the servant level where one can still experience the circumstances of the parent and at times, shed tears with the heart of the parent.
The thief on the right recognized Jesus as Lord through (Jesus’) prayer of forgiving his enemies and became very close in heart.
When Jesus prayed for his enemies, the right-hand thief recognized who Jesus was.
So when he begged Jesus to “remember me when you go to paradise,” the Lord answered, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Why? Can you imagine that? When Jesus passed away on the cross, the right-side and left-side thieves were present. In an incredible situation of death, the right-hand thief recognized, “Jesus, you are my lord. You are a righteou guy.” Wow! In such a miserable situation even bleeding from head and both hands and his chest and both legs, he recognized Jesus must absolutely be the savior, the son of God. This really touched Jesus' heart. He came to have the same heart as Jesus.
What is so important here is why did Jesus tell the thief on the right that he would be with him in Paradise?
It means that if you get close to the other person heartistically, you will live in the same realm of heart. When I get closer to God in my heart, I stay in the same realm of heart with God.
(It is) not based on position or money or external power. It is based on the same realm of heart. This is the point. When the right-hand recognized Jesus in a life or death situation, that was the truth. He was not telling a lie.
When I get close to True Parents heartistically, I live in the same realm of heart with True Parents. If I truly long for Jesus and become close to him heartistically, I will always be with him all the time.
This is the law of the right of equal status (the right to be in the same position). Right of equal status means that if you love each other, you will stand in the same position.
“You and I have the same heart. I will be in paradise. You will also be in paradise.”
Why? Because you have the same heart. (It is) not because of position or money or external things. It is because of the same heart. Jesus and the right-hand thief were in the same position of death and recognized each other. It is unchanging. Wow!
We need to know the four attributes of love. Attributes of love include the right to participate together, the right of inheritance, the right of equal status, and the right of common abode.
That is why, when you love someone, you can participate together, you can inherit together, you can have the right of equal status -- “When you go to paradise or the kingdom of heaven, I will be there” -- also (you can have) the right of the common abode centering on heart.
Therefore, if you are close to each other in heart, you will become one and participate in any place, inherit everything, be in the same position wherever you go, and live together forever.
5. When people are affectionate with each other, they live in the same realm of heart. However, if the affection is cracked, they will be separated, but if they communicate with affection, their hearts will live together even though their bodies may be gone. On earth, we live together both in heart and body, and in the spirit world, we also live together. Even Jesus asked the believer on the right to come with him because they felt the same heart. A woman named Mary Magdalene poured her perfume on Jesus' feet, and wept because she knew that the Lord was leaving the earth. Then Jesus commended her, saying, “Wherever this gospel shall be preached, her name will be remembered.” When she poured perfume on Jesus' feet, she was registered in the eternal kingdom of heaven.
When people are affectionate with each other, they live in the same realm of heart.
However, if the affection is cracked, they will be separated, but if they communicate with affection, their hearts will live together even though their bodies may be gone.
On earth, even if there is a conflict with each other due to physical limitations or there is a distance between them, the mind cannot exist apart from the body, so we live together both in heart and physically.
However, in the spirit world where you take off the body, since you do not have a body, you go and live where your heart dwells.
That is why Father clearly said, no matter how close you are as husband and wife, without receiving the blessing, when you go to the spiritual world, you will never live together as husband and wife. We cannot find even one (unblessed?) couple living together as husband and wife.
What is the Blessing? The Blessing is incredible. Even if there is some difference, a different heart between husband and wife, the Blessing means they belong together forever. That is why those who have not yet become one between husband and wife need to have a certain training course centering on the world of the Unification Realm. Father spoke about this.
Jesus also asked the believer on the right to go with him where he was going because he felt the same heartistically.
When the woman named Mary Magdalene anointed her perfume on Jesus' feet, and wept because she knew that the Lord was leaving. Then Jesus praised her, saying, “Wherever my words come, her name will be remembered forever.”
When I meditate on this sentence in the Bible, the kingdom of heaven is really the world of heart.
There was no heartistic distance between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. She was very heartistically close to Jesus. The thief on the right also became one with Jesus at the place of carrying the cross, and eventually stayed together in paradise.
From that standpoint, how heartistically close am I to God? How heartistically close am I to True Parents? How heartistically close I am to God and True Parents determines the place I dwell in the spirit world.
God is suffering and crying. Do you have the same heart as God? There is a heartistic distance, right? That is why you cannot get along with God when you die.
Do you feel True Parents’ suffering all the time? If you cannot feel that, (then) there is a heartistic distance (from them). You cannot get along with True Parents in the spiritual world.
How heartistically close am I to my spouse? To my wife, to my husband? Even though we have the name of husband and wife, how heartistically close are we to each other? If there is not the same heart, a heartistic distance, then even though we physically get along together, we are living in different realms (with a) different heart.
How heartistically close am I to my children? Even though they are my physical children, my sons and daughters, there is a different heart.
The world of the kingdom of heaven is the world of heart. You need to have the same heart, same feeling. When we are heartistically close to each other, we will dwell together. That is the attribute of true love.
Even between parents and children or between husband and wife, if they are not heartistically close to each other, they cannot stay together in the spirit world.
Of course, the case with the Blessing is different.
It is a law that in the spirit world you live in the realm of the same heart. Why could the right-hand thief enter paradise? Because he is the one who truly recognized and truly understood Jesus’ heart. “You are the messiah. You are a righteous guy.” He testified (to Jesus) when they were crucified. This is amazing guidance.
In conclusion, the spirit world is, after all, the world of the heart. The standard of my heart and the unity and distance of my heart determine where I will stay in the spirit world.
That’s why I need to have heartistic relationships, inseparable relationships, in the family first. I need to have an inseparable relationship with my wife, with my husband, with my children, with my brothers and sisters and with my parents. Furthermore, when you go to the workplace, I need to have a heartistic relationship with my Abel, with my Cain, with my boss.
Wow! I am really grateful to True Parents. They teach us what the world of the heart is. Heart is everything.♦
(Response to Sharing) How much do you believe in True Parents? When you joined the church does not matter. Jesus’ disciples followed Jesus for a few years, but they did not understand Jesus’ heart. However, the right-hand thief (was) together with Jesus during the crucifixion for maybe a few hours. Just a few hours (long) relationship (became) a heartistic relationship and then they could live together. That is why it does not matter how long you have believed in God and True Parents. It does not matter if you are a thief or not. The important thing is how much I understand God’s heart and True Parents’ heart. External things are nothing. The most important thing is internal heartistic relationships. That is why I really reflect based on this sermon how many tears I shed for Father? Father always cries for God’s liberation. That is why Father’s heart cannot separate from Heavenly Parent.
True Mother said, “Father’s thought is my thought; my thought is Father’s thought. My heart is Father’s heart; Father’s heart is my heart. How can we reach such a standard? This is really our homework and our task.♦
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.♦