Two brethren made their way to the city to sell their handiwork: and when in the city they went different ways, divided one from the other, one of them fell into fornication. After a while his brother came to him, saying, “Brother, let us go back to our cell.” But he answered, “I am not coming.” And the other questioned him, saying, “Why, brother?” And he answered, “Because when you left me, I ran into temptation, and I sinned in the flesh.” But the other, who had been faithful was anxious to help him and said, “But it also happened with me. When I was separated from you, I too sinned. But let us go, and do penance together with all our might: and God will forgive us that are sinful men.”
And they came back to the monastery and told the old men what had befallen them, and they enjoined on them the penance they were to do. But the one began his penance, not for himself but for his brother, as if he himself had sinned. And God, seeing his love and his labor, after a few days revealed to one of the old men that for the great love of this brother who had not sinned, He had forgiven the brother who had. And this is what it means to lay down one’s soul for one’s brother.
