And Death Is Gain: A Reflection on the Proper Christian Sense of Death - Community in Mission

This prayer acknowledges in a realistic and sober way that life here can be very difficult. Rather than ask for deliverance from all of it—for this world is an exile, after all—it simply expresses a longing to go to Heaven and be worthy to see Jesus. It is this longing that I sense is somewhat absent in our modern world, even among regular churchgoers.
In regard to death as gain, St. Ambrose had this to say in a meditation on the occasion of his brother’s death:
I close with some words from Psalm 27:
As you listen to this spiritual, think about the harsh conditions endured by the slaves who wrote it: