“There are three things in this world—namely the good, the bad and the indifferent. We ought to know what, properly speaking, is good, what is bad, and what is indifferent, so that our faith, strengthened by real knowledge, might remain undamaged by temptation.
As far as human affairs are concerned, then, nothing should be believed to be the chief good other than the virtue of the soul alone, which leads us by a sincere faith to divine realities and makes us cling unceasingly to the unchangeable good. On the other hand, nothing should be called bad other than sin alone, which separates us from a good God and joins us to the wicked devil.
Indifferent things are those which can go in either direction depending on the desire and will of the user, such as wealth, power, honor, bodily strength, health, beauty, life itself and death, poverty, bodily sickness, insults, and other things similar to these which can have good or bad consequences according to the character and desire of the user.
For even wealth frequently has good consequences, in the words of the Apostle who charges ‘the rich of this world to give freely, to share with the poor, to store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that’ in this way ‘they may seize the true life’ (1 Tim 6:17-19). In the words of the Gospel, it is good for those who ‘make friends for themselves from wicked mammon’ (Luke 16:9). It can be turned to bad, again, when it is accumulated only for hoarding or for the sake of luxury and is not distributed for the needs of the poor.”
John Cassian (c. 360–435) in The Conferences, ed. Boniface Ramsey (Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 1997) 218-219.