Missionaries of the Poor at 45
The Missionaries of the Poor brothers go out into the streets to serve the poor and sick. Their work takes them to some of most dangerous locations in the world, which their founder has said they have no intention of changing.
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Father Richard Ho Lung, 86, didn’t allow his recent brush with death to hinder Founder’s Day and the 45th anniversary celebration of the Missionaries of the Poor (MOP) order he founded in 1981.
Instead, “I still plan to … dance for you,” he joked at the July 18 celebration, even though he was barely able to walk.
He shared his love for his order, for Christ and for the poor with everyone present – including the 150 MOP brothers and 20 MOP sisters in Jamaica, dozens of residents, seven missionaries from St. Luke Church in Mint Hill and the Catholic News Herald.
“Brothers and sisters, love the Cross, love the poor, love the sick, love the dying,” he told them. The same beliefs that fueled the global mission keep many Charlotte missionaries visiting each year.
He reflected, “I thought this past week, maybe this would be it. Maybe God was saying this is the time. And I was at peace.”
He described his hospital visit the way many of his centers’ disabled residents would explain the care they receive 24 hours a day from the MOP brothers and sisters.
Home away from home
Parishioners from St. Luke Church in Mint Hill traveled to Jamaica on a mission trip to assist the Missionaries of the Poor. While there, they formed connections with medically fragile patients cared for by the MOP brothers.
With the only MOP mission in North America in Monroe, Diocese of Charlotte parishioners have gotten to know the brothers and embrace their work.
From serving locally, some take the leap to journey to Kingston, Jamaica – the homebase from which brothers and religious sisters spend their lives behind high-gated communities in prayer and service to the poor and sick.
In between Mass, Holy Hours and rosaries, they feed, bathe and care for 600 medically fragile residents housed at six centers.
This is where many visitors from Charlotte have said they enhanced their prayer lives and relationship with God.
The residents with their mangled limbs and immovable bodies, mostly nonverbal, still smile. They still blink. In their eyes the face of Jesus is revealed, many have said.
‘Pure joy’
“The poor are not merely recipients of charity. They are our brothers and sisters, mirrors of God’s image,” Father Ho Lung said.
Children without legs, adults only able to crawl, and people in all types of pain can sometimes be difficult to watch. But the St. Luke parishioners choose to smile and laugh with the residents.
“Ultimately you will find unwavering expressions of pure joy,” said St. Luke parishioner Kelly Reeder, on her fifth visit with her husband, Greg, who brought their son Austin for his first trip. “It is like visiting your family that you haven’t seen in ages. You never want the time to end. Jesus is in everyone you meet.”
For other first timers, like Erika and Nancy Barranco, the trip took on a life-changing dimension.
“I went with a confused and troubled heart, carrying so many questions, and after this trip, God answered them all,” Nancy Barranco said. “God’s love comes in different forms.”
Advocacy to action
Father Ho Lung, a Chinese Jamaican who converted to Catholicism in grade school, has made an impact on Jamaica over the past 45 years.
He first shed light on the deplorable conditions of a governmental healthcare institution called Eventide, where patients were being eaten alive by rats, packed into overcrowded rooms and given improper care.
Eventide experienced the deadliest fire in Jamaica’s history, claiming 150 elderly women’s lives.
The catastrophe motivated the young priest.
Father Ho Lung left his life as a Jesuit priest and started the Missionaries of the Poor, where he would take his advocacy, transfer it through reform, and then act for the good of others.
“Christian faith cannot remain only in words, prayer or good intentions. It must deliver love and action, hands that serve, hearts that welcome, voices that contain human dignity,” Father Ho Lung said.
Growing influence
Today, the brothers serve in 12 countries, making inroads in South Vietnam, pushing deeper into Africa and gearing up to serve South Korea and China.
Many are dangerous places, but despite the deaths of two of their own –Brother Suresh and Brother Marco, who were shot in Kingston in 2005 – and the recent violence in Haiti, the brothers refuse to relocate,
Father Ho Lung told the Catholic News Herald.
“These brothers have gotten held up by gunmen, and they just keep on going,” Father Ho Lung said. “The brothers say they will never leave.”
Closer to home, Father Ho Lung cherishes his Charlotte connections.
“Our relationship with the Diocese of Charlotte is just wonderful. We look forward to seeing people come down every year,” Father Ho Lung said. “The people there know us, and the brothers, of course, are there.”
Father Ho Lung said that while providing healthcare is not the direction they are taking in the U.S., they have found a disease here that is curable … loneliness.
“I like how the brothers are going out [to make home visits]. The way they describe it, some have no visitors. They feel rejected and alone,” Father Ho Lung said. “I would love to see that continued, built up, and expanded even more. … We would love to also have the homeless and destitute there – like a night shelter.”
In the meanwhile, the fragile man who built an order from Jamaica’s scraps encouraged people in the Diocese of Charlotte to keep visiting the MOP, to bring friends and to do their part to care for the poor and the sick at home.
And, while many missionaries go to Jamaica with the intent of helping others, in the end they find something more.
As Erika Barranco said about her first-ever mission trip, “Sometimes God sends us to bless others only to realize He was also there to bless us.”
Visit missionariesofthepoor.org to learn more.
— Lisa M. Geraci
