Chapter 18

Josaphat said to him: If you had pondered for a very long time, O wisest of men, how you might best make clear to us the solution of the questions put forward, you could not, it seems to me, have done this better than by telling me such things as you have now declared—teaching that God is the Creator and sustainer of all, and proving by irrefutable arguments that the glory of his majesty is incomprehensible to human reasonings, and that no other is able to attain to it,

but only those to whom he himself reveals it, so far as he commands. Therefore I have marveled exceedingly at your most eloquent wisdom. But tell me, most blessed one, how many years old you are, in what places you have your dwelling, and whom you have as your companions in philosophy. For my soul is strongly bound to yours, and I in no way wish to be parted from you for all the time of my life. The old man said: I am, as I reckon, forty-five years old; and, living in the deserts of the land of Senaar, I have as fellow-strugglers those who labor with me and contend together for the course of the journey above. How, said Josaphat, do you tell me these things? For you appear to me to be beyond some seventy years. What, then, do you mean by your forty-five years? For you do not seem to me to be speaking the truth in this. Barlaam said to him: If you are seeking to learn the years of my birth, you have well guessed them to be beyond some seventy; but to me they have in no way been reckoned in the measure of life, all those that were spent in the emptiness of the world. For when I lived enslaved in the flesh to sins,

I was dead in the inner man. The years of that deadness, then, I would never name as life. But from the time that the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world, and, having put off the old man, who is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit, I no longer live in the flesh, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me—these I would fittingly call both the years of life and the days of salvation; and reckoning them at about forty-five years, I have declared their number to you reasonably and not beside the mark. You too, then, hold to such a reckoning always, in no way supposing those to live who are dead to every good work, but live in sins and serve the world-ruler of the things dragged down below, spending their life in pleasures and wicked desires; but know well that these are put to death and dead to the working of life. For sin a certain wise man fittingly called the death of the immortal soul; and the Apostle too says:

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in 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 freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Josaphat said to him: Since the life in the flesh is not reckoned by you in the measure of life, neither ought you to reckon as death the death which all undergo. The old man answered: Beyond dispute I hold thus concerning these things also, in no way trembling at this temporal death, nor calling it death at all—at least if it overtakes me while I walk the way of the commandments of God—but rather a passage from death to the better and more perfect life, hidden in Christ, which the saints, longing to attain, were much vexed with the present one. Therefore the Apostle says: We know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens; for in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling that is from heaven, if indeed, being clothed, we shall not be found naked;

for we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened, in that we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. And again: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? And once more: 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 least of all, in no way seem to fear the perceptible death, you can know from the fact that, counting your father's threat as nothing, I came to you without fear and proclaimed to you the saving word, knowing exactly that, if these things came to his knowledge, he would, if he could, subject me to countless deaths. But I, preferring the word of God to all things and longing to attain it, neither dread the temporal death, nor call it at all worthy of such a name, obeying the Master's commandment that says: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. These, then, said Josaphat, are the achievements of your true philosophy, far surpassing the nature of the earthly-minded who are hard to be torn from the present life; and blessed are you who hold to such a most manly resolve.

But what is the food of you and those with you in such a desert, and from where are your garments, and of what sort? Make it known to me truthfully. Barlaam said: The food is from the wild fruits and herbs that are found, which the desert nourishes, watered by the dew of heaven and yielding to the command of the Creator—over which there is no one who fights with us and quarrels and seeks to snatch the greater share by the rule and reasoning of greed; but ungrudgingly there lies before all an unsown food and a table prepared of itself. And if at any time one of the faithful brothers who live near brings a blessing of bread, we receive it as sent by providence, for a blessing upon those who have faithfully offered it. The garments are of rags of hair and of sheepskins or palm-fiber, all old and much-patched, severely wearing down this weak flesh. For the same covering is ours in summer and in winter,

which it is in no way lawful, once we have put it on, to take off until, grown old, it is utterly worn out. For thus, worn down by the necessities of cold and burning heat, we provide for ourselves the clothing of the garments of incorruption to come. When Josaphat said: But from where is this garment that you are wearing? the old man said: I have taken it on loan from one of the faithful brothers, being about to make the journey to you; for it was not fitting for me to come in my usual garment. Just as someone who has a most beloved kinsman taken captive and carried off into a foreign nation, and wishing to lead him out from there, lays aside his own dress and, putting on the mask of the adversaries, reaches their country, and by many devices frees his kinsman from the bitter tyranny—in the same way I too, having been informed of your case, put on this guise and came to cast the seed of the divine proclamation into your heart, and to ransom you from the slavery of the dreadful world-ruler.

And now, behold, by the power of God, so far as in me lay, I have done my service, proclaiming to you the knowledge of him and making known the proclamation of the prophets and apostles, and teaching unerringly and truthfully the emptiness of present things and what evils the world is full of, grievously deceiving those who obey it and entangling them in many ways. It remains, then, for me to go back from where I came; and then, laying aside the borrowed guise, I shall be clothed in my own. So Josaphat entreated the old man to be seen by him in his usual garment. Then Barlaam, taking off the cloak he was wearing, was seen as a fearful sight by Josaphat. For all the substance of his flesh was wasted away, and his skin was blackened by the burning of the sun and stretched tight over his bones, as if one stretched a hide over thin reeds; and a hair-cloth rag, shrunken and very coarse, was girt about him from the loins to the knees; and a like cloak was thrown about his shoulders. Marveling exceedingly at the laboriousness of this hard way of life, and astounded at his surpassing endurance, Josaphat wept bitterly, and said to the old man: Since you have come to free me from the bitter slavery of the devil, set the seal upon your kindness: Bring my soul out of prison,

and, taking me with you, let us go from here, that, being completely ransomed from the deceit of the world, I may then receive the seal of saving baptism, and become a sharer with you in this wonderful philosophy and supernatural asceticism. Barlaam said to him: A rich man was raising the fawn of a gazelle. When it had grown, it longed for the deserts, drawn by its natural disposition. So going out one day, it finds a herd of gazelles grazing, and keeping with them it went about in the plains of the woodland, returning toward evening, but in the morning, through the carelessness of the servants, going out and herding with the wild ones. And when those moved farther off to graze, it followed along with them. But the rich man's servants, perceiving this, mounted on horses and pursued after them, and capturing their own gazelle and bringing it back home, made it go out no more thereafter; but of the rest of the herd they killed some and ill-treated others. In the same way I fear that it will happen to us also, if you follow me: lest I be deprived of your fellowship as well, and become the cause of many evils to my companions, and of eternal judgment to your father. But this the Lord wills for you: for now to be marked with the seal of holy baptism, and to remain in your place, holding fast to all piety and the practice of the commandments of Christ.

And when the giver of all good things grants the occasion, then you will come also to us, and we shall dwell together for the remainder of the present life. And I trust in the Lord that in the life to come too we shall be inseparable. Again Josaphat, weeping, said to him: If these things seem good to the Lord, let his will be done. Perfect me, then, with holy baptism, and, taking from me money and garments for the food and clothing of yourself and your companions, go to the place of your asceticism, guarded by the peace of God. And do not cease praying for me, that I may not fall away from my hope, but may quickly be able to reach you and, in deep stillness, enjoy the benefit that comes from you. Barlaam said: As for your receiving the seal of Christ, there is nothing to hinder it. Prepare yourself, then; and, the Lord working with you, you will be perfected. But as for the money you spoke of giving to my companions, how shall this be—that you, the poor man, give alms to the rich? For the rich always do good to the poor, but not the needy to the well-off. For the last of all my companions is incomparably richer than you. But I trust in the mercies of God that you too will very soon be exceedingly rich; and then you will not be ready to give. Josaphat said to him: Make the saying clear to me—how the last of all your companions surpasses me in wealth, those whom a little while ago you said lived in great poverty and were worn down with the utmost

destitution; and how it is that now you call me poor, while you say that when I become exceedingly rich I, who am now ready to give, will not be ready to give. Barlaam answered: I did not say that these are worn down by poverty, but that they exult in wealth that is never emptied. For always to add money to money, and not to bridle one's impulse, but insatiably to reach out for more, this is the utmost poverty. But those who have disregarded present things out of longing for the eternal, and counted these as dung that they might gain Christ alone, and have laid aside all anxiety about food and clothing and cast it upon the Lord, and rejoice in their possessing nothing as no lover of the world could rejoice though laden with wealth and money, and have gathered to themselves abundantly the wealth of virtue, and are nourished by the hopes of the unending good things—these I would fittingly call richer than you and than all the earthly kingdom. And, God working with you, you too will lay hold of such a spiritual abundance, which, keeping it in safety and always justly reaching for more, you would in no way wish to spend away at all. For this is the true abundance; but the mass of perceptible wealth would harm its friends rather than help them. Fittingly, then, I called it the utmost poverty—that wealth which the lovers of the heavenly good things have utterly renounced and fled from,

as one flees from a serpent. But if the enemy whom my fellow-ascetics and fellow-soldiers killed and trampled underfoot, I should take alive again from you and carry back to them, and become the cause of wars and passions, I would surely be to them an evil messenger; which God forbid that I should do. Think the same of me concerning garments too. For to those who have put off the corruption of the old man and laid aside, so far as in them lay, the garment of disobedience, and have put on Christ as a robe of salvation and a tunic of gladness, how could I again clothe them in the garments of skins and put about them the covering of shame? But knowing that my companions need none of such things, but are content with the asceticism of the desert and reckon this the truest luxury, distribute to the poor the money and garments you spoke of giving to them, and lay up for yourself a treasure unplundered for the future, setting God as your helper by their prayers; for so you would the better use wealth as a fellow-worker toward good things. Then, putting on the whole armor of the Spirit, and girding your loins in truth, and putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and setting on the helmet of salvation, and shoeing your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, and taking up in your hands the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God, and being most excellently armed and fortified on every side, go out thus confident to the war against impiety, so that, having routed it and dashed to the ground its leader the devil, you may be adorned with the crowns of victory from the life-giving right hand of the Master.