Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 112

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 5: Expansion of the Providential Foundation and the Annual Mottoes
Chapter 2: The Seven-Year Courses and the Overseas Foundation
Section 2: The Restoration of the Nation and World, Paragraph 28
Section 3: Witnessing, Education and Revivals, Paragraph 11 

28  What did True Parents do after deciding on the third seven-year course? We resolved to advance toward the completion of the purpose of restoration. We determined to bequeath to history a starting point of love that can serve eternally, even if it meant we had to deny the family, deny the nation, deny Asia and deny the world. Are those things going to remain? Will we be able to return with dignity? In what capacity would we return, and by what means? We would not come back as powerful officials, but instead as victors of love. In the end, this is the only standard for which I have striven, true love.

You need to love your parents more than you love your children. You need to love your tribe more than you love your parents. You need to love your people more than you love your tribe. You need to love your nation more than you love your people. And you need to love the world more than you love your nation.

Section 3. Witnessing, Education and Revivals

Witnessing conditions

The 40-day summer witnessing and education, which began on July 20, 1960 after True Parents’ Holy Wedding, ignited our membership nationwide for the cause of restoring the Korean people. A total of 659 members were sent out to 413 areas in Korea. In Seoul, door-to-door visits and Divine Principle lectures were organized, and witnessing took place in the major parks, including Pagoda Park. During this period, the Unificationist family united as one in heart with True Parents. They ate meager meals together with True Parents for 40 days and overcame all kinds of hardships and persecutions.

1  The 40-day witnessing period was established as a condition to indemnify the 4,000 years of history from Adam to Jesus and the 4,000 years of history from Abraham until now. In crossing over this summit, no matter how wide or long the road is, there is only one road. It is the fastest road, the road of indemnity. There is the journey of 4,000 years and the journey of 40 years. Both center on the number 40. To go over this summit, we must create a shortcut. This representative period is none other than the 40-day witnessing period.

2  The 40-day witnessing periods, which were carried out both in summer and winter, will go down in history. In these periods, we had to pass over a summit that no one had been able to conquer before. We had to travel a stretch of road that has been impassable until now. This is the issue. You must walk that road, if not during your lifetime, then after your death. People who seek the heavenly path are always lonely, and people who bear heavenly responsibility are always serious. As Unificationist family members, you may find it easy to be a follower, but those who have to lead can never sleep deeply. Victory or defeat depends on the actions of the one who is responsible.

3  The Unification Church began carrying out 40-day witnessing conditions in earnest from 1960. The reason for this is that, instead of living our lives bound by our daily circumstances, we needed to push outward, expanding into the future. In order to do this we needed to connect with every sphere of life in the world. All human beings symbolize not only the era in which they live, but also the future and their environment, as well as the past—all these together. What this means is that you are a living representative of the past, of your own historical age, of this world and of the future. People who live such a life are worthy indeed.

4  You should eat barley rice during the 40-day summertime witnessing period. You need to be a sacrificial offering. A sacrificial offering has no self-awareness or concept of ownership. After passing through the position of servant and the position of adopted son, we need to advance to the position of sons and daughters. Jesus was a sacrificial offering. He tried to become the high priest, but because of the disbelief of the people, he died as a sacrificial offering. The Lord at the Second Advent comes in the capacity of the high priest. Thus, we can advance to the position of children.

On the morning of January 1, 1960, I said to you, “For three years, you must stand in the position to serve. Carry the heart of parents in your mind, and stand in the position of a servant. You should become a sacrificial offering by shedding blood, sweat, and tears. By doing so, you advance to the position of high priest to bear the responsibility of atonement, and you advance to the position of sons and daughters to represent Father and judge Satan!” This is our motto and the main principle of our practice. As sons and daughters who think like Father, your blood, sweat and tears must saturate the road as they connect village with village.

5  To become sons and daughters of True Parents, you need to establish the condition, by the principle of indemnity, for rebirth through the bone marrow of the Parents. Only then can you be in the position of sons and daughters. The 40-day witnessing periods spanning the three years from 1960 through 1962 were indemnity conditions for this. During these periods we ate barley rice. Why did we have to eat barley rice? It was because those three years were a time of paying indemnity. These were the periods to restore and go beyond the four-position foundation, centering on True Parents’ direct children. It was the period for you to establish the Cain-Abel relationship centering on Parents, and in this way to unite Cain and Abel.

6  There is a path by which we take responsibility for the sorrowful history following the liberation of Korea, and for the hope our people have held. That is the path of unification. And if there were such people, they were none other than the members of the Unification Church. This is the reason the Unification Church has come forth and cannot perish. When we went out to witness, everyone of all ages cornered and attacked us. We were filled with grief when we were ridiculed. Our hearts filled with sorrow. Tears gathered and fell like dewdrops.

As we gazed at the morning sunrise, we pinned our hopes on tomorrow, when we would greet the bright sunlight of a new day. With that hope, we endured today as a day of sorrow and perseverance. The approaching night was, for us, a time to bear the cross. Living each day in this manner, many years have passed. Our Unificationist group, which was hounded in the past, has somehow come to be recognized for loving the nation and loving the people. It is now acknowledged that we are fighting and endeavoring for this country. Therefore, today when people speak of religious groups, they cannot exclude the Unification Church. We have laid a foundation such that the people who persecuted us are now on bended knees, welcoming us with tears.

True Parents’ regional tours

During the 40-day summer witnessing campaign of 1960, True Parents traveled around Korea for 21 days, from July 30 to August 19, visiting the witnessing locations and giving encouragement to the education team members. The witnessing teams who were pioneering received True Parents’ party with tears of gratitude. True Parents spent time with the members, listening attentively to their reports, sometimes staying up all night because they were so absorbed, speaking to them, and sharing their meals of boiled barley. True Parents continued to make regional tours during a three-year period.

7  I vividly remember the time in 1960 when I sent you out to witness and toured around to visit you. Today, when I go on a tour and people hear I am coming, numerous members line up on the path to greet me. But more than with them, God makes the connection of heaven and earth in the mind of the person whom He sees standing anxiously alone in a place where the cold wind blows. When the people I sent out, looking like sentinels in the world of death, still raise the flag of heaven, pledging their life and bowing their heads to pray with devotion—God is with them. In light of this, we can see that a connection of heart with God is formed when we are in a difficult situation. When people hunted and pursued Elijah, and he appealed to God, saying, “I am the only one left” (1 Kings 19:10), God was with him in heart. Since God was with him, the decisive power of victory was newly given to Elijah.

8  At the time I toured the districts in Korea for 21 days, I prayed, “This road is now a rough mountainous road, but in the future, the Unification Church family members will make a road here that many motorists will call the best road there is.” This road is not just the road of an individual. It is the road that continues for all. Among you, there may be some who strut down it, thinking it is a temporary road. But I am not like that. It is not a temporary road. This is the road that peoples, all of humankind, those in the spirit world and even Heavenly Father must walk. When the individual, family, society, people, citizens of the nation, those in the spirit world and even God travel on this road, they will say, “My sons and daughters will find this road very smooth!”

9  When I toured the local districts I often slept outside. In the time of pioneer witnessing, everyone did so. I would ride in a jeep 24 hours, night and day. There was no place to sleep, so we slept in the jeep. I had that kind of training. If I slept out in the open, I would be wet with dew by morning, so I slept in the jeep. The time I spent in it was a time for resting. If my destination was even 30 minutes away, I would close my eyes and fall asleep immediately.

10  When I tour the district churches, I see that the Unification Church members are living in very miserable places. Every time I see that, I pray to God, “Heavenly Father, please be with them! When I lived in such circumstances, You were there with me, and when I stood in such a position on Your behalf, didn’t You encourage me, saying that there is still a way I can go? Please form such a connection with them, too.”

Do not use the word “miserable” to describe the place you are in now. Even in a miserable place, you need to appear as a person who can sing a triumphant song of goodness. To do so, you need to become princes and princesses of God who can judge the evil world. You need clearly to understand my position as the Teacher, the one who had no choice but to drive you out to the place where sharp winds blow and stormy waves crash. When you know that you love God, and that He loves you, you will leave the precious and comfortable position that fulfills your hope in this world and go out to the place where you can hold on to God’s heart and appeal to Him.

11  When I go on a regional tour, many times I face the members with tears. When I see how they endure in the most difficult situations, I am filled with sorrow. But, the more miserable you are, the more you can become one in heart with God. God is deeply moved when He meets you in the place where you declare that you will suffer for Father’s sake, the place where you call out His name even while you are starving. In the place where you are confined behind bars and beaten while working for God’s Will, where you shed tears as you are tortured, that’s where the heart of God bursts.

While you are in such a place, you need to pledge that you will win the titles of filial child and loyal patriot in front of Father. Since no one in history has been like that, you should comfort God, saying you will liberate history’s sorrowful martyrs. Once you understand God’s historical heart, you promise the martyrs, “This is the road you walked. I too will walk this road to comfort you and resolve your sorrow. I promise to do so now, without fail.”