Barlaam and Ioasaph 1 part 8/18

'but when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part will be done away.'

'Therefore also, astounded at the infinitely surpassing

riches of his wisdom and knowledge, he expressly declared:'

'O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!'

'How unsearchable are his judgments, and untraceable his ways!'

'But if he, who reached even to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words, uttered such expressions, who among those like me would be at all able to gaze directly into the abysses of so many mysteries, and to speak anything according to true understanding, or to be able worthily to conceive of the things spoken, unless the very giver of wisdom, the corrector of the unwise, should grant it?

for in his hand are both we and our words, and all prudence and understanding are with him, and the knowledge of understanding;

and he himself has given us the unerring knowledge of the things that are: to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements, the beginning and end and middle of times, the changes of solstices and the alterations of seasons, and that he has ordered all things by measure and weight.'

'For it is ever within his power to be exceedingly strong, and who shall withstand the might of his arm? Because, as a slight tilt from a pair of scales, so is the whole world before him, and as a drop of morning dew falling upon the earth;'

'but he has mercy on all, because he is able to do all things, and he overlooks the sins of men, unto repentance;'

'for he abhors nothing, nor turns away from any who flee to him, he who alone is the good and soul-loving Master;'

'blessed be the name of his glory, holy and exceedingly praised and exceedingly exalted forever.'

And Ioasaph said to him:

'If you had deliberated for a very long time, O most wise one, on how you might best clarify for us the solution to the questions raised, would it have seemed to you that you could have done this any better than by telling me the very things you have now told me—teaching that God is the creator and sustainer of all things, and demonstrating with irrefutable arguments that the glory of his majesty is incomprehensible to human reasoning, and that no one else has the power to attain to it, except those to whom he himself, to the extent that he wills, should reveal it?

For this reason I have greatly marveled at your most learned wisdom.'

But tell me, most blessed one, how many years have you lived, in what places have you made your abode, and whom do you have as fellow-philosophers?'

For my soul clings powerfully to yours, and for the whole time of my life I do not wish at all to be separated from you.

As for years, I am, as I reckon, forty-five;

and dwelling in the deserts of the land of Shinar, I have gained fellow-strugglers who labor together with me and vie together in the course of the upward journey.

"How," says Ioasaph, "can you say this to me? For you appear to me to be beyond some seventy years."

"What then does your statement of forty-five years mean? For you do not seem to me to be speaking truly in this."

And Barlaam said to him:

"If indeed you seek to learn the years of my life counted from birth, you have rightly guessed them to be beyond some seventy;

but for me, all those years that were spent on the vanity of the world were not reckoned at all into the measure of life.

For when I was living, enslaved in the flesh to sins, I was dead as regards the inner man.

Those years of deadness, therefore, I would never call years of life.

But from the time when the world was crucified to me, and I to the world, and, having put off the old man that is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit, I no longer live in the flesh, but Christ lives in me; and what I now live, I live by faith, by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me — these years I might rightly call years of life and days of salvation; and reckoning these together as about forty-five years, I have told you their number by reason and not without purpose.

And so you too, hold to this reckoning at all times, in no way supposing to be alive those who have been deadened toward every good work, yet are alive to sins and serve as underlings to the ruler of the world, of those

who are dragged down to the things below, spending their life in pleasures and wicked desires;

but know well that these have been put to death, and are deadened as regards the working of life.

For a certain wise man fittingly called sin the death of the immortal soul;

When you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness;

What fruit then did you have at that time, in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now, having been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life.

And Ioasaph said to him:

"Since life in the flesh is, in your reckoning, not counted within the measure of life, neither ought you to reckon this death, which all undergo, as death."

"Without doubt, I hold the same view of these matters also: I in no way tremble at this temporal death, nor do I call it death at all — provided it should overtake me walking in the way of God's commandments — but rather a crossing-over from death to the better and more perfect life hidden in Christ, which the saints, longing to attain, were greatly vexed by the present life.

We know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens;

For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked;

For indeed we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; not that we wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that what is mortal might be swallowed up by life.

Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And again:

"I desire to depart and to be with Christ."

And the Prophet says, 'When shall I come and appear before the face of God?' And that I too, the very least of all, seem in no way to fear sensible death, you may know from this: that, counting your father's threat as nothing, I came to you fearlessly and proclaimed to you the word of salvation, knowing full well that, should this come to his knowledge, he would, if possible, subject me to countless deaths.

But I, preferring the word of God above all things and desiring to attain it, am neither terrified by temporal death, nor do I at all call it worthy of that name, obeying the Master's commandment, which says:

Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul;

but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

"These, then," says Ioasaph, "are the achievements of your true philosophy, having far surpassed the nature of earthly men who cling so tenaciously to this present life;

and blessed are you, who hold to such a most valiant resolve."

"But what is the sustenance of you and your companions in such a desert, and whence come your garments, and of what kind — tell me truthfully."

"Our sustenance is from the tree-fruits and herbs that are found, which the desert nourishes, watered by heaven's dew and obeying the ordinance of the Creator; and over these there is no one who fights us, quarrels with us, or seeks to seize the greater portion by the rule and reasoning of greed;

but unploughed food and an improvised table are set before all without stint."

"But if ever one of the faithful brethren who dwell nearby should bring a blessed loaf of bread, we receive it as sent by providence, for the blessing of those who faithfully offered it."

"As for garments, they are made of ragged hair-cloth and little sheepskins or coarse haircloth, all worn out and much-patched, wearing down this feeble flesh exceedingly.

For the same is our covering both in summer and in winter.

which, from the time we put it on, it is by no means permitted to take off, until, grown old, it is utterly destroyed.

For thus, being afflicted by the rigors of cold and burning heat, we procure for ourselves the future raiment of the garments of incorruption."

"And whence is this garment which you are wearing?" The elder said:

"I borrowed this from one of the faithful brethren, being about to make my journey to you;

for I ought not to have come in my usual garment.

just as someone who has a most beloved kinsman carried captive into a foreign nation, and, wishing to bring him out from there, having put off his own clothing and put on the mask of the adversaries, might make his way into their territory, and in many ways free his own kinsman from that bitter tyranny;

in just this manner I too, having been instructed in the matters concerning you, put on this guise and came to sow the seed of the divine proclamation in your heart, and to redeem you from the slavery of the dread ruler of this world."

"And now, behold, by the power of God, as far as it lay with me, I have accomplished my ministry: I have proclaimed to you the knowledge of Him, and made known to you the preaching of the prophets and apostles, and have taught, without error and truthfully, the vanity of present things, and with what evils the world is filled, how grievously it deceives those who obey it and ensnares them in many ways.

It remains that I must go back whence I came.

And then, having put off this alien guise, I shall be clothed in my own."

Ioasaph then entreated the elder to let himself be seen in his usual garment.

Then Barlaam, stripping off the garment he was wearing, appeared to Ioasaph as a fearsome sight.

For the whole substance of his flesh was consumed, and his skin was blackened by the sun's burning heat and stretched tight over his bones, as if someone had stretched a hide over slender reeds;

and he was girded, from loin to knee, with a certain wrinkled and exceedingly rough hair-cloth rag;

and a cloak of the same kind was thrown about his shoulders.

And Ioasaph, greatly marveling at the toilsomeness of this harsh way of life, and astounded at the surpassing degree of his endurance, wept bitterly, and said to the elder:

"Since you have come to free me from the bitter slavery of the devil, set the crown upon your good deed: 'Bring my soul out of prison,' and, taking me with you, let us go from here, so that, being wholly redeemed from the deceit of the world, I may then receive the seal of saving baptism, and become your partner in this wondrous philosophy and surpassing asceticism."

And Barlaam said to him:

"A certain rich man was rearing a fawn of a gazelle.

But when it had grown up, it longed for the wilderness, being drawn by its natural instinct.

So going out one day, it found a herd of gazelles grazing, and, keeping close to them, roamed about in the plains of the woodland, returning toward evening; but at daybreak, through the negligence of its keepers, it would go out again and herd together with the wild ones.

And when those moved further off to graze, it too followed along with them.

But the rich man's servants, perceiving this, mounted their horses and pursued after them, and, having captured their own gazelle alive and brought it back home, kept it from going out thereafter;

but of the rest of the herd, some they killed, and some they treated cruelly.

In just this way I fear it might happen to us also, if you were to follow along with me;

lest I should be deprived of your companionship, and become the occasion of many evils for my companions, and of eternal judgment for your father.

But this is what the Lord wills for you: for now to be marked with the seal of divine baptism, and to remain in your own country, holding fast to all piety and to the practice of Christ's commandments;

and when the Giver of all good things grants the occasion, then you shall come to us also, and for the rest

of the present life we shall dwell together with one another.

And I trust in the Lord that in the life to come also we shall be inseparable."

And again Ioasaph, weeping, says to him:

If this is pleasing to the Lord, let his will be done.

Having now perfected me with divine baptism, and having received from me money and garments for the sustenance and clothing of yourself and your companions, depart to the place of your asceticism, guarded by the peace of God.

And do not cease praying exceedingly for me, that I may not fall from my hope, but may soon be able to overtake you and, in deep quiet, enjoy the benefit that comes from you.

As for your receiving the seal of Christ, nothing whatever hinders it.

Prepare yourself, then;

and, with the Lord working together with you, you shall be perfected.

But concerning the money you said you would give to my companions, how shall this be, that you, the poor man, should give alms to the rich? For the rich always benefit the poor, but the needy do not benefit the wealthy.

For the least of all my companions is incomparably richer than you.

Yet I trust in the compassions of God that you too, before long, will become exceedingly rich;

and at that time you will not be so ready to share.

And Ioasaph said to him:

Explain this saying to me clearly: how is the least of your companions superior to me in wealth, when you said only a moment ago that they live in great destitution and are afflicted with the utmost poverty? And why do you now call me poor, yet say that when I become exceedingly rich, I, who am now ready to share, shall not be ready to share? And Barlaam answered:

I did not say that they are afflicted with poverty, but that they abound in unfailing wealth.

For always to add money to money, and not to rein in that impulse, but insatiably to crave still more — this is the utmost poverty.

But those who, out of longing for the eternal, have despised the things present, and have counted them as refuse, that they might gain Christ alone; who have laid aside all care for food and clothing and have cast this care upon the Lord; who rejoice in non-possession as no lover of the world could rejoice though laden with wealth and riches; and who have gathered for themselves, ungrudgingly, the wealth of virtue, being nourished by the hopes of never-ending goods — these I would rightly call richer than you and than every earthly kingdom.

And with God working together with you, you yourself will also lay hold of such spiritual abundance, which, keeping it safely and always rightly desiring more of it, you would never wish to empty out in the least.

For this is true abundance;

whereas the bulk of sensible wealth is more likely to harm its possessors than to profit them.

Rightly, then, have I called this the utmost poverty — the very thing which the lovers of the heavenly goods have wholly renounced and fled from, as one flees from a serpent.

But if I, having taken back alive from you the enemy whom my fellow ascetics and fellow soldiers slew and trampled underfoot, should carry him back to them, and so become the occasion of wars and passions, I would surely be to them an evil messenger;

which may it never befall me to do.

Think the same of me also concerning garments.

For to those who have stripped off the corruption of the old self and the garment of disobedience, so far as lies in them, and who have put on Christ as a robe of salvation and a tunic of gladness — how could I clothe them again in coats of skin, or gird them about with the mantle of shame? But knowing that my companions have need of none of these things, and are content with the asceticism of the desert, counting this the truest luxury, distribute rather to the poor the money and garments which you said you would give to them, and so lay up for yourself, for the time to come, a treasure that cannot be plundered, setting God as your helper through their prayers;

thus you would make wealth a fellow-worker toward what is good.

Then also, putting on the full armor of the Spirit — girding your loins with truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, setting upon your head the helmet of salvation, and shodding your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, taking up in your hands the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and thus being most excellently armed and fortified on every side — go forth in this confidence to the war against impiety, so that, having routed it and cast down to the ground its captain the devil, you may be crowned with the wreaths of victory by the life-giving right hand of the Master.

XIX. Having thus catechized the king's son with such doctrines and saving words, and having made him ready for the divine baptism, and having enjoined him, according to custom, to fast and pray for a considerable number of days, Barlaam did not cease frequently visiting him, teaching him every doctrinal utterance of the orthodox faith, dictating to him the divine Gospel, and, besides, expounding the apostolic exhortations and the prophetic sayings;

for the man, being taught of God, carried the whole of the Old and New Scripture upon his lips, and, being moved by the divine Spirit, enlightened him unto the true knowledge of God.

And on that very day when he was to be baptized, teaching him, he said:

Behold, you hasten to receive the seal of Christ, and to be marked with the light of the countenance of the Lord.

And you shall become a son of God, and a temple of the Holy and Life-giving Spirit.

Believe, then, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit — the holy and life-originating Trinity, glorified in three hypostases and one Godhead, divided as to the hypostases and the hypostatic properties, but united as to essence;

knowing one unbegotten God, the Father, and one begotten Lord, the Son — light from light, true God from true God, begotten before all the ages;

for of a good Father was begotten a good Son; from the unbegotten light shone forth the eternal light; from the truly existing life proceeded the life-giving fountain; and from the self-existing power was manifested the power of the Son, who is the radiance of glory and the enhypostatic Word, being in the beginning with God, and God without beginning and eternal;

through whom all things came to be, both the visible and the invisible;

and knowing one Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, perfect God, life-giving, and the bestower of sanctification, of one will, of one power, co-eternal, enhypostatic —

thus, then, worship the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in three hypostases, or properties, and one Godhead;

for the Godhead is common to the three, and one is their nature, one essence, one glory, one kingdom, one power, one authority;

but common to the Son and the Holy Spirit is that they are from the Father, while proper to the Father is unbegottenness, to the Son begottenness, and to the Spirit procession.

Believe these things, then, in this manner;

but do not seek to comprehend the manner of the begetting or of the procession, for it is incomprehensible;

in uprightness of heart, without idle curiosity, accept that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in all things, save for the unbegottenness, and the begottenness, and the procession; and that the only-begotten Son and Word of God, who is God, for our salvation came down to the earth by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, being conceived without seed in the womb of the holy Virgin and Mother of God, Mary, through the Holy Spirit, and born of her incorruptibly, and become perfect man; and that he himself is perfect God and perfect man, come to be of two natures, namely divinity and humanity, and in two natures — rational, volitional, and operative, and

self-determining — possessing, in every respect and perfectly, according to the definition and principle proper to each, divinity, I mean, and humanity, yet in one composite hypostasis.

Accept these things also without idle curiosity, seeking in no way to learn the manner in which the Son of God emptied himself and became man of virginal blood, without seed and incorruptibly, or what the coming-together of the two natures into one hypostasis may be; for by faith we have been taught to hold fast these things spoken to us in a divine manner from the divine Scripture;

but the manner of it we neither know, nor are able to tell.

Believe that the Son of God, who through the bowels of mercy became man, took upon himself also all the natural and blameless passions of humanity (for he hungered, and thirsted, and slept, and grew weary, and was in agony by the nature of his humanity, and for our transgressions was led to death, was crucified, and was buried, tasting death, while his divinity remained impassible and unchangeable;

for we attribute none of the passions whatsoever to the impassible nature;

but by the assumed [humanity] we know him to have suffered and to have been buried, and by divine glory to have risen from the dead, and to have ascended in incorruption into the heavens); and that he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, by reasons known to himself, of a more godlike body, and will render to each according to his just measures.

For the dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised;

and those who have kept the commandments of Christ and have departed together with the right faith shall inherit eternal life, but those who have been corrupted in sins and have turned aside from the right faith shall go away into eternal punishment.

Believe that evil has no essence, nor any kingdom of its own, and do not suppose it to be without beginning, or to have subsisted of itself, or to have come to be from God;

but this is our own work, and the devil's, having crept in upon us through our own carelessness, because we have been made self-determining, and by deliberate choice of will select this, whether it be good or base.

In addition to these things, confess one baptism, of water and the Spirit, unto the remission of sins.

Receive also the partaking of the immaculate mysteries of Christ, believing that they are, in truth, the body and blood of Christ our God, which he gave to the faithful unto the remission of sins.

For on the night in which he was betrayed, he established a new covenant with his holy disciples and apostles, and, through them, with all who believe in him, saying:

This is my body, broken for you, unto the remission of sins.

And likewise, having taken the cup also, he gave it to them, saying:

This is my blood, of the new covenant, which is shed for you;

poured out unto the remission of sins;

do this in remembrance of me.

The Word of God himself, therefore, who is living and active, and who does all things by his own power, makes and transforms, by divine operation, the bread and the wine of the offering into his own body and blood, through the descent of the Holy Spirit, unto the sanctification and enlightenment of those who partake of it with longing.

Worship faithfully, honoring and kissing the venerable likeness of the Master's image — that is, of the Word of God who for our sake became man — deeming that you behold the Creator himself in the icon.

For the honor paid to the image, as one of the saints has said, passes over to its prototype;

and the prototype is that which is depicted, from which the derivative image comes to be.

For, seeing the depiction in the icon, we pass, with the eyes of the mind, to the true form of him whose image it is, reverently worshiping the form of him who for our sake was made flesh — not deifying it, but embracing it as an icon of the God who was made flesh, out of longing and love for him who emptied himself for us, even to the form of a servant;

and, in the same way, embracing with this same reasoning the images of his immaculate Mother and of all the saints.

And in like manner also the type of the life-giving and

venerable Cross: worship it in faith and kiss it, because of him who was hung upon it in the flesh for the salvation of our race — Christ, God and Savior of the world — who gave us this as a symbol of victory over the devil;

for he [the devil] shudders and trembles, unable to bear the sight of its power.

In such doctrines, and with such faith, you shall be baptized, keeping it unchanged and unmixed with any heresy until your last breath.

But abhor every teaching and every doctrinal utterance that stands opposed to this blameless faith, and count it as estrangement from God.

For the Apostle says: 'Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be anathema.'

For there is no other Gospel and no other faith, except that which was proclaimed through the apostles, confirmed through the God-bearing Fathers in various councils, and confirmed by the catholic Church.

Having said these things, Barlaam, having also taught the king's son the symbol of faith set forth at the council held in Nicaea, baptized him into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in the pool of water that was in his garden.

And the grace of the Holy Spirit came upon him.

And having returned to his own chamber, and having performed the sacred mystagogy of the bloodless sacrifice, he imparted to him the immaculate mysteries of Christ, and he exulted in the Spirit, sending up glory to Christ God.

And Barlaam said to him:

'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten you again unto a living hope, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, kept in the heavens, in Christ Jesus our Lord through the Holy Spirit;

for today, having been freed from sin, you have become enslaved to God, having received the pledge of eternal life, and, having put away darkness, you have put on light, having been ranked among the freedom of the glory of the children of God;

for, it says, as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in his name;

so that you are no longer a slave, but a son and heir of God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, beloved, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless before him, working what is good upon the foundation of faith;

for faith without works is dead, just as works are also dead without faith, as I have also mentioned to you before, speaking with you.

Having therefore now put away all wickedness, and having hated all the works of the old man, which are corrupted according to the desires of deceit, long, as a newborn infant, for the rational and guileless milk of the virtues, that in it you may grow, and may attain to the full knowledge of the commandments of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, no longer being an infant in mind, tossed and carried about by the storm and surging wave of the passions, but being an infant with regard to wickedness, while keeping your mind firm and steadfast toward the good, and walking worthily of the calling with which you were called, in the keeping of the commandments of the Lord, having shaken off from yourself and estranged yourself from the vanity of your former manner of life, even as the nations walk in the vanity of their mind, darkened in understanding and alienated from the glory of God, subjected to their own desires and irrational impulses.

But you, just as you have come to the living and true God, so also walk as a son of light.