Gift and Death

Facing Cancer

Abstract

This article explores the meaning of gift and death in the thought of Vítor Westhelle as a tribute to his life and theology. The author discusses his own journey with prostate cancer, encouraging others to vigilance about this disease, and juxtaposes his experience alongside Westhelle’s writings about cancer, theology of the cross, and the practice of resurrection. Eschatology refers to the liminal spaces occupied by the marginalized, not to some future time. Justification as God’s gift reorients us in relation to death as a gift. The witnesses to Christ’s resurrection lend hope in the face of death.