Job And The Potsherd

Qui testa saniem radebat... Testa saniem radere, est per poenitentiam et disciplinam suas iniquitates abstergere. Per testam enim, quae aspera est, significatur poenitentiae asperitas, et austeritas disciplinae. Testa quidem, quae terra sine humore est, figurat animam peccatricem, quae nec rore coelesti compluta est, nec humore caritatis imbuta, sicut Propheta dicit: Anima mea sicut terra sine aqua tibi. Item: Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea. Sedens itaque in sterquilinio testa saniem radit, qui recordatur miserae et immundae originis suae, recolit quia de immundo conceptus semine, de putredine genitus dabitur vermibus in cibum, et putredo in putredinem revertetur, sicut noster athleta commemorat de seipso, dicens: Qui quasi putredo consumendus sum, et sicut vestimentum, quod comeditur a tinea. Frequenti siquidem recordatione nostrae miserrimae conditionis raditur sanies interioris vulneris, et male operandi voluntas abscinditur. Petrus Blenensis, Compendium In Job: Ad Henericum II Illustrissimum Anglorum Regem, Caput I Source:  Migne PL 207.818c-d

He scraped his ulcer with a potsherd... 1 To scrape the ulcer with a potsherd is to scour off our iniquities through penance and discipline. For by the potsherd, which is rough, is signified the bitterness of penance, and the harshness of discipline. Certainly the potsherd, which is dry earth, is a figure of the sinful soul which is not watered by the celestial dew fall, and is not imbued with the moisture of love, as the Prophet says: 'My soul is like a land without water to you.' 2 Similarly: 'My strength has dried up like a potsherd.' 3 Thus he who while sitting in ashes scrapes himself with a potsherd, is who thinks of his wretchedness and the uncleanliness of his origin, and recalls that he was conceived from impure seed and that being born from filth he shall be given as food to the worms, from filth to filth returning. So our champion recalls himself, saying: 'As a rotten thing I am used up, and like a garment which the moth consumes.' 4 With frequent recollection of our miserable condition he scrapes the ulcer of the interior wound and cuts off his will from evil deeds. Peter of Blois, Compendium On Job, To Henry II Most Illustrious King Of The English, Chapter I 1 Job 2.8 2 Ps 142.6 3 Ps 21.16 4 Job 13.28