"What is there to wait for?"
I hurried to ICU because someone was battling between life and death. When I arrived, doctors, nurses and all the medical team were attending to the patient. It was chaotic, and the they hoped to bring the patient back. Unfortunately, they could not.
It is 6:45 PM. I am sitting at an ICU room with a patient who just passed away. There is no family crying for him at bedside. No one is desperately crying and asking him to not go. I do not hear the usual desperate phrases like, "Wake up!" Or "Please, don't go." No family is expressing love. Life here has ended for this man. I do not know him, and I cannot say with certainty the reason why no family is here. However, everything has passed. Everything is still. Life in this world has ended for him.
A year ago, I was living at St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo. Twice during my stay, I chanted with the monks a beautiful antiphon from Psalm 39:7 - "And now Lord, what is there to wait for? In you rests all my hope." As I sit here, at a very different chapel (a hospital room), I close my eyes and hear the monks chanting that beautiful verse. I do not know if this patient was ready. I do not know if he wanted to go yet. But by judging the environment and the situation, what was there to wait for? Only in God he could find true love and affection.
I ask myself: Could I chant with confidence this beautiful verse if there was nothing else promising in this life? I wonder if I could really put all my trust in God in a time of distress. Hoping in God helps us transcend and let go of whatever holds us back. It helps us see that life HERE ends, but in God rests all our hope. I pray that in the midst of a battle between life and death, he could be assured that God would not disappoint.
It is 6:45 PM. I am sitting at an ICU room with a patient who just passed away. There is no family crying for him at bedside. No one is desperately crying and asking him to not go. I do not hear the usual desperate phrases like, "Wake up!" Or "Please, don't go." No family is expressing love. Life here has ended for this man. I do not know him, and I cannot say with certainty the reason why no family is here. However, everything has passed. Everything is still. Life in this world has ended for him.
A year ago, I was living at St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo. Twice during my stay, I chanted with the monks a beautiful antiphon from Psalm 39:7 - "And now Lord, what is there to wait for? In you rests all my hope." As I sit here, at a very different chapel (a hospital room), I close my eyes and hear the monks chanting that beautiful verse. I do not know if this patient was ready. I do not know if he wanted to go yet. But by judging the environment and the situation, what was there to wait for? Only in God he could find true love and affection.
I ask myself: Could I chant with confidence this beautiful verse if there was nothing else promising in this life? I wonder if I could really put all my trust in God in a time of distress. Hoping in God helps us transcend and let go of whatever holds us back. It helps us see that life HERE ends, but in God rests all our hope. I pray that in the midst of a battle between life and death, he could be assured that God would not disappoint.
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