《論盡神學》--每日神糧
十月廿三日
「他們將要分裂:父親反對兒子，兒子反對父親；母親反對女兒，女兒反對母親；婆母反對兒媳，兒媳反對婆母。」
（路12:53）
在社會、政治和文化範疇內，一個群體可以是「分裂」的，相反的狀態就是「統一」。統一的群體能成就大業；四分五裂的，甚至是一盤散沙般的群體，遲早會被吞併，在歷史上消失。為了長治久安，有些掌權者不惜消耗資源，把自己所屬的群體，維持在「統一」的狀態，消耗量與「分裂」的程度成正比。四比一容易統一，三比二就難得多了！只有一小撮成員堅持與其他人不同的意見、信念和行動，要達到「統一」是不費吹灰之力的。其實「統一」與「分裂」只是程度問題，是表面的現象，是否須要消耗大量內部資源，以達到表面上的統一，表面上的劃一，則見仁見智了。
所謂「不同道不相為謀」（論語‧衛靈公），與他們「割席」嗎？繼續保持對話嗎？很明顯，前者不可取，因為斷絕了將來合作的可能，永遠失去共融的機會。可是，繼續保持對話是雙方也願意纔可以進行，不可能是單方面自言自語的。那麼，有甚麼方法可以吸引對方，讓他們願意或者有興趣繼續交談呢？這纔是我們應該用心思考的。
主耶穌的說話（路12:53），表面上是負面的。但細心默想之後，便會發現是「同性相拒」的因素，加劇了「代溝」上的差別！試想想，通常父親疼愛女兒，母親對兒子偏心。所以，請不要灰心，能善用這些「異性相吸」的因素，繼續交談以達到共融，又有何難呢？
天主保祐！
論盡神學
圖片鳴謝：grok.com
“A father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
(Luke 12:53)
In social, political and cultural realms, a social entity can be divided. Its opposite is being unified. A unified social entity is capable of doing big projects while divided ones will soon or later be conquered and will vanish in human history. In order to sustain lengthy stability, some people in power are willing to pour in all resources without reservation to keep the entity in a unified state. The consumption of resources is proportional to the degree of division. Four to one is easy to unify while three to two shall be more difficult! When only a few dissidents insist on different opinions, convictions and actions, it is a piece of cake to unify. Indeed, being divided or unified is only a matter of degree and is superficial. There is no hard and fixed criterion how much resource should be consumed to keep a unified look.
Of course Christians do not seek division. They advocate the “communion in the Lord”. Communion does not demand uniform opinions and actions. It only requires all parties to respect individual differences. Mutual respect does not consume resources. So why not? Mother Nature teaches us that bio-diversity is good. A species without any mutation will go extinct easily and incest will augment hereditary diseases etc. This is the law of nature! Only by maintaining diversity within a social entity can they survive environmental changes. Then, how should Christians deal with those who are not in the Lord, viz. those who don’t believe in Christ or have not yet believed in Christ?
Confucius says, “Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans for one another” (Wei Ling Gong, The Analects). Then, shall we severe ties with them? Or should we continue dialogues? Obviously the former is not a good option because it severs future cooperation and we will lose all opportunities of communion. However, keeping dialogues is a mutual effort. Otherwise it will only be a monologue. Then we should think more deeply what attracts the other parties to continue the dialogues.
Superficially, the words of Lord Jesus (Luke 12:53) is negative. But when we meditate more, we will discover that the principle of “like repels like” amplifies the differences in generation gaps! Think about it, usually fathers are lenient to daughters and mothers show favouritism towards sons. Thus, cheers! It won’t be difficult to make good use of the principle of “opposites attract” to continue dialogues until we attain communion.
God bless!
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