Moralia in Job 611

Ibid. — He has seized my neck, he has broken me, he has set me before himself as though for a mark. 18. The weak, when persecution presses, tremble to preach the truth. — Just as in the wicked the neck signifies pride, so in the good it signifies the uprightness of liberty. Whence not seldom pride itself too is put for the authority of uprightness, as through the prophet the Lord, promising to holy Church, says: I will set you for the pride of the ages (Isa. 60:15). And because in the time of persecution certain weak ones do not presume freely to preach the true things they feel, it is rightly said of this enemy: He has seized my neck, he has broken me.

But perhaps those are designated by the appellation of the neck who, in the time of her peace, are lifted up more than is fitting, and, under the occasion of defending rectitude, are enslaved to the vice of elation. These, in the time of persecution, feel adversities the more for this reason, that they are exalted by prosperity. Of whom it is well said: He has seized my neck, he has broken me. That is, the elation which he had in the weak, he bent down by the severity of his striking. And he has set me before himself as though for a mark. It is certain indeed that a mark is set up so that it may be struck by the shooting of arrows. The faithful people, therefore, is set as a mark for its enemy, because he ever assails it with his blows, and afflicts it with his persecutions.

For he who in this life endures continual evils, set as it were for a mark, receives the blows of the one striking. Whence the excellent preacher too, when he was enduring the evils of persecutions, and groaning under the persecution of his adversaries, consoling the tender mind of his disciples concerning his afflictions, said: For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this (1 Thess. 3:3). As if he openly says to them: Why do you marvel at our wounds in this time, we who, if we seek eternal joys, have come here for this, that we may be struck? There follows: