January 22, 2012- “God of Night and God of Day” Openning Address to NLWA 2012 by International President- An especially insightful description of the meaning behind his "hoodie." The following is the speech of International President Rev. Hyung Jin Moon to national leaders at the International Leadership Conference (ILC) opening plenary at the Cheon-Bok-Gung on January 22, 2012, the day before True God’s Day. I hope you like my sweatshirt. You may have seen this symbol somewhere. Because we are now chasing Father wherever he goes around the world, we basically live out of our car. We’re always packed, we’re always ready to go, whether on the boat, on the bay – wherever. It’s a very amazing experience. A couple of days ago, Father asked me to explain the markings on this sweater. As you know, this is the symbol of the Principle. And when we manifest the Principle – give-and-take action, the Four Position Foundation, the three blessings – the purpose of creation is all here. On the right arm you will see a character that says Cheon-bu, which means True Father. On the left arm you will see a character that says Cheon-mo, which means True Mother. And on the back you will see all sorts of characters written vertically. They are probably my favorite characters. The first one is the character True Father gave me, which he said was his most favorite Chinese character. It means “sincerity,” “devotion.” It means actualizing your speech or your words. The second means “love.” That is True Mother’s character. The third is “filial piety.” The fourth is “attending, serving.” The other one is “courage.” The other one is “faith,” and the other one is “eternity.” When we are attending True Parents and True Parents’ staff are around them, running around here and there, whether on the boat or on the way to different countries, I found that having these kinds of reminders help me re-center myself. Especially when I was in North Korea, where we can’t speak freely, where society is not free. We always had people monitoring us, which was very strange. But I derived a lot of strength just from looking at something as simple as the Tongil symbol. It gave me so much strength when I was in a land where I couldn’t speak. True Parents, Cheon-bu-mo-nim. The Kingdom of Heaven Is Where God Is We’re very grateful that we’re able to be with True Parents and learn from many new experiences. I really feel that being with True Parents teaches me something very important about the biblical text. When we look at the biblical presence of Christ, I see True Father. We usually imagine Christ to be of the medieval age, which is much softer, very peaceful. But if you look at Scripture, you see that Christ is very active. Of course, historically, Christ is always called a revolutionary. He’s extremely flamboyant. He’s very against the status quo, whether it is deism or Roman powers – truly a revolutionary figure. I find in attending Father and having the work of being with him wherever he goes, that this is how the apostles must have felt when they were chasing around Jesus. As you know, Jesus would suddenly say, “Today we’re going to Galilee,” or “Today we will go to Jordan,” or “Today we’re going to go to Jerusalem.” There’s no convenient, weekly plan, there’s no nice “I know what I’m going to do on Saturday and Sunday and probably Monday.” I have no idea what I will be doing tomorrow. It all depends on how Father moves, where he moves. If he flies out to New Zealand, then we’re off to New Zealand. If he goes to Siberia, we’re also off to Siberia. It’s not always peaches and coconuts. In looking at the scripture, you can see Christ also standing on the front line of the Providence, which is moving rapidly. He’s constantly on the spot, the living presence of the Providence. As you know, when Christ is asked, “Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Where is the Kingdom of God?” we have some translations that say “God is within you.” Another translation could be, “The Kingdom of Heaven is about you,” or “We are in the midst of the Kingdom of Heaven.” I think that translation is quite interesting because it answers the question, “Where is the Kingdom of Heaven?” The Kingdom of Heaven is where Christ is. It’s very simple. That’s where the Kingdom of Heaven is. The Kingdom of Heaven is where God is, where Christ is. So if Christ is in our hearts, then that’s where the Kingdom of Heaven resides. If he’s in our thoughts and words, then those things can be of the Kingdom. For me, one of the biggest challenges when we are tailing True Parents and following them is the spiritual practice. Father doesn’t stop practicing. He doesn’t stop craving God and loving God and serving God and attending God. Just yesterday he asked me to speak at hoon-dok-hwe. I was talking about hoon-dok-hwe and about the many months we’ve been fo