When, in a fit of wild selfishness, we question God’s holy will and try to act
contrary to it, He does not intervene to cut off our will. He allows us to act
wrongly but freely. Inevitably, of course, in the first case we get our reward,
and in the second we get condemnation, as is often witnessed in the Bible.
Saint Makarios of Optina
Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou
