MOTHER of PEACE CHAPTER 3. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB 7. Victory through perseverance
'Oh, no, I've lost another pair of shoes.” Even before the member would finish his sentence, those around him would know what had happened. Poverty sometimes makes people do bad things.
At the end of Sunday services, we often would find that a pair or two of shoes were missing from the shoe rack. So, whenever I had a little extra money, I would buy new shoes for members who had lost them. I also prayed that the person who had taken the shoes would set his or her life straight.
Between 200 and 300 people would attend our services and other events, and there was never enough rice to serve them all. So we made porridge by boiling barley in a large iron pot. As the event progressed inside the church, outside we would make a wood fire and cook barley porridge.
Members would sit down in little clusters and share bowls of porridge, and they were more grateful for this than anything else. “All of this is a gift from God,” they would say.
When I was pregnant I craved tangerines, but we could not afford them; they were so expensive. One member learned about this, however, and bought some tangerines for me. I ate six or seven of them on the spot. I was so grateful, I cried.
When a church holy day would approach, I felt more anxious than excited or happy. I would have to start making preparations two weeks in advance to organize the deliveries of the offering table towers of fruit and delicacies, banners, flowers and candles, hoping that there would be enough for each member to have an apple or a candy. Once we had made this offering to God, I would feel immense satisfaction.
From my birth until my marriage, my path had not been easy, and after marrying, personal challenges impacted not just me but also our movement. So I never deviated from the path of faith, obedience and love for God.
Just as Satan tested Jesus and Father Moon, he tested me. I persevered through those ordeals with ever-deepening devotion because it was at such times that I felt most keenly the grace of God. In the midst of pain, God came very close to me and guided me with pillars of cloud and fire.
My husband and I always conversed intensely on various matters. We could do so out of our infinite trust in each other. We went through so much together that we could understand each other with only a look.
The life of Father Moon and the path I have walked bear an uncanny resemblance. Most people assumed that I was so happy and that I wanted for nothing. “You received the seal from God as His only begotten Daughter,” they would think, “and you were born as a perfected being. Therefore, you attained your position with no effort.”
Many people thought like this. They believed that as the Mother of the universe I blissfully had met Father Moon, formed a happy family and enjoyed life. That describes my life from one perspective, but I have scaled mountains as treacherous and impassable as any in this world. I was able to surmount them all with my husband's love, which was more than any wife has ever received.
Although I had 14 children, I never once thought that I had too many. Nonetheless, my children had to go through difficult experiences. When they went out to play, local people would glare at them. 'Your father is Sun Myung Moon, isn't he?” adults would shout at an innocent five-year-old. “Do you know what your father does? The Unification Church is creating such a disturbance in the world!”
While in Korea they were criticized for being the sons and daughters of Sun Myung Moon, and when we moved to the United States, they faced discrimination for being Asian. It pained me to see my children suffer, but I did not lament or blame others. I held them in my arms and set an example for them by offering prayers of gratitude.
My husband and I cared for our children with love and devotion, but because we had so much work to do for the church and the providence, we were unable to spend much time with them.
One day, when my husband was on his world tour, Hyo-jin, barely 3 years old, sat on the bedroom floor and began to draw. Normally he liked to draw cars or bikes, but that day he clumsily drew a face on the white paper. Even though I knew that it was his father, I asked him, “Hyo-jin, who is that?”
Hyo-jin did not answer me, but drew a face on another piece of paper. Though it looked different from the first one, it was still without a doubt his father's face. Hyo-jin was usually very active, but on that day he sat quietly and continued to draw.
He did not grow tired of drawing his father's face, even after spending the whole day at it. And he did not stop drawing it the next day or the day after. It was only when his father returned that he stopped drawing. I can still remember quite vividly how he smiled brightly at his father as he was embraced by him. It was as if he had been given the world. |