How to Inherit Eternal life? The Good Samaritan. Sunday Mass 14/7/13. Gospel, Luke 10:25-37.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan and its preamble if not properly understood by Christians for its profound spiritual revelation of Christ-Consciousness, will be the death-knell of Christianity. They explain why salvation is not attained through the worldly mind or by the worldly self-ego but through the spirit-consciousness and by the spirit. They explain why the Twin Commandments is about filial piety and love and compassion for the Spirit Father and for one's spirit siblings. They explain why salvation is not found in the literal or worldly understanding of the scriptures but through the spiritual insight into what is beyond the worldly words and human language of the scriptures. It is not what the Law says but what the Law means. It is not the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. They explain why just as the Jews got it all wrong; the Christians (the new Jews) (except perhaps for the Jesuits) also got it all wrong; and the Moslems (the new Christians) (except perhaps for the Sufis) also got it all wrong. The Jews misunderstood the Old Abrahamic Law; the Christians equally misunderstood the New Abrahamic Law; and the Moslems are equally entrenched in a literal worldly ritualistic incantative reading of the New New Abrahamic Law. When will the faithful go beyond worldly faith and worldly good works and be 'reborn' in the spirit? When will they be baptised by water (cleansed of their worldly mortal mind) and be baptised in the spirit (regain their eternal spiritconsciousness)? When will they clean the 'unclean spirit'? For this is the Achilles Heel of Christianity, not understanding that salvation is through the Christ-Consciousness in us and not through worldly rituals or ecumenical study of the scriptures. Say, Today's Gospel Reading from Luke 10:25-37 is truly the most profound passage in the Gospels as it encapsulates the entire teachings of Jesus Christ. I cried silent tears of joy when I heard the reading in church. I thanked God for revealing to me the full glory of his amazing grace. So gloriously clear and revealing and comforting in pure simplicity is today's gospel reading that it is so surprising that its true meaning and significance is lost from sight from so many for such a long time. All it takes is for us mortals to surrender our worldly analytical mind and just allow the vacuity of our selfless eternal spirit, our Christ-Consciousness, to listen to and be filled by the 'spirit' of the words of Jesus. The Parable of the Good Samaritan brings back memories of Law School days and of Lord Atkin's 'Neighbour Principle' in the Law of Torts that he enunciated in Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) All ER 1, the case about the snail in the bottle. Lord Atkin was born in Brisbane, Australia by the way. The primacy of this 'Neighbour Principle' still stands - that we are liable in tort for negligence towards our 'neighbours', people that are proximate, not necessarily geographically but common sense wise, within our reasonable foresight. I raised my legal background because today's gospel reading about a lawyer seeking to test Jesus' spiritual credentials. In biblical times, the Jews had the Law or the Old Law as we Christians would term it; just like Moslems today have their Shariah Law. Disputes were therefore argued and settled before the Priests and Elders. The biblical lawyers were therefore religious scholars or Scribes who acted as advocates for their clients. They were experts on the Scriptures or the Old Law. As lawyers or religious scholars or Scribes, whether they be Pharisees or Sadducees, Jesus was annoyed and upset with them, in that they have led God's chosen people down the wrong path of worldly rituals and strict manner and form and totally missing the substance and spirit of the Commandments and Scriptures. The gospels abound with passages wherein Jesus derided the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees wholesale. Conversely, the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees equally considered Jesus to be an illiterate upstart and imposter.

Pause for a moment however to reflect on who the modern day Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees might be? Who are those who are trying to create an hypocritical religious law and order on Earth for appearance sake rather than to have an immutable God's Law for the heart or the soul or spirit? Who is the 'one' being saved and going to heaven? What is spiritual salvation anyway? How should God's Law be practised? Why do we pray emulating or demonstrating before others? Refer to Matthew 6:5-8 - where Jesus said - 'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.' In other words, church attendance is for communion and fellowship but 99% of spiritual practice should be conducted in private and in silent reflection and contemplation and 'heart to heart' conversation with God! We have start learning to 'think' and 'see' and 'speak' through our spiritual heart! We have to meditate and mediate and reconciliate with God in our spirit! Do what a filial son will do out of filial piety when he is away from home. The starting point is that we think and feel concern for our father's welfare and well-being. Are we expecting our father to continue to spoon feed us and work for us like a slave when a filial son should be attending to his father's welfare and well-being? To guide things along let me first explain that Jesus did not come with a New Law to replace the Old Law. In Matthew 5:17-20 - Jesus said - 'Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose is achieved. Therefore, anyone who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you, if your uprightness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven.' Jesus came to explain that the eternal Law or God's Law or the Ultimate Reality cannot be explained or interpreted or analysed or understood in worldly terms; that you cannot study the scriptures ad verbatim like text books, and learn them off by rote, and expect to attain spiritual wisdom. Nonetheless, spiritual wisdom are contained in the scriptures, just that 'The kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.' (Matthew 13:33); and thereby you need spiritual insight and not worldly sight or a worldly mind. Spiritual insight requires clear sight from 'within' rather than clear sight from 'without'. God is not in or of this world. Refer to John 17:16 where Jesus said - 'They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.' and John 18:36 - 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight,' That is why Jesus exhorted in Matthew 23:13 - 'But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in (themselves).' and in Matthew 23:26 - 'You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.' The 'kingdom of heaven' is of course in us; it is the spirit son of God in us. In that sense God is in us and also that we are eternal spirits 'lost' in our worldly mortal selves and waiting to be 'found'.We have to go within ourselves to find our 'spirit' self! There are Christians who deny that Christ's teachings are esoteric; but what else can it be, when Jesus spoke in parables and was upfront about it? Isn't it parabolic or esoteric when we are told that little children are guaranteed the kingdom of Heaven but not the adults (Mark 10:14)? This is confirmed by what Jesus said in Luke 10:21 - I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent (i.e. the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees) and revealed them to babes This is how spiritual matters must and should be -

'transcendental'!, for surely God's works and language must be more complicated than nuclear science! That it is beyond human worldly knowledge or understanding or else our nuclear scientists can and will start to play God! Refer Matthew 13:34-35 - In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: 'I will speak to you in parables, unfold what has been hidden since the foundation of the world'. How can we deny what is prophesied? In fact Jesus explained why he had to speak in parables in Matthew 13:13-16 - "This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear". As lawyers we say that it is not the letter of the law that matters but the spirit of the law; and that is basically what today's discourse about the Good Samaritan is about; and what salvation is about; getting to the 'spirit' of things, and specifically, getting to the 'spirit' in us. Now, allow me to provide some further background ingredients that would facilitate this discourse on Luke 10:25-37. Earlier we noted that Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 - 'For I tell you, if your uprightness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven.' What is this 'uprightness' of the scribes and Pharisees that fails to meet the threshold to get to heaven? Surely this must have something to do with pride and arrogance considered to be the deadliest of sins - 'Thou shall have no idol before me'!Instead of concerning themselves with being humble and meek and subservient in the spirit, the Jews had become egoistic, self-righteous. They were too much into the 'hype' of being the 'chosen race' and being the people of the Law. Every snake has a 'head'. And the 'head' of this serpent was the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees. Remember what Jesus said to the Sadducees (who believed that the human persona will go to heaven, that is they do not believe in spirit resurrection), when they asked about the woman who married seven brothers one after another after the other had died in Matthew 22:29? They were testing Jesus as to whether he knew what the kingdom of Heaven was. Jesus answered them, You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.' It appears that most Christians remain like the Sadducees. Please note: Nobody in this world is 'going' to heaven! The eternal spirit son of God or angel of God that is in (rather than going to) Heaven, in my case, is some eternal 'spirit', who is already there and never 'moved', who had an experience (in a trance or dream or hallucination state of the spiritual consciousness) as Vince Cheok, and perhaps among other experiences, as Ali Baba, Attila the Hun, Kunta Kinte, Mowgli the Jungle Boy, Winnie the Pooh, Genghiz the Khan, Mickey the Mouse, Simba the Lion, St. Joan of Arc and perhaps even Robin Hood! Remember also what Jesus said in John 6:63 - 'It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life-giving.' Jesus' words like the Law and the scriptures are 'life-giving' but they do not profit the human body or worldly self-ego or self-persona. In ejusdem generis terms, we are not dealing with human beings, words, trees or rivers or mountains, all the phenomena that we worldly see, but the 'spirit' that is present within the human beings, words, trees or rivers or mountains. See beyond the illusory exterior visage; for there is no 'marriage' or reproductive or dietary or toiletry functions or erstwhile worldly phenomena or affairs in heaven! Refer Matthew 22:30. The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:18-23) deals with reaping what you sow and reap or the resultant cause and effect in the world of phenomena for the 'unclean spirit' as karmic consequence. Refer Matthew 12:43-45 about the 'unclean spirit'. I have dealt with that topic in many earlier discourses. Salvation is about 'cleaning' the spirit, so to speak. When the 'lost' sheep is found in the quagmire, it requires cleaning before it is taken back to greener pastures!

Nothing moves in heaven. Eternity as eternal bliss has no necessity for movement of any kind. Even the mind or consciousness does not move, as there is no need for 'thought' of any kind! There is no worry and nothing to be concerned about in eternal bliss! Accordingly, salvation is of 'cleansing' of the 'unclean' spirit son of God. It is 'saving', in the sense of finding what is 'lost' and not the granting of immortality to a mortal being. Eternal Adam before the Fall consequent to the Original Sin is after his fall merely temporarily 'lost' in his own web of deceit of false self-ego, of making an idol of himself, in his mortal worldly Adam, going up and down Jacob's Ladder, until his karmic consequences wear out from his reaping what he sows in each existence. Again, I reiterate, that 'lost' is only an experience analogously in a trance or dream or hallucination state of the spiritual consciousness. Eternal spirits do not physically get lostThere is no space or time in 'eternity'! We must first fully appreciate and understand that salvation is of the spirit son of God. This is vital to grasping what this discourse about the Good Samaritan is all about.The human personality or personam is not going anywhere. It will die and that is it; end of story. There will not be another Vince Cheok. We are all 'kangaroos'; we can never walk backwards! You will not find eternal life per se from the scriptures, no matter how thoroughly you read, how well you master, and how acknowledgeable you are of the scriptures! This is why Jesus said in John 5:39-44 - 'You pore over the scriptures, believing that in them you can find eternal life; it is these scriptures that testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me to receive life! Human glory means nothing to me. Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you. I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else should come in his own name you would accept him. How can you believe, since you look to each other for glory and are not concerned with the glory that comes from the one God?' Jesus is saying that worldly ritualistically following the literal letter of the Old Law or New Law will not give give you immortality. Salvation as in the rebirthing of the eternal spirit in you requires that you receive the Christ-Consciousness like in the charging up of a dead battery. Salvation is not about the worldly being as in 'human glory' or immortality of your mortal being! To be reborn in the spirit is about loving and returning to the son of God spirit in you. Humans advising humans on what is salvation or immortality of the human identity is only glorifying each others worldly intellect and false self-ego rather than the glory of the eternal spirit within us. Let us commence our discourse on Luke 10:25-37 - 'And now a lawyer, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and, to test him, asked, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?' He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.' Jesus said to him, 'You have answered right, do this and life is yours.' But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbour?' In answer Jesus said, 'A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of bandits; they stripped him, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveller who came on him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said, "Look after him, and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have." Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?' He replied, 'The one who showed pity towards him.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do the same yourself.' ' You will notice that the lawyer here the Luke Gospel, unlike the lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40, asked Jesus immediately about how to go about attaining eternal life. In the Matthew Gospel situation the lawyer asked Jesus - 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and

the Prophets too.' In the Matthew Gospel case Jesus was asked directly what the Law is and he stated what the Law is. Jesus was not asked what the 'spirit' of the Law is! For that had to be expounded by way of parables! The lawyer in Luke Gospel asked about 'eternal life'; to which Jesus cleverly turned the table around and asked he lawyer - 'What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?' When this other lawyer came back with the same Twin Commandments, he was similarly stating what the Law is! But when Jesus replied to him, 'You have answered right, do this and life is yours.', Jesus gave a 'twin-edged sword' a reply that the lawyer failed to grasp or comprehend. The lawyer's answer was literally correct but to 'do this and (eternal) life is yours' required that the lawyer knew the 'spirit' of the Law; and in fact that he be himself 'reborn in the spirit'. But as we say, the lawyer was still like a 'katak the bawah tempurong' (frog under the coconut shell in Malay); for worldly seeing he could not see, and worldly hearing he could not hear, nor worldly reading and knowing he scriptures could he understand. Let us return to the correct literal answer the Twin Commandments - 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.' In last week's discourse about 'Shalom' I wrote quite lengthily about 'Love', so I shall only go over the key features of spiritual love as envisaged in the Twin Commandments. I begin by reiterating that to be a Christian at 'heart' you have to be 'compassionate' otherwise you make nonsense of what Jesus said in Matthew 25:35-36 - "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me." To be 'compassionate' you have to 'give' or 'let go' as the circumstances dictate. To 'give' as in charity or almsgiving and to 'let go' as in not hating or to forgive. To cut it short, the Good Samaritan was 'good' because he was compassionate! Who do you think the man who was robbed, beaten up and left half-dead could be? Allegorically he is none other than Christ in Matthew 25:35-36! Are not most of us all suffering through our daily toils and tribulations 'robbed, beaten up and left half-dead', in gross despair and desperation for help? Who will be our Good Samaritan as a neighbour? Who can we be a Good Samaritan as a neighbour to? Secondly, we need to have filial love and piety. Refer to the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) and what Jesus commanded in John 15:9-12 - 'I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete. This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.' How do you love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul? As a worldly self-ego it is impossible no matter how hard you try! The only possible worldly exception or avenue to achieve this 1st Commandment is the Chinese Confucianist and Taoist and Buddhist practice of Filial Piety. But even as Chinese we had to be indoctrinated from very young so that we ingrained to revere and honour and be filial to our parents and ancestors. Why do the Chinese refer to God as Tian Kung or Heavenly Father? Which branch of Noah's sons are we descended from? This is not the occasion for such biblical research. All I am saying that the Chinese as a branch from Noah is still practising the filial piety spiritual form of worship of the Spirit Father; whereas our long distant cousins the Jews are all tied up with false worldly self-ego and seeking immortality of this false worldly self-ego. As Chinese we know that our love for parents in terms of filial piety is love that transcends worldly physical or sensual love. Our filial love for our siblings is thereby an extension of our filial piety, reverence, honour, love, duty, and responsibility for our parents. The term 'neighbour' in the Twin Commandments has nothing to do with the people next door or people of the same tribe or 'chosen people' as the Jews envisage. The Jews still behave the same way, but now substituting the Moslems for the Samaritans. Our neighbours are in fact our

'spirit' siblings! That is what John 15:9-12 is all about. We are all in our 'spirit' - eternal spirit sons of God the Spirit Father! If you do not love God the Spirit Father, why would you long to go home as the lost Prodigal Son. If we do not have filial piety as Chinese why do we return every new year to visit our parents and pay respect to our ancestors? If we do not love our neighbours (spirit siblings) like the Good Samaritan how are we going to explain to our Spirit Father that we left our fallen brother behind in the gutter? As mentioned in Luke 15:4 even if one single sheep in a hundred is lost, would you not still search for it? Allegorically the Good Samaritan is Christ. Why? He said so. He commanded us to love another, the way he loved us. So he loved us as the Good Samaritan, because we could have been the chap robbed and beaten up by the robbers and left for dead in the gutter! Thirdly we need to have spiritual love that transcends human emotions of attraction or aversion. And this is critical to why we differentiate the Jewish Old Law from the Christian New Law, even though the Law had and has always been the Law; just that the Jews had been and still are embedded in worldly pride and ego and self-righteousness. And the Christians, the New Jews are heading the same way! For are not we Christians embedded in self-righteousness, e.g. that only Christians go to heaven etc.! I need only refer to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-48 to rest my case - 'You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.' Please read this passage intensely for its profound truth! God is like the sunshine and the rain. God is not really concerned with our worldly identities or personalities; or about our worldly deeds and misdeeds; for all that would surely be accurately accounted for by the Immutable Law if You Reap what You Sow. We need to be worldly good not for our worldly being but to cleanse our 'unclean spirit' in the sense of extricating our 'spirit' from perpetually going 'up and down' Jacob's Ladder. In this sense, allegorically speaking, our worst 'enemy', from our 'spirit son of God' point of view is ourselves; i.e. our worldly false self-ego son of man, son of Adam self. It need not have been a Samaritan portrayed in the role of the of compassionate soul. This is just a reflection of the biblical times of Jesus. Then the Jews hated the Samaritans as their sworn enemies. An enemy to be hated was therefore parochially represented by the Samaritan. Remember the incident when Jesus was thirsty and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water at the well. The woman was surprised and asked Jesus why as a Jew, he would ask her, a Samaritan, an enemy, for a drink. Jesus even preached the gospel to her! In Luke 9:54-56 we read about the disciples asking Jesus for permission to call down fire from heaven to destroy some Samaritan homes but he refused and rebuked them. These are illustrations of 'loving your enemy'. In modern day terms, the Good Samaritan could be a Good Moslem or Good Hindu or Good Buddhist. The point is that when you love an enemy, there is no longer an enemy. You have to be 'neighbourly' to love your 'neighbours'! Conversely, the use of the 'priest' and the 'Levite' were handy devices to depict as a matter of contrast the self-righteous 'I am holier than thou' and 'I am chosen by God to go to Heaven' proud and arrogant egoistic attitude of the Jews (and the New Jews (Christians)); their literal 'letter of the law' rather than the 'spirit of the law' form of spiritual practice; and their hypocrisy of 'not walking the talk' of the scriptures. But allegorically, it really denotes anyone who lacks compassion and is also self-righteous, proud and arrogant and egoistic. It is just a mirror for all of us, you and me, to reflect on our relationship with God. Are we filial sons and fulfilling our duties and responsibilities to our Spirit Father? Are we glorifying our Father rather than glorifying ourselves? Remember how we were taught to attribute all our successes and achievements to our parents but to blame any failures on ourselves for not bringing honour but instead shame to the family? So do not start any anti-Semitism feeling in you. In various elements and perspectives

we are all races and nationalities and all bias and prejudice in one in us at different manners and times. We are all the same, because we are human! We are all creatures of habit and also byproducts of our people and environment. I am leaving the most important aspect of today's discourse to the last. It is about cultivating or learning like a Boy Scout or Girl Guide to 'Be Prepared'. I will just list out the relevant Parables: The Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25:14-30 The Parable of the Wedding Feast - Matthew 22:1-14 The Parable of Oil Lamps - Matthew 25:1-12 The Parable of the Division of the Goats and Sheep on Judgement Day - Matthew 25:31-46 'Be Prepared'! That is what Matthew 25 is all about! That is what baptism by water and baptism of the spirit is about. Basically it is a journey to cleanse the 'unclean spirit' in us. It is a journey home of the vagrant Lost Prodigal Son. The precarious journey on the dangerous brigand-infested highway from Jerusalem to Jericho is just an allegory for the difficult protracted journey we need to take to awaken to our spirit Christ-Consciousness. You will note that the Good Samaritan was not only good but more importantly that he was rich! He had a donkey and money. He was trusted for his credit-worthiness by the inn keeper. This is the essence of the Parable of The Talents. I am commenting on this parable because I know that it is your favourite parable. You must be 'resourceful' to be a Good Samaritan! Imagine if the Good Samaritan were a good poor beggar! What could he have done to help the man who was robbed, beaten up and left half-dead in the gutter? Not much! The Good Samaritan must have been a merchant, or rich enough to carry more than bare essentials, for why else would he be carrying wine and oil and bandages. Alternatively, he must have been robbed and beaten before and thus brought with him in his travel what would be 'first aid' for biblical times. He appears to be a man of the world and a graduate from the University of Life; for he was physically strong, resolute, decisive and courageous. He did what he had to do at his own independent will and beckoning. Jesus' instruction is that we 'do the same' as the Good Samaritan. Surely, it is more than good works? This parable tells us that we need to enhance our resourcefulness so that we are more 'talented' for want of a better word! 'Be Prepared'! Do not judge a book by the cover! Be alert! Trust God completely but on Earth trust no one completely, not even your worldly self! For as a false self-ego son of Adam you are tainted by Adam's Original Sin, that has placed us in exile. We too easily succumb to attractions and desires, lust and attachments of the 'flesh' and the mind and the senses! The priest and the Levite (assistant priest) were religious men but they were neither good nor compassionate. You have heard about the sex scandals of Catholic priests. They too were religious men! So, being religious on its own does not get you anywhere! The priest and the Levite were also rich men in the Jewish society but they had no compassion. This is why Jews are characterised as rich and stingy; all because of these Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. So, being rich on its own does not get you anywhere! You have to be good and rich (ideally)! How do you judge whether a man or woman is good? See whether they demonstrate filial piety. See whether they put their parents before themselves, whether they make sure of their parents well-being and comfort before their own. God Bless! Chuan. 14/6/13