An excerpt from the Work of St. Maximus of Turin

It is well known to you all that from the beginning, Brethren, from the day I came to you, I have ceased not to bring to your mind all that the Lord has taught, seeking always to root deep within you, partly by exhortation and partly by reproaches, His Divine precepts; so that while to many I have been as it were a father, to not a few I have seemed a stern master. As a father he has regarded me who willingly has embraced what I have taught him, as a stern teacher he who has felt his conscience aggrieved because of my preaching.  But it matters little to me, provided that, either by kindness or by sternness, Christ be made known to you: though even sternness is a kindness used towards children who are neglectful, so that they may learn by fear what they have neglected to love. Not that a father does not love all his children with equal affection, but the tenderness of a father is shown according to the disposition of each one, arousing the well-disposed by exhortation and the wayward by sternness, so that by the correction of the one and the the other he is sure of both; for the one he urges on with love, the other by harshness; just as the Blessed Apostle says: Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow, but afterwards it will yield, to them that are excercised by it, the most peaceful fruit of justice (Hebrews 12:11).