From Buddha to Christ - Pt I

This week, we will begin a series of excerpts from Father Ho Lung's BIO, WRITTEN BY JOSEPH PEARCE 'Candles in the Dark'.

"BORN OF a humble and simple origin, yet destined for a great and immeasurable task. Born under the shadow of anonymity, yet sealed to be a light in an era of indomitable darkness. Born concealed from the face of humanity, yet set to shine forth the light of a new civilisation, a civilisation of love, a civilisation of the children of God. This is Fr. Richard Ryan Ho Lung." Such are the words of Brother Arnold, one of more than 500 brothers of the Missionaries of the Poor (MOP), who have joined Father Ho Lung in a life of poverty.

It seems appropriate to commence our journey in the footsteps of the founder of the Missionaries of the Poor by seeing him in the light of those who have followed him in the hardship of real life, of those who have embraced a life of poverty, chastity, obedience and free service to the poorest of the poor. Father Ho Lung is truly an extraordinary man; a man who has been blessed with extraordinary gifts. It is, therefore, decorous to commence with an evocation of the enormity of the man's achievement before we proceed to the humble place at which his life began.

Father Ho Lung founded the Brothers of the Poor, as they were then called, in 1981, with a handful of disciples, half of whom would leave soon afterwards to pursue a less challenging life. Today, a little over 30 years later, the Missionaries of the Poor have missions in Jamaica, Haiti, Uganda, Kenya, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States. Their success they hope to be recognised officially by the Vatican with the bestowal upon them of the status of Pontifical Institute, the Church's recognition that a religious congregation has become the Catholic equivalent of a global corporation. Continuing this intriguing and perhaps inappropriate and irreverent analogy, Father Ho Lung, a child of poor Chinese immigrants to Jamaica, is the equivalent of a CEO of a multinational missionary corporation! And yet this corporation, or institute, has no employees because nobody earns a salary. Furthermore, Father Ho Lung, its CEO, or founder-father, earns the same as everyone else: nothing. This is a global corporation with a difference; one which offers itself in free service to those who are poorest. The MOP does not accept any payment for its work because its "customers" are not able to pay. Amazingly, and some might say miraculously, this "business model" has proved a resounding success, with young men from India, Africa, the Philippines and the Caribbean desiring to join the "company" of Brothers. Father Richard Ho Lung, born of humble and simple origin, under the shadow of anonymity, in the poverty of Jamaica, has come a long way.

Richard Ryan Ho Lung was born on September 17, 1939, in Richmond, St Mary in Jamaica, on the feast of St Robert Bellarmine, the Jesuit and Doctor of the Church who had been canonised nine years earlier by Pope Pius XI. The date was perhaps portentous considering Father Ho Lung's later vocation to the Jesuit Order. His parents were originally Chinese Buddhists who had migrated to Jamaica several years earlier. His father, Willie Ho Lung (Seang Ho Lung Quee), had been born in Macao on February 1, 1898, but came to Jamaica in the footsteps of his own father who had migrated earlier. A quiet man, steady and hardworking, he was converted to Catholicism in Hong Kong in 1969, at the age of 71, and died five years later, on November 6, 1974. Richard's mother, Janet Ho Lung (Seang Cheng Shue Cheng), was 23 years younger than her husband, being born in Kowloon on April 28, 1921. Their marriage was an arranged one, as was customary. Janet Ho Lung was only sixteen when the first of their children, Loretta, was born on December 14, 1937, and was 18 when Richard, their first son, was born. Two other children would follow a few years later: Theresa on September 30, 1946, and Michael on November 21, 1947.

Gentle, sweet, thoughtful, artistic, and a lover of nature, Janet Ho Lung was converted to Catholicism in 1950, at the age of 29, when her son was ten-years-old, and died of cancer at the tender age of 46, on February 5, 1968. "My relationship with my mother was a very deep one," remembers Father Ho Lung, "and my father was always there, but he was more remote." His mother could hardly speak English, but managed to communicate very well with her neighbours. "She possessed great dignity and simplicity, kindness and warmth." His father, in contrast, was "a quiet strong presence" to his wife and children, though "somewhat of a dreamer with a far ranging mind on matters of geopolitics." He worked hard all day in their little grocery store, but never seemed to have much to show for his labours.

During the first years of Richard's life, the family practised Buddhism. His mother lit candles, burnt incense, chanted in Chinese, and distributed little ceremonial cakes for the family to eat. She insisted on the children being prayerful and often took them to the riverside where they were made to sit in silence while she asked them questions intended to prompt meditation in their young minds. "We'd listen to the wind and watch it as it stirred in the trees or the water," Father Ho Lung recalled. "We were led to really wonder about the mysteries of nature." On other occasions, their mother got her children to pound on the earth, to feel it, to try to understand that the earth gives life, trees, flowers, and fruits of all different kinds. "The mystery of water and earth was very much a part of our upbringing. She loved nature herself. We were always giving thanks."

Father Ho Lung credited his Buddhist childhood for developing in him a sense of mystery and a great respect for nature. "Buddhism taught us to be one with our environment and those around us. It taught us to desire nothing we do not possess, but to appreciate the mysterious presence of an unknown God and the beauty and harmony within nature. We learned to meditate and seek enlightenment. Buddhism makes you someone who seeks and therefore, in many ways, it really leads to Christianity in a most wonderful way."

On one occasion he and his elder sister, Loretta, went next door to the home of their paternal grandparents and watched as their mother chanted and beat the ground with branches to ward off evil spirits that she believed had been the cause of a nightmare she'd had the previous night. Their grandparents' house was much larger than their own somewhat cramped home. It had spacious rooms, a verandah, and a piano. In spite of such apparent opulence, Willie and Janet were poor and the children often went without shoes, though Father Ho Lung didn't recall this as a major inconvenience, considering the Jamaican climate and the carefree existence that he enjoyed in the countryside. He and Loretta played in the surrounding fields and woods, paddled in small pools, and caught minnows, which they called "janga". Willie Ho Lung's faithfulness and strong sense of justice have remained with Father Ho Lung, particularly his father's advice to never forget the poor people of Jamaica, no matter what. "Concern for the poor was very deep in his heart and mind."