Diary of a Ghetto Priest | My calling is to care for the poor

How can I thank the Jesuits enough for their tremendous gift to me of religious life? Though I was dunce when I went to St George’s College, the teaching, the discipline, and the love of the Jesuits encouraged me to study, discipline myself, and serve God and the poor.

I really wanted to be a Jesuit. I was desperate to follow Christ. It was almost impossible. I was not bright enough and did not study with discipline. When I applied to be a Jesuit, there was hardly a chance, but the Jesuits accepted me. Thank God!

I loved the discipline in the early days. I loved the prayers and the community life at Shadowbrook, Massachusetts. The kindness of my teachers was tremendous. My Jesuit novitiate and juniorate opened my heart to God, to understanding human nature and deep thoughts about the weaknesses of man and the cruelty of man. Then there was the mercy of God. If this was Jesuit training, I really wanted nothing else.

But alas! The time was changing – liberalism, revolts, and the call to identify ourselves with the secular world destroyed our concentration on the wisdom of God, our community life, and the Ignatian sense of the centrality of God and the building of God’s kingdom as the only meaning of life.

DAYS Of SADNESS

I was full of sadness and confusion during my days of philosophical and theological studies. Only God’s love for me and my love for Him during my novitiate days and a beautiful priest, my friend Fr William Burke, guided me to the light.

The word of God, the poor, and music gave some truth and something to do. The poor in the ghettos, the sufferings and vulnerability of the poor, and Christ’s command directed me to “sell all you have, give to the poor, and come follow Me”.

It was scary and difficult to give up my Jesuit vocation. The Jesuits were such great and wonderful men. But they seemed to have wandered away from the poor and the call of Christ to live the beatitudes.

In those days of liberation, secularisation had its toll on the Jesuits. I had to be saved from a freefall; I needed some certitude in life. The music of Jamaica and my desire to evangelise and tell the world of Jesus Christ, beloved brother, never stopped. I was also saved by the poor and the suffering and their desperation, especially at Eventide and Gun Court and in the ghettos.

“Be a hypocrite or be a true Christian and priest. What will it be? Come follow Me. Leave all things behind – your doctorate, your Jesuit order, your security – and come follow Me.” It was scary.

Strangely, the Lord did not ask me to give up the music – which I was willing to forego in order to follow Him. The music, in fact, was part of the evangelisation He wanted me to do – to bring people to Christ and the poor.

Now I am 80 years old. I have founded an order of generous brothers. I am no longer in charge. I have given it over to other men. But my vocation of service to the poorest and most destitute will never change, and neither will my being founder of Missionaries of the Poor. At the same time, it brought me joy.

My vocation is to be a servant of the poor and servant of God – a calling that I shall always cherish!