Impose upon yourself some form of penance for the sins of others. If you have judged or punished someone, impose upon yourself a form a penance. You should also suffer voluntarily for the sins of sinners. This is pleasing to God. This mystery was known by the saints, who condemned themselves for the sins of others. Even non-Christian peoples perceived this mystery.

There exists this custom in China: When an executioner beheads a criminal who is sentenced to death, he then approaches the judge and informs him that the verdict was carried out. The judge reimburses him with a silver coin because he has executed a criminal, and then he orders that he be given forty lashes for having killed a man.

Christian saints profoundly understood the mystery of sin and human injustice. For the saints, every human sin has a history as long as the distance from Adam to us.

The Prologue of Ohrid, Vol. I
4 February, Reflection