Verba Matris ad filiam de vulpe et qualiter Dyabolus vulpi assimilatur; et eciam qualiter Dyabolus subdolus tanquam vulpis vario et multiplici modo temptacionum decipit homines et conatur decipere quam maxime quos videt in bonis proficere.
The Fox and the Deceiver
The Mother uses the metaphor of a cunning fox to illustrate how the enemy watches for the careless to devour them.
The Mother says: "There is a small animal called a fox that is very busy looking after its own needs and is quite cunning." It sometimes pretends to be asleep or even dead so it can more easily catch and devour the birds that land on it, the more careless they are in their resting. It also watches the flight of birds, and whenever it sees them resting on the ground or under a tree from exhaustion, it snatches them up and devours them. But those that fly away on two wings confuse it and frustrate its efforts.
The Tactics of the Enemy
The Devil disguises vice as virtue to trap the unwary, requiring constant spiritual discernment.
This fox is the Devil, who is always hunting the friends of God, especially those who are free from his gall of malice and his poison of wickedness. He pretends to be asleep or dead because he sometimes leaves a person free from major temptations, so he can more easily deceive and ensnare them when they're off-guard in the smallest matters. Sometimes vice even makes itself look like virtue, and conversely, makes virtue look like vice, so that a person, caught in the trap, walks into emptiness and, unless discernment comes to their aid, perishes—as you'll be able to understand from the example. For mercy is sometimes a vice, specifically when it's done to please people. The vigor of justice is actually injustice when it's exercised out of greed or impatience. Humility, however, is pride when it's done for show and to be seen by others.✦ Patience isn't a virtue if you'd take revenge for an injury if you could, but you just hold back because you haven't found the right time to strike. Sometimes the devil sends trials and temptations to overwhelm a person with excessive sadness; at other times, he plants anxieties and worries in the heart so that a person might grow cold in the service of God, or, by being careless in small things, might fall into greater ones.
A Warning Against Worldly Attachment
A cautionary tale of a man who gathered worldly wealth but was caught by the fox at the end of his life.
This person I'm talking about was tripped up by the fox. For when he had everything he wanted in his old age and was already calling himself happy and wishing to live on, he was snatched away without the Sacraments and without an accounting of his works and his affairs. He was like an ant, gathering night and day, but not into the Lord’s barn. When he reached the edge of his grave, just as he was about to bring his grain inside, he died, leaving his labors to others—for whoever doesn't gather during the time of a fruitful harvest won't rejoice in the seed.
The Wings of the Soul
True believers escape the fox through humility and hope, while those in leadership are called to be mirrors of virtue.
Blessed, then, are the birds of the Lord that don't roost under the trees of worldly delights, but in the trees of heavenly desires; if the temptation of the wicked fox, the devil, catches them, they'll fly away all the faster on two wings: the humility of confession and the hope of heavenly help. Christ, the Son of God, says: "This person is fit for the office of a bishop." Therefore, anyone who wants to climb the tree of sweet fruit to gather it must be unburdened, girded and strong for the work, and possess a clean vessel in which to store the fruit. From now on, let him strive to adorn his body with virtues by giving it what is necessary, not what is superfluous, by fleeing the occasion of incontinence and greed, and by showing himself to be a clear mirror and an example to imperfect people. Otherwise, a horrible fall, a sudden end, and the blow of my hand will come upon him. Everything happened exactly like that.
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur: "Est quoddam animal paruum, quod dicitur vulpis, sollicitum in procurandis omnibus necessitatibus suis et subdolum. Quod fingit se quandoque dormire et quasi mortuum, ut aues sedentes super se eo liberius capiat et deuoret, quo incauciores sunt in sedendo.
Considerat quoque volatum auium et quas pre lassitudine videt in terra quiescere vel sub arbore, illas rapit et deuorat. Sed que duabus alis euolant, ille confundunt eum et frustrant in laborando.
Vulpis iste Dyabolus est, qui amicos Dei semper insequitur et maxime eos, qui felle malicie et veneno nequicie eius carent. Qui fingit se quasi dormire et mortuum, quia quandoque dimittit hominem liberum a temptacionibus grauioribus, ut incautum in minimis eo liberius decipiat et inuoluat.
Quandoque eciam vicium facit videri virtutem et econtra virtutem vicium, ut homo inuolutus incedat in vacuum et nisi discrecione subueniente pereat, sicut per exemplum intelligere poteris.
Nam misericordia quandoque vicium est, quando scilicet fit ad placendum hominibus. Iusticie vigor est iniusticia, quando scilicet exercetur propter cupiditatem et propter impacienciam. Humilitas vero superbia est, quando scilicet fit propter ostentacionem et ut videatur ab hominibus.
Paciencia virtus ostenditur et non est, quando se vindicaret, si posset, de iniuria sed tamen tolerat, quia aptum tempus non inuenit ad vindicandum.
Quandoque eciam Dyabolus submittit tribulaciones et temptaciones, ut homo nimia resoluatur tristicia; quandoque eciam Dyabolus immittit anxietates et sollicitudines in cor, ut homo tepescat in seruicio Dei, aut, dum homo incautus est in minimis, ruat in maiora.
Sic iste, de quo loquor, supplantatus est a vulpe. Cum enim in senectute haberet omnia ad votum et iam diceret se esse felicem optaretque viuere, raptus est absque sacramentis et raciociniis operum et rerum suarum.
Quia quasi formica congregabat nocte et die sed non in horreum domini, et cum peruenisset ad foramen tumuli, ubi introduceret grana, mortuus est relinquens aliis labores suos; quia qui non congregat tempore messis fructuose, de semine non gaudebit.
Ideo felices sunt aues Domini, que non dormitant sub arboribus deliciarum mundi sed in arboribus desideriorum celestium; quas si apprehenderit temptacio vulpis iniqui Dyaboli, cicius duabus alis, scilicet humilitate confessionis et spe celestis auxilii euolabunt."
Christus, Filius Dei, loquitur: "Iste prepositus est materia episcopalis. Ideo qui arborem fructus dulcis ascendere voluerit capiendo fructus dulces debet esse expeditus ab onere, precinctus et robustus ad colligendum et vas habere mundum, in quo fructus deponantur.
Sic iste studeat amodo decorare corpus suum virtutibus dando ei necessaria non superflua, fugiendo occasionem incontinencie et cupiditatis, ostendendo se speculum mundum et exemplum hominibus imperfectis. Alioquin veniet ei casus horribilis, finis subitus et plaga manus mee."
Hec omnia ita euenerunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.6.1 — Beware of practicing your righteousness before people, to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.
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