Mother of Peace: Episode 19
Mother of Peace: And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears from Their Eyes
A Memoir by Hak Ja Han Moon
Chapter 3: The Marriage Supper of the Lamb, pg 80-86
For the salvation of all of humankind and realization of a world of peace, I determined myself and declared before Father Moon that I would rise to the position of the True Parent. I accepted Father Moon as the only begotten Son for the accomplishment of our Heavenly Parent’s will. It was God’s call to me to become the heavenly bride and the Mother of the universe. I knew that my path would be unimaginably difficult. Yet I pledged I would live for God and absolutely fulfill my mission to save the world.
I pledged before God and Father Moon, “No matter how difficult the path may be, I will complete God’s providence of restoration during my lifetime.” And then I pledged one more time, “I will do whatever it takes to fulfill our Heavenly Parent’s will.” I have defined and lived my life with that commitment.
The course of human events is often unpredictable. Church members were so astonished when the news spread that Father Moon had chosen Hak Ja Han, that 17-year-old nursing student, to be his bride. Some people thought it was a false rumor. Some were taken aback. Some rejoiced, others were jealous. I remembered Father Moon’s words from four years before, “You will need to make sacrifices in the future,” and I knew that each day was going to be a learning experience concerning what that meant.
When my maternal grandmother’s ancestor, Jo Han-jun, showed sincere loyalty and devotion to his country, he received the revelation, “I will send to your lineage the princess of God.” In return for my ancestor’s devotion, his sacrifice with no desire for recognition, God chose our family to exemplify the tradition of loyalty and filial piety. My mother was born to my grandmother, who had deep piety, and I was born to my mother. I trace God’s will to send to the world His only begotten Daughter, which has borne fruit through me, back to my ancestor Jo Han-jun.
To fulfill my mission as God’s only begotten Daughter, I have a firm belief and unflinching will for the sake of every nation, every religion, every race. Going beyond all fallen world boundaries, I am called to reconcile nations and races with benevolence and love. I am called to be like the ocean that accepts and absorbs the water of all rivers, big and small alike. Embodying our God who is our Heavenly Mother as well as Heavenly Father, I am called to embrace all who are lost and have no one to receive them, with the heart of a parent.
I set these things in my flesh and blood, in my beating heart, and have not for one second forgotten the will that God entrusted to me. Sixty years have passed since our Holy Wedding, and my husband is now not with us physically. More than ever, no matter what my age or physical condition may be, my beating heart drives me forward on the path to become the Mother of the universe and the Mother of peace—one in mind, one in body, one in heart and one in harmony with the One who guides the providence.
Our Holy Wedding Ceremony
Jesus was born to humankind 2,000 years ago. God intended that Jesus find his bride and that they would stand in the position of Adam and Eve, who were lost at the very beginning of human history. Together, Jesus and his bride were to have grown to attain the position of True Parents, providing living examples of a true husband and wife, parents, and family. However, God’s hope for Jesus and Israel was not realized. The Lord went a secondary course, dying for us on the cross. We cannot imagine how devastated he must have been! When Jesus returns, his priority is to find the bride, with whom he will create a true family, society, nation and world. Through the True Parents, the sorrows of heaven and earth can be alleviated, and the victorious foundation for God’s ideal world can be laid.
In this providence, the prophesied marriage supper of the Lamb, the day of our Holy Wedding, was the turning point, the day when God won His victory and recovered His lost glory. Furthermore, this was a day of joy for humankind, as it inaugurated a new history in which all can live together not only with their True Father but also with their True Mother.
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At the age of 15, Sun Myung Moon received his mission from Jesus Christ on Mount Myodu. It was a mission that would bring him severe hardship. It led him to study in Japan and to teach God’s word in North Korea after Korea’s independence, where he would face life-threatening hardships and unspeakable suffering. Communist Party officials and police cruelly tortured him to the brink of death. Tossed out as a lifeless body, he revived and continued his mission, only to be arrested once again and sent to a forced labor camp near the city of Hungnam. It was only the arrival of UN troops that saved him from execution there.
With two of his followers, he headed south to begin his ministry again. Amid the clash of communist soldiers and UN troops, they were among the last to cross the frozen Imjin River into South Korea, and from there they walked hundreds of kilometers to the southern part of the peninsula. After planting his church in Busan he settled in Seoul. Yet his trials continued and once again he was imprisoned, this time by the South Korean government. This course of hardships, during which time he relentlessly focused on teaching many new members about God and the mission of the Messiah, was the course he had to pass through to meet the only begotten Daughter prepared by God, and to hold the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Members of the early Unification Church endured bitter ordeals together with Father Moon. As the year 1960 approached, they were filled with indescribable hope. Father Moon was turning 40, and he had prophesied that this would be the year of the Holy Wedding of God’s first Son and Daughter, the only begotten Son and only begotten Daughter. And that promise was fulfilled. At the Cheongpa-dong church, at 4:00 in the morning on March 27, 1960, the first day of the third lunar month, when spring was in full bloom, Father Moon and I held our historic engagement ceremony.
We had invited 40 men and 40 women to witness the ceremony, but members wishing to see us had come in great numbers, and the small church was packed to overflowing. The engagement ceremony, held in two parts, was conducted in a holy atmosphere. It concluded with Father Moon’s benediction, reporting the profound meaning of the ceremony to heaven and earth. The 6,000-year history of humankind, he prayed, was the anguished course necessary to receive the True Parents. That Jesus could not become the True Parent was the sorrow of all people, but the day of our engagement ceremony was the blessed day that finally relieved that sorrow.
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Fifteen days after the engagement ceremony, at 10:00 a.m. on April 11, 1960, the 16th day of the third month by the lunar calendar, we conducted the Holy Wedding. Seven hundred or so members chosen from our churches across Korea gathered at Cheongpa-dong Church to attend this splendid event, long awaited by our Heavenly Parent. Because even more members flocked to attend the Holy Wedding than the engagement ceremony, the church was overflowing, and those who could not enter the building filled the alleyway beside it. The atmosphere was nonetheless solemn and reverent.
The small chapel of the church was decorated beautifully and meaningfully for the occasion. The walls and floor were covered with white cloth, and a platform was set up to the left of the door. Dressed in a long, white skirt and top, with a long veil covering my head, I walked down the stairs from the second floor, arm in arm with the bridegroom, as members sang a holy song, “Song of the Banquet.” All in attendance warmly welcomed us, and the Holy Wedding ceremony thus commenced. The first ceremony of the Holy Wedding was held in Western-style clothing, and the second ceremony was held in traditional Korean-style clothing, complete with robes and headdresses.
FFWPU, USA