John Chrysostom

"Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I trust to see you in my journey; and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company," For that he might not seem to be holding them very cheap, by saying, Since I have not anything to do, therefore I am coming to you, he again touches on the point of love by saying, "I have a great desire, these many years, to come unto you." For the reason why I desire to come, is not because I am disengaged, but that I may give birth to that desire wherewith I …

Homily on Romans 29 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

But lest they, again, become puffed up, imagining that he has a desire to come to us as to those who are above all others, he adds: as soon as I undertake my journey to Spain, I will come to you. And lest, again, they say: he only wants to visit us in passing, he added: "and you will send me on my way there," that is, you yourselves, having seen the necessity compelling me to go to those peoples, will send me on my way, so that I am visiting you not out of contempt for you, but out of necessity. …

Commentary on Romans ↗

Thomas Aquinas

When I shall begin to take my journey to Spain—whither he planned to go in order to lay the foundations of the faith even in such a faraway place: I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isa 49:6)—I hope that, as I pass, I shall see you. Thus, he gives them to understand that he was not planning to go to them principally, because he considered that they had been sufficiently instructed by the teaching of Peter, who was the first apostle to preach to the Romans. …

Commentary on Romans ↗