November: Day 19: Teaching 2: Venerable Barlaam and Joasaph

November: Day 19: Teaching 2:
Venerable Barlaam and Joasaph
 
(The Christian Faith is an Invaluable Treasure)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today we commemorate the Venerable Barlaam and Joasaph, Prince of India. Christianity in India was founded by the Apostle Thomas, who suffered martyrdom there. However, due to a shortage of teachers, Christianity in India began to weaken after Thomas, and then, through the efforts of kings, it was completely eradicated. King Abenner was especially zealous in persecuting Christian teachers, priests, and monks. Some Christians voluntarily submitted to martyrdom, others fled to the deserts, and some even fell away from the faith. 

The king had a son, Joasaph. He gathered his wise men and asked them what fate awaited his son. The wise men replied that Joasaph would be the most powerful of all kings. One of the wise men added, "I think he will accept the Christian faith, which you persecute." Abenner was saddened by this prediction and, to prevent its fulfillment, wanted to raise his son in complete seclusion, so that no thought of Christianity could penetrate him. 

Joasaph thus lived in a magnificent palace, surrounded by tutors and courtiers. Their duty was to ensure that no strangers were allowed to see Joasaph and that all sadness was banished from his sight: death, illness, old age, sorrow. Joasaph's mind was constantly occupied with various subjects, so long as these subjects did not sadden him. The king loved his son dearly and visited him frequently. During one of these visits, Joasaph began to complain to him about his solitude and earnestly begged his father to allow him to leave the palace. Abenner finally granted him this, ordering his servants to accompany the prince and not allow him to see or hear anything sad. 

Taking advantage of his father's permission, Joasaph left the palace very often. Once he saw a leper and a blind man and asked what kind of illnesses they were and whether everyone got sick. He was told that illnesses mostly befall those who overindulge in life's blessings. What he saw and heard greatly saddened the prince. Another time, he saw an old man, hunched over, gray-haired, toothless, and speaking with difficulty. Those accompanying Joasaph explained to him that this old man was old, that a person's strength weakens with time, and that such a fate awaits everyone. This encounter saddened Joasaph even more. "How sad our life is!" he said. "Who can be happy when illness and death await everyone, the onset of which is unknown to anyone? And so I too will die. Is it really true that with this life all ends for us, and that after death there is no other life and no other world?" Joasaph didn't tell his father about his doubts, but he often asked his tutors if they knew anyone who could tell him about all this and strengthen his understanding. "Your father," one of his tutors told him, "killed many wise men who lived in the desert, some of whom he drove away, and now we know of no such ones in our kingdom." Joasaph was even more saddened by this answer. 

At that time, a pious monk named Barlaam lived in the Shinar desert. While wandering through the Indian kingdom, he heard much about the prince and his way of life. Barlaam addressed his tutors, telling them he was a merchant dealing in precious stones and had a beautiful stone he wished to show the prince. "This stone is priceless," said Barlaam. "It gives light to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, health to the sick, makes the foolish wise, and brings happiness to all. I would like to show the king's son this treasure." The tutors told Joasaph about the merchant, and Joasaph desired to see his stone. "Before I show you my treasure," Barlaam told him, "I must know how you will accept it, and only then will I reveal its secret properties to you when I see you are ready. For your sake, I have undertaken great labor and a long journey, to show you what you have never seen and to teach you what you have never heard." Joasaph replied that he really wanted to hear new words and answers to some questions and asked Barlaam to tell him everything he knew.

Then Barlaam began to speak to him of the one God, the Creator of the universe, then told him about the creation of the world and man, the fall of the first humans, the coming of Jesus Christ to earth to save the perishing people, and His suffering and resurrection. Barlaam's speech had a profound effect on the prince; he understood that the precious stone promised by Barlaam is the true faith. He began to ask about other truths of Christianity, about the kind of life a Christian should lead, about hermits and monks, and Barlaam described in detail the lives of saints who had renounced the world and dedicated themselves to serving God. Joasaph conversed with Barlaam several times and finally decided to leave the world and go into the desert. Barlaam baptized him and explained the main truths of Christianity to him, but advised him against going into the desert. 

After Barlaam's departure, the prince's life changed completely, becoming more strict. The king noticed a change in his son and asked his servants the reason; they told him everything. The king was enraged and took every measure to turn his son away from Christianity, trying to influence him sometimes with threats, sometimes with kindness. But the prince remained firm, and only with wise and gentle words did he demonstrate to his father the falsity of pagan beliefs, so that finally Abenner, too, was convinced of the truth. Summoning his nobles, he announced to them that he wished to accept the faith held by his son. Then Joasaph explained the truths of the faith to him and baptized him, himself serving as godfather. Soon, Abenner transferred all power to his son and spent the last years of his life in solitude. But Joasaph, too, was more inclined toward the solitary life than toward governing the state. Some time after his father's death, he withdrew and wandered the deserts for a long time, searching for his mentor, Barlaam. He found him and settled in the same cave with him. Barlaam died at the age of 100 and was buried in the desert by Joasaph. Joasaph died at the age of 60, having lived as a monk for 35 years.

II. You have heard, my brethren, that Venerable Barlaam, in a conversation with Prince Joasaph, called the Christian faith a precious stone possessing miraculous power. It is desirable to draw your attention to this; namely, that “our faith is for us an invaluable treasure,” not, of course, for the flesh, but for the spirit, for faith contains everything that the soul needs. Our soul, to speak more clearly for you, has the same basic needs as the body. The body needs light in order to see the objects necessary for life, and so does the soul; the body needs food in order to continue to exist, and so does the soul; the body needs consolation and peace, and so does the soul. And faith gives the soul light, and food, and peace with delight. And the light of faith imparts to the soul the truest knowledge of the most necessary and most important objects for it; and the food of faith gives the soul both immortal life and the strength sufficient for all its actions and struggles; nd the tranquility of faith brings peace, joy, and blessedness to the soul, both amid the storms of this life and for all eternity in the life to come. What treasure, then, can a person devise for himself, higher and more precious than faith!

a) Indeed, is there any knowledge more necessary and important for a person than knowledge of God — both concerning His very existence and in relation to the world and to humanity; knowledge of humans themselves in relation to their being, composition, life, and fate; and in relation to God, to their fellow beings, and to other creatures? What of the world and other creatures, what are they in themselves, before God, and for mankind? Such knowledge is imparted to a person through faith —and truly, only faith, for only God can grant such knowledge to a person, and He grants it through faith, which is the Word of God Himself to humanity, for God cannot speak falsehood, whereas human reflections on these same subjects are neither far-sighted, complete, nor firm, and are merely conjectural. Thus, the light of faith is the light of the sun itself, while the light of the human mind, even the most perfect, can be likened only to the dim reflection of the moon.

b) Worldly people find food for the soul, sometimes in earthly wisdom and secular education, sometimes in the rules of life, sometimes in sensual pleasures. It cannot be said that this food is not nourishing; but it nourishes the soul only in its natural life and for worldly life. How little such food strengthens and enlivens the soul can be seen during the first struggle with unfavorable circumstances: a storm comes, and the person, strengthened by such food, falls in spirit to the point of callousness. But is this the food that faith imparts to the soul, which consists in the word of God, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the mystery of Holy Communion? Such food is given by the hand of God Himself, and God Himself, through His power contained in this food, enlivens and strengthens the believing soul. In the power of such food, believers feel and say, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, O Lord." This food strengthened all confessors of the faith, not only men but also women, not only adults but also children, not only against threats but against death itself, to extraordinary struggles for the faith. Read the lives of the Holy Martyrs and Confessors.

c) What, finally, is the enjoyment, consolation, and peace found in sensual pleasures that worldly people find in them? Such pleasures merely irritate, tire, and stupefy the very senses of the body; but for the soul, they are rotten water in contaminated springs, or rather, all this, being carnal, is not at all akin to the soul, which is essentially spiritual. Only spiritual consolations, granted to it by faith, are proper to it, and therefore delightful. Faith finds all these consolations in God Himself: what could be more delightful than such consolations? But these consolations are all the more important because, beginning here, they grow from time to time, multiply and strengthen if a person constantly uses them, and finally resolve into the boundless blessedness of the future life, just as a small stream at first becomes a vast river, so that the believer enjoys not only the sweetness of their present taste, but also the hope of a future fuller enjoyment of them.

III. Such treasures are contained within and bestowed upon us by the Christian faith — a treasure of divine knowledge, divine strengthening, and divine consolation. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.