There was an episode in the old TV show M.A.S.H. where Hawkeye, while operating on a severely wounded soldier, is muttering to himself, “I can’t let him win. I can’t let him win.” A visiting doctor asks what he is talking about. BJ answers that for Hawkeye death is the enemy and the role of the doctor is to fight the enemy. St. Paul has a different perspective. For him, the battle is over, death has been defeated on the cross. His approach to death is not antagonistic. “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” The whole point of life for the Apostle is to prepare to die in order to share the deeper and richer life won for us by Jesus.