Letter 1623: Virtue must be practiced with all one's strength — not merely admired from a distance.
To Hierax the Deacon. The life of the Christian is a journey, not a destination, and the person who supposes he has arrived has in fact not yet begun. For the moment you think you have attained perfection, you have lost it, since perfection requires the constant awareness of imperfection and the perpetual striving toward a goal that lies always beyond the horizon. This is not a cause for despair but for hope, for it means that growth never ceases, that there is always more to discover, more to become, more to receive. The spiritual life is an infinite ocean, and we are sailors who have barely left the harbor. The depths beneath us are unfathomable, the distances before us are immeasurable, and the treasures that await us are beyond anything we have imagined. Therefore press on, Hierax, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. I urge you therefore, by the mercies of God and by the judgment that is to come, to take these words to heart and act upon them without delay. For the time is short, the stakes are eternal, and the opportunity for repentance, though still available, will not remain so forever. The sun is setting, the shadows are lengthening, and the night in which no man can work draws ever nearer. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, walking honestly as in the day, and preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, who will reward every person according to his works.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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