We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Willing rather to be absent from the body. "Having a good will" (the Latin version); "greatly desiring" (the Syriac); "wishing with all our heart" (Chrysostom). We choose rather to be absent from the body, that we may come to appear before the presence of God and enjoy the sight of His countenance.
Hence it is proved that souls behold God immediately after death; for the reason given for preferring to be absent from the body is that we may be present with the Lord, or, as Erasmus and Vatablus rightly translate the words, "that we may be at home with the Lord." But if we shall be still exiles when separated from the body, and do not at once reach the home of our Father, but must still linger on the way and live still in exile, then we should not desire to be absent from the body, nay, we should prefer to spend our exile in it, as the natural abode of our soul, rather than in some unknown place.
Paul has put the greatest thing of all last, for to be with Christ is greater than having an incorruptible body. By avoiding direct mention of painful things like death and the end, Paul has dealt with them in such a way as to make his hearers long for them by calling them “presence with God.” Similarly, he has passed over the sweet things of this life and expressed them in painful terms, calling them “absence from the Lord.” He did this in order that we should not fondly linger among what we now have but be prepared to depart for something much better.
