God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 81

God’s Will and the Ocean
True Father Speaks on: “True Parents” and “Indemnity”, page 265-268
August 1985, Berkeley

Learning the Parents' Language

How old am I? I am already sixty-five years old. What age is that? It's the retirement age for most people isn't it? When they reach that age, they don't do much that is new in their lives. Usually, they settle into the habits that they've already established. It was not easy for me to learn English; it is very difficult for me to compose English in my mind and speak it properly to you.

When I was younger, I had a brain like a computer. I could write down the concise meaning of a lesson, and having done that once, never forget it, not even after ten years. However, when I now study English, I write down the meaning of one word in the evening and memorize it, but by the time I wake up in the morning, everything is forgotten. After ten times memorizing one word, I can still completely forget it. Think about how difficult it is for me. Yet, I have learned English, in spite of how difficult it has been.

If you listen to people speaking English, they fill their sentences with junk words. They know the language, but they speak the worst words they can find. Many times, I have read the Bible and the Divine Principle in English. I don't like English, but I have to learn it in order to understand you and your culture. I am here in America and I am the leader of the Unification Church, so I have to learn it in order to communicate with you.

However, you should learn Korean, you have to learn Korean.  Why? Because it is the mother tongue. It is the language from which our faith emerged. You can say it is our "hometown" language. When must you learn Korean? You have to learn it by 1990. After that, I won't use an interpreter. Anyone who wants to come to the leaders' meetings will have to know some Korean or else they won't understand anything. That is why many of the Japanese members are now working hard to learn Korean. You American young people have a longer way to go because English is much further away from Korean than Japanese. Still, you have to learn it because the original language of the Unification faith is Korean. Many scholars are now learning Korean so that they can read the Divine Principle in its original language. They understand the value of doing that. The reality is that you lose about 75% of the meaning through interpretation. Any intelligent person knows that they have to learn Korean in order to come close to the original meaning. You have to come close to the source of our faith, the inner portion of our faith.

You need to learn Korean before you go to the spiritual world because your ancestors will be upset with you. I know this reality very well. If you don't believe me, then tonight you can pass away and find out for yourself. I am teaching you very clearly about life in this world and in the spiritual world. Some Americans, those big guys, feel too proud to learn another language. That's their misfortune. It's the same with the small guys, those Japanese members who don't want to learn Korean. In the future, when they come to meetings, they will be miserable. Because I speak in Korean and the translation is in English, the Japanese are already experiencing that kind of misery. Usually, they just fall asleep during the speech. I don't want to see that kind of miserable situation, so please learn Korean by the year 1990. Otherwise, don't come to see me in Korea and don't come to my spiritual world. I spent so much effort learning English. I started at a very late age, so I had an excuse not to learn English. However, can I speak English or not? Can do, or cannot do? So, I learned English at my age. How old are you? You are just young guys. For you, it's no problem to learn Korean.

At my age, I can do anything. I learned English, I went fishing, I did things that other members never thought of doing and I set a pace that even young members could not keep. You are young! You at least have to keep up with me. If you cannot learn Korean, you haven't even come of age. Do you understand this point? After ten years, many members will read the original Korean Divine Principle and be able to listen to me in my original language. If you cannot do that much, you will feel miserable in front of those members who can. Please study the mother language, that is what I am asking you to do. After the Fall, mankind divided into many different languages and cultures. God didn't want that. That's Satan's kind of world. You have to restore the original language. What is the original language? It is the language that the first parents spoke at the beginning of time. However, those parents fell, as we know, and the history of restoration has been developing until the True Parents could be established. Now that we have True Parents, what is their original language? We have to learn that language, that mother tongue.

Only the power of God can bring the world together under one language. The Divine Principle should be read in Korean by everyone in the world. In this way, a common understanding can emerge. People will never stop fighting each other until they have some kind of common understanding. Mankind is separated now because they speak different languages and have different understandings about life. How complicated this world is due to this situation.

Think about God. Every night people are praying to him in thousands of different languages. Actually, it's painful to His ears.That's true. It's very complicated for God to deal with. Someone is praying to "God," while another one is praying to "Kami," while yet another one is praying to "Allah." You have to restore one language for God's sake. Think about how miserable God is in this situation. You don't know how difficult it has been for me in America. It's the same situation with God and so I know how miserable God is. God desires one language, one heart, one common understanding between His children. That is why I am teaching this clearly to you.

The ministers who visited Korea understood this point very well. Many of them came back from Korea saying, "I have to learn Korean in order to understand Reverend Moon and the Unification movement." If they understand this reality, why don't you? If other people can think like that on their own, why don't you? They are not Moonies, but you are. You are the ones closest to me, so you have to know what I'm saying.