Rafael de Mosteyrín, priest and chaplain of the CDP Torrealba, offers this article on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated today, September 14.
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There is an old story that speaks of how God molds each soul through suffering and purifies it in contact with the Cross, so that they are in a condition to serve Him, better and better.
There was a man who had a very special mill, because of the fineness of what had to be worked. It was a cinnamon mill. For its work, very special stones were needed, difficult to obtain. One day the stones became so worn that the work had to be stopped. The thing was not easy to fix, since those had to be bought in Germany, and they were very expensive for the miller. The mill had to be stopped.
One day, a good friend gave him the solution to his problems:
-Look, what you have to do is look for some stones in the river that are similar to the stones you were using. Take them home and replace them. Then, without adding cinnamon, you turn them over and over again. Never get discouraged, with a lot of patience. You have to wait many hours, days, maybe even weeks.
He followed his friend’s advice. After some time, the new stones had been polished against each other, by rubbing, so that they were perfectly smooth and tight; as good as the German ones.
It is very important to understand the celebration of the Cross. Christians should not reject suffering, but love it. This makes us more and more like Christ. It has been traditional for catechisms to begin by asking us if we are Christians. Then it explains what it means to be a Christian. Next, we want to know what the sign of a Christian is. The sign of a Christian is the Holy Cross. Because it is very important in our lives. She must be in our hearts, on our lips, in our works; presiding over churches, classrooms, rooms; on the summits of mountains and at the crossroads of the roads. Above all, on our shoulders. The Cross of each day; the small one of each day.
The Cross has been an instrument of atonement for the sins of the world, a sacrifice, of reconciliation, proof of infinite love. In us, it will be a means of personal sanctification, of identification with Christ. We glory, like Saint Paul, in the Cross of the Lord. Thus, we learn the lesson that to be with Christ, we must suffer with Him. We must place our sufferings alongside those of Christ, for the good of the Church, and of each of its members.
