Fathers

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What the Fathers say

2 Corinthians 12:9

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in weakness." That is to say, 'It is sufficient for thee that thou raisest the dead, that thou curest the blind, that thou cleansest lepers, that thou workest those other miracles; seek not also exemption from danger and fear and to preach without annoyances. But art thou pained and dejected lest it should seem to be owing to My weakness, that there are many who plot against and beat thee and harass and scourge thee? …

Homily 26 on 2 Corinthians ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

And He said to me, he says, My grace is sufficient for you — that is, it is enough for you that I have given you the grace to raise the dead and perform all miracles. Do not ask, then, that your preaching advance without dangers, for that is excessive; but what is sufficient for you, you have received. That is, you suffer, Paul, so that it would not seem that many are placing obstacles to the preaching due to My weakness; take courage, for My power is revealed more fully when you, the persecuted, overcome the persecutors. …

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗

Irenaeus

Long-suffering therefore was God, when man became a defaulter, as foreseeing that victory which should be granted to him through the Word. For, when strength was made perfect in weakness, it showed the kindness and transcendent power of God. For as He patiently suffered Jonah to be swallowed by the whale, not that he should be swallowed up and perish altogether, but that, having been cast out again, he might be the more subject to God, and might glorify Him the more who had conferred upon him such an unhoped-for deliverance, and …

Against Heresies Book III ↗

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

It follows: "That whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it you." Behold, here he says: "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." Again, elsewhere through the same Evangelist he says: "If you shall ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. …

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 27 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then he states the Lord's answer: but he, i.e., the Lord, said to me: My grace is sufficient for you. Here he does two things. First, he states the Lord's answer; secondly, the reason for the answer (v. 9b). He says therefore, I asked, but the Lord said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. …

Commentary on 2 Corinthians ↗

Bonaventure

But if you ask how these things come about, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the Bridegroom, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and carries into God through ecstatic anointings and most ardent affections. …

Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7 ↗