Jakarta, Desember 2007
Dua bulan lalu saya pergi ke Carrefour di wilayah Duta Merlin (Jakarta), salah satu tempat perbelanjaan yang begitu ramai dikunjungi orang. Sejumlah cashier yang ada di situ tampak begitu penuh, puluhan orang harus ngatri untuk membayar barang belanjaan yang mencapai 1-2 troli. Saat itu saya cuma membeli beberapa barang saja. Karena jumlahnya tidak banyak, barang-barang tersebut akhirnya saya pegang di tangan. Setelah ngantri cukup lama, ah….. akhirnya kesampaian juga membayar barang-barang tersebut di cashier. Habis belanja, saya langsung bergegas ke tempat parkir motor, maklum motor adalah kendaraan favorit. Lokasi tempat parkir memang tidak jauh, namun saya tetap harus jalan kaki beberapa meter untuk mencapai tempat tersebut.
Sejauh ini semuanya tampak lancar-lancar saja, barang-barang yang saya perlukan sudah diperoleh. Dalam perjalanan ke tempat parkir, mendadak saya terkejut melihat seorang anak yang usianya sekitar 1-2 tahun. Anak tersebut sedang tertidur di pinggir jalan dengan beralaskan sehelai kain saja. Tidak ada satu orang pun di sekitar anak tersebut. Langkah kaki saya tiba-tiba menjadi sangat berat, dan akhirnya saya berdiri kaku menatap anak tersebut. Saya coba melihat keadaan di sekeliling, dan apa yang tampak hanyalah kesibukan puluhan orang dengan belanjaannya. Mata saya pun akhirnya kembali menatap anak tersebut. Pikiran terasa kacau, dan mata saya seperti berkaca-kaca menatap anak tersebut. Entah kenapa, tapi pada saat itu saya tidak tahu harus berbuat apa, hanya berdiri bagaikan patung. Setelah beberapa lama, dengan perasaan dan langkah kaki yang sangat berat, saya akhirnya melangkah meninggalkan anak tersebut. Sampai saat ini, peristiwa tersebut masih membekas dalam ingatan. Mungkin ini kesalahan terbesar saya dalam hidup, hanya bisa menatap tanpa berbuat sesuatu. Entahlah..... saya seperti melangkah meninggalkan “bayi Yesus” yang hanya beralaskan sehelai kain dan terkapar di pinggir jalan.
Leonardo Boff pernah mengkisahkan cerita sedih di Amerika Latin, kisah yang entah kenapa mengingatkan saya pada anak tersebut:
A woman of forty, but who looked as old as seventy, went up to the priest after Mass and said sorrowfully: "Father, I went to communion without going to confession first." "How come, my daughter?" asked the priest. "Father," she replied, "I arrived rather late, after you had begun the offertory. For three days I have had only water and nothing to eat; I'm dying of hunger. When I saw you handing out the hosts, those little pieces of white bread, I went to communion just out of hunger for that little bit of bread." The priest's eyes filled with tears. He recalled the words of Jesus: "My flesh [bread] is real food . . . whoever feeds on me will draw life from me" (John 6:55, 57).
One day, in the and region of northeastern Brazil, one of the most famine-stricken parts of the world, I (Clodovis) met a bishop going into his house; he was shaking. "Bishop, what's the matter? " I asked. He replied that he had just seen a terrible sight: in front of the cathedral was a woman with three small children and a baby clinging to her neck. He saw that they were fainting from hunger. The baby seemed to be dead. He said: "Give the baby some milk, woman!" "I can't, my lord," she answered. The bishop went on insisting that she should, and she that she could not. Finally, because of his insistence, she opened her blouse. Her breast was bleeding; the baby sucked violently at it. And sucked blood. The mother who had given it life was feeding it, like the pelican, with her own blood, her own life. The bishop knelt down in front of the woman, placed his hand on the baby's head, and there and then vowed that as long as such hunger existed, he would feed at least one hungry child each day.One Saturday night I (Clodovis) went to see Manuel, a catechist of a base community. "Father," he said to me, "this community and others in the district are coming to an end. The people are dying of hunger. They are not coming: they haven't the strength to walk this far. They have to stay in their houses to save their energy. . . ."
