“‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!’ (Matthew 7:7-11)…
“For this reason have we who are evil a good Father, so that we may not always continue evil. No evil person can make another person good. If no evil person can make another good, how can an evil person make himself good? Only our Father, who is good eternally, can make of an evil person a good person.
“‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved.’ (Jeremiah 17:14).”
— St. Augustine,
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, 11.2,
as quoted in A Year with the Church Fathers, CPH 2011, page 313.
Light from Light 