We
see that death is gain, life is loss. Paul says: For me life is
Christ, and death a gain. What does “Christ” mean but to die in
the body, and receive the breath of life? Let us then die with
Christ, to live with Christ. We should have a daily familiarity with
death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul
must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar
above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold
it fast. It must take on the likeness of death, to avoid the
punishment of death. The law of our fallen nature is at war with the
law of our reason and subjects the law of reason to the law of error.
What is the remedy? Who will set me free from this body of death? The
grace of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
--
Saint Ambrose of Milan
