The lunar calendar New Year
Today, is New Year’s Day by the lunar calendar. This day, the first of 1961, is significant to us who understand the significance of the providence of restoration.
For people in the outside world, New Year’s Day is a day on which they exchange heartfelt pleasantries and nice gifts and rejoice together happily. I would appreciate it if we could also live in such an environment, but that is not the way it is.
Not many have had an opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Day in God’s presence. Have you ever met anyone who claimed that God had come to him personally and said, “You have grown older by a year today, so give me greetings of the new year? Make some rice cakes and let’s enjoy the day together,” and that he had joyfully spent the day with God? I’m sure you haven’t.
The innumerable New Year’s Days that have come and gone in the course of history have always been a source of sadness to God.
Today, however, this man who has appeared in front of you will clearly state, “Today should be a day on which we return joy and comfort to God.”
This morning, I am setting out on this tour with great hope in my heart, not just because I am going to meet you, but because I am thinking of this dormant Korean Peninsula’s one purpose.
All people should remember these thoughts, which is why God, who is also thinking about these things, is hoping that this day will become a day that He can always remember with joy.
The thirty-six couples represent all the history.
What are the thirty-six couples? Their Blessing signifies that the two-thousand-year period, during which Adam’s family, Noah’s family, and Jacob’s family all failed, has been indemnified for the first time. They represent all of providential history.
So, what is the first group of couples among the thirty-six? I brought those who had married by themselves and joined them in God’s presence. What is the second group? I connected those who were unable to fulfill their love.
What about the third group?
They had been single men and women. The third group of couples is the center. In this regard, as the model ancestors, who are the representatives of all types of people on earth, they need to pave the way to the kingdom of heaven and act as guides for others.
Invitations to family members
What are the thirty-six couples?
They are the ancestors. In becoming those ancestors, can they consult their parents? They have to consult God. Therefore, only after I matched you with God’s authority did I send an invitation letter to your family members.
Those sons and daughters are not their parents’ children. They are Heaven’s children. Restoration must be done through indemnity. I loved them more than their parents did. To create heavenly sons and daughters, I invested all my energy day and night, even while their parents were sleeping and doing secular things.
Still, their parents had to be notified. In a letter, I wrote, “Since your son (or daughter) will take part in the Holy Blessing Ceremony, we request the honor of your presence.” That’s how I phrased it.
The wedding invitations were sent out a week before the wedding, but the question was how to word the invitation. The invitations gave the names of the bride and the groom who were to be married, and the wedding date. Because they were invited, they had no choice but to come.
We stipulated, however, that if they wished to attend the wedding, they should do their best to find and wear the type of holy robe that Unification Church members wear. It was as if we were telling them not to come.
We didn’t want them to come because they would create a commotion. Unification Church holy robes are white. Do you think they had ever seen robes of that type or even dreamt about them? Where on earth can you find a man who orders you to wear a particular kind of clothing at your son's or daughter’s wedding?
A ceremony held amid a struggle
From the viewpoint of God’s providence, everything began from false parents. So, from the position of being true parents, I had to coach the children in everything. Not only did their parents oppose me, but the nation also opposed me.
Newspapers reported on the wedding ceremony and made a ruckus about it, but we held it three times—one for each group of twelve couples.[4] Some of their parents, relatives, and friends came and created a commotion. There was a lot of fuss.
The Blessing of the thirty-six Unification Church couples had to be conducted in the dark of night, behind locked doors. During the ceremony, we heard all kinds of shouting: “Let my son go!” “Let my husband go!” “What do you think you are doing with other people’s children?”
People were outraged because traditionally, parents arrange their children’s marriages; yet here was the founder of the Unification Church marrying them off on his own.
Since God’s children had been snatched away by Satan, I snatched them back from his clutches. It was through the Blessing that I had to regain the children lost throughout history. Hence, I concluded the Blessing Ceremony hurriedly. I had no choice because I was trying to accomplish restoration through indemnity.
I told policemen at the Yongsan Borough Police Station, “People opposed to us will come. Please protect the place.” Because the police would then be held responsible if somebody were to be killed, what else could they do but protect us? They sent some policemen. I also posted two burly brothers as guards. What was this for? It was to protect a wedding ceremony!
I thought that the parents of the children whose wedding I conducted and who, at the time, insulted me and protested, would all become enemies of the Unification Church.
Now, however, they all tell me I did well. “Oh my!” they say, “There are no daughters-in-law like Unification Church daughters-in-law. They are the best,” or “You can’t find sons-in-law like Unification Church sons-in-law.”
One mother, an elderly lady, came to the ceremony with some of her family. Her husband was a teacher at a teachers’ college. He came and entered the place, saying, “My daughter is going to get married. Is someone against my being here?”
We said that since he was not wearing a holy robe, we could not allow him in. We had to be strict. So, he went out and borrowed a robe and put it on. His black suit was visible beneath the robe. He came in and sat down.
At the wedding ceremony, I offered a benediction. How much he must have disliked me! He wanted to say something bad to me, but as the head teacher of a school, he would not have been able to do that and still maintain his dignity. When he saw me, he was thinking of saying something rude, but he told me later.
Later, he joined the Unification Church and became a dedicated member. When I asked him whether I had selected a good son-in-law for him after all, he said, “Oh, I apologize for what I was thinking.”
Sun Myung Moon