November: Day 19: Teaching 1: Holy Martyr Barlaam of Antioch

November: Day 19: Teaching 1:
Holy Martyr Barlaam of Antioch
 
("Brethren, Be Vigilant, Stand Firm in the Faith." - 1 Cor. 16:13)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Barlaam, whose memory is celebrated today, was a native of Antioch. For confessing the name of Christ he was subjected to cruel tortures and by all means they tried to force him to offer sacrifice to idols, since Barlaam was already an old man of advanced years, who enjoyed special respect in Christian society, and therefore the example of his betrayal of the Christian faith could strongly affect others. But no torture could force Saint Barlaam to change his faith and confession of the name of Christ. In order to make the Holy Confessor an involuntary participant in idolatry, the torturers forced him to stretch out his hand over a flaming altar and put hot coals with frankincense and myrrh into it. The feeling of pain and the slightest weakening of patience could easily force the Holy Confessor to drop the incense placed in his hand on the altar and thus give his enemies a reason to say that he was betraying the Christian faith and honoring pagan gods. But Saint Barlaam was so firm and strong in his faith that the pain from the burning of his hand could not force him to change its direction. He held the coals in his hand until the burnt compositions of his fingers began to fall off. In this feat of self-sacrifice for the sake of truth and justice, the Holy Martyr Barlaam, having his right hand instead as the altar of the Lord, as Saint Basil the Great (in his homily on the Holy Martyr Barlaam), offered himself as a burnt offering and showed an example of such firmness of faith, which in his time not only had a beneficial strengthening effect on Christians persecuted by the pagans, but also aroused respect in the persecutors themselves for the Christian faith and Christian society, which had in its midst men so strong in spirit and unshakable in their convictions about the truth of Christ.

II. And to us, beloved brethren, the valiant example of the Holy Martyr Barlaam inspires us to maintain firmness and constancy of faith and, as it were, speaks with the Holy Apostle: “Brethren, be vigilant, stand firm in the faith.” ( 1 Cor. 16:13 ).

Is the Apostle's instruction appropriate to us today? In our time there is no persecution for the faith, and we are not new converts, but have confessed the holy Christian faith from childhood: is it therefore necessary to persuade us to be vigilant and stand firm in the faith? It is necessary and very necessary.

a) "Be vigilant." The vigilant state is opposed to the state of sleep and inaction. A person is vigilant in body when his external senses are in activity; he is vigilant in soul when he attentively watches his thoughts, feelings and actions. But a Christian is higher than an ordinary person in his grace-filled rebirth, and he faces a constant struggle with passions and lusts, with the cunning wiles of the ancient tempter the devil and with the world lying in evil. He who has begun to be vigilant over himself knows from his own experience how difficult this struggle is and how dangerous it is to indulge in moral carelessness. Unfortunately, many today look at this struggle too easily, precisely because they do not remain vigilant over themselves in a Christian way, and some even mock the teaching of the Holy Scriptures about the devil and reject his existence. But did these frivolous people think that by rejecting the existence of evil spirits, they were rejecting Christianity itself? For the Son of God came down to earth “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Be sober and vigilant,” teaches the Apostle Peter, “for your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), making known by these words his ceaseless intrigues against Christians.

Nowadays there is not and cannot be persecution of faith and the Church, such as Christians suffered in the first centuries; but can it be said that the spirit of our age favors faith? How many false reasonings are spread in our time, both orally and in print, undermining faith and shaking with doubts those who do not want to carefully delve into divine and ecclesiastical teaching! How many secret underminings of Orthodoxy and Orthodox convictions on the part of those who have departed from the ancient truth! Therefore, every Orthodox Christian man and every Orthodox Christian woman must be vigilant, so as not to be carried away by false talk, or to stray from the path of pure truth.

b) "Stand firm in the faith." This is another part of the above-cited instruction of the Holy Apostle. This instruction of the Apostle requires that every Orthodox Christian firmly, steadfastly and unchangeably maintain the Orthodox teaching. The human mind is constantly improving, and therefore progress in the sciences and arts of man is quite natural and necessary. But the teaching of faith is not an invention of the human mind: it is a gift from God. So is it not madness to subordinate the teaching of faith, given to us by God for our salvation once and for all, as a necessary guide, to the ordinary course of human knowledge? We see from experience what absurdities people reach when they decide to change the divine teaching for their own reasons. The history of heresies and schisms shows that arbitrariness in judgments about divine matters has given rise to many strange and ungodly errors, which, deeply humiliating the human mind, bring great harm to the soul. Should we not conclude from this that in order to hold on to the holy, pure truth, we must stand firm and unwavering in the faith originally established by the Lord Jesus Christ, handed down by the apostles, confirmed and explained by the Orthodox Church? We must stand firm, holding on to the anchor of the Church, so as not to be carried away by the waves and winds of false teachings on the sea of life.

III. “Be vigilant,” then, brethren, and “stand fast in the faith,” just as the Holy Martyr Barlaam, now worthily blessed by the Holy Church, and for that glorified by God with eternal glory and endless blessedness, was watchful and stood fast in the Christian faith. Amen.

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