A daily life that resembles the heavens 空に似た日常

[Summary] Through the long history of the providence of restoration, God sought out, chose, and raised a people worthy to receive the True Parents after Jesus. With the advent of True Parents, the age of the ‘completed chosen people’ opened, beyond the ‘prepared chosen people.’ The Korean words ‘gat (God)’ and ‘Joseon (朝鮮)’ show revelationally that this is a chosen people. Further, it emphasizes that the Korean people’s heart-culture — filial-love (Sim Cheong), purity (Chunhyang), loyalty (Yu Gwan-sun), and Hangeul (King Sejong) — was the foundation of the chosen people. The birth of True Parents is the fruit of 6,000 years of the providence of restoration, and through repeated crises of life and death, such as the Korean War and the helicopter accident, Heaven has protected the two of them. That True Mother herself proclaimed ‘Holy Mother Han’ is, beyond the only begotten Daughter, an expression of the holiness she completed by overcoming suffering. And chosen-people consciousness is not a consciousness of privilege but a consciousness of being an offering; to complete the great epic in which all humankind becomes one through the culture of ‘Han (韓)’ is the mission of the Blessed Families and the Korean people.

(November 2, 1965, True Father) Where is the fatherland God desires, and where is the original homeland of humankind? The hometown where True Parents were born becomes the historical, cosmic, and worldwide original homeland. If Korea is the original homeland and the fatherland, then all worldwide civilization must be realized in Korea. To make Korea the original homeland, we must be resolved to become offerings of loyalty, devotion, love, and sacrifice. Otherwise Korea will lose its qualification as a chosen people. We must achieve it, even shedding blood, sweat, and tears.

(December 6, 2013, True Mother) Looking at the history of the Bible, just as Heaven carried on history by raising central figures such as Noah and Abraham and in the end chose Israel as the chosen people and sent Jesus, so from long ago Heaven chose and prepared the Korean people as a heavenly-descended people (cheonson) with the idea of benefiting all humankind (Hongik Ingan). The result was the providence of sending the returning Lord. Therefore we must bear in mind that the Korean people are the blood kin of the chosen people whom Heaven chose to set at the forefront of founding the kingdom of peace in the age of the Later Heaven’s opening (Hucheon Gaebyeok).

*From a Prepared Chosen People to a Completed Chosen People

Members, through the past six lectures, did you feel that the Korean people are a chosen people selected by Heavenly Parent? If so, two most important things remain for being completed as a chosen people. In this nation, Buddhism (compassion: a mother’s love), Confucianism (benevolence, 仁: love of children), and Christianity (faith: a father’s love) each brought their religious cultures to bloom, without religious war among them. Then what remains now is for the bee to come, pollinate, and bear fruit. Heavenly Parent must send the Savior, the True Parents, to this Korean people. The chosen people before that are only a ‘prepared chosen people,’ preparing the foundation to attend the Messiah. When True Parents come to this earth, and we become one with them and fulfill our responsibility, only then do we become a ‘completed chosen people.’

*A video showing revelationally that Joseon (朝鮮) is a chosen people (watch 3 minutes)

An early missionary, observing, saw that the men of Joseon wore something on their heads. What was it? It was precisely the ‘gat’ (a traditional Korean hat). Rendered in English, it sounds like ‘God’ — meaning that they carried God upon their heads. Then what was the name of the country? When the characters ‘朝鮮 (Joseon)’ were written out and shown, the missionary was startled. Looking at ‘朝 (morning, jo),’ it contains a + cross by day and a + cross by night, so that they were attending Jesus day and night. The ‘魚 (fish, eo)’ that forms part of ‘鮮 (fresh/fair, seon)’ was, in Greek, the acronym IΧΘΥΣ (Ichthys: Jesus, Christ, God, Son, Savior). And the ‘羊 (sheep)’ means ‘Jesus, the Lamb of God.’ So ‘鮮’ was a character of complete confession of faith. Therefore ‘朝鮮’ is surely a country God set apart for the gospel. In fact, the people of Joseon were written in English as ‘Chosen People,’ which means ‘the selected people.’ The missionary marveled that Joseon was a people chosen after the Jews. This video attested to a curious revelational coincidence, but we have actually been writing the history of a chosen people.

*A Cosmic Event That Occurred on the Small Korean Peninsula

Since human history began, countless peoples have arisen and passed away. Mighty empires that conquered the world were established and then collapsed. And at the very tail-end of that long, long history, on this small Korean peninsula in the East, the True Parents of humankind, True Father and True Mother, were born in this Korea. From the very moment Heavenly Parent lost the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, He carried on the history of the providence of restoration for thousands of years. As the reading said, He first chose the First Israel as the chosen people and sent Jesus, but when the dream of Heaven could not be fully realized because Jesus bore the cross, He sought out another people and prepared again. Thus Christians were called as the Second Israel chosen people. That is why, for two thousand years, all the brilliant scientific civilization bloomed in Europe, centered on its Christian foundation. Yet, to send the True Parents toward the number three, the number of completion, Heaven chose the Korean people early as the Third chosen people, raised them, and prepared them, and in the last days of history sent the True Parents.

*The Devotion Woven into the Birth of One Person

True Mother said this in her autobiography:

“Among the people born into this world, there is no one born without meaning. For one person to be born, heaven and earth and all the myriad things of the universe must be interwoven as warp and weft.”

For one person to be born, the ten months in the mother’s womb are not the whole of it. In it are contained, whole, the lives of one’s father and mother, and above that, the sad tales and joyful tales of the ancestors — the karma knotted and unknotted — interwoven as warp and weft. At a training center in the past, I asked a ‘caricature’ artist who draws faces on the spot to draw my face. As he drew away with quick strokes, curious, I asked how many minutes it takes to finish. The artist, saying nothing, whipped up my face in just ten minutes, and as he handed it over said, ‘This drawing is a drawing that holds thirty years of my life’s effort.’ At that moment I felt sorry. ‘Ah, I see.’ Though the time drawing was only ten minutes, the time held in that canvas held thirty years of devotion. Just as decades of years are melted into a single picture an artist drew in one breath, so behind the great appearances of history lies an immeasurable weight of life.

*The Birth of Jesus, Holding 4,000 Years

So too was the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago. Passing from Adam to Noah, on to Abraham and Moses, it came through the periods of indemnity: the 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the 400 years of the age of judges, the 120 years of the united kingdom, the 400 years of the divided north–south kingdoms, the 210 years of the Jewish captivity and return, and the 400 years of preparation for the advent of the Messiah. Upon such a foundation, at last, through Mary who obeyed Jehovah, after four thousand years of God’s labor, the only begotten Son, Jesus, was conceived.

*The Birth of True Parents, Holding 6,000 Years

Then what of the birth of the True Parents of humankind? Likewise it was a cosmic-level wait of six thousand years, breaking through the darkness of the fall. Seen through the providential history of restoration through indemnity, it could come only after passing through the periods of re-indemnity: the 400 years of persecution under the Roman Empire, the 400 years of the age of the diocesan Christian church, the 120 years of the Christian kingdom, the 400 years of the divided East–West kingdoms, the 210 years of the papal captivity and return, and the 400 years of preparation for the Second Advent of the Messiah.

And centering on the chosen Korean people, there was preparatory work to send the True Parents, from the Gojoseon period to the Three Kingdoms period, through Unified Silla and the Goryeo period, through the Joseon period, all the way to the Republic of Korea. That is why True Parents said that the True Parents are the fruit of history.

*Why the Messiah Comes to a Small People

But when Heaven sends the Savior, would it not have been better for restoring the world to send him to a superpower? No. A great power inevitably conquers surrounding countries and stains itself with more blood than necessary. This is why the One who comes for the peace of humankind cannot be sent to such an empire. Jesus at the First Advent too was born as the Messiah of humankind in the very small people of Israel, under the rule of the Roman Empire. Because Israel was such a small people, it had been ruled by many empires. In ancient times it was ruled by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire; and for the sin of failing to receive Jesus, the people scattered to every part of Europe and lived as a stateless diaspora. Thus, passing through the rule of the Byzantine Empire and of Islam, the Crusades and the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the rule of Britain, only in 1948 could they form an independent state. This appeared, upon the spiritual foundation of True Parents being born on this earth, as a providential simultaneity in which, world-historically too, Israel gained independence after two thousand years. And even more astonishing: that they did not lose their tradition of faith in serving Jehovah, though they lived scattered throughout the world among other peoples for two thousand years, is truly a miracle. Is their character as a chosen people not truly remarkable? Seeing this, a chosen people is not something one becomes merely by having a good disposition; in God’s sight there was a point of dignity different from other peoples.

*The Heart-Culture of a Chosen People That the Korean People Kept

Likewise, Heavenly Parent, before choosing the Korean people as a chosen people, knew that there was something of a different grade, and called them. Our nation had a distinctive national character and heart-culture found nowhere in the world.

First, as was revealed through the Dangun myth: in the Garden of Eden they took the forbidden fruit and fell, but the root of Dangun did not see the sun and kept its purity — a myth that, upon the foundation of regarding pure blood and pure love as life itself, hinted that they would come to have the tradition and culture of the ‘white-clad people (baegui minjok),’ who love the benefiting of all humankind (Hongik Ingan), reverence for Heaven and love for humanity (gyeongcheon aein), and peace.

Also, the Korean people were a people who, like Sim Cheong, held a deep heart of filial-love that could stake even life itself to resolve the deep regret of the parent. Was that filial heart in Sim Cheong alone? The filial hearts of countless people piled up like a mountain, and they were a people who moved Heaven.

And as The Tale of Chunhyang shows, there was our people’s distinctive culture of fidelity (貞節), which regarded purity and chastity as more precious than life. Yet in the world there are also many cultures that regard purity as very strange. But now, it is truly a pity that in our nation too this precious tradition has grown so faint that it seems to be losing its soul.

And they were a people abounding in patriots who, like the patriot-martyr Yu Gwan-sun, threw down their own lives to guard the nation. The loyal subject Jeong Mong-ju, who shared the fate of Goryeo, sang thus in his ‘Song of a Loyal Heart (Dansimga)’: “Though this body die and die again, a hundred times over; though my white bones become dust and earth, and my soul be or be not — how could this single loyal heart toward my lord ever fade?” Though Goryeo fell with the founding of the new Joseon dynasty, he expressed an unchanging single-hearted loyalty.

And King Sejong created Hangeul, not as a ruler who dominates and exploits the people, but out of the spirit of love for the people that loved his people like his own children. Thanks to that Hangeul, the deep heart of loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity could be expressed in writing, taught, and handed down to later generations. Thus, because the Korean people were of a different promise from the sprout, Heavenly Parent chose them, refined them further, and sent the True Parents. To say it again: becoming a chosen people was not being selected by a drawing of lots.

*The Loyalty, Filial Piety, and Fidelity of True Parents, of a Different Dimension

Born upon the foundation of such a prepared chosen people, True Parents showed a life more complete, more consummated, more finished than any historically renowned life of loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity. The loyalty-filial-piety-fidelity of True Parents was a loyalty-filial-piety-fidelity that transcends the individual and the nation. Most deeply, they attended Heavenly Parent with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, with all their life; most broadly, they were directed toward the whole world and the whole cosmos. So if you go to Unification-family schools and institutions, you will see this inscription hung up: ‘Love Heaven (愛天), Love Humanity (愛人), Love Country (愛國).’ Seeing this, one person asked True Father, ‘Should “love country” not be placed last?’ Then True Father said on the spot, “If one loves Heaven and loves humanity, one has already loved the country.” It is a maxim that fits exactly. Such words do not come easily. Because he had become the very substance of a life of loving Heaven, loving humanity, and loving country, such words came out naturally. Because they lived a truly true life as True Parents, they stood in the position of True Parents of humankind and of the billions in the spirit world.

*Holy Mother Han, the Name of Completed Holiness

In that sense, True Father said, “It is finished,” and True Mother herself proclaimed ‘Holy Mother Han.’ When Mother said, “Call me Holy Mother Han,” there was much misunderstanding and opposition in the world. But there was a deep meaning in going from the only begotten Daughter to Holy Mother Han.

To be born as the only begotten Daughter is the merit of Heaven and the ancestors. But Holy Mother Han is a name that expresses the holiness she completed as one human being, after overcoming all the turbulent suffering and painful tales and passing through the trials of endurance. Many people born into the world have lived excellent lives, but there is no one, other than Jesus and True Father, who was completed with a holy life. So it was only fitting that we call her thus. In truth, when one says ‘Cham Eomeonim (True Mother),’ a Korean feels the sense of that ‘cham (true).’ But there is no matching word to translate ‘cham’ into a foreign language. It is translated as True, or 真 (makoto), but there is a difference from the meaning of ‘cham.’ Yet when one says ‘Holy Mother Han,’ anyone in the world comes to feel her as the holy True Mother. Thus the result of completing the true share of responsibility of loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity is precisely ‘Holy Mother Han.’

*The Greater the Suffering, the Greater the Glory

Even now, ‘Holy Mother Han’ is confined amid indescribable suffering. Mother’s eyesight has weakened, and we too say we cannot see ahead; but I can see our hope very well. I do not wish to use the word ‘crisis.’ Only, that she is undergoing suffering is a fact. History proves that within the most arduous course, the greatest hope has sprouted. There is not one righteous person, patriot, or saint who did not overcome suffering. Saying that the greater the suffering, the greater the glory in proportion to it, True Father made a wordplay: ‘go’ of suffering (苦生, gosaeng) — ‘go’ of firmness (固生, gosaeng) — ‘go’ of loftiness (高生, gosaeng).

*The Two Whom Heaven Protected by Moving History

Look at the history of Father and Mother. Father was born in 1920, in the dark colonial age when no hope of independence could be seen. True Mother too was born in 1943, in that darkness when the harsh colonial rule of Japanese imperialism had reached its peak. Father was connected to the independence movement and was tortured nearly to death, but Heaven protected him and he survived.

And when, at the same time as Liberation, the North and South were divided and North Korea was communized, Heaven, knowing that the only begotten Daughter could not grow up safely under a communist system, guided her to the South. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, through the miracle-like event of the Soviet Union’s absence from the Security Council, Heaven had the sixteen UN nations enter the war, rescued Father, and protected the young Mother. Therefore we call the Korean War a holy war (聖戰) of Heaven. All that history in which young men of far-off countries with no connection at all to ‘Korea’ shed their blood and fought — some forty thousand killed and a hundred thousand wounded — was a holy war to protect the True Parents who had come to this earth.

And terror organizations seeking to harm True Parents were even set in motion, but all failed. In 2008, in a terrible helicopter accident, sixteen people including True Parents nearly ascended (Seonghwa) all at once. But, as one film director testified, by the protection of angels, Heaven was with them so that all could dramatically escape after the helicopter crashed, just before it exploded. Thus True Parents, at every stage of being born, growing, and overcoming, made their way through countless crossroads of life and death. Heaven has always moved together with True Parents — in the past, in the present, and in the future. So even amid the present political trial and the ordeal of prison, True Parents and the Unification Church are not a religious body that will vanish like foam. Now they are crossing over the last, most arduous and most difficult crisis of the last days.

*Chosen-People Consciousness Is Not a Consciousness of Privilege but of Being an Offering

Then with what attitude must we, the Blessed Families who attend True Parents, complete the responsibility of this great epic? First of all, we must engrave deep in our hearts the true meaning of chosen-people consciousness. In the world, whether one works at a company or runs a business, once one is selected, from then on one lives comfortably. But God’s providence is the exact opposite. Once selected, from then on suffering begins. Therefore chosen-people consciousness is not a consciousness of privilege but a consciousness of being an offering. An offering does not assert itself. Because Jesus went down to where one could go no lower, he was raised up to where one could go no higher. In the world of love, when one sacrifices with love and goes down, a strange history unfolds in which one instead rises. Our Unification family, in the end, centering on ‘Holy Mother Han,’ has gone down to the very bottom, so we will be raised up to where one can go no higher. Holy Mother Han, True Mother Hak Ja Han, is the One who represented the chosen Korean people (韓民族).

*Humankind Becoming One in the Spirit of ‘Han (韓)’

‘Han (韓)’ originally means ‘the great, bright, infinite heaven.’ The ‘Great Epic of the Korean People as a Chosen People’ is a journey of shaking off the ‘han (恨, deep regret)’ caused by the fall of humankind and sublimating it into the original culture of ‘Han (韓).’ At the center of this vast history, in which all humankind becomes one family under one Heavenly Parent, is True Mother, ‘Holy Mother Han.’ Hereafter, the people of the world, inheriting the heart of ‘loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity’ — the original-homeland culture of True Parents — and sharing, beyond hundreds of confused languages, only one script, ‘Hangeul,’ cannot but move toward the great epic in which the countless peoples who have split apart and fought become one ‘chosen Korean people.’