And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Paul fled too, that he might pass out through a window and be lowered in a basket. Yes, he knew that the triplestranded rope could not break, but he fled so that he might preach the gospel of the Lord in the entire world, and consequently he was taken up into paradise. Let us also flee through the window while heeding the Lord’s precepts and keeping them with steady vision and chaste eyes.
Cord. True charity increaseth in strength as it does in number, (St. Jerome; Worthington) though friendship may not admit of more than two persons. (Haydock)
Some explain this triple cord of the blessed Trinity, or of the three monastic vows , or the parts of penance
By a “cord,” faith is expressed, as Solomon witnesses, who says, “A threefold cord is not easily broken” because the faith in truth that is woven by the mouth of preachers from the knowledge of the Trinity remains firm in the elect. It is broken only in the heart of the reprobate. .
