Letter 82: The most just judge of disputed matters, in my opinion, is the one who is not overawed by the highest rank but...

How are we to understand, "If your eye or your hand causes you to stumble"? [Matthew 5:29-30; 18:8-9] By "eye" and "right hand" the all-good Christ named the nearness to us of our close and genuine associates, those who are well-disposed toward us for genuine cooperation, calling them by the names of those members through which we do the things that please us. Whenever, then, one of these becomes a cause of stumbling, and wallows in some sin that brings reproach upon us and procures dishonor for himself, [Christ commands us] to cut off such a one, lest, imitating a plague, he feed upon the soundness of the body, having insinuated his own affliction into those who are healthy by means of such passions. The law of the Lord, O dear head, does not lie in some corner, hidden away, when it commands, "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" [Matthew 6:3]; rather it is plain and most clear, and altogether evident to those who attend to it. For since vainglory and ostentation accompany the doing of good, it says: Let nothing good be done by you out of passion, nor let a boastful reckoning follow upon the good deed; but if you do good, be unostentatious and unboastful, not hunting for the applause of this present world, but looking for the crowns that are to come.

Πῶς νοητέον, «Εἰ ὀφθαλμός σου ἢ χείρ σου σκανδαλίζει σε.» Ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ χεῖρα δεξιὰν ὁ πανάγαθος Χριστὸς τὴν ἐγγύτητα τῶν ἐπιτηδείων καὶ γνησίων ἡμῖν ἐπωνόμασε, τοὺς εὐνους ἡμῖν (82) πρὸς γνησίαν συνεργίαν, ἐκείνοις καλέσας τῶν μελῶν τοῖς ὀνόμασι, δι’ ὧν ἡμεῖς τὰ ἀρέσκοντα πράττομεν. Ὅταν οὖν τὶς ἐξ αὐτῶν σκανδάλου αἴτιος γένηται, καὶ ἁμαρτίᾳ καλινδῆται. τινι, ἡμῖν λοιδορίαν φερούσῃ, καὶ αὐτῷ ἀτιμίαν προξενούσῃ, ἐκκόπτειν τὸν τοιοῦτον, ἵνα μὴ λοιμὸν μιμησάμενος, νεμηθῇ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἀκεραιότητα, τοῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἐκ τοιούτων παθῶν εἰσφρήσας τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀλγηδόνα. Οὐκ ἔστιν, ὦ φίλῃ κεφαλῇ, ἐν παραβύστῳ καὶ ἀποκρύφῳ κείμενος ὁ τοῦ Κυρίου νόμος, «Μὴ γνώτω ἡ ἀριστερά σου τί ποιεῖ ἡ δεξιά σου», κελεύοντος, ἀλλὰ λευκὸς καὶ σαφέστατος, καὶ τοῖς προσέχουσιν ἀρίδηλος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῷ εὖ ποιεῖν κενοδοξία παρέπεται καὶ ἐπίδειξις Μηδέν, φησί, καλὸν γινέσθω παρὰ σοῦ ἐμπαθῶς, μηδὲ πέρπερος λογισμός ἀκολουθείτω τῷ κατορθώματι· ἀλλ’ εἰ εὖ ποιεῖς, ἀνεπίδεικτος ἐσο καὶ ἄκομπος, τοὺς ἐνταῦθα κρότους μὴ θηρῶν, ἀλλὰ τοὺς μέλλοντας στεφάνους προσδοκῶν.