Ecclesiastes 9:12

Many can know chronological time. Everybody, for example, knows that noon is the time for healthy people to eat lunch. The time, however, which is determined by physicians, is not known to everyone but only to the physician. And since there is only one physician for the soul, to whom we say, "O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you," only this physician knows our time. But the individual does not know his time. The inhabitants of Tyre, for example, who would have been ready to repent if the supernatural miracles had occurred among them—they did not know the time.

" For man does not even know his time, like fish caught in a fatal net, like birds seized in a snare, so are men caught in the moment of disaster when it falls upon them suddenly. "I have already said above, that while men are yet unknowing, either disaster or death befalls them. More precisely we should look at this as allegory, that the realm of the sky is similar to a net cast into the sea; and on the other hand heretics have nets, in which they capture fish, leading to their death. Their net though is affable language, flattering speeches, feigned or forced fasting, poor clothes, and an imitation of virtues. And if they begin to argue about the divine and raise their face to the heavens to seek the heights of God, then they cast a noose into the heavenly abodes. So just as fish and birds are seized of a sudden by such a net, and by such a noose, so wickedness is increased many times and the kindness of many fails; and the signs and portents are seen in such a way as to entice even the chosen of God if possible. See too those men of the Church, who are called the children of men, and are of modest faith, and who can be overcome quickly. Note too, that the term "sons of men" is used throughout the whole book, and the Hebrew has "sons of man", this is 'the sons of Adam'. And almost all scripture is filled with this idiom that sees the sons of Adam as the sons of all men.

Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, "Declare unto me the shortness of my days." What he did not know, that he desired to be informed of. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had yet a long time to live, heard the words, "You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be which you have provided?" And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit, and says, "Man also knows not his time." Wherefore the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, "Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death." Our Lord, therefore, although as God and the Word of the Father, both knew the time measured out by him to all and was conscious of the time for suffering, which he himself had appointed also to his own body. Yet since he was made man for our sakes, he hid himself when he was sought after before that time came, as we do; when he was persecuted, he fled; and avoiding the designs of his enemies he passed by, and "so went through the midst of them." But when he had brought on that time which he himself had appointed, at which he desired to suffer in the body for all men, he announces it to the Father, saying, "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son." And then he no longer hid himself from those who sought him but stood willing to be taken by them; for the Scripture says, he said to them that came unto him, "Whom do you seek?" And when they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth," he said unto them, "I am he whom you seek."