ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 11 v29

THEIR CAPTIVITY IS MINE. CYPRIAN: The captivity of our brothers must be thought of as our captivity. The sorrow of those in danger is our sorrow. You may be sure that there is one body of our unity. Not only love but also religion ought to incite us and to encourage us to redeem the members of our family. LETTER 62.1.

SUFFERING IN SYMPATHY. AMBROSIASTER: Paul is saying that he suffers in sympathy with everybody and that he shares their pain in order to provide medicine for the wound. He presses the point in order to show how carefully he is guarding and ruling the church entrusted to him. In this way he shows that he should not be considered inferior to the other apostles, seeing that he labored more than all of them. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

AM I NOT WEAK? THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: By “weak” in this case Paul means “sinful.” PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

SYMPATHIZING WITH WEAKNESS. AUGUSTINE: Paul does not mean that he was counterfeiting their weakness but that he was sympathizing with it. LETTER 40, TO JEROME.

THE RESPONSIBLE PASTOR. CHRYSOSTOM: 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? HOMILIES ON GENESIS 57.