Sharing Our Meals with Others

Submitted by the Soropadan FCJ Community

In solidarity with God’s people who are destitute, every Friday the FCJ community in Soropadan, Yogyakarta, has a soup day. Since early this year, instead of buying meat, chicken, fish, or seafood, we put enough money away to buy one side dish every week for a good cause. After a few months, we decided to use the money to make a simple lunch on a Saturday for some people working on the street. It was, in a way, sharing our meal with people in need, as we realized that many people in Yogyakarta suffer because of the prolonged lock down.

We asked two friends to prepare one hundred lunch packs which we delivered to those we found on our way that day. These folk were sellers of food or other things, who walked around to sell their goods, parking guards, becak drivers and scavengers. Being in solidarity with people and recognizing the reality of poverty in the city was a good experience for us. It was a simple compassionate action to widen our circle of love.

The next day we gathered and shared with each other what the gifts and graces we had experienced while delivering the meals.