Apostolic Constitutions : It is our duty to be at peace in our own minds, for the person who does not find any disorder in himself will not quarrel with another but will be peaceable, friendly, gathering the Lord's people and a fellow worker with him, in order to increase the number of those who shall be saved in unanimity. For those who contrive enmities, and strifes, and contests and lawsuits are wicked and aliens from God. — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 2:7.54 Augustine of Hippo : Through love of this true life you ought, then, to consider yourself desolate in this world, no matter what happiness you enjoy. For, just as that is the true life in comparison with which this other, which is so much loved, is not to be called life, however pleasant and prolonged it may be, so that is their true comfort that God promised by the prophet saying, "I will give them true comfort, peace on peace." Without this comfort there is no more grief than consolation to be found in earthly comforts, whatever they may be.… Not by such goods do we become good, but having become good otherwise, they make these things good by their good use of them. Therefore, there is no true comfort in these things; rather, it is found where true life is. A person's happiness necessarily must come from the same source as his goodness. — LETTER 130 Jerome : Some understand this passage specifically about the Savior, that he was deeply grieved for the sins of the world, saying: My soul is sorrowful even to death (Matthew 26:38). And the Father who speaks through Zacharias says: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Zech. XIII, 7); and he himself says of himself in the sixty-eighth psalm: Because it is you who have struck, they have persecuted (Psalm LXVIII, 27). And God turned his face away from him, so that he might assume the appearance of a servant for a short time, walk in sadness, lamenting the sins of the people, mourning and weeping over Jerusalem. And whoever saw the Father's ways, therefore healed him, who was free among the dead: and his flesh did not see corruption, so that he, who was struck on the cross, might be healed in the resurrection. And I consoled him, he said, giving him for the one nation of the Jews, the whole world. And those who mourned him, it is understood, he consoled. There is no doubt that he refers to the Apostles. — Commentary on Isaiah Jerome : I produced the fruit of lips, peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord, and I healed him. LXX: Peace to those who are far away and those who are near, says the Lord, and I will heal them. And what follows: I have created the fruit of the lips, this has meaning, I have fulfilled what I promised, saying: As I live, says the Lord, I prefer the repentance of the sinner to death (Ezek. 33:11). Or, I have granted all that I previously promised. What, then, is the promise of the Lord? My peace I give to you: My peace I leave to you (John 14:27). And this is what he now says: Peace upon peace; not only to one nation, but to the whole world: specifically to those who were far away and to those who were near, that is, first to the Gentiles, and then to those who wanted to believe from Israel. About whom the Apostle says: 'It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but because you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles' (Acts 13:46). Writing to the Ephesians and discussing at length the people of the Circumcision and the Gentiles, he declares: 'But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, abolishing in his flesh the enmity' (Ephesians 2:13-14); and again: 'He came and preached peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near' (ibid., 17). Since through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father: giving peace upon peace to those who were far away, and to those who were near and to those who did not have the Law and the Prophets; and to those who had received it before, He received them and healed them. — Commentary on Isaiah Jerome : Some understand this passage specifically about the Savior. And he fulfilled the fruit of his lips, who said to him: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps. 2:8): peace upon peace, reconciling the world to God, so that both peoples may be called to him, and be healed by the Father. — Commentary on Isaiah John Chrysostom : But let us humble our own souls by almsgiving and forgiving our neighbors their trespasses, by not remembering injuries or avenging ourselves. If we continually reflect on our sins, no external circumstances can make us elated, neither riches, nor power, nor authority nor honor; no, even should we sit in the imperial chariot itself, we cry bitterly. — ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 9:9 Theodoret of Cyrus : Symmachus and Aquila, instead of saying, "to the afflicted," have said "to those who weep for him." God our Master has shown the power of repentance. For he has seen their regret and their change of thinking and the sadness of their expression, and he has deemed them to be worthy of encouragement, they and those who weep for them. Now it is the heralds of truth who weep for them, while the blessed Paul prayed that he might be cut off for their sake. These things he has done, God who created fruit of the lips, that is, he who established the sacrifice of praise, rather than the cult appointed by the law. — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 18:57.17-19