Foxes And Birds

Et accedens unus scriba, ait illi: Magister, sequar te, quocumque ieris. Et dicit ei Iesus, vulpes foveas habent, et volucres caeli nidos... Hic manifestatur occulte dolus istius: et tangit duo: simulatoris duplicitam, et Christi simplicitatem. Duplicitatem autem simulatoris tangit dupliciter in astutia dolosa, et superbia praesumptuosa. Astutam enim dolosam percutit, cum dicit. Est enim hoc animal dolosum et infidiosum et venatiuum et in laribulis habitatiuum. Ex quibus proprietatibus istum percutit, qui dolose tentavit Christum. Sagitta vulnerans lingua eorum, dolum locuta est, et insidiabatur gratiae. Sedet in insidiis cum divitibus in occultis, vi interficiat innocentem. Et volebat per gratiam acceptam a Christo venati sicut Simon. Pecunia tua fit tecum in perditionem. Qui volunt divites fieri, incidunt in tentationem, et in laqueum diaboli. Volebat autem per scientiam, quam disceret a Christo, foveas astutiarum facere, in quibus habitans, homines deciperet, et ex eis lucta ageret, sicut faciunt, qui iura et leges aequissumas, et divinae iustitiae congruas propter cavillationes causarum addiscunt. Foderunt ante faciem meam foveam et inciderunt in eam. Vae qui profundi estis corde, ut a Domino abscondetis consilium, quorum sunt in tenebris opera, et dicunt: Quis nos videt, et quis novit nos? Perversa est ista vestra cogitatio, quasi si lutum contra figulum cogitet, et dicat opus factori: non fecisti me, et figmenti dicat figulo: non intelligis. His proprietatibus dicitur vulpes voluipes quia cito pedem voluit de astutia in astutiara. Propter montem Sion quia disperiit, vulpes habitaverunt in eo. Partes vulpium erunt. Capite nobis vulpes pravulas, quae demoliuntur vineas. Praesumptuosam autem superbiam and fastum cordis (quo per gratiam magisterii ab ipso Christo acceptam nitebatur in altis dignitatibus nidum ponere) percutit, cum dicit voluceres caeli nodios. Hae enim volant ambitione, caelum petunt altitudinis honore et nidificant, quiescere volentes in excellente dignitatis praelatione, habentes ad hoc pennas scientiae, et simulatae virtutis pietatem. In avibus caeli ludunt. Iste sunt aves descenderunt super sacrificium Abrahae. Quia totum Ecclesiae oblatum sacrificium, tales hodie devorant: et quomodo Patriarcha modo non abigit eas sicut fecit, hoc est, Pater patrum. Propter simile huiusmodi factum, quo daemones excellere cupiebant, dicuntur daemones aves. Volucres caeli comederunt, quod de semine cecidit iuxta viam. Sed una est consolatio, quam dicit Abdias, Si exaltatus fueris ut aqulia, et inter sidera posueris nidum tuum: inde detraham te, dicit Dominus. Sanctus Albertus Magnus, Commentarium in Mattheum, Caput VIII Source: Here, p196

And a certain scribe approached Him and said, 'Master, I will follow you wherever you shall go.' And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have their holes and the birds of heaven their nests...' 1 Here is made manifest the hidden cunning of this fellow, and it touches on two things, the duplicity of the dissembler and the simplicity of Christ, for it touches on the duplicity of the dissembler in the cleverness of cunning and the pride of presumption. And Christ reproves the cleverness of cunning when He says it. For the fox is an animal which is cunning and trustless and a hunter and a dweller in holes. Which qualities he reproves, in the one who with cunning tests Christ. 'Their tongues wound like the arrow, their speech is a snare, and their gratitude a lie.' 2 'He sits in hidden lairs with the rich, with strength he slays the innocent.' 3 And he wished to receive grace from Christ by hunting for it like Simon. 'Your money perish with you in damnation.' 4 'He who wishes to be rich falls into the temptations and snares of the devil.' 5 For he wished with knowledge, which has cut him off from Christ, to make holes with his acuity, in which dwelling, he might deceive men and work deceits against them, producing sorrow, as they do who introduce cavils against the most fair statutes and laws, and things befitting Divine justice. 'They have dug a pit before my face and they fall into it.' 6 'Alas you who have deep hearts, who hide counsel from the Lord, whose deeds are in darkness, and who say: 'Who shall see us and who shall have knowledge of us?' Your thought is perverse, as if mud plotted against the pot, and the work of the maker should say to him, 'You did not make me,' or the thing formed say to the shaper, 'You do not understand. ' 7 Concerning these qualities he speaks of the fox, because with swift foot he delights to add cunning to cunning. 'Because He has ruined Mount Sion, the foxes have taken up their dwelling in it.' 8 'The parts of the foxes shall be theirs.' 9 'Seize for us the little foxes which ruin the vines.' 10 And when He speaks of the birds of the sky He reproves presumptuous pride and haughtiness of heart, which through the grace of teaching, from Christ himself, he was endeavouring to receive, that he might place his nest in the worthy heights. For these fly with ambition, seeking heaven in the heights of honour, and to build a nest there, wishing to rest in the excellence of the dignity of a prelate, having for this the wings of knowledge and the pretence of pious virtue. 'They sport with the birds of the air,' 11 These are the birds which swooped down on the sacrifice of Abraham. 12 Because today such men devour every sacrificial offering of the Church, and it does not drive them off as the Patriarch did, that is, the father of fathers. On account of which likeness, by which demons desire to excel, demons are called birds. 'The birds of heaven ate the seed which fell beside the way.' 13 But there is one consolation, of which Obadiah speaks: 'If you shall be lifted up like the eagle and place your nest amid the stars, from there I shall drag you down,' says the Lord. 14 Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 8 1 Mt 8.20 2 Jerem 9.8 3 Ps 9.29 4 Acts 8.20 5 1 Tim.6.9 6 Ps 56.7 7 Isai 29.15-16 8 Lamen 5.18 9 Ps 62.11 10 Song 2.15 11 Baruch 3.17 12 Gen 15.11 13 Mt 13.4 14 Obad 1.4