Death is a thrilling, dazzling encounter with the Infinite, with the Eternal, with Love. Every human love, on the other hand, is mixed with the painful awareness that even when we want to give ourselves, we never give ourselves fully; even when we want to receive, we never fully know the beloved. We can never fully give ourselves to be known, we can never achieve absolute knowledge of another person. There will always remain something unspeakable, unexpressible, a part of being that cannot be articulated and into which we cannot penetrate. At the moment of death, the one who is leaving us begins to recognize our most hidden essence, and this through God's knowledge of us. (…) Death is a long overdue meeting with a friend. A richly rewarded waiting.
(Abbé Pierre /Henri Grouès, 1912–2007/, Testament)
