When, two days ago, after the umpteenth feminicide, the cameras lingered for a few moments on the scene of the husband's arrest, we may have felt an instinctive sense of repulsion at seeing the small cross prominently displayed around the neck of the arrested man.

But today the Church celebrates, in East and West, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, that is, the redemptive efficacy of God's love, in solidarity with human suffering. Thus, the sign of Cain (Gen 4:15) also reveals itself as a sign of hope offered to every man or woman, creatures redeemed by the blood of Christ and grafted by him into the life of God.

Let no one take that cross (ie, that hope) from our souls, nor from our eyes. Without fear of calling things by their name,  we recognize ourselves as brothers only if we learn to look at ourselves as God does.