Timely And Untimely Births

Καιρὸς τοῦ τεκεῖν καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ ἀποθανεῖν.   Ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τόκος ὥριμος καὶ οὐκ ἀμβλωθρίδιος εἶναι, ὅταν, καθώς φησιν Ἡσαΐας, ἐκ τοῦ θείου τις φόβου κυοφορήσας διὰ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ὠδίνων τὴν ἰδίαν σωτηρίαν γεννήσῃ· ἑαυτῶν γὰρ τρόπον τινὰ πατέρες γινόμεθα, ὅταν διὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς προαιρέσεως ἑαυτοὺς πλάσωμέν τε καὶ γεννήσωμεν καὶ εἰς φῶς προαγάγωμεν. τοῦτο δὲ ποιοῦμεν διὰ τοῦ δέξασθαι ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὸν θεὸν, τέκνα θεοῦ καὶ τέκνα δυνάμεως καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου γενόμενοι. καὶ πάλιν ἑαυτοὺς ἀμβλίσκομεν καὶ ἀτελεσφορήτους τε καὶ ὑπηνεμίους ἀπεργαζόμεθα, ὅταν μὴ μορφωθῇ ἐν ἡμῖν, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μορφή. δεῖ γὰρ εἶναι, φησίν, ἄρτιον τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον. ἄρτιος δὲ πάντως ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν, ᾧ τελείως ὁ τῆς φύσεως συμπεπλήρωται λόγος. οὐκοῦν εἰ μέν τις δι' ἀρετῆς τέκνον θεοῦ ἑαυτὸν ἐποίησε λαβὼν ἐξουσίαν τῆς εὐγενείας ταύτης, ἔγνω οὗτος τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἀγαθῆς ὠδῖνος καὶ χαίρει κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον εἰκότως, Ὅτι ἐγεννήθη ἄνθρωπος εἰς τὸν κόσμον. ὁ δὲ γενόμενος τέκνον ὀργῆς καὶ υἱὸς ἀπωλείας καὶ σκότους ἔκγονος, γέννημα ἐχίδνης, ἔκγονον κακὸν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, δι' ὧν ὁ πονηρὸς διαβάλλεται τόκος, οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν ζωογονοῦντα καιρόν· εἷς γὰρ καιρὸς ὁ εἰς ζωὴν τίκτων καὶ οὐ πολλοί. οὗ ὁ διαμαρτὼν ἐν τῇ ἀκαιρίᾳ τοῦ τόκου τῇ ἀπωλείᾳ ἑαυτὸν ὤδινε καὶ τῷ θανάτῳ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐμαιεύσατο. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Εἰς Τον Ἐκκλησιασην, Ὁμιλια Ϛ'  Source: Migne PG 44 701-703

'There is a time to be born and a time to die.' 1   To me birth seems timely and does not suffer miscarriage when, as Isaiah says, there is pregnancy by the fear of God and birth by travail of soul. 2  For in like manner we become fathers when by choice of the good we fashion ourselves and come to birth and enter the light. We do this in order to manifest God in ourselves, having become children of God,3 children of virtue 4 and sons of the most High. 5 But again we suffer miscarriage, producing nothing since we are but puffed up with wind, when, as the Apostle says, we do not bear Christ's form within us. 6 For we must, he says, become a perfect man of God, and perfect is he in whom the Word has worked the perfection of nature. If anyone makes himself a son of God by virtue, he receives power to give birth well; he knows the time of good travailing and rejoices according to the Gospel which says that a man is born into the world. 7 But he who is a child of wrath, 8 a son of perdition, 9 a descendant of darkness, 10 an offspring of a viper, 11 an evil generation 12 and anything else by which is brought forth a wicked child, he does not know the time to produce life, because there is one time to give birth to life, not many. Thus anyone who bears witness to an untimely birth travails to his own ruin and has death for a midwife. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On Ecclesiastes, from Homily 6  1 Eccl 3. 2 2 Is 26.17  3 Jn 1.12  4 Jud 18.2  5 Lk 6.35  6 Gal 4.19  7 Jn 16.21  8 Eph 2.3  9 Jn 17.12  10 1 Thes 5.5  11 Mt 3.7  12 Prov 30.11