Ibid. — They have struck my cheek, they are sated with my punishments. 15. The cheek of the Church are the holy preachers. — The cheek of the Church, indeed, are the holy preachers, as is said under the figure of Judea through Jeremiah: Weeping she has wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks (Lam. 1:2), because in the adversities of the Church those lament the more who have known how to crush the life of the carnal by preaching. For through these holy Church grinds down the iniquitous from their vices, and as it were, swallowing, converts them into her own members. Whence to the first preacher too, as it were to the cheek of the Church, it is said: Kill and eat (Acts 10:13).
Hence it is also that Samson held the jawbone of an ass and slew his enemies (Judg. 15:16), because our Redeemer, holding by the hand of His power the simplicity and patience of His preachers, slew the carnal from their vices. And the jawbone, cast upon the ground, afterward poured forth waters, because the bodies of the preachers given over to death displayed great miracles to the peoples. The perverse therefore strike the cheek of the Church when they persecute the good preachers. And because then the reprobate reckon that they have done some great thing when they slay the life of the preachers, after the striking of the cheek it is fittingly added: — Ibid. — They are sated with my punishments. For that punishment sates them which especially chastises the mind of the Church. There follows: