Letter 576

To Kekropios the Apparitor [a subordinate court official]. If indeed you call the present age a sea, what profit could you display to the Judge [Christ at the Last Judgment] — the very profit which you ought to have taken care to trade for as you cross over the open sea of this human life?

Εἴπερ θάλασσαν εἶναι λέγεις τὸν παρόντα αἰῶνα, ποῖον ἂν κέρδος ἐπιδείξαιο τῷ κριτῇ, ὅπερ ἐμπορεῦσαι διαπερῶν τὸ πέλαγος τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς, πεφροντικέναι ὀφέλεις.