Letter 876: The priesthood is a sacred trust, not a career.

To Theodosios. The formidable pirate does not simply fall upon those who sail this sea that is full of storm, but first he tests them thoroughly, and, having learned the inclinations and impulses of the soul, he then makes his attempt and weaves his contrivances. For why did he not push Judas into fornication, but into betrayal? Because he saw that this part was secured, whereas the part concerning love of money was unsteady and rotten. For from the theft of the money-box [the glossokomon, the purse Judas kept] he hoped that the man would readily rush even into betrayal. Therefore, prying into the impulses of each person and their assents, and letting slip no occasion nor hour, he supplies his attacks entirely from without, and into whatever he perceives a man to be inclined, into that very thing he wounds him. The man of good repute, then, must be secured on every side. For often a commonwealth that, like a city, has been fortified with walls that cannot be stormed, he has overcome through one rotten part, showing the strength of the remaining walls to be in vain.

Οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἐπιτίθεται ὁ δεινὸς πειράτης τοῖς ταύτην τὴν χειμῶνος γέμουσαν πλέουσι θάλατταν, ἀλλὰ πρῶτον διακυδωνήσας, καὶ τὰς βοπὰς καὶ τὰς ὁρμὰς τῆς ψυχῆς καταμαθών, οὕτως ἐπιχειρεῖ, καὶ τὰς μηχανὰς πλέκει. Διὰ τί γὰρ εἰς πορνείαν οὐκ ὤθησε τὸν Ἰούδαν, ἀλλ’ εἰς προδοσίαν; Ὅτι ἐκεῖνο μὲν τὸ μέρος ἐώρα ἠσφαλισμένον· τὸ δὲ περὶ φιλοχρηματίαν σφαλερὸν καὶ σαθρόν. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς κλοπῆς τοῦ γλωσσοκόμου ἤλπισε καὶ εἰς προδοσίαν αὐτὸν ῥᾳδίως ὁρμήσειν. Τὰς ὁρμὰς οὖν ἑκάστου καὶ τὰς συγκαταθέσεις πολυπραγμονῶν, καὶ οὐδένα καιρὸν οὐδ’ ὥραν παραλείπων, οὕτως τὰς ὅλως ἔξωθεν χορηγεῖ, καὶ εἰς ὃ ἐπίῤῥεπές ἔχοντα αἰσθάνεται, εἰς ἐκεῖνο τιτρώσκει. Χρὴ οὖν πανταχόθεν ἠσφαλίσθαι τὸν εὐδόκιμον. Πολλάκις γὰρ πολιτείαν ὥσπερ πόλιν ἀπορθήτοις τείχεσι πεπυργωμένην, διὰ μέρους σαθροῦ παρεστήσατο, ματαίαν τὴν τῶν λοιπῶν τειχῶν δείξας ὀχυρότητα.