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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"For to me," he says, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For even in dying, he means, I shall not have died, for I have my life in myself: then would they truly have slain me, had they had power through this fear to cast faith out of my soul. But as long as Christ is with me, even though death overtake me, still I live, and in this present life, not this, but Christ is my life. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
That is, I live a new life, and Christ is everything to me: both spirit, and life, and light. By life is meant, first, natural life: "for in Him we," says the apostle, "live and move" (Acts 17:28); then is meant life in sins; thus, when he says: "we died to sin: how shall we still live in it?" (Rom. 6:2). Finally, is meant eternal life, or life in Christ: "our citizenship," he says, "is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). Here Paul, of course, rejects not the natural but the sinful life, that is, one given over to sinful delusion. …
Cyprian
And because now your word is more effectual in prayers, and supplication is more quick to obtain what is sought for in afflictions, seek more eagerly, and ask that the divine condescension would consummate the confession of all of us; that from this darkness and these snares of the world God would set us also free with you, sound and glorious; that we who here are united in the bond of charity and peace, and have stood together against the wrongs of heretics and the oppressions of the heathens, may rejoice together in the heavenly …
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
We see, then, that this death is a gain and life a penalty, so that Paul says: "To me to live is Christ and to die is gain." What is Christ but the death of the body, the breath of life? And so let us die with Him, that we may live with Him. Let there then be in us as it were a daily practice and inclination to dying, that by this separation from bodily desires, of which we have spoken, our soul may learn to withdraw itself, and, as it were placed on high, when earthly lusts cannot approach and attach it to themselves, may take upon …
Thomas Aquinas
Then he explains how He will be honored by life and death, saying: for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now life produces activity, for that seems to be at the root of man's life which is the principle of his activity. Hence some call that by which they are roused to activity, their life; as hunters call hunting their life, and friends their friend. …
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