Letter 436

To Eulysius the Monk. Neither virtue nor vice remains unchangeable and immovable, since the human race is self-altering by its own will. The brother, therefore, whom you suppose to be most negligent, whom you reckon to be a sinner, you do not know whether perhaps, groaning within himself and changing for the better, he is being saved in God's sight. But you, in your ignorance, often belittle such a man, and revile him, and bitterly condemn the very man who is being saved above yourself.

Οὔτε ἡ ἀρετή, οὔτε ἡ κακία μένει ἀμετάπτωτος, καὶ ἀκίνητος, ἐπειδὴ ἐθελότρεπτόν ἐστι ἀνθρώπινον γένος. Ὅνπερ τοίνυν ὑπολαμβάνεις τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἀμελέστατον εἶναι, ὅνπερ νομίζεις ἁμαρτωλὸν ὑπάρχειν, οὐκ οἶδας, μήποτε καθ’ ἑαυτὸν στενάζας, καὶ μεταβαλλόμενος ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον, παρὰ Θεῷ σῴζεται. Σὺ δὲ ἀγονῶν εὐτελίζεις πολλάκις τὸν τοιοῦτον, καὶ λοιδορεῖς, καὶ πικρῶς κατακρίνεις τὸν ὑπὲρ σοῦ σῳζόμενον ἄνθρωπον.