巴蘭與約撒法 第 1 章 第 5/18 段

These things will befall you, and things far worse than these, if you persist in unbelief.

But if you readily obey him who calls you to salvation, and, running to him with longing and joy, are sealed with his light, and follow him without turning back, having renounced all things and clinging to him alone — hear what security and gladness you shall obtain:

if you sleep, you shall sleep sweetly, and shall not fear any terror coming upon you, nor the onslaughts of the impious demons approaching;

but you shall walk confidently as a lion, and shall live with everlasting gladness and exultation;

for upon your head shall be exultation and praise, and gladness shall overtake you;

there, where pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away;

then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall encompass you;

then you shall cry out, and God will hearken to you;

for I am he who blots out your transgressions, and will remember them no more;

but you, remember, and let us be judged together;

declare your transgressions, that you may be justified.

and though your sins be like scarlet, I will make them white as snow;

though they be like crimson, I will make them white as wool —

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

Ioasaph says to him:

All your words are good and wonderful, and I have believed, and I do believe, having hated from my heart all idolatry;

for indeed, even before you came in to me, my soul was somehow disposed obliquely and hesitantly toward it;

but now I have come to hate it with a perfect hatred, having learned from you the vanity of these things and the folly of those who serve them.

And I long to become a servant of the true God, if indeed he will not reject me, unworthy as I am, on account of my transgressions, but, being loving toward mankind and full of compassion, as you teach, will forgive me all things, and will deem me worthy to become his servant.

So now I am ready both to receive baptism and to keep all that you shall tell me.

"But what must I do after baptism? Is it enough for salvation merely to believe and be baptized, or must certain other things be added as well?" And Barlaam says to him:

Hear what must be done after baptism:

to abstain from every sin and every passion, and to build upon the foundation of orthodox faith the practice of the virtues; for faith without works is dead, just as also works without faith are dead.

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desire of the flesh;

and the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, murders, love of money, reviling, love of pleasure, drunkenness, revelings, arrogance, and things like these;

of which I forewarn you, as I have also said before, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God;

but the fruit of the Spirit

is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, sanctification of soul and body, humility of heart and contrition, mercy, remembrance of no wrong, love of mankind, watchfulness, exact repentance for all past failings, the tear of compunction, mourning for one's own sins and for those of one's neighbor, and things like these — which, like a series of steps and ladders holding fast to one another and sustained by one another, bear the soul up to heaven.

Behold, we are commanded, after baptism, to hold fast to these things, and to abstain from their opposites.

But if, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, we again take hold of the former dead works, and turn, like a dog, to our own vomit, that which was spoken by the Lord shall befall us:

For, he says, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man (that is, by the grace of baptism), it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and finds none;

and, not enduring to wander any longer, homeless and hearthless, it says:

I will return to my house, from which I came out.

And when it comes, it finds the house swept and adorned, but empty and unoccupied, not having received the working of grace, nor having filled itself with the wealth of the virtues;

then it goes and takes with itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself;

and they enter in and dwell there;

and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

For baptism, burying in the water the bonds of all sins previously committed, delivers them to utter oblivion, and thereafter it is for us a secure wall, a bulwark, and a mighty weapon against the array of the enemy;

yet it does not abolish free will, nor does it grant forgiveness for sins committed after baptism, nor a second immersion in the font.

for we confess one baptism;

and it is necessary to guard ourselves with all watchfulness, lest we fall into a second defilement, but rather to lay hold of the commandments of the Lord; for when he said to the Apostles, 'Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,' he did not stop there;

but he added, 'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.'

He commanded that we be poor in spirit, whom he calls blessed and declares worthy of the kingdom of heaven;

then he lays down that we mourn in the present life, that we may be deemed worthy of the consolation to come; and that we be meek, and ever hungering and thirsting for righteousness; merciful and generous in giving, compassionate and sympathetic, pure in heart, abstaining from every defilement of flesh and spirit; peacemakers both toward our neighbors and toward our own soul — subjecting, that is, the worse to the better, and by right judgment making peace in the continual war between them; and enduring every persecution and every affliction and reproach brought upon us for righteousness' sake, for his name, that we may be deemed worthy of everlasting joy in the resplendent distribution of his gifts.

Moreover, he thus enjoins that in the world our light so shine before men, that they may, as he says, see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.

For the law of Moses, given of old to the Israelites, says: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness;

but Christ says that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment;

and whoever says, 'Fool,' shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna;

and that, 'if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother;'

and that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her

has already committed adultery with her in his heart;

calling the defilement of the soul and the consent to the passion adultery.

Moreover, whereas the law forbade perjury, Christ commanded that we should not swear at all, except 'Yes' and 'No.'

there it says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth;

but he says, 'whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also;'

and to him who would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also;

and whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two;

give to him who asks you, and do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow from you;

Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat and persecute you, that you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Do not judge, that you may not be judged;

Forgive, and it will be forgiven you.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal;

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in nor steal;

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Be not anxious for your soul what you shall eat and what you shall drink, nor for your body what you shall put on;

for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things;

He, then, who gave the soul and the body, will certainly also give food and clothing—he who feeds the birds of heaven and adorns the lilies of the field with such beauty.

But seek first, he says, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Be not anxious for the morrow;

for the morrow will be anxious for its own things. Whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, so also do you to them.

Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter by it;

narrow and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are they that find it.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

and he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Behold, these things and things like them the Savior commanded the apostles to teach the faithful;

and all these things we ought to keep, if indeed we long to attain perfection and to be counted worthy of the incorruptible crowns of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render on that day to all who have loved his appearing.

Ioasaph says to the elder:

Since, then, this precision of doctrine requires also this unblemished way of life, if after baptism it should happen that I fail in one or two of these commandments, shall I then be failing of the whole purpose, and shall all hope be in vain? But Barlaam said:

Do not suppose these things to be so.

For God the Word, who became man for the salvation of our race, knowing the great weakness and misery of our nature, did not leave us, even in this respect, to suffer an incurable disease;

but as an all-wise physician he mixed for our slippery and sin-loving disposition the medicine of repentance, proclaiming it for the remission of sins.

For after we have received the knowledge of the truth, and have been sanctified through water and the Spirit, and effortlessly cleansed of all sin and all defilement, should it happen that we fall into transgressions of certain sins, there is indeed, through baptism, no second regeneration coming to be in the water of the font through the Spirit, and perfectly us

for this gift is given once.

but through laborious repentance and hot tears, through toils and sweats, there comes cleansing and forgiveness of transgressions, through the bowels of mercy of our God.

for the fountain of tears also has been called a baptism, according to the grace of the Master, but one requiring labor and time;

and it has saved many from their many transgressions;

inasmuch as there is no sin that overcomes the loving-kindness of God, provided that we manage in time to repent and wash away with tears the shame of our transgressions, and death does not overtake us beforehand and cast us out from here defiled;

for in Hades there is no confession, nor repentance;

but while we are among the living, the foundation of orthodox faith remaining unbroken, even if something of the roofing or of the inner structure be loosened, it is possible for what has been made rotten by transgressions to be renewed again through repentance.

for it is impossible to number the multitude of God's compassions and to measure the greatness of his mercy;

but sins, whatever they may be, and transgressions are subject to measure, and it happens that they are countable.

Our transgressions, therefore, which are subject to measure and number, cannot overcome the immeasurable mercy and the innumerable compassions of God.

Therefore we have not been commanded to despair over our sins, but to recognize the goodness of God, and to condemn the sins, whose remission lies before us through the loving-kindness of Christ, who for our sins poured out his own blood.

We are taught the power of repentance from many places in Scripture, and especially from the precepts and parables of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For from that time, it says, Jesus began to teach and to say:

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

But he also introduces, in a parable, a certain son, who took his father's substance and journeyed away into a far country, and there consumed everything in riotous living; then, a famine having arisen throughout that country, he went and joined himself to one of the wicked citizens of that sin-laden country;

who, it says, sent him into his fields to feed swine;

thus calling the roughest and most abominable sin.

Having therefore toiled much, and having come to the extremity of misery, so that he was not even able to fill his own belly with the foul food of the swine, having at last, though late, come to a realization of such shame, lamenting himself he said:

How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him:

Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am not worthy to be called your son;

make me as one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father.

But he, seeing him from afar, had compassion, and running to him embraced him and kissed him tenderly;

and having counted him worthy of his former honor, he made a joyful feast at his recovery, sacrificing the fatted calf.

Behold, this parable he expounded to us concerning those who turn back from sins and fall down before him in repentance.

But he also, again, shows a certain good shepherd who had a hundred sheep and, when one had been lost, left the ninety-nine and went out in search of the wandering one, until he found it, and taking it up on his shoulders, mixed it in again with those that had not strayed, calling together his friends and neighbors to a feast at its finding.

So, says the Savior, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.

Indeed, even Peter, the chief of the disciples, the rock of faith, at that very time of the saving Passion, having been abandoned for a little while by a certain providential abandonment, so that he might know the paltriness and misery of human weakness, fell into denial;

then immediately, remembering the words of the Lord, he went out and wept bitterly;

and by those hot tears, calling back the defeat, he wrought a victory that turned the scale.

for being experienced in war, even though he had fallen, he was not unnerved, nor did he despair of himself;

but leaping up, he brought forth most bitter tears from a grieving heart;

and immediately the enemy, seeing them, as though his eyes were being burned by a most fierce flame, leapt away, fleeing far off and wailing terribly.

And the chief was chief once again, and just as he had been ordained teacher of the inhabited world, so also he became a model of repentance.

And after the divine resurrection, Christ, having addressed him three times, 'Peter, do you love me?', corrected the threefold denial, the apostle answering:

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

From all these, then, and many other examples surpassing number, we learn the power of tears and of repentance;

only let the manner of it be worthy of note, arising from a disposition that abhors sin, hates it and condemns it, and makes use of tears, as the prophet David says:

I am weary with my groaning;

every night I will wash my bed;

with my tears I will drench my couch.

and thereafter the cleansing of sins will come to pass through the blood of Christ, in the greatness of his mercy, and the multitude of the compassions of God, who said, 'Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow,' and so forth.

These things, then, are so, and thus we believe;

but it is necessary, after receiving the knowledge of the truth and being counted worthy of regeneration and adoption, and tasting the divine mysteries, to guard with all one's strength against falling.

for falling is not fitting for the athlete, since many, having fallen, were not able to rise again;

some, having opened a door to their passions, and having clung to them inextricably, were no longer able to run back to repentance;

others, having been snatched away beforehand by death, and not having managed, through change of mind, to wash themselves of the defilement of sin, were condemned.

and for this reason it is dangerous to fall into any passion whatsoever;

but if it should happen that one falls, one must immediately leap up, and stand again for the good contest;

And as often as this happens, let there at once be a rising up and a standing firm, even unto the end.

For turn unto me, and I will turn unto you, says the Lord God.

[XII.] To this Ioasaph said:

How then can one keep himself pure from all sin after baptism? For even though, as you say, repentance is granted to those who stumble, yet it comes with toil and labor, weeping and mourning, which I think are not easily accomplished by most.

But rather I would wish to find a way to keep the commandments of God exactly, and not to turn aside from them, nor, after the forgiveness of my former evils, to provoke again to anger the most sweet Master and God.

Well have you said this, my lord king.

This is also according to my own heart's desire.

But it is a laborious thing, and altogether impossible, for one who dwells amid fire not to be smoked.

Difficult of achievement, then, and exceedingly steep, is it for one bound by the affairs of this life, occupied with its cares and troubles, living together with wealth and luxury, to walk without swerving the way of the Lord's commandments, and to preserve himself pure from these things.

No one can serve two masters.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

And his beloved disciple, John the Evangelist and Theologian, writes thus in his own epistle:

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passes away, and its desire.

But he who does the will of God abides forever.

Considering these things, then, our divine and God-bearing Fathers, and hearing the Apostle say that we must enter the kingdom of heaven through many tribulations, made haste, after holy baptism, to keep unblemished and unstained the garment of incorruption.

Wherefore some of them added the receiving of a second baptism as well, I mean that through blood and through martyrdom.

For this too has been called a baptism, and indeed a most honorable and most venerable one.

For it is not defiled by the stains of a second [set of] sins.

This same thing our Lord also, having accepted it on our behalf, fittingly called a baptism.

Hence, becoming imitators and zealous followers of him—first his own eyewitnesses, disciples, and apostles, and afterward the whole choir of the holy martyrs—having delivered themselves up, for the sake of the name of Christ, to kings and tyrants who were servants of idols, endured every kind of torment, consorting with wild beasts, with fire, and with swords; and having confessed the good confession, having finished the course and kept the faith, they obtained the prizes of righteousness, becoming fellow-dwellers with the Angels and joint-heirs with Christ.

Their virtue shone forth so greatly that their sound went out into all the earth, and the brightness of their achievements flashed forth unto the ends of the inhabited world.

Not only their words and deeds, but even their very blood and bones, are full of all holiness, mightily driving out demons and providing cures for incurable diseases to those who touch them with faith.

And their garments, and whatever else touched their honored bodies, are forever venerable to all creation.

Concerning whom it would take much discourse to relate in detail their valorous deeds.

But when those harsh and beastly tyrants perished evilly in their evil, and the persecution ceased, and faithful emperors reigned throughout the whole inhabited world—others succeeding them and imitating that zeal and divine longing, I mean that of the martyrs, and being wounded in their souls by the same love—they took the best counsel to present their soul and body unstained to the Lord, cutting off all the workings of the passions, and cleansing themselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit.

But since they knew that this could be accomplished in no other way than through the keeping of Christ's commandments, and they perceived that the keeping of the commandments and the working of the virtues comes about only with difficulty amid the tumults of the world, they adopted for themselves another, strange and altered manner of life; and, according to the divine voice, forsaking all things—parents, children, friends, kinsfolk, wealth and luxury—and hating all things in the world, they departed to the deserts like fugitives, lacking, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in wildernesses and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth, having removed themselves far from all the pleasant and enjoyable things upon earth, and being in great want even of bread itself and of shelter.

They accomplished these two things: that, not seeing the materials of the passions, they might uproot their desires from the soul, and, having erased the memories of them, might implant in themselves love and longing for things divine and heavenly.

And besides these things, that, having worn down the flesh through hardship and having become martyrs in purpose, they might not fail of the glory of those who were made perfect through blood, but might themselves also, so far as lay in their power, become imitators of the sufferings of Christ,

and thus become sharers together in the unending kingdom.

Having thus taken the best counsel, they pursued a solitary and quiet life; some enduring in the open air, worn down by the scorching heat, the fierce frosts, the rains, and the turbulence of the winds;

while others, having pitched huts, or hidden themselves in caves and dens, lived out their lives.

Pursuing virtue in this way, they utterly renounced all bodily comfort and rest, following a diet of raw vegetables and herbs, or of tree-fruits, or of dry and very hard bread—renouncing not only the quality of pleasant things, but, through the abundance of their self-control, extending their zeal even to the quantity as well.

For they partook of even the humblest and most necessary foods only to the extent needed to stay alive.

For some of them, remaining without food the whole days of the week, partook of nourishment on the Lord's Day;

and others remembered to eat twice in this week;

and others ate every other day, or even every evening, only so much as merely to taste of food.

By prayers and vigils they almost rivaled the life of the angels, having bidden entire farewell to the possession of gold and silver, and having utterly forgotten that buying and selling exist among men at all.

But envy and arrogance, which are most accustomed to accompany good works, had no place among them.

For neither did the one who was lesser in the sweats of asceticism entertain in himself at all a thought of envy against the one who shone forth more brightly;

nor again did arrogance, deceiving him, puff up the one who achieved great things against the weaker ones toward self-conceit, whether to despise his neighbor, or to boast in his asceticism, and to think highly of himself over his accomplishments.

For the one who had the greater share in virtue, ascribing the whole not to his own labors but to the power of God, persuaded himself, with a humble disposition, that he had accomplished nothing at all, but was rather a debtor for still more, even as the Lord says:

When you have done all that was commanded you, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done only what we ought to have done.'

And again, they never persuaded themselves that they had ever done what was commanded, but that what was still lacking was greater than what had already been accomplished.

And the one who fell short again in asceticism, perhaps because of bodily weakness, would abase himself, deeming himself wretched, reckoning his deficiency to be due to slackness of will, not to weakness of nature.

Thus, then, each considered himself more modest than the other, and all more modest than all.

Where, then, in these men was the passion of vainglory or of man-pleasing? For they, having fled the inhabited world, dwell in the desert precisely for this reason: wishing to display their achievements not to men but to God, from whom also they hope for the rewards of their achievements, knowing well that ascetic labors performed for the sake of vainglory are unrewarded, for they are done for the praise of men, and not for the sake of God.

Wherefore such men are wronged doubly, wasting away the body and yet receiving no reward.

But those who reached out for the glory above, and hastened toward it, despised all earthly and human glory.

As for their dwellings: some, completing their contest in total withdrawal and solitude, have removed themselves far from the company of men for the whole time of their life, and have drawn near to God;

while others, having pitched their dwellings at a distance from one another, come together on the Lord's Days to a single church, and partake of the divine mysteries—I mean of the bloodless sacrifice, the undefiled body and the precious blood of Christ—which the Lord bestowed upon the faithful for the remission of sins, and for the illumination and sanctification of soul and body;

and, feasting one another with the exercise of divine words and with moral exhortations, and making public the hidden warfare of their adversaries, so that no one, being ignorant of the method of the struggle, might be captured by them, each returns home

each one returns again, diligently storing away the honey of virtue in the hives of their hearts, and cultivating a fruit most sweet and worthy of the heavenly table.

But others pursue the cenobitic life.

These, gathering together in populous multitudes into one place, have placed themselves under a single commander and superior—the most eminent of them all—having slaughtered every will of their own with the sword of obedience;

and, willingly reckoning themselves purchased slaves, they no longer live for themselves, but for him to whom, for love of Christ, they have subjected themselves;

or, to speak more properly, they no longer live for themselves, but Christ lives in them, whom they followed, having renounced all things.