My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Humans are conceived in their mother’s womb in order to be formed, yet only when fully formed do they go into labor. One might be surprised by his statement: “You with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.” We are to understand this travail to stand for the agonies of concern that they might be born in Christ. Then he labors for them once again because of the dangers of their seduction, by which he sees them being disturbed.
My little children. I begat you to Christ by the Gospel, and now that you have left Him for Judaism, I travail in birth of you again, till you learn to look to Christ for grace and justification, and not to the law. "The Apostle here," says Chrysostom, "Speaks of a mother"s anxiety over her children. You see the feelings of a mother rather than of a father; you see his nervousness, and the cry of pain, much more agonising than that of a woman in travail." As the Blessed Virgin bore Christ in the flesh but without pain, so did Paul labour with Christ spiritually, though with pain and grief, and strive to form the Galatians for Christ, that He might be all in all to them.
S. Ambrose (de Isaac et Anim, c8) says, with equal piety and point: "There [in the Cross and in baptism] did your mother travail; there did she who bore you labour. There are we born again, for they are brought forth in whom the image of Christ is formed. He tells us how Christ was formed in His Spouse. Set me as a sea...
Sons are spoken of in many senses, sometimes as by love, sometimes as by nature, sometimes as by blood, sometimes even as by religion. This is what Paul means now by “my sons,” either because when the new birth occurs through faithful baptism, he who guides the baptized toward maturity or receives them when fully ready is called their father, or because when he calls them back into Christ he makes them his own sons. .
This example which he has taken from a pregnant woman deserves our close attention, so that we may understand what is being said. Nature is something to be not ashamed of but revered. For just as the seed is unformed when first sown into the mother … then at a determined time issues into the light and is now born with difficulties as great as those with which it is later nourished to keep it from dying—so too, when the seed of Christ’s word falls into the soul of the hearer it increases by its proper degrees and … remains in jeopardy so long as the one who has conceived it is in labor. Nor does the work end as soon as it emerges This is but the beginning of a new labor, so that he may lead the infant, by diligent nourishment and study, up to the full maturity of Christ. .
He who in another place had spoken like a father now speaks not like a father but like a mother in Christ, so that they may recognize the dutiful anxiety of both parents. .
Do you see his parental compassion? Do you see the anguish that is fitting for an apostle? Do you see how he has lamented more bitterly than women giving birth? “You have ruined the image of God,” he is saying. “You have lost the kinship, you have exchanged the likeness. You need a rebirth and a reformation. Yet nonetheless I still call the miscarriages and the abortions my children.”
Observe his perplexity and perturbation, Brethren, I beseech you: My little children, of whom I am again in travail: He resembles a mother trembling for her children. Until Christ be formed in you. Behold his paternal tenderness, behold this despondency worthy of an Apostle. Observe what a wail he utters, far more piercing than of a woman in travail—You have defaced the likeness, you have destroyed the kinship, you have changed the form, you need another regeneration and refashioning; nevertheless I call you children, abortions and monsters though you be. However, he does not express himself in this way, but spares them, unwilling to strike, and to inflict wound upon wound. Wise physicians do not cure those who have fallen into a long sickness all at once, but little by little, lest they should faint and die. And so is it with this blessed man; for these pangs were more severe in proportion as the force of his affection was stronger. And the offense was of no trivial kind. And as I hav...
For he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you; ".
Receive the features, and the image, and the manliness of Christ, the likeness of the form of the Word being stamped upon them, and begotten in them by a true knowledge and faith, so that in each one Christ is spiritually born. And, therefore, the Church swells and travails in birth until Christ is formed in us,
