Bad Sons, Good Sons

Diabolica namque tentatione trahuntur qui divites fieri volunt, incideuntque in ejus laqueos, et tentationes alias post alias, atque in alias multas, ut merito audire debeant a Dei Filio: Vos ex patre diabolo estis; eisque conveniat quae ubique vera est regula: Qualis pater, talis filius, de diabolo diabolus. Nonne, inquit, duodecim vos elegi, et unus ex vobis diabolus est? De Deo Deus. Ego dixit Dii estis. De homine homo. Homo igitur relinquens diabolica, ne in eis unquam sit per humana, sine quibus esse nequit, transeat ad divina, in quibus solis bene ei erit: fugiat diabolum cum omnibus suis; redeat ad hominem, et sit contentus suis: ascendat ad Deum, ac ditetur in suis. Verumtamen caeci sunt filii diaboli omnes; excaecavit enim eos malitia sua, ut, cum divites sint, pauperes se putent. Quod naturae animalia corporis sat est, in promptu esse non vident, nec divinam vocem audiunt, quae promittit, Deum timentibus nihil defuturum, quia etiam surdi sunt, et ideo semper ad superflua sudant. Vos autem dilectissimi, in doctorem vobis coelitus indultum intendite: qui hominem, non solum ut sanaret, sed ut erudiret, assumpsit, diabolo exuit, Dei induit. Ejus sequimini vitae modum, qui pauper natus est, pauper vixit, pauper obiit. Quia in hoc est fiducia, si sicut ille fuit, sic et nos simus in hoc mundo, et sicut ille ambulavit, ita ambulet, qui dicit se in illo manere. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo VIII Source: Migne PL 194.1718b-d

They who wish to be rich are dragged off by diabolical temptations,and they fall into his traps, and into other temptations after, even into many others, so it is right that they should hear from the Son of God, 'You are from your father the devil.' 1 And this which befits them is a true rule everywhere, 'Like father, like son,' for a devil is the son of the devil. 'Have I not chosen you, He said, 'and one of you is a devil?' 2 'And from God god. 'I said you are like Gods.' 3 From man a man. Therefore a man abandons devilish things, lest snared there amid human things he be unable to pass over to Divine things, with which things alone it shall go well with him. 4 Let him flee the devil and all that is his and return to being a man and be content with what is his own: to ascend to God and to be rich in what is His. The devil's sons are all blind, 'Their wickedness has blinded them,' 5 so that even when they are rich they think themselves to be poor. They do not see how quickly their bodily needs may be satisfied. Nor do they hear the Divine voice which promises that 'Those who revere God shall not lack,' 6 because indeed they are deaf and therefore they are always toiling for what is not needed. You, most beloved, keep your eyes on your heaven sent teacher, who not only became a man to heal man, but to instruct him and lift him up and strip him of the devil and clothe him with God. Follow His way of life, He who was born poor, who lived poor, who died poor. In this is our confidence, if our life in this world is like His, if we walk as He did, He who said 'Remain in me.' 7 Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 8 1 Jn 8.44 2 Jn 6.70 3 Ps 82.6 4 Ps 128.2 5 Wisd 2.21 6 Ps 34.9 7 Jn 15.4, 1 Jn 2.6