“As a young student, I had a desire to explore, and especially, to be with the needy,” wrote Fr. Christian Hoper, SCJ (pictured above), in the March issue of As a Rule. “I decided to become ‘a spy‘ who secretly escaped from the monastery on some nights. I took my bicycle and went to the edge of the Code River in Yogyakarta. In that place, I encountered approximately 30 children who were very poor. They didn’t have access to education. I become a volunteer, and with others, taught several subjects. I did this at night without my formator knowing.
“But then one day my rector called me. ‘I saw you outside at night; where were you going?’ he asked. I was honest and told him that ‘I went to edge to the river of Code and became a volunteer teacher for the children there.’ He asked me, ‘Why did you do that like a robber in the middle night and not tell me?’
“He told me to continue to do my work and not to be afraid to do something for the social good.
“‘Show them the joy of the Gospel and your life as a religious,’ he said. ‘There is no reason to forbid you from doing good for the poor and the needy.’
“Going out from our comfort zone to live the Gospel can be hard. Sometimes it is fear that keeps us from doing the right thing. Or we simply don’t know how to start. My brothers and sisters, all you have to do is start and God will show you the way. If it is good He will open the way for you. Sometimes, God shows us ways that we would never expect.”
Click here to read Fr. Christian’s full text, as well as a reflection by Fr. Emerson Ruiz, SCJ, a member of the Brazil-Saõ Paulo Province who is an alumnus of SHSST’s ECS program, and a graduate of the specialized study program at the Centro Studi Dehoniani in Rome.
