Wednesday 16 February 2011

Of fire and furnaces


One thing I have discovered on this journey into an icon, is what a very complex image the Sacred Heart is. When you view it through the eyes of an iconographer, you begin to appreciate the beauty and the complexity of the idea of the Sacred Heart. As Teilhard puts it: ‘ the very thought of it is almost more than the mind can compass.’ I get that now. This complexity also mirrors the complexity of my own desire to commission Ian. First and foremost it was, I think, a desire to take all the pain and suffering which has been the lot of my family over the past few years and transform it into something beautiful for God. I found that Teilhard helped me to make the Sacred Heart a kind of integrative symbol which could assist me in making sense of the love of God and the role of suffering. And the more I explore the Sacred Heart and pray to the Sacred Heart, and trust in that Heart, the more do I find that patterns and sense and meaning emerges. The latest turning in the story is a good example of that: St John Eudes’s idea of the Sacred Heart as a ‘furnace’ connects remarkably well with Teilhard’s thoughts and language. But then I find it also connects with my experience equally well. I loved my father very much, and still miss him. His death was followed quickly by the sudden death of my eldest sister and subsequently her husband. As a family we were really put through the fire. St John Eudes’s idea of the Sacred Heart as a ‘burning furnace of divine love..radiating in all directions’ immediately evoked my father for me. He was a steel worker. And, before I went off to university to read for a BSc (econ) he was keen that I should work in the steel works to earn some money, but also so I should understand how he had to earn his daily bread: ‘real economics’, as he put it. The day I was shown the great blast furnaces of East Moors was a memorable experience. I have to admit I was scared and terrified at the heat and the blinding light. ‘Its like the sun,’ my father said, ‘don’t look at it’. And he gave me a visor. As I read St Bernadine’s words quoted at the start of St. John Eudes’s book on the Sacred Heart: the heart as ‘Fornacem ardentissimae caritas’, a ‘furnace of ardent love’ I suddenly saw the Sacred Heart in the way Teilhard must have seen it. Fire, divine energy : a fire of immense power filling the universe and wanting to consume us. A furnace at the sacred heart of matter : of all that is. The same fire in the burning bush sanctifying the ground on which Moses stood. And now, in this fire I can see the love of the Father the almighty creator , but also the love of my father the steel-worker who wanted me to see the great furnaces that took rock and transformed it into steel. I now more clearly see the Sacred Heart as the centre of the cosmic furnace that calls to us to let its fire penetrate our mind, soul and our hearts. And transform our hearts of stone, into glowing hearts full of divine fire.

5 comments:

  1. This is all very interesting and I will follow closely. I especially like the move towards an image for the 21st century which still holds the richness of earlier aesthetic theology. Your earlier comments on geometry and the cosmos are especially interesting in this regard. In terms of similar endeavours, the Sagrada Familia of Gaudi springs to mind. The website includes an entry on the 'star-shaped structure' of the cathedral's base If you have not been, I strongly recommend a visit because it is a building genuinely modern and genuinely Catholic.

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  2. David, this is the first time the imagery of 'furnace' has come alive for me. Something very important. Please keep these reflections coming and I am reading them with interest. Ian

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  3. I was very moved by David's story of his father's influence and his love for him. I am reminded of the Sacred Heart's’ love that knows no bounds’, connecting us for different unique purposes. A friend of mine, Jake Lever, presently has a 17ft sculpture of a gold boat on display at the Open West Exhibition, Summerfield Gallery, Pitville Campus, Cheltenham.
    The image represents his father's last epic voyage, sailing into the next life. Connections of the Sacred, father/Son,gold, fire and artistic interpretation. Nikki Seville, organiser: Iconographer-in-Residence (Ian Knowles) at Christ Church, Cheltenham 8 - 14 April

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  4. David, did you notice the profile shape of the hod above the furnace? It is the shape... of a heart. Nice touch!

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  5. Yes I did, after I posted it. I wish I could say that is why I chose it: but it chose itself. It was the only picture I could find on google of the blast furnaces at East Moors. Strange, but true!! When I saw it on the screen, I thought I was just imagining it. But it does indeed look like a heart. No photo editing on my part!

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