Fr. Richard Ho Lung - Diary Of A Ghetto Priest ADAM KEPNER visited us in March break. He came with those warriors, Don Sack-man and Vern Reese, who for 10 years, have been to Jamaica to work in the ghettos. They bring with them a troupe that differs from year to year though there are many repeats. They are connected to Christ, the Church and the Poor. Every year, they fix in five or six days, a roof of immense size. They buy the materials, bring their own tools, labour in the warm Jamaican sun and finish off a job expertly and efficiently.
SPIRIT OF WARMTH
AND GENEROSITY
This brings about great relief to my Brothers and the poor. There is, in that short time, a transformation on housing for the Brothers and the poor of major proportions. We love having them because of their great spirit of warmth and generosity and our shared faith in Christ and love for the poor.
Adam Kepner was just 20 years old. Just a month before, in February, he decided to come to Jamaica with this great team of Catholic men from Georgia. They all paid their own fare, and usually, a young man like Adam would go off to spring break and have a good time in Mexico, Florida, Jamaica or any of the Caribbean islands. Adam enjoyed college life, drinking, smoking, partying and going out with the guys. He loved girls, especially the fun-loving type. In high school and college he was a free-wheeling young man, well known for fast crowds and fast friends. Those days he fell on the lower side of life. He was not particularly concerned about morals or heavy studies, or religion. He tattooed his chest and even had a marijuana plant printed on his leg. He wore earrings on both ears. His mom and dad, Mary and Dennis Kepner, had a difficult time with him. They commented that in those days "you would not have wanted to know him".
Dennis and Mary were grieved. They lived their Catholic faith deeply and seriously. They were not only churchgoers but served the Church in many other ways. Their particular love, however, was for the St. Vincent DePaul Society, which served the poor voluntarily without any personal remuneration.
When Adam came to Jamaica
with Don Sackman and Vern Reese, I noted his puzzlement and seriousness. I thought that he was shy or just a little wary of religious men like the brothers and myself, who must have seemed to be on the opposite pole of life. But he worked in the hot sunlight on the roof of the new home for the brothers at 87 Hanover Street right in the heart of the ghettos. He seemed as though he was always thinking. Adam is a big bulky young man who could maybe beat up anybody who interfered with him. His remoteness, however, was not at all vexation or rejection of what he saw about. It was thoughtfulness, meditation and perhaps he himself did not know, the infusion of the Holy Spirit.
At times, Adam went to our home at the Lord's Place at Higholborn Street. He loved the kids, all the cripples, the blind, the deaf and the mutes and the retarded piled up in his arms. He played with them, he chatted with them and they enfolded him with warm hugs and chuckles. Adam helped the brothers to bathe the kids, feed and clothe them. But most of all, Adam loved how they wrapped their legs and arms around him when they cuddled each other.
He worked hard with the team. The volunteer team put up a beautiful roof; they also worked among our poor and destitute people. They worked sometimes late into the night and even on the weekend. One of the volunteers said to me, "No Father, I am refreshed after the heavy days of work".
Towards the end of the stay, Adam Kepner came to me and asked for confession. He was careful and complete about all the wrongs he had done. Unknown to me, he called his mother and father overseas and told them how happy he was; he had gone to confession. He had asked one of our Brothers also, "What would it take to be a Brother?"
When he returned home, Adam was filled with excitement about the Lord. He had told me that working among the poor, he came upon Christianity in the poor and the Brothers working with the poor. He said he did not know people could live so simply and be so happy as the Brothers were. He realised that there was something true and good that he wanted.
As a youth, he had written letters asking, "Does God exist? I am looking for a meaning in life". With all the fun and pleasure of life, he found so little sense. Even in his studies, he found emptiness. Then later he wrote, "I now understand. Without God, there is no meaning in life". But with God, he discovered life was glorious and happy. Not with the flesh or the world. But in the simplicity of the poor, in our work, in our life. It's as if Adam touched the wounds of Christ. It's as if Christ touched him, and he had seen the Lord.
During Holy Week, he died and he was buried on the eve of Easter. What a way to die! Some would say, "How terrible. He was so young". True. A young man dying at 20 years of age seems a cause for tears and regret. But as Mary Kepner, his mother said, "He was ready. The Lord saw the troubled world and the troubled times. He wished to save my son from that." Still, I could hear the sadness in their voices, but it was overridden with a sense of excitement and joy, that he is in the right place - he is with God!
Adam had gone to bed the night before. He was tired. He lay down on the couch and slept. He never woke up. He died of heart failure and a smile on his face.
At the funeral, the building team was there. Mary Kepner had looked for Adam's rosary in order to put it around his neck in the coffin. She could not find it. Don Sackman oddly brought a rosary and a Cross made of wood to be worn around his neck. Don placed the Cross in his hands - just as if the Lord wanted that deep spiritual experience to be with him at the time of death. He seemed peaceful in the coffin.
Before he died, he expressed excitedly to his mother and father, "I want to go back to Jamaica next year. I want to go up in the hills where the Brothers want to build a home. It's like being in heaven."
Father Ho Lung is Founder and Superior General of the Brothers of the Poor.
