Christians Today Are Like Watermelons

“Elder, what are Christians like today?”

“Like watermelons, my child.”

With this simple remark, full of spiritual wit, an elder on Mount Athos expressed a profound truth about our times.

If you think about it, a watermelon is a fruit that can easily deceive you. On the outside, it is deep green and firm, and you see a beautiful, hard surface that gives you the impression that nothing can bend or break it.

So it is with many Christians today. They wear the “garment” of piety, know the right words, follow religious customs, and appear steadfast.

Prologue in Sermons: April 16

Three Friends

April 16

(A Parable of Barlaam the Elder About Three Friends)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Although the Lord teaches us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), and assures us that if we seek Him, all that is necessary for temporal life will also be added to us, yet we somehow listen little to the words of the Savior. Instead of enriching ourselves with virtues for the attainment of the Kingdom of Heaven, we care most of all about acquiring temporal and perishable goods, and in them we place all our hope. “I have,” says the greater part of us, “a wife and children. What will they be left with after me? How will they live if I do not provide for them?” And a person begins to think only about money, and in sleep and in waking sees only money, dreams only of it, and places in it the chief good. But care for the one thing needful — for conscience and the immortal soul, for adorning oneself with virtues — he considers, if he considers it at all, the very last object of his concern. And meanwhile, how does all this end? The lover of money dies, and his money remains on this side of the grave. In the other world it will not be needed by him; there what would be most necessary and most useful for him is precisely that to which in life he paid the least attention, and which in fact ought to have been the first object of his care.

Prologue in Sermons: March 6

It Is Unreasonable to Become Attached to Earthly Things

March 6*

(A Parable of Venerable Barlaam Concerning This Temporal Life)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In order to impress His teaching more deeply upon the hearts of His listeners, Jesus Christ often presented it in parables — that is, in comparisons or riddles. For the same reason the Holy Fathers also at times taught by means of parables, and several of these have been preserved down to our time. With the latter, from time to time, I intend to acquaint you, and by way of example I now present one of them.

A certain man, says the Venerable Barlaam, encountered a terrible, raging beast that was ready to tear him to pieces. Fleeing from the fury of the animal, this man fell into a deep pit, and while falling, fortunately managed to grasp the branches of a large tree that was growing in the pit. Having seized the branches firmly and found some support for his feet, the man considered himself already safe. But suddenly, looking down, he saw two mice that were constantly gnawing at the root of the tree, and still lower, a dreadful serpent with its mouth wide open, preparing to devour him. Turning his eyes away from this terrifying sight, he saw an asp coming out of the rock, very close to him. Surrounded on every side by dangers, the man naturally lifted his eyes upward and there, on the top of the tree, he saw a very small quantity of honey.

Prologue in Sermons: February 16

Virtues Are the Steps of the Ladder Leading to Heaven

February 16

(An Edifying Parable from the Paterikon.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Among the teachings and counsels of the Holy Fathers there are parables that are very instructive and greatly beneficial for the salvation of the soul. Today I will relate one of them.

A certain simple layman, a pious man, once came in the company of many other Christians to the Venerable Poemen and asked him for instruction. Poemen replied: “Today you yourself speak a word to the brethren.”

The visitor exclaimed, “How can I, wretched as I am, speak, Father?”

“You,” Poemen answered - and all present joined him, insisting that the simple man speak.

Then he said: “I am an unlearned man and cannot say anything except the following parable, which I once heard from a great elder. Here it is.

Parable of the Travelers Who Wanted to Know the Ocean

An elderly monk once told the following parable:

 

Once upon a time, three brave and courageous people who lived far from the ocean wanted to know what the ocean is. They asked knowledgeable old men how to get there, and immediately set off. They walked for a long time and finally reached the ocean.  

 

“It turns out that the ocean looks like a big field!” exclaimed the first of the brave pioneers.  

 

“But it seems to me that the ocean resembles an endless forest!” said the second traveler enthusiastically.  

 

“But in my opinion, the ocean is a huge desert!” - the third traveler expressed his opinion.