Fr. Richard HolungTHIS LITTLE brother is a prototype of so many beautiful traits of Christ. This is the ideal of the Missionaries of the Poor: to become Christ for the poor and for one another. He is so young, 25 years, so deep, desirous to pour out his life for others and so self-sacrificing, yet he has been struck down by a terrible sickness, kidney failure.
As the father of these 172 men who have dedicated their lives to God and the poor, I felt tremendous pain on hearing the news. Worry and anxiety were only alleviated by my faith and little Brother Rolando's tremendous spiritual strength and courage.
The brother is only 5' 2" and has a will of a tiger. He writes beautiful flowing melodies with an inner emotional tone as well as with lyrics that are transcendent and deeply spiritual. So far he has written six songs or hymns, which we use at worship. They are all about the love of God and the need for total abandonment to Him. This flexible, gentle quality is in him. But this half-pint of a man is fearless in the ghetto. Having faced up to his own weakness, Brother Rolando works through other areas of darkness: the ghettos, the AIDS man or woman full of anger and fury at their sickness, the tough task of working with the mentally insane and the dying. There is nothing that he fears except losing the love of God and becoming a coward.
He weighed only 115 pounds when he was in the best of health; right now he is 105 pounds. His cheeks have become a little hollow, his skin as an oriental from the Philippines has gone from tan to yellow. But his eyes have not yet lost their joy and happiness; his face is dominated by a gentle smile, he is like a child resting on the cross of Jesus incarcerated in bed, with tubes projecting from his lower belly and his arm. He never complains but only now and then winces with pain.
Terrible suffering is etched all over his young face and body. The doctors, led by Professor Everard Barton and a group of nurses, have been most attentive. Professor Barton, a man of great compassion, is concerned with service to others rather than service to self. He is a mature man. I would guess in about his early sixties, but strong, alert and acute. He is serious and very attentive to the needs of this little Brother Rolando who suddenly became sick with this most awful illness.
Kidney failure can come upon one suddenly, explained Dr. Barton. If both kidneys fail, as happened to Brother Rolando, there is no way of excreting, as the urine usually does, the toxic wastes collected from the body in the kidneys. There is no way of purifying the blood. Because of the containment of all these wastes in the body, the blood pressure rises alarmingly. Thus Brother Rolando's blood pressure rose to 249 over 140.
For weeks in the hospital this little brother was attended to. Thank God for UWI hospital. The sicker he became, the more immersed he became in God. He asked me on my every visit, "How are you Father?" I'd ask him "How are you?" He would say, "Never mind me Father, God loves me." Despite the bandages,
the bleeding, the operations and the dialysis, he would smile, saying, "God loves me, that's why he chose me to suffer. His Son was also young, and I am also young. He chooses those whom He loves."
He smiled and joked despite his pain. "One thing I have always wanted: to be tall, handsome and for God to remove my false teeth and put in real teeth." We all laughed despite the pain. We prayed together.
He is back home; pray for Brother Rolando. The next step might be a kidney transplant. God continues to purify him as he totally abandons himself to God's will. Maybe he'll never be tall, handsome or have back his real teeth, but he is becoming transformed into God's holy son by his suffering.
The Very Rev. Fr. Richard Ho Lung, M.O.P. is Founder and Superior General of The Missionaries of the Poor.
