It's 5.30 in the evening. You've had a long and stressful day at work, and now as you sit wearily down to await your BART ride home, all you long for is to get out of the bustling city and fall into the peace and comfort of home. But on glancing at the overhead neon display you read - much to your alarm and dismay - that the next train going to your city has been delayed by thirty minutes. You gasp with exasperation and despair. You don't need this and you don't deserve this. Life is so unfair at times. It can be one dashed hope and one crisis after another - who needs it?

The theme running throughout our scripture readings today is very much about waiting, hoping and believing. In our first reading the ancient Israelites, God's chosen and holy people, are challenged to put their trust in a God who passionately loves them and calls them to himself. In our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews, we learn of the faith, hope and courage of Abraham and Sarah who steadfastly believe that God will follow through on the promises he has made to them. And then in our Gospel reading, we are reminded of the importance of being spiritually ready and prepared for the many ways our God visits us in our lives, both in happy times and in sad. I would like to base the thrust of what I wish to explore with you on today's second reading.

I think it is fair to say that we all hope for many blessings in this life. We all desire good health and happiness in this life. And we all would like to experience a sense of fulfillment in our chosen path in life. Stability, peace of mind and a sense of purpose and meaning in life, are also, I believe, much sought after human goals - and rightly so. All of us, to varying degrees, believe in the fundamental goodness of human life - life is worth living and should be lived and enjoyed to the full. I believe this is what God intended when he loved us, and all of creation, into life. If we did not believe this, even if only dimly in our subconscious, why would we bother getting up in the morning? Or why would we strive after our dreams?

What drives us, I believe, is a fundamental belief and hope in the goodness of life and in the lavish loving-kindness of a benevolent, all-caring, all-providing and all-compassionate God. But, to return to Paul's assertion: does our faith always guarantee the blessings that we hope for in this life. I think not.

A newly wed couple eagerly awaits the arrival of their first child, only to be informed shortly after her birth, that unforeseen birthing complications has left her suffering from cerebral palsy - not exactly the blessing they had hoped for; a friend I have grown to love and admire over the years betrays my trust and vilifies my name before others - not exactly the blessing I had hoped for in our friendship; my application to serve with the peace corps is turned down when I fail the medical exam - not exactly the blessing I had hoped for in my quest do good.

On our journey through life much hardship, pain, anguish, tragedy and disappointment can beset us and sometimes violently interrupt or thwart our dreams, hopes and plans. How do we prepare, as the Gospel challenges us to, for such unanticipated, unforeseen and unhoped for circumstances? And in such dark moments, when we seem to be doing nothing more than reeling and floundering in a fog of confusion, is God with us then? Is God visiting us then? And how do we salvage any meaning from what seems to be meaningless or even obscene?

I believe our life on earth is a journey in faith and a pilgrimage of hope. I think like Abraham we too set out not knowing where we are going. The most we are given for this journey in faith is enough light to take the next step. But I do believe that the will of God will never lead us where the grace of God cannot keep us. And as St. Paul says elsewhere in his letters: nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Gabriel Marcel, a French Christian philosopher and writer of the last century was once asked to write down everything he believed in as a Christian - a personal creed if you will. He summed it up in one statement: I hope in you for us. Let us support each other in prayer as we journey together to God.