THE seed for Father Richard Ho Lung and Friends’ upcoming musical Sugar Cain was planted in the early years of the founding of his Catholic order that has been serving the poor and disadvantaged here in Jamaica and other countries for more than 40 years.

While Ho Lung, now 87 years old, couldn’t recall the exact date, the event became a defining memory, etched deeply by the magnitude of the experience.

It unfolded at Faith Centre on Laws Street in downtown Kingston, the first apostolate opened by Brothers of the Poor, the order founded by Ho Lung in 1981 which was later renamed Missionaries of the Poor.

“A man came down to Faith Centre, his name was Leslie. He was poor but he had a brother who was rich,” Ho Lung told the Jamaica Observer, adding that the man told him that he often went to his brother to “beg in order to give to poor people”.

Members of the cast of Father Ho Lung and Frineds’ upcoming musical Sugar Cain in rehearsal. The production is scheduled to run over two weekends — October 3-4 and October 10-11 — at the National Arena in St Andrew. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

“Leslie said, ‘Father, although I’m a poor man I always loved poor people… and I didn’t work like my brother did and I was considered worthless by my brother’,” Ho Lung related.

“He couldn’t understand it and he was disappointed in his brother and quarrelled with him and said, ‘Yeah, but you yourself know that our daddy used to tell us we must help the poor, but now here you are, and I am a poor man helping the poor and you’re a rich man and you won’t help the poor’. And so a hate grew up in his heart and his brother and himself had fights,” Ho Lung said, adding that Leslie told him that eventually his brother chased him out of their house, resulting in him living on the streets.

Leslie’s experience reminded Ho Lung of the biblical brothers Cain and Abel, and while Sugar Cain makes reference to them, it’s not necessarily the story the production will deliver.

“It has so much to teach you about forgiveness, and self-control, and respect. Even if somebody has an opposite view to yours, do not hate and kill,” Ho Lung said of the musical scheduled to run over two weekends — October 3-4 and October 10-11 — at the National Arena in St Andrew.

“Never hate and kill, but continue to say, somehow you will learn to love, somehow you will learn to love the poor,” Ho Lung added.

Asked how long it took him to write and compose all 20 songs featured in Sugar Cain, Ho Lung said he “wrote about a third of the music” years ago.

“Like the last song, Never Give Up, that was written from that time,” he said.

That time, he explained, was about 1991/1992.

“But I’ve been writing up to recently [for] this [production],” he told the Observer, sharing that he often writes music “when inspired” and puts them down for future use.

“Sometimes you have kind of like dreams that coalesce,” Ho Lung said.

He pointed to the song Disrespect in the upcoming production as one that highlights the strained relationship between the main characters, Cain and Abel.

“They really loved each other, but they also hated each other because they were so different,” Ho Lung said, then drew attention to another song, Compromise, which examines the ability to forgive that arose after Abel’s wife Lillian was faced with that emotional decision when Cain shot Abel to death.

Over the years Father Ho Lung and Friends has mounted at least 20 musicals, among them
Ruby, Moses, Isaiah, King David, Queen Esther, and Jesus 2025. The group regards these musicals as music ministry.

“People need to hear about the Lord in other ways than preaching,” Ho Lung explained.

At the same time, the shows help Missionaries of the Poor generate funds to continue caring for poor, disadvantaged, and sick people, as well as mothers and their newborn babies.

But while the annual productions assist, Ho Lung admitted that running the homes is challenging.

“It’s a little bit of a struggle all the time because we’re also the mainstay for Haiti and India and The Philippines and these countries. They’re funded by us, but we have faith,” Ho Lung explained.