The Fear Of Death

Quod si terribilis apud viventes aestimatur, non mors ipsa terribilis est, sed opinio de morte, quam unusquisque pro suo interpretatur affectu, aut pro sua conscientia perhorrescit. Suae igitur unusquisque conscientiae vulnus accuset, non mortis acerbitatem. Denique justis mors quietis est portus, nocentibus naufragium putatur. Certe iis quibus gravis est timor mortis, non est grave mori, sed grave est vivere sub metu mortis. Non ergo mors gravis, sed metus mortis. Metus autem opinionis est: opinio vero nostrae infirmitatis, contraria veritati. Nam per veritatem virtus, per opinionem infirmitas. Opinio autem non mortis utique, sed vitae est. Ergo illud grave vitae magis invenitur esse. Liquet igitur quia mortis metus non ad mortem referendus est, sed ad vitam. Non enim habemus quod in morte metuamus, si nihil quod timendum sit vita nostra commisit. Etenim prudentibus delictorum supplicia terrori sunt: delicta autem non mortuorum actus sunt, sed viventium. Vita igitur ad nos refertur, cujus actus in nostra potestate est: mors autem nihil ad nos; est enim separatio animae et corporis: anima absolvitur, corpus resolvitur. Quae absolvitur, gaudet: quod resolvitur in terram suam, nihil sentit: quod nihil sentit, nihil ad nos. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Bono Mortis, Cap VIII Source: Migne PL 14.555

For though it may thought terrible to those who live, it is not death itself that is terrible but the thought concerning it, which each one interprets according to his state, or on account of his conscience it horrifies him. Therefore it is the wound of conscience that accuses, not the bitterness of death. For the righteous death is a peaceful haven, and by the wicked it is thought to be a shipwreck. Certainly to those whom death is a grave fear, the weight of it is not death but living beneath the fear of death. Death, then, is not a burden, but rather the fear of death is. Fear is of opinion, truly with the thought from of our infirmity, being contrary to truth. For by truth is power, with opinion there is weakness. Opinion is not a thing of death but of life. Therefore it is found to be more heavy in life than it is. And it passes away because the fear of death does not pertain to death but to life. For we do not have fear in death if we have nothing to fear on account of our lives. Indeed to the wise punishments for crimes are terrible, but crimes are not the deeds of the dead but the living. Life, then, is our interest and its deeds  which are in our power; death is nothing to us. For it is a separation of soul and body; the soul is released, the body dissolved. And that which is released rejoices, that which is resolved into the earth knows nothing, and that which is senseless is nothing to us. Saint Ambrose, from On the Good of Death, Chap 8