Letter 98

Isidore of PelusiumFrontinos Monk|isidore pelusium
monasticism

. Concerning him who received (a slap)on the cheek. If you have been injured by words and given way to unrestrained anger, how can you become a worker in the Lord‘s Vineyard? For He determines that whosoever, struck on one cheek [2], is capable also of presenting the other, is that one who “bears the oppressiveness of the day and its heat” [3] and who thus will have accomplishedall the labour of the Lord’s command. For if you aspire to those greater rewards, do not be distraught at the lesser toils, but learn to bear with love the greater ones, for you will not otherwise receive a penny unless witnessed to by the perfection of (your) own efforts.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.