Bear one another’s burden

It being impossible for man to be without failings, he exhorts them not to scrutinize too severely the offences of others, but even to bear their failings, so their own may in turn be borne by others.

In the building of a house, all the stones do not hold the same position: one is fitted for a corner but not for the foundations, another for the foundations and not for the corner.

So too it is in the body of the Church. The same thing holds true in the frame of our own flesh: one member bears with the other, and we do not require everything from each, but what each contributes in common constitutes both the body and the building...

For example, this man is irascible, you are dull-tempered: bear, therefore, with his vehemence so that he in turn may bear with your sluggishness... So do you by reaching forth a hand one to another when about to fall, fulfil the Law in common, each completing what is wanting in his neighbor by his own endurance.

But if you do not do it in this way, but each of you will investigate the faults of his neighbor, nothing will ever be performed by you as it ought...

He shows that we ought to be our own lives, and this not lightly, but carefully to weigh our actions... He who plants in the flesh wantonness, drunkenness, or inordinate desire, will reap the fruits of these things.

And what are these fruits? Punishment, retribution, shame, derision, destruction... Have you sown almsgiving? The treasures of heaven and eternal glory await you. Have you sown temperance? Honor and reward, and the applause of angels, and a crown from the Judge await you.

St. John Chrysostom