I should like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for coming from near and far to attend the Spring Grand Service of the 163rd year of the Teaching. As we have just concluded the performance of the Service, I want to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you. May I have your attention for a short while.

As you are well aware, the Spring Grand Service commemorates the day of origin when Oyasama withdrew from physical life out of the deep parental love that sought to hasten the spiritual growth of all humankind. The significance of performing the Grand Service in commemoration of that day of origin, January 26, is not only to make God the Parent spirited through our Service performance but also to bring to mind the circumstances surrounding that day of origin and to ponder over them ever more deeply, thereby enabling us to discover the Parent's intention and renew our pledge to respond to the parental heart. Consequently, far from being an occasion for mourning or sorrowing over the past, this is a day on which we are to settle the mind to serve as Oyasama's instruments for the days to come.

The Life of Oyasama's final chapter, entitled "The Portals Opened," describes the tense situation during the days leading up to Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life. Throughout this chapter, from beginning to end, we find Oyasama urging the followers to perform the Service. Knowing that the people around Her were hesitant to perform the Service out of their fear of the authorities and concern over Her physical safety, Oyasama even went to the extent of using Her physical affliction to convince them to perform the Service. Never veering in the slightest from the Truth, She took pains to instruct these confused and worried people until they were finally able to make up their minds to perform the Service. Having at last seen their firm resolve in performing the Service openly in broad daylight, even at the risk of their lives, She withdrew from physical life.

I cannot help but be moved by the description presented in this chapter, especially by the dialogue that took place between Oyasama and the first Shinbashira early on the morning of January 13, when he presented himself at Oyasama's bedside and confided his anxieties to Her. This dialogue between Parent and child makes me keenly aware of the Parent's deep intention that is embodied in the Service.

The fifty-year Divine Model of Oyasama, in one sense, represents the process of completing the Service. In the Ofudesaki, Oyasama urges the performance of the Service most strongly in Part XV, where the phrase "forty-three years ago" occurs repeatedly. For example, we read:

This talk is solely about the great test from forty-three years ago.

What do you think this test is about? It is solely about the preparations to hasten the Service.

Ofudesaki XV:50-51

These verses indicate that the completion of the Service was something that the Parent had been wishing to accomplish ever since the founding of the Teaching in 1838.

Then, in Part III, we read:

On the eleventh, the nine will be gone and hardship forgotten. I await the twenty-sixth of the first month.

By that time, the core will be settled and greed forgotten. Let all performers assemble and prepare for the Service.

Ofudesaki III:73-74

Oyasama thus indicated January 26 as the date by which She would make all arrangements for the Service--which included identifying the Jiba of Origin, undertaking the construction of the Kanrodai as the focal point for the Service, taking in the Shinbashira as the core of the path, and making preparations to advance spiritual growth and assemble the Service performers. Indeed, the lunar-calendar date of January 26, 1887, may be seen as the time limit She set for completing the Service.

When we consider all these things, it becomes easier for us to understand why Oyasama was so insistent on urging the followers to perform the Service, even going to the extent of guiding them through Her physical affliction, which ultimately led to Her withdrawal from physical life at the end of the path of the Divine Model.

The Service primarily refers to the Kagura Service, which is performed at the Jiba with the Kanrodai as center. In addition, however, churches in each district perform the monthly service by receiving the truth of the Kagura Service. By performing it in unity of mind and in high spirits so as to have God the Parent be spirited, the churches are able to receive ever more blessings.

The completion of the Service is not confined to the completion of the Service of the Kanrodai. It includes the thorough performance of the service at all our churches, which are connected with Church Headquarters as a single breath. Churches, which are to receive the truth of the Jiba, ought to be established throughout the world, and the service ought to be performed joyously at each of those churches, not only at the Jiba. That is what God the Parent wishes for. Indeed, the primary task of a church is to perform the service.

Even if you cannot perform the service adequately at present because of a lack of performers, you ought to perform it spiritedly, setting your sights on one day assembling all the necessary performers--including musical instrument players--who will perform it in unity of mind. Surely God the Parent will accept your service performance for what it is. On the other hand, even if your church happens to be replete in terms of form, I want you to reflect constantly on whether the substance is really there.

A short while ago, I mentioned that chapter 10 of The Life of Oyasama is devoted to portraying Oyasama's efforts to urge the followers to perform the Service. In a sense, this indicates that the final days described in that chapter were characterized by the conflict between the path of single-heartedness with God and human thinking. The difficulties and agonies experienced by the followers at that time are unimaginable for those of us who are presently able to perform the service without having to defer to anyone. Yet, despite the difficult circumstances facing those followers, Oyasama continually pressed them to perform the Service, thereby indicating the basic stance of mind that is appropriate for followers of the path and guiding them toward putting single-heartedness with God into practice. Oyasama taught these followers:

Sah, sah, because Tsukihi exists, the world exists. Because the world exists, things exist. Because things exist, your bodies exist. Because your bodies exist, law exists. Although the law exists, to resolve your minds is primary.

Osashizu, January 13, 1887

This passage clearly shows us the eternally unchanging basis for all our ponderings.

Though we live in fortunate circumstances at present, we may also say that the conflict between our practice of faith and our human thinking manifests itself in various forms in our daily lives. Compared with what the early followers went through, of course, our difficulties must be rather insignificant. Nonetheless, we manage to find an endless number of things that cause us to hesitate in practicing our faith--for example, our work, family needs, social obligations, worries about keeping up appearances, or even self-serving considerations.

In the context of individual churches, we may perhaps say that performing the service is the touchstone of a Yoboku's spiritual growth. I want head ministers and other leading members of churches to spare no effort in working with the followers so that as many Yoboku as possible might attend the monthly services as well as perform the dance with hand movements and play the musical instruments. This will naturally lead to spiritedness and unity of mind, which will be accepted by God the Parent.

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