Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year C

Back when I was studying A-level chemistry, I can remember someone saying

that, when it came to GCSE exams, you could always rely on their being a

question on the blast furnace. A blast furnace would have three ingredients:

iron ore, limestone and coke. The coke, by the way, was from the distillation of

coal, and was almost pure carbon. Not to be confused with the brown-coloured

drink.

The purpose of the coke was to get rid of the oxygen from the iron ore, and the

limestone was to get rid of the other impurities, so you would be left with the

iron. But it wouldn’t all just happen by itself. It needed a blast of hot air,

hence the name, the blast furnace. It’s a bit like Christ’s prayer today for

Christian unity. We can have all the right ingredients, so to speak, but we also

need the “blast” of the Holy Spirit, to take away all sin and impurity, and to

bind us in unity, just as the blast furnace produces molten iron that drips down

and forms solid bars at the bottom of the blast furnace. In some ways, the

industrial process of the blast furnace is both like baptism and confirmation, but

also the work that the Holy Spirit needs to do to bring about Christian unity. So

much rust and impurity needs to be removed from our lives, so much sin and

attachment to our own ways, to have a chance of unity taking place and

becoming permanent.

After iron comes out of the blast furnace, that’s not the end. If you want to turn

it into steel, you have to pass oxygen through the molten iron, as there are still

some impurities left, including a certain amount of carbon in the iron. The

carbon concentration needs to be reduced in order to make steel. In the same

way, for us as Christians, salvation isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime thing, once saved,

always saved. Conversion is an ongoing process, and there is always more

work to be done. As before, it’s that fire of the Holy Spirit that is needed, both

to bring us to greater perfection and unity, and to keep away from us all that is

harmful.

In my previous parish in Stoke-on-Trent, the local steelworks, Shelton Bar, had

closed many years ago, but it used to be a great big place, and it was said that

when the furnaces were opened the flames would light up the night sky. One of

the stories, although I don’t know how true it was, was that, during the Second

World War, they opened the furnaces as the Luftwaffe planes were

approaching. They saw the flames and thought the place had already been

bombed, so off they went. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit and the grace of

God, we too will be able to ward off all that is harmful to our souls and the

souls of others.

Iron and steel are not extracted from their ore just to be made into bars for

people to look at. The shiny metal would also, after a while, begin to go rusty.

The bars are there to be melted down and moulded into different shapes and

sizes and different manufactured goods. When I was studying GCSE

geography, we had a field trip to the Lower Don Valley in Sheffield. Once

again, although steel was still being made there, the industry was a shadow of

its former self, and we came across a great big steam hammer that was now just

a monument. One of the teachers, himself from Sheffield, reminisced at how

the men in the steelworks were so skilled they could use a steam hammer to

crack an egg without breaking it. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is so skilled

at shaping and reforming us, perhaps over time changing us beyond all

recognition.

If we look at the first reading, Stephen was someone who had been under the

influence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The one God had brought

Stephen into unity with Himself, just as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.

Unity of faith. Unity of vision. Unity of charity. Unity of witness to the truth

of the Gospel. And so great was this unity, that his death in various ways

reflects that of Christ. When Christ was before the Sanhedrin, the words that

had Him condemned included the phrase that they would see the Son of Man

seated at the right hand of the power of God. St Stephen utters the same

phrase. When he is stoned, he asks the Lord to receive his spirit and to forgive

his persecutors. Jesus did the same.

He was like that iron ore, that had been purified by the coke, limestone and hot

air, refined further with a blast of oxygen, and moulded into what Christ was

calling him to be. He fulfilled the plan of the Father. The sooner we are all

filled with the Holy Spirit, the sooner Christian unity will come about, and the

sooner that the world will believe in the Christ the Father has sent.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk