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True Father's Holy Ascension
As if the True Father were preparing for his Holy Ascension, during the past three years of his life, beginning in 2010 when he proclaimed the heavenly calendar, he pushed himself relentlessly, to the point of being cruel to his body.
At his advanced age, traveling even once a year would be difficult. Nevertheless, he traveled overseas on more than ten occasions to speak at locations throughout the world. He maintained his schedule of daily hoondokhae and personally educated members, speaking about the urgency of advancing the providence.
For the sake of world restoration, True Father wanted to complete the unfinished providence for the United Nations. So on the 27th day of the 5th month by the heavenly calendar (July 16) in 2012, True Father inaugurated the Abel Women's UN. This was the last providential organization he established in his lifetime.
A month before his Holy Ascension, on the 15th day of the 6th month by the heavenly calendar (August 2), True Father suddenly visited the Osan School, which had been relocated to Seoul from his hometown of Jeongju in North Korea. There he took some time to reminisce over his life.
The following week, on the 25th day of the 6th month (August 12) at the Cheon Jeong Gung Palace he prayed, 'Dear God, blessed are You. Please allow me to offer my life for You.' The next day, on the 26th day of the 6th month (August 13), he offered his final prayer on earth in which he proclaimed in the presence of True Mother, 'I have finished all of my mission for the providence of restoration.' At 1:54 a.m. on the 17th day of the 7th month by the heavenly calendar (September 3) in 2012, at the age of 93 by Korean counting, True Father ascended to heaven.
During the 13-day period following his Holy Ascension, countless people from virtually every nation came to pay their respects at memorial altars that were set up throughout the world.
Leaders from around the world, including many heads of state, sent floral tributes and messages of condolence. A message of condolence from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) via telegram stated, 'Although Reverend Sun Myung Moon has passed on, all of his efforts and achievements to bring harmony and unity to the Korean people, to unify the Korean Peninsula, and to realize world peace, will be known forever.' North Korea also conferred on True Father a special 'Unification of the Fatherland Award.'
Media outlets in Korea and throughout the world, including the Associated Press and CNN, treated the story of True Father's passing as headline news. They published and broadcast special reports about his life and achievements, which highlighted that True Father's entire life was one of true love and dedicated to world peace. In this way, people around the world expressed their condolences over the passing of True Father.
During this time, members from across the world gathered every morning at the Cheongshim Peace World Center, where they offered prayers, devotion, Father, and hoondokhae. At Cheon Jeong Gung Palace, where True Father's body lay in state, current and former heads of state, leaders from throughout the world, and an endless line of members paid their respects.
At the lpjeon Ceremony (when the body is placed in the coffin) on the day before True Father's Seonghwa (Holy Ascension Ceremony), True Mother declared her determination, saying, 'As long as I remain alive, I will devote myself completely to the establishment of Cheon Il Guk here on earth.'
On the following day, the 29th day of the 7th month by the heavenly calendar (September 15), True Mother officiated the Holy Ascension Ceremony at the Cheongshim Peace World Center.
An enormous crowd attended, including 31 religious leaders representing different religions and denominations from Korea and around the world, current and former heads of state, and more than 30,000 blessed members of the church. They crowded inside and outside the Peace World Center as well as in the meeting halls of the Cheongpyeong Training Center.
On the day of the Holy Ascension Ceremony, the funeral procession bearing the True Father's casket departed from Cheon Jeong Gung Palace at 10:00 a.m. and, proceeding slowly, arrived at the Peace World Center 40 minutes later.
With two True Children in the lead and True Mother and the rest of the True Family following behind, 12 pallbearers bore True Father's casket into the Peace Center, where it was placed atop a platform covered in roses and lilies.
Amid outpourings of emotion from the crowd, distinguished guests from Korea and overseas offered messages of tribute praising True Father's legacy.
One said, 'Reverend Moon, you have left behind many accomplishments that we must continue to develop. You are the victor who led the way for interreligious harmony and taught all of us to follow the Will of God.
Your life accomplishments will always be remembered.' The ceremony, which lasted two hours, was webcast by the Internet to members around the world. It was an opportunity for all to unite with the teaching and love of the True Father and make a new determination to work toward the settlement of Cheon Il Guk.
As True Father's casket left the Peace Center and headed back to Cheon Jeong Gung Palace, shouts of 'We love you! You worked so hard! We will attend you forever!' rang out. As the funeral procession climbed the road to Mt. Cheon-Seong, members holding flags, roses, and lilies pledged with shouts and tears, 'True Father, we will fulfill your will without fail! We will unceasingly move forward with True Mother, and we will be victorious!'
True Father's casket arrived at the burial site, called the Bon Hyang Won (Original Home Garden), and there the Wonjeon Ceremony took place. After, reading about the reality of the spirit world, members of the True Family and other representatives each offered a rose, then a shovelful of soil.
The ceremony closed with everyone joining in three cheers of Eog-mansei, 'Eog-mansei for the true, holy, and virtuous Lord of Cheon Il Guk, who reigns over myriad peoples, is triumphant on all levels and inaugurates the era of peace and prosperity!' 'Eog-mansei for the Wonjeon Ceremony for the True Parents of Heaven, Earth, and Humankind!'
This concluded the 13 days during which True Father was sent off to the next world, filled with tributes and heartfelt love from all over the world.
1. You do not understand God's situation. I am sitting here in front of you because I know about it. What do you think I want at the age of 92? I don't want anything. I am trying to give whatever I have to two others.
Even as I speak to you, I am choking up. If you had eyes in the back of your head to see all your shameful past, all you could do would be to cover your face and run away.
I would like to go with you and protect you; however, the responsibility of the Son and the Daughter whose mission is to pioneer the way of heaven is a fearful one. Korea could vanish. Asia could vanish.
The entire world could vanish. Until you die, you may not understand what I am saying.
Where do you think I want to go right now? It is a place I miss so much, where when I was a boy, I came to know the Will and wept countless tears. Whenever I had a chance, I would hold on to one particular tree and weep so bitterly, thinking that no one before me ever understood God's situation.
When I went to North Korea I visited that place, but the tree was gone; someone had cut it down. I am thinking of restoring that place to its original form.
When you can follow in my footsteps, shedding tears of gratitude, and move together with me, that fatherland of my birth will begin to revive.
That is how you can liberate me. I will leave this world with such hope in my heart, but it is you, who live in this world, who can do it. I will have to pass away, and when I do, I will entrust this world into your hands.
I suffered in the prime of my youth. Because of the course of suffering that I passed through during all the younger years of my life, I could not give my sons and daughters and their children all the blessings that I wanted to give them.
My only wish now is to become the ancestor who can bequeath all of them to your future descendants. I have no other wish. That is my only desire. (2011/09/02)
2. To take responsibility for God's bitter pain and sorrow, I think that I should go to the spirit world quickly. When I go there, I will appear before God as a devoted son. He will invest me with a royal robe. Then, I will make a new start.
When God sees me, He will kiss me and tell me that ever since I was a baby, He has loved me more than any prince or princess in the world. I already know His heart as my Parent.
He would want to hold on to me and promise me in tears over and over again, 'I will not let you suffer anymore, not for thousands of years, not for all eternity.' Because God has such a heart, when I stand before Him, I cannot say,
'Heavenly Father, look at all that I have done for You.' I already know the love the Father has for me. I know that as soon as I arrive in the spirit world and say, 'Heavenly Father, here I am,' even if He is sitting on a throne thousands of stories above, He will rush to be with me, shedding tears. (463-216, 2004/08/02)
3. Now the time has come for me to send you out. It means that you need to have your foundation.
When I am in the spirit world, do you think that I should make your foundation? Should I go to the spirit world or not? Should I go to the spirit world soon, or later?
We have not yet opened the age when the ideal that God harbored in His heart is fully realized. Those in the spirit world have not been fully educated either. I should educate them. The time has come for me to assemble all the spirits, even if I have to compel them to come.
When I say something there, it will instantly take effect, like a constitutional decree. People do not realize how polluted the vast spirit world has become. I am the only one who can straighten it out, so the spirit world is waiting for me.
Our life on this earth is like a transit station. That is why I must go to the original homeland and help the people there secure their place. (564-289, 2007/06/04)
4. During the 40 days after Father's Seonghwa, he visited many places in the spirit world. He met the providential figures in history, and he experienced the situation that existed when God created heaven and earth.
Throughout those 40 days, Father visited me at Cheon Jeong Gung Palace, and I spoke with his heart-to-heart. Father's thoughts were my thoughts, and my thoughts were his.
True Father and I resolved that we will complete the final phase of God's providential work with oneness in heart, oneness in mind, oneness in thought, and oneness in harmony. In particular, True Father agreed with me 120 percent when I told him I would revive the Korean church with Spirit and Truth.
Today, having concluded that 40-day period, we are at the starting point of a new providence. True Father is making a new start in the spirit world. Hence, to return glory to heaven and bring settlement to Cheon Il Guk on earth, we also will have to make a life-and-death determination and invest ourselves. We must walk in step with True Father. (True Mother, 2012/10/25)
5. The 40 days after True Father's Seonghwa is a special period when Father and I, with one accord, are preparing for a new start in the providence. Suppose you buy a new house. What is the first thing you do when you enter your new house?
First, you turn on the lights. Next, you place your belongings in the right places. Only when everything is in order do you start living in your new house? That is what we are doing during these 40 days after Father's Seonghwa.
It is a significant period for Father and me. When I told Father, 'I will bring the church back to the spirit of the church in the early days, making it live and breathe with Spirit and Truth,' Father replied, 'Mother, thank you very, very much!' (True Mother, 201/21/005)
6. Now the time of Father's Seonghwa is over. During that time, we had to take care of so many things.
Since you did not know everything from A to Z, you could not do everything that was required. However, now, when it comes to the work of the church, you know what you must do.
Hence, I am asking that you assist one another in each area of responsibility to complete your tasks with unchanging love and devotion, and also that you fulfill your given responsibilities.
You are the people who directly attended True Father in this age. As members who received the Blessing, you grew up personally listening to True Father's words. Although you were unable to fulfill everything according to his direction, I urge you that even now, you compress ten years into one.
Make a life-or-death determination and invest yourselves completely. You need to live such a life every day. (True Mother, 2012/09/17)
Inheriting True Father's tradition
On the 2nd day of the 8th month by the heavenly calendar (September 17), in 2012, two days after True Father's Seonghwa Ceremony, a Third Day Memorial Service was held at the Cheongshim Peace World Center.
True Mother gave a special address to leaders gathered from around the world, in which she exhorted them to 'move forward unceasingly.' Her direction to Unificationists included several points: inherit and pass on True Parents' traditions, realize the blessed family ideal, fulfill the responsibility of tribal messiahs, and substantiate the culture of heart in your community.
From the day of the Seonghwa Ceremony until the 40th Day Memorial Service, True Mother offered True Father three meals every day. She spent time united with True Father in spirit and offered sincere devotions for the substantiation of Cheon Il Guk.
Immediately after the 40th Day Memorial Service, True Mother traveled to Las Vegas, arriving on October 26. Then she began a seven-day cross-country pilgrimage, covering 3,480 miles, which retraced in reverse the steps of one of True Father's US tours in the 1970s.
She visited the holy grounds along the route and ended her journey in New York.
Then she returned to Korea to direct the preparations for Foundation Day, the compilation and publication of the Cheon Il Guk Scriptures, the establishment of the Cheon Il Guk Constitution, and education for global leaders.
7. It will not be easy for you to go to the kingdom of heaven. I cannot take responsibility for you getting there. However, I will teach you how to go there, and then I will depart. Furthermore, before I depart this world, I am going to give out all my belongings, my clothes, and other things. What I will bequeath to you are some artifacts and my teachings. My spiritual substance will go to the spirit world.
How will you follow me? The artifacts and the teachings I leave behind will be like a ladder for you. You should love any mementos you receive more than I loved them; you should love my words; then you will be able to love my substance. Furthermore, you must love your family, your nation, and heaven and earth.
(399-072, 2002/12/19)
8. As I started my life course in suffering, so I am resolved to finish my life in suffering. I will leave behind all the fortune and blessings that I could have enjoyed, and that my sons and daughters could have enjoyed, for the Unification Church.
I pray that this love will be the root tradition for hundreds and thousands of years of history. I believe that as long as this tradition continues, as long as the blessing of this grace continues, the Unification Church will not perish.
I am a man who takes responsibility for history 1,000 years from now. Therefore, as long as I can move around, I do not ever think of dying comfortably in bed. I think that I will die while traveling somewhere, or collapse at a podium while giving a speech. That place will become my base to return to the heavenly realm. I am ready to die like that. (264-185, 1994/10/09)
9. I made a promise to Father that no matter how difficult it is to fulfill the Will, I will bring it to a conclusion in my lifetime. I told him that I would accomplish God's purpose of creation and the ideal world of creation.
I said that I would accomplish this, certainly. To achieve that, I am determined not to change. The day when Father went to the hospital, he told me how deeply thankful he was to me. He said he was so sorry and so thankful to me.
I want to accomplish the Will that he left for us to fulfill, together with all of you. I hope that as we go along the path, none of you become sons and daughters who fall away. That is my wish, and it is also Father's hope.
My heart was in pain as I sent Father off to the spirit world because he was not meant to depart the world amid so many difficulties. He is the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord at the Second Advent, and the True Parent. He should not have started his course from prison.
God had prepared everything for him, but he had to start at the very bottom of hell. Due to people being blind and deaf, everything that had been prepared for him was lost. In history, no one has ever accomplished as much as Father did.
Our dream is to have one world with one culture of heart, one unified world. We must build such a world, no matter what. (True Mother, 2012/09/03)
10. What do you have that you can be proud of? Can you be proud of your money or your education?
What can you be proud of? Since True Fathers Seonghwa, he has lain in the Bon Hyang Won, and I go there every day to offer devotion.
In Korean cultural tradition, when a parent of a noble family passes away, the children mourn at their parents' graves for three years. You do not go back and forth from your home; rather, you live in the mountains, by the tomb. You do not eat decent meals, nor do you wear decent clothes.
You cannot light a fire, even during the cold of winter. In Korea, a lot of snow falls in the winter. Yet for three years you live aside your parents who are buried there. After doing this, you can be called a filial child.
What about you? You should be doing hoondokhae every day, reading Father's words with this heart of attending him every day. It is for you to inherit the tradition that True Parents want you to uphold. (True Mother, 2012/10/27)
11. Unless we are determined to risk our lives, how can we fulfill the Will? Thus far, many of you wanted Father to treat you well. Yet, you have returned so little to Father. You should put on hemp clothes and offer prayers of repentance. Today I hope that all of you once again will pledge to Father.
While Father is making a new start in the spirit world, we must become his partners here on earth. Jesus said that what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven. This is the time for you to return all the love that you received from Father. (True Mother, 2012/10/25)
12. As disciples and blessed families who have lived at the same time as True Parents, you must complete your responsibilities before the end of your lives.
We need to build a museum, which I have named the Cheonji Sunhak Won (Sunhak Garden of Heaven and Earth), that will show clearly the life course of True Parents, long-awaited by heaven and humanity how they appeared, how they completed, concluded and consummated providential history, and how they opened a new age. I have already resolved to do this.
You have been so blessed and privileged to stand as new ancestors of your tribes in Cheon Il Guk. It is the beginning of a brand-new age and a brand-new history.
Standing in such a position, you should leave an exemplary record of how you lived on earth.
That is why, with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, you need to establish a vertical standard like that of True Parents. If you do, that record will remain on earth and in the spirit world as well.
While True Father was here on earth, he started a new history in everything; he pioneered in every field.
As long as I live on this earth, I will carry on Father's will and work, establish his tradition, and improve everything so that it will shine into the future. In particular, I will thoroughly organize True Father's words. That is True Father's will and my will. (True Mother, 2013/05/13)
13. After True Father's Seonghwa, I announced that would make a museum about True Parents' life course.
I named it the Cheonju Sunhak Won. This museum should be a cultural center with exhibits that are so state-of-the-art that by the time visitors reach the end of the exhibits, even after their first time through, they will want to sign an application to join the church. The exhibits must be moving and compelling. The museum should be filled with so much material that visitors cannot possibly cover it all in just one day.
Our Heavenly Parents' wish is to establish one world of peace and unity centered on Heavenly Parent – the substantial kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. True Parents have opened the new age when it is now possible. The basis upon which we can build the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven is their victorious foundation of restoration through indemnity.
Blessed families! Now you have to give your very best to bring all of humanity back to God. You need to have the seriousness of a mother in labor, who struggles through pain for nine months to bring a new life into the world.
You must gather all of your heart and energy to nurture all those people who will be newly born into life once they visit the Cheonji Sunhak Won.
(True Mother, 2014/11/12)
14. We must establish heaven's tradition. You should become people who study True Parents' words every day at hoondokhae and live accordingly. You need to understand that the result of your life will depend on how you attend True Parents, whether in your workplace or your daily life.
If you live your life with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, heaven will give you great blessings. (True Mother, 2013/03/22)
15. In the future, you will be able to experience that Father is with you in spirit. True Father promised that.
So, if you want to see Father, please bring substantial results. I hope you can see him that way.
During his lifetime, Father did not expose his arms and legs to anyone. He said that he took great care to protect his body, even in prison. Do you think he will appear to anyone anytime and perform spiritual works?
So I am saying, 'Let's move forward with one accord, totally focused on the Will and centered on the Principle.' All of our blessed families must recommit themselves in preparation for Foundation Day. (True Mother, 2012/10/25)
Hak Ja Han Moon