What is the Cross to Me?

Upon reflection on this day of the Exaltation of Cross many thoughts crossed my mind. From my daily reflections I read a poem by Brother Jacapone da Todi who was Franciscan writer in Italy.  His poem "How We Exalt the Cross" detailed a person contemplating a climb on a  great tree whose branches ascended beyond sight. Ready to climb the person sees no place to get a hold except a defective looking branch. Eager to begin he is stopped in his tracks when a voice says "Do not touch me unless you have first confessed." As the piece goes on the climber now cleansed ascends only with his profound recognition that without God the ascent will not take place.  Struck by the deep symbolism of the poem I meditated on the meaning of the cross.  As with a tree the cross is attached to the ground. Jesus crucified with outstretched arms is the many branches of tree providing shade for those who come close, his arms representing the world in which he takes in.  The cross in itself is symbolic of suffering of Jesus and those that follow him.  Putting it in the context of climbing a tall tree, the dangers each step up signifies and the possibility of fall, the weak branches that one might inadvertently grab on our journey, Jesus is our foothold on the ascent. Although suffering is seen in adverse light in our world today, we shall climb embracing the precarious journey,  to the  top of  the tree to our eternal reward willing to take risks and knowing that with each fall, each moment of suffering, the extension of the arms of Christ will grab us and lift us up to a stronger branch along the way.