For so long as one is ignorant of his own sins, which he ought either to know or to bewail; so long does he curiously consider the affairs of others. But if, turned back to himself, he should look upon his own manners, he will not seek what to reprove especially in others, but in himself what to lament. Accordingly, we ought not easily to accuse the vices of our brethren, but to mourn them: that, bearing one another's burdens, we may be able to fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. vi, 2); who indeed did not accuse our sins, but bore them, as the Evangelist says: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John i, 29).
And so, if He who was without any sin bore us sinners with ineffable piety, and does not cease to bear us, desiring not our destruction but our progress, not the death of sinners but their salvation; why should we not, after the example of our Savior and Lord, bear with the weak—since either we ourselves are weak, and wish to be borne by God; or, if we are sound, we can yet, as frail, become weak?