PDC-11: Why not a Good Levite?

PDC-11: Why not a Good Levite?

 

In the previous article, we saw that the Samaritan was transformed into the Good Samaritan as a result of his compassion towards the wounded man.

 

For a second, lets ask us a question. " Why not a Good Levite?" or in other words "Why didn't the Levite help the wounded man?"

 

The obvious answer is that he did not have a compassionate heart.

 

God created us in his image. That creation surely had inherited at least a part of HIS compassion. In the journey of mankind, where did the Levite loose his compassion?

 

The story did not explicitly say that the Levite did not have compassion. It is our calculated guess and hence we cannot be 100% sure of it.

 

Since we do not know for sure, let's give the benefit of doubt to the Levite. Could there be different reason why the Levite did not help the man? Was the Levite once upon a time a compassionate man? Could any of his previous experiences been the cause for him to be less compassionate? Could he have tried to help a similar person (a thief acting as a victim) who mugged and hurt the Levite previously?

 

How does previous experiences affect our response to the calls for charity in today's world?

 

Let's look at such an angle in today's world. When a tragedy strikes, we wholeheartedly open our hearts and valets. We volunteer, we pray for the victims, the organizations working to help them. After few days, we hear a report that the money we donated has been misused and fraud hit its peak and the real victims rarely got any of your help.

 

Our morale and our charity spirit sinks to the rock bottom, our eyes tend to close to the real need, our compassion fades out.

 

The next time a need comes, our past experiences haunt us and we keep moving miles away from charity.

 

It would not be an understatement if someone said, "Charity has many road blocks?" What do we do when we face roadblocks: Give up or Attempt to overcome it.

 

The gift of eternal life went only to the neighbor that helped the wounded man. It did not consider the reason for not helping the wounded man. 

 

On one hand we must not give up, on the other hand the organizations have a duty to do everything to ensure that charity spirit is kept alive.

 

Before we look at the roadblocks, we will look at the phases of charity. In the next few articles, we will look at how charity projects and organizations can help build the charity spirit in us. These steps can rule out the possibility that the modern day Levite lost the gift of eternal life not because of the hard lessons he learned from his previous experiences. This makes the lack of a compassionate heart the only reason why the Levite did not help the wounded man and ending up loosing the gift of eternal life.

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:

 

PDC-12: The Traditional Charity Life Cycle

PDC-13: The PDC Life Cycle

 

Thanks,

Rajesh Vargheese

St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

(Currently from Kottayam, Kerala)

PDC-9: The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan

PDC-9: The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan

 

Let's continue to look at the things that the Samaritan did that were different from the previous two travelers on the way to Jericho. These were the actions that probably transformed the 'Samaritan' to the 'Good Samaritan'.

 

For the actions 1-5, please visit http://www.peopledrivencharity.blogspot.com/ or the ICON archives. (PDC-8)

 

6. The Samaritan sacrificed his comfort for serving the wounded man. The Samaritan was probably traveling by using donkey as his vehicle. He used his donkey to transport the wounded man. It's highly likely that Samaritan would have walked till the inn supporting the wounded man since both cannot travel on the donkey.

 

7. The Samaritan provided the mid term support for the wounded man. He not only helped the man with his immediate need, but also found a place for the wounded person. He entrusted the wounded man with the innkeeper. He provided the needed resources to the innkeeper to take care of the wounded man.

 

8. The Samaritan pledges his continuous support by telling the innkeeper that he will reimburse any expense that he incurs in addition to the initial expense. This amounts to the long-term support to the wounded man.

 

9. The Samaritan entrusted the wounded man (after taking care of him) and went on his travel. He did not give up because he could not take care of the wounded person full-time. He provides what he could, and gets the help of others. (Like the innkeeper)

 

10. The Samaritan had a genuine service mentality. He did not do good to show off. He was away from his hometown. There was no one in that place for him to impress. He did not know the wounded man, yet he invested money, time and his resources to serve the stranger.

 

The Good Samaritan reminds us not to close our eyes to the needs. He reminds us to help any person, not just the people we know. His actions remind us of the Christian within us. He was more of Christian than the priest who was probably running to offer sacrifice in the church.

In any situation, we have many choices. Each of these characters made their own choice. The Samaritan made the choice to be the 'Good Samaritan'. How do we join hands with?

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:

 

PDC-10: The Good Samaritan: The inheritor of the Eternal Life

PDC-11: Why not a Good Levite?

 

Thanks,

Rajesh Vargheese

St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

(Currently from Kottayam, Kerala)

PDC-8: En route Jerusalem to Jericho

PDC-8: En route Jerusalem to Jericho

The Holy Bible, the source of divine wisdom is also the first book that introduced us to the compassionate heart of the common man. 

One of the best passages that portray the compassionate heart of the common man is the passage of the Good Samaritan. (St. Luke 10: 25-37)

St. Luke 10:30 "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead."

The scene is a man lying on the ground and hoping for some one to help him.

A priest passed by and saw the wounded man. The priest ignored the man and walked on the other side of the road.

Later, a Levite passed by and saw the wounded man and he also ignored the cry of the wounded man.

Later, a Samaritan passed by and saw the wounded man. He took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.

Let's closely look at the things (10 points) that the Samaritan did that was different from the previous two travelers.

1. The Samaritan did not ignore the cry of the helpless man. He faced the unexpected situation.

2. The Samaritan was on a travel. He took a break from his travel to help a stranger in an unknown place. This break, would have delayed him reaching his destination. The notion of being delayed for his trip did not prevent him from doing well to the wounded man. He invested his time to serve the wounded man.

3. The Samaritan empathized with the wounded man. He had pity and compassion for the wounded man. He transformed his compassion into action of helping the man.

4. The Samaritan unconditionally volunteered to help the wounded man by going to the wounded man and bandaged his wounds. Nobody had asked him to do it.

5. The Samaritan provided short-term relief by pouring oil and wine on the wounds of the man. The Samaritan shared his resources with the person in need. The Samaritan was on a travel, and hence he definitely had a purpose for the oil and wine he was carrying with him, but he realized that there was a greater purpose and need for it to be used to save a dying soul. The notion of running out of resources during the trip did not prevent him from doing well to the wounded man.

6-10. In the next article 'The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan'

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:
PDC-09: The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan
PDC-10: The Good Samaritan: The inheritor of the Eternal Life

 

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX
(Currently from Kottayam, Kerala)

PDC-7: The Boundaries and the Disclaimers

PDC-7: The Boundaries and the Disclaimers

Every time, even at the slightest sense of the word 'review' or 'change', we start to think: One more rebel is born. Attack him... :)

Before we dive into the detailed discussions, let us define the boundaries of this exercise.

The sole purpose of this exercise is to focus our energies to help our charitable organizations on its march towards being an ideal charitable organization in spite of the distractions. Any comments that are made must be looked at from this perspective. Our victory is not in our ability to cover up our inequities, but rather in confronting and making the needed changes.

This series will use references of previous ICON postings. We are not interested in ridiculing neither any person nor any initiative, and any references made would be to help us understand the current state of affairs and to enlist your suggestions.

I by no means am an expert in this subject and hence feel free to correct me all along.

The next question many of you might have is: Is this Almayavedhi Version 2? Definitely not. While I sincerely appreciate some of the efforts and initiatives of Almayavedhi in bringing up openness in our church structure, I personally disagree with the wordings and the language they use to present the facts. In my opinion the words they use to express the dissatisfaction with our bishops are too harsh and disrespectful. We might disagree with certain actions of our bishops, but at the end of the day, they are our much respected bishops. Their one action must not degrade our respect for them and must not nullify their sacrifices for us. I believe we can express our feelings in better words than those used by Almayavedhi.

As part of this exercise, we want to ensure that we do not use any derogatory personal attacks on our clergy/bishops. We can always (and we will) provide constructive feedback to our leaders about their actions in a much better language. If I ever break this rule, please forgive me and point it out to me since it is surely not intentional. 
 
We do not endorse or represent any specific charity as part of this series.

The usage 'compassionate common man' is a generic usage and includes the compassionate women as well :)

To be continued...

The next two topics:
PDC-08: En route Jerusalem to Jericho
PDC-09: The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

(Currently from Kottayam, Kerala)