Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 347
Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 11: Ceremonies and Holy Days
Chapter 3: Ceremonies and Rituals
Section 1: The Blessing Ceremony, 33
Section 2: The Seonghwa Ceremony, 07
(33) Jesus passed away at the end of the three-year period of his public ministry, but the Unification Church is continuing his mission of laying the foundation for the kingdom of heaven on earth. At the time of the Dedication Ceremony of my first son, I gave members three kinds of gifts as a condition of three sacrificial offerings and fed them with seaweed soup, rice, and milk. That period of three years was the period to set up the four-position foundation, which Jesus was unable to establish. If Jesus had brought Judaism under him and made Rome submit to him, he would not have died on the cross. I have achieved victory on the first stage. Then, to establish God's citizens and sovereignty, I gave awards to three women and one man in recognition of their contributions.
(34) This morning, we held a ceremony to celebrate God's Day. Before that, we performed a Dedication Ceremony. At this time, I have mobilized the blessed wives, whom you love the most, and who serve as the foundation of heart in your families. Nevertheless, the fact that you did not oppose the mobilization or demonstrate against it is a great honor to me. That is how, with my family at the center, all of you were able to set a victorious foundation to connect all families in unity when you go to the frontline to meet people. Thereby, my family was finally able to establish the victorious condition to be offered to God. That is how we were able to conduct the ceremony to celebrate God's Day on the second floor, and also hold my family's Dedication Ceremony. Therefore, we could bestow blessings even on the infants. However, even when this Dedication Ceremony was done, I had to establish the proper order. Before Heaven's family came to exist, first, there was the angelic world. Therefore, when my family was dedicated to God, at the same time, I needed to soothe Jesus' bitter sorrow and fulfill the wishes of people on earth.
(35) Because I have already fought on the individual and family levels, I have reached the standard by which I can work on the national level. But you have yet to reach that standard. You need to be qualified to stand on the national-level foundation. This means you need to have the qualification of a parent standing on the national-level foundation, the qualification of a child standing on the national-level foundation, and the qualification to have dominion over all things while standing on the national-level foundation. On that foundation, you should have dominion over all things. After that, the returning Lord needs to fight to the end according to that standard to establish the world-level standards for parents, for children, and for dominion over all things representing the world. At present, we are in the process of fighting to reach that goal. That is what you are participating in. Hence, along with the national-level Dedication Ceremony for the family, what other ceremonies should you hold? You should have Dedication Ceremonies for all things and for children. They should be carried out in reverse order. You should have dedication ceremonies for all things, for children, for yourself and for your family. Without carrying these out, you cannot completely indemnify history vertically and horizontally and dedicate it as a victorious sacrificial offering.
Section 2. The Seonghwa Ceremony
(1) Because Unification Church members know that there is a spirit world, they are not afraid of dying. In the Unification Church, a funeral is called the Seunghwa Ceremony. It means to ascend nobly to heaven. The Seunghwa Ceremony is about ascension. To inaugurate it, I had to rejoice more over the death of my son than I did at the birth of my sons and daughters. I had to experience the joy that God would have felt had His princes and princesses been born to Him. If this did not come to pass, my son could not have crossed over the hill of death. At the place where he died, we, his mother and father, had to offer a prayer to celebrate the victory of love, that is, of his having achieved liberation. That is why, when Heung-jin passed on, I did not shed even a single teardrop. Because he had a long way to go in the next world, I held the Unification Ceremony for him.
The Seunghwa Ceremony and the Seonghwa Ceremony
(2) There is a three-year course that had to be established during the forty-year period of the restoration of Canaan on the world level. Through this three-year course, we needed to reach the conclusion. The second-year was the most dangerous. It was the most difficult time. That is why, at that time, Heung-jin passed on, and I went to prison. As the leader who had been shouldering responsibility for heaven and earth, I was very serious. Satan was the one who caused what happened to Heung-jin. Therefore, I first conducted the Unification Ceremony, then the Seunghwa Ceremony, and then, because I had to send him off as my victorious son, I did not shed any tears until Heung-jin passed on. This is a dreamlike story. However, in this world, things are actually happening just as I prayed and just as I said. Unbelievable events are taking place.
(3) When Heung-jin went to the spirit world, I held the Unification Ceremony and declared the Day of Victory of Love. The love of the Parents treads on Satan's world and overcomes death. That is why, as I viewed Heung-jin during the three days before his passing, I could not shed any tears. Even in the presence of our dead sons and daughters, we should be able to share God's love and dedicate our love to Him. For this reason, I declared the Day of Victory of Love. Because love triumphed over everything, the ceremony is called the Seunghwa Ceremony.
(4) In the Unification Church, we call a funeral the Seunghwa Ceremony. Our birth, the Holy Wedding Ceremony, and even the end of our life is to be offered to God. The complete fruit of these is the Seunghwa Ceremony. However, you have no idea what an embarrassment it is for a person to be given a Seunghwa Ceremony and honored with many flowers if they lived a careless life and did as they pleased. Therefore, knowing the Principle, we should lay our foundation by living in accordance with it.
(5) Though Heung-jin passed on alone, I blessed him on earth on the fiftieth day after his passing—just as on the Pentecost fifty days after the passing of Jesus, the 120 believers gathered in the Upper Room were filled with the Holy Spirit, as recorded in the biblical book of Acts (2: 1-4). With that, I made up for all the incomplete work that Heung-jin would have done during his lifetime. I could not shed tears as I sent him off. I also made Mother pledge not to express sadness in front of Heung-jin when he departed for the spirit world. If I had not prepared the way for him at the time, he would have gone to the spirit world in tragedy, like other people. He would then have had no relationship with Jesus or the world of the Blessing amid a spirit world rife with divisions. That is why I named his departure the Seunghwa Ceremony. That ceremony I conducted was the original Seunghwa Ceremony.
(6) At Heung-jin's Seunghwa Ceremony, no one was allowed to shed tears. This was especially so for True Parents. Later, in the United States, only after they received the report from Korea that the Seunghwa Ceremony had been performed joyously, they shed tears of blessing as they bid him farewell. In this way, the history that had been divided in tears was brought together in harmony with tears. Therefore, no one should shed tears during a Unification Church Seunghwa Ceremony. If tears are shed, the deceased cannot go the way he or she is supposed to go.
(7) There is no hope without a heart of love. You cannot form bonds with others if you do not have a loving and caring heart. You should even embrace death itself; otherwise, you cannot form a relationship with God, who governs the world beyond death. Without transcending death, you cannot enter God's world of love. You need to rise above the fallen realm; otherwise, you cannot find love no matter how eagerly God awaits your arrival. Where there is hope, there is love. To have hope for the spirit world, you need to love, which will enable you to overcome even death. That is why in the Unification Church, a funeral is called the Seunghwa Ceremony. It signifies breaking through Satan's wall straightaway and ascending to heaven.
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