On the little foxes

The little foxes…spoil the vine. Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon) 2:15

It's always the tiniest things that really throw something off. Because this innermost part shipped with the tiniest little clip broken off, now I have to process a return and wait for a new one, thus delaying things even further.

There is a spiritual lesson here as well on both the personal and ecclesiastic levels.

Catch the little foxes — the little foxes that spoil the vine — when the vineyard is in bloom, when the grapes are but tender.

my gloss of various translations of Song of Songs 2:15

In short, the little foxes in the personal thoughts that we allow to run through our mental vineyard. Catch them while they are young. There's no such thing as it's just a little _____. See also: Ps. 137:9

On the ecclesiastical level, the Apostolic Constitutions say:

[Those] who spoil the church of God, as the little foxes do the vineyard, we exhort you to avoid, lest you lay traps for your own souls. For he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but he that walks with the foolish shall be known.

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 6.3.18

Gregory of Elvira (c. AD 392) expands on this:

It calls these foxes little because there are also greater ones. Indeed, the ruling powers of the world are greater at raging than the fallacies of the heretics are at seducing. They are both equally evil, but their respective powers to punish are unequal, for the heretic coaxes to destroy, but the Gentile rages to conquer, the former being peacefully deceptive and the latter being cruel in persecution. But the Lord commands that both receive appropriate dispositions from the keepers of the vineyards, that is, from the leaders of the churches.

Explanation of the Song of Songs 4.25

And St. Augustine (c. AD 430) says:

What does catch mean? Come to grips with them, convince, refute them, so that the vineyards of the church may not be spoiled. What else is catching foxes, but overcoming heretics with the authority of the divine law, and so to say binding and tying them up with the cords provided by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures? [Samson] catches foxes, ties their tails together and attaches firebrands. What is the meaning of the foxes' tails tied together? What can the foxes' tails be but the backsides of the heretics, whose fronts are smooth and deceptive, their backsides bound, that is condemned, and dragging fire behind them, to consume the crops and works of those who yield to their seductions?

Sermon 364.4

The Venerable Bede (c. AD 735) concurs:

The foxes who destroy the vineyards are heretics and schismatics who devour with their crooked teeth the blossoming vineyard of the doctrine of Christ, that is, the green minds of the faithful. Would that we not know [such destruction]!

Commentary on the Songs of Songs 2.2.15

This animal, which is very shrewd with respect to deceit and craftiness, represents the Jews, Gentiles and heretics, who are always plotting against the church of God, and, as it were, continuously making a racket with their babbling voices. Concerning them the command is given to the guardians of the church: Catch for us the tiny foxes which are wrecking the vineyards.

Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 19.14

I think there is a lesson in the tying the tails together. Namely that, although the foxes appear to be many, their works (what trails behind them) and their tongue (long thing that sticks out and wags; e.g. their doctrine) is one. And it is as St. James says, set on fire of hell. This goes for gossip, too, and bragging, and really any little matter that kindleth a great fire.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Catholic Epistle of St. James 3:5, 6

Keeping in mind that heresy is first and foremost division or even more fundamentally choice (which leads to factions and divisions).