Moralia in Job 205

Verse 6.— Let a dark whirlwind possess that night. 35. The force of compunction.— For the roused spirit of grief is as it were a certain whirlwind of tempest. For when each one understands the sin which he has done; when he subtly weighs the wickedness of his own depravity, he beclouds the mind with grief, and, as it were the air of serene gladness being shaken, he devastates all tranquillity of heart within himself with the whirlwind of penance. For unless this whirlwind ground down the soul recognizing itself, the Prophet would by no means have said: 'With a vehement spirit You shall break the ships of Tarshish' (Psalm 47:8 [48:7]). For Tarshish is interpreted 'exploration of joy.'

But when the vehement spirit of penance occupies the mind, it disturbs in it all exploration of blameworthy joy, so that now nothing pleases save to weep, so that it attends to nothing save what can strike it with terror. For it sets before the eyes on the one side the strictness of justice, on the other the desert of fault: it beholds by what punishment it is worthy, if the pity of the One who spares be lacking, which through present laments is wont to snatch away from eternal punishment. The vehement spirit, therefore, breaks the ships of Tarshish, when the strong force of compunction confounds with salutary terror our minds, given over to this world as to a sea. Let it therefore say: 'Let a dark whirlwind possess that night';

that is, let no allurements of secure quiet cherish the commission of fault, but let the mercifully raging bitterness of penance burst in. 36. What it is to possess the night, and to be possessed by the night.— But it must be known that when we leave sins unpunished, we are possessed by the night; but when we chastise these with the animadversion of penance, we assuredly possess the night which we have made. But then the sin of the heart is brought back under the possession of our own right, if, when it begins, it is repressed. Whence also by the divine voice it is said to Cain thinking evil things: 'Your sin shall be present at the doors, but its appetite shall be under you, and you shall have dominion over it' (Genesis 4:7). For sin is present at the doors when it knocks in the thoughts.

Its appetite is beneath, and man has dominion over it, if the wickedness of the heart, once inspected, is more quickly repressed, and, before it grows into hardness, is subdued by the resisting mind. In order, therefore, that the soul may more quickly feel its offence, and may by repenting restrain the tyranny of fault under its own right, let it rightly be said: 'Let a dark whirlwind possess that night.' As if it were plainly said: Let not the captive mind serve fault; let it not leave fault free from penance. And since we surely hope that what we pursue by weeping will by no means be objected to us by the coming judge, it is well subjoined: