A Life Worthy of the Gospel

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, September 24th, 2023:
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Philippians
1.20-24, 27

Brothers and sisters: Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

I’ve been thinking about death a lot lately, though not for the reasons you’d think! Now that I’ve hit 40 turns around the sun, I am starting to feel the weight of being bound to this mortal coil, of course, but I have no reason to believe death is imminent. The truth is, I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to other people about dying. Asking them questions about what they think will happen when they die, what the dying process most often looks like, and how they think they will respond when the bell tolls for them.

While some of the answers have been the usual boilerplate stuff – estate planning, preparing loved ones to speak on their behalf, and what kind of funeral they’d want – I have been blessed to hear responses that broke beyond the banal answers and exposed a deeper truth. It is the same truth that Paul is trying to get at in this letter to the community at Phillipi. 

While Paul is writing this epistle, he is imprisoned for his faith in Christ. He is wrestling with his thoughts, spilling out on paper the great struggle he is experiencing – trying to decide whether it would be better to live or die. Should he live, he can continue to serve. Should he die, he will be able to truly and entirely be with Jesus. He isn’t recounting some bucket list or thinking about who will get his worldly possessions – he’s taking stock of how his life will look on whichever side of eternity he finds himself.

Paul reminds us that how we approach death is meant to be measured not against wordly metrics of success – fame, legacy, finances – but rather against how we live our lives according to the Gospel.

In one of the discussions about death I recently had, someone shared a near-death experience with me. They could have recounted it as traumatic and terrifying, but instead they shared about the calm that washed over them as they accounted for their life. They had done good in the world and had done it all in the name of the Lord. While this death that was waiting at the door certainly wasn’t what they hoped for or planned, they could accept it, knowing that they had lived their life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

As I listened to them recount their harrowing tale, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would face death with the same calm. I certainly am ready to be united with my Saviour, but had I lived a life that expressed that desire? Had I truly lived a life that was driven by my faith in Christ, my love for the Father, or my trust in the Holy Spirit?

When I reach the hour of my death, I want to be like Paul – seeing life as an opportunity to keep living for Christ and seeing death the gateway to union with Him.

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​Stéphanie Potter

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