For in the Trinity alone, which is the author of all things, does goodness exist in virtue of essential being; while others possess it as an accidental and perishable quality, and only then enjoy blessedness, when they participate in holiness and wisdom, and in divinity itself. But if they neglect and despise such participation, then is each one, by fault of his own slothfulness, made, one more rapidly, another more slowly, one in a greater, another in a less degree, the cause of his own downfall. And since, as we have remarked, the lapse by which an individual falls away from his position is characterized by great diversity, according to the movements of the mind and will, one man falling with greater ease, another with more difficulty, into a lower condition; in this is to be seen the just judgment of the providence of God, that it should happen to every one according to the diversity of his conduct, in proportion to the desert of his declension and defection. (Book I, Chapter 6, Part 2)

To preserve whatever goodness is available to each of us, we must participate in holiness and wisdom, and in divinity itself.

We must take part in, share, actively engage, be involved in the reality of God.

In the Parmenides Socrates (and Plato and, perhaps, Aristotle) each struggle over how we participate (συμμετέχουν and otherwise) in reality.

To fully participate in reality as a whole is very difficult, perhaps impossible. Reality is infinite, yet we are - at least in part - finite.

But in any case, passivity is not an effective path to the Good.