Psalms 69:20

"In Your sight are all they that trouble Me" [Psalm 69:20]. Why I have reproach, You know; why confusion, You know; why shame, You know: therefore deliver me because of mine enemies, because You know these things of me, they know not; and thus, because they are themselves in Your sight, not knowing these things, they will not be able to be either confounded or corrected, unless openly You shall have delivered me because of mine enemies. "Reproach my heart has expected, and misery." What is, "has expected"? Hath foreseen these things as going to be, has foretold them as going to be. For He came not for any other purpose. If He had been unwilling to die, neither would He have willed to be born: for the sake of resurrection He did both. For there were two particular things known to us among mankind, but one thing unknown. For we knew that men were born and died: that they rose again and lived for everlasting we knew not. That He might show to us that which we knew not, He took upon Him the two things which we knew. To this end therefore He came. "Reproach my heart has expected and misery." But the misery of whom? For He expected misery, but rather of the crucifiers, rather of the persecutors, that in them should be misery, in Him mercy. For pitying the misery of them even while hanging on the Cross, He says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Luke 23:34] What then did it profit, that I expected? That is, what did it profit that I foretold? What did it profit that I said to this end I had come? I came to fulfil that which I said, "I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful, and there was not; and men comforting, and I found not:" that is, there was none. For that which in the former verse He said, "I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful," the same is in the following verse, "and men comforting." But that which in the former verse is, "and there was not;" the same in the following verse is, "and I found not." Therefore another sentence is not added, but the former is repeated. Which sentence if we reconsider, a question may arise. For were His disciples nowise made sorrowful when He was led to the Passion, when on the tree hanged, when dead? So much were they made sorrowful, that Mary Magdalene, who first saw Him, rejoicing told them as they were mourning what she had seen. The Gospel speaks of these things: it is not our presumption, not our suspicion: it is evident that the disciples grieved, it is evident that they mourned. Strange women were weeping, when to the Passion He was being led, unto whom turning He says, "Weep ye, but for yourselves, do not for Me." [Luke 23:28] ... Peter certainly loved very much, and without hesitation threw himself to walk on the waves, [Matthew 14:29] and at the voice of the Lord he was delivered: and though following Him when led to the Passion, with the boldness of love, yet being troubled, thrice he denied Him. Whence, except because an evil thing it seemed to him to die? For he was shunning that which he thought an evil thing. This then even in the Lord he was lamenting, which he was himself shunning. On this account even before he had said, "Far be it from You, O Lord, merciful be to Yourself: there shall not come to pass this thing:" [Matthew 16:22] at which time he merited to hear, "Satan;" after that he had heard, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona." Therefore in that sorrowfulness which the Lord felt because of those for whom He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do:" [Luke 23:34] no companion He found. "And I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful, and there was not." There was not at all. "And men comforting, and I found not." Who are men comforting? Men profiting. For they comfort us, they are the comfort of all preachers of the Truth.

For the apostle vituperated and abominated some who, as he said, were "without natural affection." The sacred Psalmist also found fault with those of whom he said, "I looked for some to lament with me, and there was none." For to be quite free from pain while we are in this place of misery is only purchased, as one of this world's literati perceived and remarked, at the price of blunted sensibilities both of mind and body.