Let’s Be Happy, Thankful and Express Our Gratitude!

Rev. Yasunori Kato

Konko Church of Hirabari

The Spiritual Turning Point of my Father’s Faith

My father, the late Reverend Jonosuke Kato, was the second Head Minister of our church and he passed away at the age of 90 in October 2014.  Father went to be with our Divine Parent (Kami) on the very next day of Ikigami Konko Daijin Grand Ceremony at our church.  He was a Konko minister for 68 years, serving as our church’s head minister for 40 years. 

My father was requested by his aunt, the founding minister of our church, to become her adoptive son, whom she wanted to become the second head minister of the church.  The request was made in 1940 when my father was sixteen years old.  It was obvious that my father’s aunt was asking too much, because my father was a regular teenager without a religious heart in those days.  His parents had no problem, but he, as a young adolescent, had a big problem with this project and he openly showed his reluctance.  My father sensed that his parents were at a loss because of his unwillingness to become his aunt’s adoptive son.  So father presented three conditions that he wanted his aunt to accept at any cost.  The conditions were…

1. Jonosuke doesn’t have to worship Kami.
2. Jonosuke doesn’t succeed the profession of his adoptive mother.
3. If one of Jonosuke’s parents passes away and the other is left all alone, and especially when either his father or mother appears lonely, he and his adoptive mother (his aunt) immediately invite him or her to live with them.

The founding minister replied “All right, Jonosuke.  I will accept all these conditions.  So please come over to this church and become my adoptive child.”  In this way, an adoption between Jonosuke’s aunt and Jonosuke, an atheist himself, was completed.  Our church was officially established in the very next year of this adoption.  Because my father was without a religious heart, all he did in the church was to clean and go shopping.  Seeing how he was doing day in day out, Kami gave a spiritual turning point to my father one day.

In 1944, my father was twenty years old.  He took a health inspection for military conscription.  After taking it, my father was diagnosed that he had tuberculosis.  In those days, suffering from tuberculosis meant receiving a pronouncement of one’s nearing death.  Because of this, my father soon found himself on the verge of despair.  Seeing her adoptive son in deep disappointment, the founding minister gently spoke to the young man, “Will you be all right if death arrives at you while you do nothing about it?  Why don’t you stay alive for some more so you can do things which delight your parents?  Your parents have loved and raised you unconditionally to this day, and you therefore owe so much to them.  You can return to Kami after you do all those positive things for your parents.  Kami gave you life and a body, and Kami has constantly kept you alive.  Kami is the Parent of us all.  Faith is the same as showing respect to your parents.  If you truly want to become a child of filial piety for your parents, start practicing faith right away.  And your life will definitely be saved.”

Because the founding minister sounded so convincing, my father was deeply moved and he responded to her, “I will start to practice faith in Kami today.”  Three months later, his illness was completely cured; He received a grand blessing from Kami.

The founding minister became sick in the early years of her life and the sickness invited her to practice faith in Kami.  After she received a divine blessing with which her illness was cured, she was so deeply moved that she made up her mind to become a Konko minister, saying to herself, “I do not own my life.  I therefore must not live my life just as I want to.  When Kami cured my sickness, Kami saved my life.  My life is a heavenly gift from Kami, and I know I intend to live my life in order to help Kami be pleased.”  My father embraced an aspiration similar to hers, and he entered the Konkokyo Seminary in the following year.

Through the Ten-Year Patience

As a Konko minister, my father made one pledge for his Divine Parent, Kami.  His vow was “I will always say ‘Yes’ to the words of the founding minister of our church.”  He, however, occasionally had to go through challenging moments while trying to keep his own promise with Kami.  At the beginning of our church’s history, we didn’t have enough food to eat: It was soon after World War II ended and everybody had little food in Japan in those days.  At that time, we were living a very tough life, finance-wise.  Although they say “Complaints block Kami’s blessings” in our religion, my father was chronically frustrated with the financially severe life in his church.  One day, he spoke to the founding minister with determination, “Let us close down our church.  I don’t see any good reason why we should be here because we do not have any worshippers.  If I get another job, our financial situation will surely improve.”  The founding minister listened to him patiently and quietly.  She then replied, “Well, let us persevere for ten years from now because I started propagation in this church with considerable effort and pain.  I, on the other hand, will follow your suggestion if things do not get better in ten years from now.”  He cuddled her words, “perseverance for a decade from now,” in his heart and absorbed them as his motivation to hang in there for another ten years.

My father made up his mind to continue his service for Kami at his church.  Kami, however, gave him a further religious “test.”  One day, his real mother, my grandmother, made bota mochi (adzuki bean rice cake) and brought it to the church.  She came over while he was out coincidentally.  My grandmother did this because of her genuine faith in Kami, but additionally, she did so because she knew that her son loved her bota mochi.  At the Mediation Seat, the founding minister asked, “Is this bota mochi for Kami or for Jonosuke?”  Honestly, my grandmother wanted to give the bota mochi to her dearest son and it was her real intention.  She, however, cared about her ‘position,’ and she in fact replied, “It is for Kami.”  Then the founding minister simply responded “I see” and offered the bota mochi to the altar.

When my father came back to church after doing outdoor tasks, he found a nest of boxes on the altar which was familiar to him.  He said to himself merrily, “Mom must have been here.  There is surely bota mochi in the nest of boxes.  I love it.  After a long absence, I will finally get to eat something sweet.”  After a while, the founding minister said “Jonosuke!”  As soon as his name was called, he was sure something wonderful would soon happen and he rushed to her.  He, however, came across an event which he had never expected: the founding minister said to him, “Can you please take this bota mochi to our parent church?”  My father knew that he should not break his pledge with Kami easily, and so he simply replied “Yes.  I will immediately do so” and he took the bota mochi to the parent church.  In fact, he wanted to ask, “Isn’t it the bota mochi my mother brought here for me?”  On his way to the parent church, he shed tears, saying sadly to himself, “They say ill-treating one’s stepchild exists, and it is true.  If my adoptive mother were my real mother, she would not treat me this cruelly.”

Naturally, the relationship between him and the founding minister worsened.  Because our church consists of a modest number of members, their non-smooth relationship was almost an open book to everybody.  Being unable to just watch this grave situation without doing anything about it, one of the church members said to him, “At the occasion of a recent monthly service in our church, you were out for an outdoor errand.  On that day, our head minister talked to me about the bota-mochi story.  You must have been quite sad and disappointed when that incident happened.  Our head minister said to me, ‘I cannot do much for Jonosuke as his parent.  What I can do is inevitably limited.  I, therefore, put more importance on helping Jonosuke become a person who is taken good care of by Kami.’”  My father considered the meaning of his adoptive mother’s words.  He spent a lot of minutes, pondering upon her words.  And he was finally awakened to this important truth: He said to himself, “She understood that what she could do for me was limited.  She also knew that what Kami can do is boundless.  And she wanted me to become a person who can receive divine blessings.  And in order for me to actually do so, she knew that training of patience would be quite important for me.  That’s why she gave me training of patience on that day.”

From that on, he asked the founding minister for Sacred Mediation without hesitation.  Receiving Mediation, he engaged in his spiritual training.  The founding minister referred to “perseverance for ten years” when he made a proposition of closing down their church.  Ten years after this dialogue occurred between them, we, as our church, were able to receive a divine blessing of purchasing land on which our present church building stands.  In the last years of his life my father often taught his church members, “As long as you are in good hands of our Divine Parent, no worries will be necessary.  You will be all right.  You may not be totally satisfied with your present situation, but always look forward to the future.”  This teaching is usually called the “Tale of Bota Mochi” and it is an important foundation of faith practiced by the HirabariChurch’s congregation.

Realizing the Way of Kami and People

My father had his tuberculosis cured through Kami’s blessing.  He, however, remained somewhat weak physically from that on as well, and he often became sick.  In 1979 when my father was 54 years old, he again received a big turning point in his spiritual life.  At one night, he was praying silently at the altar.  That was when he got an intense headache.  It was subarachnoid hemorrhage.  I always knew that my father was a man of patience.  Yet he grimaced with sharp pain in his head at that time.  I was a high school student then, and all I could do was to ask him, “Are you all right, dad?”

On the following day, only 70% of prior-to-surgery (physical) examinations was completed, but my father took a surgery in his head.  It was because doctors in general advise their patients to take a brain surgery within 24 hours since symptoms of subarachnoid hemorrhage arise.  Konko-sama (Spiritual Leader), the head minister of our parent church and many others prayed for his successful surgery.  Largely thanks to their sincere prayers, my father received Kami’s blessing.

My father underwent several dangerous moments following the brain surgery, but he got so much well on the day of leaving the hospital that the doctor in charge was impressed enough to remark, “Mr. Kato, I must confess to you that I cannot but believe in deities after observing you closely.  You know, I had been an atheist my whole life until I became responsible for you.”  Just as the doctor stated, my father had no sequelae afterwards.  Following this serious disease, he cheerfully said, “I may have died of this disease, and that possibility wasn’t anything but small.  I am here now because Kami literally saved my life and prolonged it for me.  Because of this, I want to live my life from now for the sake of trying to please Kami much more than ever.”  Proving his own words, he obviously enjoyed his goyo (service for Kami) day in day out.

At the Mediation Seat, my father often imparted to his church members, “It is important that you are pleased with, are appreciative to and express your gratitude for whatever may happen to you.  If you can do this, you will be able to receive Kami’s blessings for any sort of events or things.”  This is how my father taught his church members as to how to get to true salvation.  My interpretation of this teaching is as follows: “The condition we must satisfy in order to receive Kami’s blessings is to truly understand the meaning of ‘whatever may happen.’  Things happen to us, but not every event is “nice.”  Sometimes, we find it hard to gladly accept events when they have negative impact on us.  If we are not patient with those “negative,” “inconvenient” events enough, being selfish, then we will end up understanding and receiving the events with a human-centered heart.  Whatever may happen to us, Kami makes all of those events happen.  No events are wrong as long as Kami takes care of them.  Because of this, being pleased with, being appreciative to and express gratitude for whatever may happen becomes a sound foundation of one’s faith.”  I am training myself over and over again in order to put my understanding of this teaching into actions.

My father always had enormous joy of following the Konko Faith which saved him over and over again.  Therefore, he constantly prayed, “Please allow us to hand our faith to our descendants, this is the biggest blessing from You, also being able to express our utmost gratitude to You.”  And I am therefore sure that I will be truly succeeding my father’s faith and helping realize the Way of Kami and people if I engage myself in goyo and try to please Kami day in day out, practicing faith based upon the concept, “being pleased with, being appreciative to and expressing gratitude for whatever may happen.”