Richard Ho Lung - Diary of a ghetto priest

What is this inner longing and desire in my heart? What is this inner restlessness in me?

What is happiness? And in my beautiful sunshine island there is terrible mysterious darkness, as I watch the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the sick and dying forgotten in our streets, wounded and dying in our island. But there is the beauty of that perfect man - Jesus Christ - hanging on the cross over the country. He walked among our broken people - this infinitely tender and compassionate figure, His hand in my hand, my heart and mind belonging to Him, this I live.

He calls me, He calls our island, He calls our American friends, "come, follow me". So, He fed 5,000 and so must I. And, He placed His fingers on the eyes of the blind, and so must I, and he touched the ears of the deaf and they heard, and so must I, and so must we.

Dying among us

And so it was that two of my sons, Marco and Suresh, a young Filipino and a young Indian, 27 and 23 years old, were murdered - living in the slums of Kingston with me and our beloved brothers - all of us following Christ to the hilltop on Mount Calvary.

And that same cross we carry to the poorest of people in Uganda and Kenya, the Philippines, Haiti, India and the ghettos of Kingston - living and loving and serving the wounded and crucified Christ among the poorest of people - as our Master once did. And He would want us to do - so that He, through us, may be among those forgotten, walking among them, feeding them, comforting them, living and now dying among them. And so it is we who find our purpose and meaning in our lives.

And, so, it is that the Lord taught Missionaries of the Poor in Jamaica to serve the poorest and most forgotten of our sisters and brothers. And, out of Jamaica to the poorest of nations, rich with the love of Christ, Missionaries of the Poor wishes to bring Christ's love to the world ... to the lepers, the homeless old men and women, the children who are deaf, crippled, blind, mute who live under the blazing hot sun, and sleep in the cold dark night in the streets, without hope - all Mister and Miss NOBODY, without sister or brother, without job and without family - unwanted and forgotten.

Yes, our two brothers were murdered, but they were murdered doing the work of the Lord - loving the poor and our enemies unto death. And we know who the murderer is, and we have fixed his house and attended to his babymother and children, and now he, too, has been killed. And we blessed him on his deathbed at Kingston Public Hospital.

Using funds wisely

Today, we honour American Friends of Jamaica - for it is with their help that we have repaired the house of the same murderer. It is the American Friends of Jamaica who honour Missionaries of the Poor, but I, too, would like to honour them. With their funds, we have repaired broken houses and shacks for 3,000 ghetto people.

Next, Missionaries of the Poor will establish a home for women who are to be mothers. We will have a prenatal clinic for women - lest they become desperate and abort their babies. We will take in their babies for daily care and we will adopt them if necessary. This building has been given to us by an American; one day, we will repair it.

We will establish a home for deportees, for gunmen, drug pushers and addicts, and prisoners on parole who have nowhere to go. We have the buildings already - these will also be repaired one day. Why do we do this?

In fulfilment of the Beatitudes and the Master's wish to bring good news to the poor and to find peace and happiness in our own hearts. We will have His heart be our heart, His mind our mind, His work our work, knowing that in the end, there is only happiness for all.

Very Rev Fr Richard Ho Lung , MOP, is founder and superior general of the Missionaries of the Poor