The Letters of Nerses the Gracious

of the shepherds of Israel, who stands ready to give an account not only for himself, but also for the flock? How shall I presume in the medical metaphorical: spiritual healing arts to bring about the healing of the body of the Church, according to the example of the Samaritan, while possessing an unhealable self from the various unknown and manifest ailments, through which it is said against me: "Physician, heal thyself."

How shall I be called an expiator for others, being in need of expiation for many of my own failings, or a teacher who has not justified by work the word of the teaching? How shall I be a tutor or a nurse, according to Paul, to those who are children in Christ, who have not first tutored the soul with the rod of instruction, and have not fed it milk and honey from the breast of the commandments of God? How shall I be called the light of the world, or salt, being darkened by the ignorance of sins, and on account of insipidity, rendered useless to the earth and the dunghill, to the righteous and the sinners, and cast out from the good to be trampled by them?