Here is what sustains the holy ones who keep God's commandments and their faith in Jesus. [13] I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes," said the Spirit, "let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them.
" (CCC 1010) Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21). "The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him (2 Tim 2:11). What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act: It is better for me to die in ("eis") Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth.
Him it is I seek - who died for us. Him it is I desire - who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth... Let me receive pure light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man (St. Ignatius of Antioch, "Ad Rom.", 6, 1-2: "Apostolic Fathers", II/2, 217-220). (CCC 1005) To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8).
In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated from the body (Cf. Phil 1:23). It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of the dead (Cf. Paul VI, CPG SS 28). (CCC 1006) "It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt" (GS 18). In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of sin" (Rom 6:23; cf.
Gen 2:17). For those who die in Christ's grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection (Cf. Rom 6:3-9; Phil 3:10-11).
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