Priest Bogdan Chiorean
I remembered a patient who was hospitalized a few years ago, a former teacher of Romanian language and literature always careful at the Word and at words.
Every time I went out of the ward she told me `au revoir`, although I never used this expression, only other like `May God help us ! `May you have rest`, `May you have a serene day`…
Nothing which could draw attention. But at the next visits when her physical state was more and more critical she uttered that `au revoir` syllabically and more stressed the more the disease worsened. I remember she told me the last `au revoir` raising her brows somehow like in an obvious conclusion.
Today I heard a few times the end of a phone call by `we talk later`, `we see or hear each other again` These are more informal forms of `au revoir` but all of them are linked of a hope: that God prepared an eternity for us.
Otherwise where would my courage come from to say `we hear each other again` when I don`t know if I could still call tomorrow today? Or even more that patient on the deathbed being perfectly aware could say to the others `au revoir`
Maybe every end of conversation with someone is a kind of confession of faith. As long as people still say to each other `we see each other again` – this verb at present but with a meaning of future continuous – surely God is still among us, waiting us to put our clocks down to reach Him, where eternity is measured in love.
