My 6-year-old son asked for and received a rock tumbler for Christmas. (I don't know where the idea came from.) The basic idea is that you take ordinary-looking rocks, ýbut them into the tumbler with water and a fine sand called "grit", and spin the barrel. The grit polishes the rocks, and eventually the rock is transformed into something smooth, shiny, and beautiful. The water, of course, is essential, but so is the grit, and the grit must come in stages. You begin with coarse grit, which takes the rough edges off the stone and leaves it smoothed, but scratched and dull. Then you switch to a finer grit, which takes out the scratches, making the stone even smoother. Finally is the polish, which brings out the stone's inner beauty.
The path to holiness follow the same pattern. First, we must remove the coarse sins, the mortal sins. Then, when those are scoured away - a painful process for most - we get to work on the venial sins. As with the case of rock polishing, this second phase can be long. Finally, the polish. We polish our virtues. Expand our understanding of sins. Strive to bring out the inner beauty of our souls.
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