Ongoing Conversion: from Good to Better: The Homilies of Reverend Fr. Henry J. Charles

By Henry J. Charles

This book is a compilation of homilies of Fr. Henry Charles composed and delivered over a period of at least twenty years. The homilies were written out and were eventually typed up and it is possible that Fr. Henry had himself thought about publishing them, though we do not know this for sure. While many persons were privileged to receive emailed copies and others actually heard his preaching, the homilies were thought to be deserving of a wider audience.
The underlying message of his preaching is that discipleship of Jesus Christ requires not only the grace of faith but also demands perseverance, courage and discipline, critical elements of the process he terms ongoing conversion. In addition, Fr. Henry advocates moral excellence, not settling for the merely moderate or the mediocre, but striving always to be perfect. Fr. Henry faces up to and wrestles with the perplexities of the Gospel and he believed that one of the keys to overcoming these is an appreciation of its many paradoxes and that as a consequence, we are required to see things from a different perspective, not as we are normally inclined to see them, but as God sees them.
The homilies have been arranged thematicallyOn God; On Jesus; What Jesus Calls Us To Be; What Jesus Calls Us To Do; Faith; Hope; Love; Loss, Suffering, Death and Heaven; Virtues and Vices; Human Dignity; Spirituality; Church, Liturgy and Ritual and Culture Society and Leadership. There is of course considerable overlap among the various themes. The subjects he refers to and the examples he gives are contemporary and relevant, not only to a Caribbean audience, but we think to audiences globally. The style is informal and conversational for the most part and this quality of the writing has been maintained. The homilies have been edited for clarity and for obvious errors and omissions in the transcripts, and some have been retitled, but they have otherwise been reproduced and stand as he wrote them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493158836

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Copyright @ 2014 by The Estate of Fr Henry J Charles.

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Rev. date: 01/15/2014

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CONTENTS

INDEX TO HOMILIES BY CYCLE

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

ON GOD

God and Paradox

The Depth of God’s Love

I Have Made Your Name Known

ON JESUS

Mary in Advent

The Child Grew In Wisdom and Grace

The Baptism of Jesus

Wrestling in the Desert

The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Me

The Cleansing of the Temple

The Good Shepherd

The Stone Rejected by the Builders

Being Taught By Jesus

Life is Meaningless without the Resurrection

The Ascension

I Have Come to Bring Division

Jesus: A Man with a Wonderful Heart

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

As I Have Kept My Father’s Commandments

I Am the Gate

Jesus the Liberator

Christ the Servant Leader

WHAT JESUS CALLS US TO BE

Live In Me, As I Do In You

A Man Had Two Sons

Servant Leadership

Unprofitable Servants

Humility and Witness in John the Baptist

I Am the Vine

Jesus and the Rich Young Man

Facilitation and Vision

Let Us Go Elsewhere

Love One Another As I Have Loved You

Take Nothing with You

The Wedding Garment

The Widow’s Mite

Who is the Greatest

Bartimaeus the Blind Beggar

Letting Go: Easter and Mary Magdalene

Enter by the Narrow Gate

We Are All Called to be Saints

Good to Better

Love the Sinner: Jesus at Simon’s House

Discipline and Simplicity: John the Baptist

The Five Foolish Bridesmaids

The Dishonest Steward

The Cost of Discipleship

Inheriting the Kingdom: The First Shall Be Last

Be An Example to the World (You are the Light of the World)

Following Your Star

WHAT JESUS CALLS US TO DO

Come, Follow Me!

Come and See

Marriage and Staying Together

Sit and Listen: Martha and Mary

Give Priority to God, the Most Important Value

Not One Stone On Top of Another

Prayer and Pondering

Persevering in Prayer

Taking Risks with Talents

Giving Birth to Jesus in Ourselves

The Heart of Oneself

Vocation: Called to the Best God Has to Offer

The Importance of Preparation: The Sower and the Seed

Climbing the Mountain to Transfiguration

Ongoing Conversion

Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin: The Woman Caught in Adultery

FAITH

Easter with the Eyes of Faith

Hard Sayings of Jesus

Holy Week Begins

The Power of the Preposition

Things in the Right Hands

Two Narratives of Healing

Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church

Fear and Trust

Increase Our Faith

Faithfulness

Doubting Thomas

Then Jesus Exclaimed

Faith, Science and Culture

Who Do You Say I Am

Dealing with Prejudice

Radical Trust in God

Plumbing the Depths of Faithfulness

HOPE

Advent: Season of Expectancy

Meanings in Advent

Purifying Hope

The Long Road to Emmaus

I Will Not Leave You Orphans

LOVE

Love of God, Love of Neighbour

Love One Another As I Have Loved You (Mother’s Day)

Feed My Lambs

Kinds of Giving

Love Your Enemies (Love as Justice)

Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth or Another Rule for Charity

The Sower and the Seed

Solidarity and Belonging

The Love of God

LOSS, SUFFERING, DEATH, AND HEAVEN

No Marriage in Heaven

Our Lady of Sorrows

Repentance: Two Notes

Taking up the Cross

Take Up My Yoke and Learn From Me

Final Judgment (Away From Me I Do Not Know You)

The Meaning of the Cross

Death the Gateway to Life

Life after Death

VIRTUES AND VICES

Envy and Jealousy

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Compassion: The Widow and the Young Man from Nain

Indolence and Self-absorption

Ingratitude

Friendship: I Call You Friends

Commitment: I Will Follow You

Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Lust

Pornography, Promiscuity and Sexual Freedom (Looking Lustfully)

Arrogance (The Pharisee and the Publican)

Forgiveness (The Prodigal Son)

Resentment

Poverty and Possessions (Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit)

HUMAN DIGNITY

Why Was Jesus Born? Christmas Day

What Christmas Means to Me

The Condition of Leprosy

Zacchaeus

SPIRITUALITY

How Near Is The End?

One Will Be Taken, One Left

Into the Desert

Depart from Me I Am a Sinful Man

Resurrection: Victory over Death

Lost and Found

Our Father

Apparitions

The Idea of Perfection

The Law of Growth: Building Character

The Stranger in the Midst

The Trinity: Understanding ‘Mystery’

Wheat and Darnel

Yearning for a Better World

Peace to You

Render to Caesar, Render to God

Spiritual Blindness

CHURCH, LITURGY, AND RITUAL

Go Make Disciples

He Was Not One of Us

No Claim on God

Eating Flesh and Drinking Blood

Catholic Tradition: The Baptism of Jesus

Dealing with Boring Church Services

Catholic Doubt

Holy Thursday

Lent Then and Now

Devotion to the Sacred Heart

You Are Peter

Ritual

Testimony: Who Declares Himself for Me

Preferential Option for the Poor

Salt and Light: Catholics and Carnival

The Holy Spirit Will Teach You Everything

CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND LEADERSHIP

The Roots of War… and Peace

Prejudice and The Christian Vision

Corruption: Stewards in the Vineyard

The Good Leader

The Harvest is Rich: the Labourers are Few

The Rich Man and the Poor Man

Feast of the Epiphany

Taking Responsibility: Making the Deaf Hear

On Authority

Authority from Wisdom and Goodness

Arrogance of Secular Power

Start Early Start Late, No Difference in Pay

The Power of One

Choosing a Leader

Drug Abuse: More than Decriminalization

Peace and the Value of Life

Respect

The State of Our Society

Parenting: A Word or Two about St. Joseph

To Be Number One, Be First in Service

Prejudice in Trinidad and Tobago

Transparency and Trust

BIO

ONGOING CONVERSION: FROM GOOD TO BETTER

INDEX TO HOMILIES BY CYCLE

FOREWORD

With much humility and no little appreciation did I accept the request, indeed the honour, to write this foreword to the publication of the homilies of my friend and contemporary, Fr. Henry, whom I have always held in tremendous admiration. I am indebted to the mutual choice of his brother Fr. Herbert and Terrence Farrell, both of whom are to be lauded and thanked for producing this publication.

From our secondary school days when we encountered each other, Fr. Henry’s prodigious intellectual ability, joined to an insatiable thirst for truth and knowledge of every kind, was patent. Well do I remember one of the priests who taught us mischievously describing him as a voracious reader… and talker. And indeed so he was. His subsequent academic successes attest to the happy blossoming of that mind of rare quality with which God had endowed him. We are now the fortunate beneficiaries of the fruits of his careful and faithful nurturing of gifts humbly received.

Forgiveness Considered his first publication, is a decidedly complex text in the main. By contrast, this collection, so aptly titled Ongoing Conversion: From Good to Better bears a much more relational tone since the pieces were all composed for a listening audience. However, they are chronologically prior and may justifiably be considered the wellsprings and bedrock of the former. Personal references appear and reflections of true life experiences are present shedding light into the world of the author though never obscuring his message.

Hence we taste his deep, committed love for his Church when he states that, I can increase the merits of the tradition and diminish its power to harm by the quality of my own contribution. These words are clearly inspired by those of Cardinal Newman whom he admired and so often quoted, words [The Mission of My Life—pgs. 56-7] which he chose to decorate his book marker memento on the occasion of his fortieth anniversary of priestly ordination, that happy moment shared with his brother Fr. Herbert mere months before the shock of his sudden death. I can never forget him telling me on numerous occasions why he refused so many lucrative offers beyond the shores of his native Trinidad and Tobago. I judge that I have a contribution to make, said he, with the clarity of one who harboured a compelling vision.

Or again we sense something of his own personal struggles when in dealing with the doubting of the Apostle Thomas he concludes: Thomas is important. He teaches us the value of many things, that doubt is something we often have to live with; that faith requires enormous courage; and that our hearts always have to resist being narrow and parochial. We need to be stretched in mind and heart and imagination, to be truly what we are meant to be, namely, sons and daughters of God.

Fr. Henry was fundamentally a very simple soul who was too intelligent to complicate life and living which of their very nature present us with so many intricacies. The word earthy was one he fondly cherished and often used as he strove to understand and make understood things divine. In his homily on the Sacred Heart, for example, he points out how particular Jesus’s way of mind was in that he held on to the concrete… and didn’t take off into abstractions.

At times, however, Fr. Henry’s sheer intellectual power, with its penetrating incisiveness, scared some, priests and superiors included, and he was painfully aware of that, but it never deterred him in his relentless and compelling search for truth. It was only one of the crucifixions that he bore valiantly. Such moments in his life became opportunities for him to practise the magnanimity of soul to which he often referred and counselled many. His was never a choice for anything pusillanimous. In this regard, throughout his life, he surely practised what he preached thereby being a wonderful example for those who knew him.

How wonderful it is that Fr. Henry chose over the years to consign these homilies to writing. They clearly have their origin in long and deep reflection primarily on the Word of God but entwined within them are so many other strands of wisdom that enlighten us. In them he has left us a tremendous legacy of his wide ranging insights in which we are able to delight. In the language of the Bible, we are being fed herein at a banquet of fine foods, a veritable cornucopia of healthy fare, spiritually delicious and nutritious.

Exegit monumentum aere perennius. Indeed, he has built a monument more lasting than bronze. To him we owe a substantial debt of gratitude.

Rejoice, then, O reader, that you now have in your possession a gem of great value. In this compendium of the homilies of Fr. Henry Charles, you will delight in the variegated rays of light that beam from his precious offerings, for such is the sparkling nature of these creations of his fertile mind and searching spirit.

Fr. Anton Dick, C.S.Sp

Spiritan House

St. Mary’s College

Port of Spain

October 2013

INTRODUCTION

Fr. Henry had begun writing out his homilies a long time ago. Some of the earlier drafts date back to his ministry in the United States in the early 1990s. He began emailing the homilies to various persons several years before his death on January 15, 2013. Once someone indicated an interest in receiving them, he would happily add that person to the mailing list. Moreover, many more persons received the homilies since recipients would forward them to friends and family.

It seems that he may have intended to publish them at some point since they were compiled alphabetically by Maria Neilson and the majority were put in electronic form on a CD. Maria also typed up many of the earlier homilies from the 1990s as well. There are well over 300 homilies, notes, and drafts of articles. This project compiles his homilies. A compilation of his other writings, e.g., those done in the Catholic News, newspaper columns, and various presentations will have to come later on as a second project.

How Fr. Henry Prepared and Presented the Homilies

It is interesting to note in his own words how Fr. Henry produced his written homilies. He wrote:

I normally begin preparing my homily for the weekend from early in the week before, from Monday, sometimes Sunday. All I do is read the passage to make myself familiar with it. I just read it to get some idea of what it’s about. Some phrase or some idea always stands out. I don’t do any detailed preparation at this point. I just let the passage move around in my head for the week. From time to time I will tell myself: Oh, I can talk about that; or sometimes nothing comes right away, but it’s a time when things germinate, so to speak, in ways that surprise me sometimes. On Friday or Saturday, I will sit down and jot down some points, or if I am clear about what I want to say, I write it down. I always write it down. I don’t read it, as you know, but I know where I’m going. The Importance of Preparation (103-A)

Although I received the homilies by email, I still attended Mass to listen. Fr. Henry was not given to melodrama in his delivery. He would also tell some story or anecdote which he would have noted in the text to prompt the ad lib. These prompts have been edited out, hopefully without too great a loss of meaning.

Language and Style

What is striking about the homilies is that his style of writing is conversational and clearly intended to be heard rather than read. One could therefore fairly easily identify those pieces which were written to be homilies and other pieces which he wrote to be read. However, he would also go over and amend and develop a particular piece, so that we have several versions of a particular homily. The later versions would be more structured and tightly argued compared to the earlier ones, some of which were just bullet points or speaking notes. In those instances, we have used the later more structured versions. The conversational style of the homilies has been retained because I think it is quite effective as if Fr Henry is close to and speaking personally to the reader.

Fr. Henry would use the same text from the Gospel reading to make different points or take different lessons from one he had made before. This happens where the text may admit of different interpretations, or where his reflection on the text has evolved, or where the text itself evinces multiple themes. So there are several instances where the same text or reading has generated different homilies and these therefore have the same number. The homilies vary in length. Some are quite short, being really just notes, while others are much longer, well-researched pieces. It is clear that in preparing his homilies, Fr. Henry consulted various translations or versions of the text, bringing his deep knowledge of Latin and Greek into play in the interpretation he drew.

The language of the homilies is unambiguously Trinbagonian or Caribbean. He makes reference to cricket, Carnival and mas, to pothounds, dotishness, and to political figures such as Eric Williams, Eric Gairy, and so on. He would sometimes use the vernacular for particular effect. But some of the homilies do relate to his sojourn and experiences in the United States and some homilies are from feasts celebrated in the USA. Although he was a Caribbean man, he was by no means parochial in his thinking. The breadth of his reading and scholarship is evident. He was clearly enamoured with Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. and many of his homilies make reference to these two men. He brings into his references Aristotle, Shakespeare, Thomas Aquinas, Catholic converts such as Cardinal Newman and Dorothy Day, Protestant writers and a number of other writers of works of fiction and of philosophy. His training as a civil lawyer is evidcnt in his analogy of leasehold and freehold interests, unfair contracts, and his references to human rights and the Bill of Rights. He was keenly aware of political and social developments taking place in all parts of the world, and would link those developments with his homilies, and of course, he observed closely and critcally developments within the Catholic Church itself.

Ongoing Conversion

The book has been titled Ongoing Conversion: From Good to Better. The reason this title was chosen is that if there is any theme which runs through Fr. Henry’s homiletic writings it is that discipleship is an ongoing struggle requiring discipline, perseverance, and courage. Fr. Henry talks about two kinds of conversion. He says:

"Conversion is normally portrayed as a sudden and dramatic event. All the literature on conversion tends to talk of it in that way. You go to a meeting, something like a revivalist meeting, you hear the word, you feel convicted, you give up all your bad ways, and you turn a new leaf. Or like St. Paul, you are suddenly struck by lightning, and you are never the same again.

Looking at conversion as a dramatic occurrence, something that suddenly overtakes you, probably underestimates the fact that behind that suddenness there was some gradual preparation that prepared [you] for the moment of illumination. Ongoing Conversion (142-A)

In another place he writes:

The spiritual life is also not an inevitable movement from strength to strength. In climbing a mountain, there are similarly sheer drops and sheer rock faces… The spiritual life is the same, i.e., we are all confronted by temptations, by the possibility of going off course, of losing our place. The point of discipline is not to preserve you from this, because nothing can; it is to strengthen you to deal with it. If you are disciplined and build up your inner strength, you have more capability than not of facing and overcoming whatever it is that threatens a free fall in your life. Climbing the Mountain to Transfiguration (26-B)

Moral Excellence

Fr. Henry also advocated moral excellence as part and parcel of ongoing conversion. He wrote:

One cannot feel unmixed attraction for a moderate moral standard, any more than one can for a moderate work of art. And the reasons are essentially similar. Nothing [in it] makes me set aside my idiosyncracies; nothing [in it] forces me to give my complete and selfless attention. In other words, the vision implied by moderateness in morals as in art, lacks authority. The Idea of Perfection (79-A)

And again,

The temptation is settling for the moderately good, for decency. In one sense, moral decency is a real achievement. These days it may even amount to heroism. And yet, I don’t think it’s the ideal Jesus proposes for us. He said be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect; or be ye therefore all goodness as your heavenly father is all goodness. He didn’t say be ye therefore decent. Good to Better (9-C)

Henry’s Interpretations

What is interesting about Fr. Henry’s writings is that he is never dogmatic. His interpretations are always developing and evolving as he gives the matter further thought informed by the writings of others and his own life experiences. He would at times express that he did not know something or did not realise something or he was stumped by a question.

The second point of his work is that he faced up to difficulties of interpretation and apparent contradictions and there are issues on which he seemed to have struggled as we all do with understanding what Jesus really could have meant. One of his favorite words is perplexity capturing the dissonance we all experience when confronted with difficult interpretations. For example, I think his homily on Love your enemies struggles in this way for a reasoned interpretation and settles on the interesting perspective that love is justice, or in the appropriate context it may be non-resistance or it may even be violence proportionate to the oppression of the enemy. Indeed his interpretations of the perplexing injunctions of all the beatitudes are worthy of study and comparison with those of other writers.

But Fr. Henry sees these as intellectual difficulties reflecting our inability to grasp fully God’s ways, and not as insuperable obstacles to belief. Reflecting on his own struggles with difficult texts, he wrote:

Every preacher has to contend with difficult texts. Sometimes you have no insight, no thoughts; you don’t know where to go with certain passages or statements. My experience is that the most difficult passages sometimes produce the most unexpected results, not so much from the point of view of my dealing with them as from what people get from them. I am sometimes quite amazed at the surprising results of what are, as I think, pretty awful performances. No doubt I will in the future still find some texts hard and certain passages difficult, but what I ought to remember is that the outcome of struggling with them does not depend on how I anticipate the outcome. That’s calculation, not faith. My hands are not finally the place where these and other things are properly left. Struggle and effort remain necessary, but more necessary than that is the trust required to leave things—and keep leaving them—in the right hands. Things in the Right Hands (110-B).

Using the Book

I have tried to make the material usable in several different ways. First, in most cases, it is possible to identify the week in the liturgical cycle and the associated reading and one can then locate the homily or homilies which correspond to that week’s Gospel reading. (In most cases, Fr. Henry used the Gospel reading as the basis of his homily rather than the first or second reading). It should be noted however that there may be no homilies corresponding to particular readings. This is because there were none (Fr. Henry often took his vacations in August) or they were not included because they were just notes that were not deemed suitable for inclusion. The homilies are numbered in the body of the text to enable the reader to locate the particular Sunday or feast which prompted it. In some cases, the correspondence was challenging, and with the extraordinary help of Maria Neilson, I hope I have gotten it more right than wrong.

Second, the material has been arranged into broad themes, so that if the reader is interested in his discussion of Faith, or Culture, and Society, he/she can go directly to those parts and read what Fr. Henry has to say, refering to the readings if necessary. Third, we have included a General Index using various keywords, so that the reader can locate various homilies where those words of interest appear and the topic may have been discussed.

In most cases, I have retained the title of the homily which he gave to it. In other instances, I have retitled some homilies either because two or more had the same or similar title but treated with somewhat different points, or because I felt that a revised title would better reflect the essential point of the particular homily. In such cases, I hope I have done justice to Fr. Henry’s thinking.

I have abridged or amended long sentences and tried to make the text more readable but I have not generally highlighted those edits. Where I have made a deliberate insertion to correct an obvious error arising from transcription or otherwise, these appear in square brackets.

I think that the real value of the compilation is that Fr. Henry treats with issues that typically trouble or concern the Christian person or any person for that matter in today’s world, and his discourses show how the Gospel remains relevant to those issues today. The compilation is published in the hope that it proves inspirational and valuable to a wider group than those who were privileged to receive the e mails or to hear his preaching. I hope that it will prove of interest and value to priests and deacons as well as to students of religion in our Catholic high schools where there is a dearth of relevant and interesting material for reflection and study.

A Word of Appreciation

The idea for the project was enthusiastically received by those persons who received the emailed homilies and many persons supported the effort with advance purchases of the book. But it would not have been possible to accomplish this without Maria Neilson’s compilation of the homilies done over many years and arranged in a high degree of order. Maria also reviewed the drafts, researched the citations for the readings, and made corrections and suggestions. Maria deserves our heartfelt thanks. Fr. Anton Dick who was a schoolmate and a great friend of Fr. Henry wrote the Foreword.

Fr. Herbert Charles was keen and excited about the project from the outset and supported the effort in every way possible. In broaching the idea for the book, I felt very strongly Fr. Herbert’s deep love and admiration for his brother and brother-priest.

I alone am responsible for any errors (certain to be found) in the book.

Terrence W. Farrell

October 2013

ON GOD

God and Paradox

(31-A) John 9:1-41

Yahweh is to choose a king, so he sends the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse, who has seven sons. Jesse brings out the first six, the brightest and the best, and Yahweh rejects them all. Samuel asks if that is all, and Jesse answers: No, there’s one more, the youngest lil’ fella, he’s out there minding the sheep. Jesse discounts him. And of course, Yahweh tells Samuel: That’s the one I want!

Throughout the Old Testament, you find this preference of God for the youngest. It is not that God had no time for the first-born. It is in that culture the first-born was everything, and the preference for the youngest was a form of God saying my ways are not your ways.

Centuries later, when St. Benedict came to write his rule for his monks, he enshrined this principle in it. So he wrote that when the Abbot had to make important decisions, he should consult not only with the oldest monks, for the wisdom and so on, but also with the youngest, for he said, God often speaks through the youngest.

So you have the paradox that God could bypass age and wisdom and speak through inexperience.

In last week’s reading, we had the Samaritan woman, a cultural