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)