Canon 102 Penance suited to the sin and the sinner

Those who have received from God the authority to loose and to bind must consider the quality of the sin and the readiness of the sinner for conversion, and so apply treatment suited to the sickness, lest, using immoderation in either direction, he fall short of the salvation of the one who is sick. For the disease of sin is not simple, but manifold and of many forms, and puts forth many offshoots of harm, from which the evil spreads far and goes forward, until it is halted by the power of the one who heals. So he who shows forth the science of healing in the Spirit ought first to examine the disposition of the sinner, and to observe whether he inclines towards health, or, on the contrary, by his own ways calls the sickness down upon himself, and how he takes thought for his conduct in the meantime; and whether he is not wrestling against the practitioner, and increasing the wound of the soul by the application of the remedies laid on it; and so to measure out mercy according to desert. For the whole concern of God and of him who has been entrusted with the pastoral leadership is to bring back the straying sheep and to heal the one wounded by the serpent, and neither to push it down the precipices of despair, nor to slacken the bridle towards dissoluteness and contempt of life; but by one means or another, whether through the more austere and astringent remedies or through the gentler and milder, to stand against the passion and to strive for the closing of the wound, as he tests the fruits of repentance and wisely directs the man who is called to the bright raiment above. We must therefore know both things, what belongs to akribeia and what belongs to custom; and, in the case of those who do not accept the utmost strictness, follow the form handed down, as the holy Basil teaches us.