Whoever Would Come After Me

Summary

Dimitrios Panagopoulos treats the Exaltation of the Holy Cross through liturgical structure, Old Testament prefiguration, historical tradition, and ascetic application. He names the Bronze Serpent, Moses’ outstretched arms against Amalek, Isaac bearing wood to Moriah, and the Tree of Life as types of the Cross, and recounts a patristic tradition concerning the wood preserved in the iconography of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. The Sunday after the feast supplies the moral teaching: Christ’s rebuke of Peter introduces self-denial, daily cross-bearing, and the mortification of self-will, passions, and ego, culminating in Paul’s crucifixion to the world.