2 Corinthians 11:29

What wonderful affection in a pastor! Others' falls, he is saying, accentuate my grief, others' obstacles inflame the fire of my suffering. Let all those entrusted with the leadership of rational sheep imitate this and not prove inferior to the shepherd who for many years cares for irrational sheep. In that case no harm ensues even if some negligence occurs, but in our case if only one rational sheep is lost or falls to predators, the loss is extreme; the harm, terrible; the punishment, unspeakable. After all, if our Lord did not forbear to pour out his own blood for him, what excuse would such a person deserve for allowing himself to neglect the one so esteemed by the Lord and not making every effort on his part to care for the sheep?

"Who is weak, and I am not weak?" He did not say, 'and I share not in his dejection?' but, 'so am I troubled and disturbed, as though I myself were laboring under that very affection, that very infirmity.' "Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?" See, again, how he places before us the excess of his grief by calling it "burning." 'I am on fire,' 'I am in a flame,' he says, which is surely greater than any thing he has said. For those other things, although violent, yet both pass quickly by, and brought with them that pleasure which is unfading; but this was what afflicted and straightened him, and pierced his mind through and through; the suffering such things for each one of the weak, whosoever he might be. For he did not feel pained for the greater sort only and despise the lesser, but counted even the abject amongst his familiar friends. Wherefore also he said, "who is weak?" whosoever he may be; and as though he were himself the Church throughout the world, so was he distressed for every member.

With excessive grief of mind, and not without tears, dearest, brethren, I have read your letter which you wrote to me from the solicitude of your love, concerning the captivity of our brethren and sisters.

Lest anyone should say that he did care, but cared in an ordinary way, he shows the character of his care. And he did not say: I share in the affliction, but I myself undergo it to the point of exhaustion. By exhaustion, understand both …

Then, how he expressed the excess of grief, for "I am inflamed," he says. Enduring everything else, he rejoiced, knowing that he endures for the Lord's sake; but here he is wounded in soul, so that the stumbling of another, even of an insignificant and …

For the cross is taken up in two ways: either when the body is afflicted through abstinence, or when the mind is troubled through compassion for one's neighbor. Let us hear of the cross of the mind in compassion for one's neighbor. For Paul says: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" Indeed the perfect preacher, in order to give an example of abstinence, carried the cross in his body. And because he drew upon himself the losses of another's weakness, he carried the cross in his heart.

The second affliction he suffered concerned the failings of his subjects, and this he does in two ways, namely for spiritual failings; hence he says, Who is weak, namely, in faith and in goodness, and I am not weak? In heart, grieving over them as …

Who - So he had not only the care of the churches, but of every person therein. Is weak, and I am not weak - By sympathy, as well as by condescension. Who is offended - Hindered in, or turned out of, the good way.

Nor was he ashamed of all this, but, on the contrary, it was what he accounted his honour; and therefore, much against the grain as it was with him to glory, yet, says he, if I must needs glory, if my adversaries will oblige me to it in my own necessary vindication, I will glory in these my infirmities,

Who is weak, and I am not weak....

Who is weak - What Church is there under persecution, with which I do not immediately sympathize? or who, from his weakness in the faith, and scrupulousness of conscience, is likely to be stumbled, or turned out of the way, to whom I do not condescend, and whose burden I do not bear? Who is offended - Or likely to be turned out of the way, and I burn not with zeal to restore and confirm him? This seems to be the sense of these different questions.