Wis 18:6-9;Heb 11:1-2,8-9; Lk 12:32-48

Life is such a delicate balance.

We have always lived on the edge with one toe dangling somewhat half-heartedly into the future and the greater part of ourselves clinging as if magnetized to my present place. That in itself is ironic, for the spot to which we cling was only yesterday.

In my life as a religious missionary priest, I have always felt the temptation to anchor myself in a secure place wherever I go. But experience tells me that life is always transitory. I have been called out many times, pushed, dragged or enticed from once space to another. Sometimes the thing that inches my toe forward might be some new knowledge, boredom with my present community or parish, a sense of frustration where I am or the excitement of meeting new people. There is always a nagging sense that something or Someone is continuously urging me on. Such is the restlessness of the human heart encouraging me to hope for new horizons. In a way, the reasons, or lack of it for going or leaving, do not matter at all, because often I have no control over them.

The experience of being on the move is not easy, and is also scary. The Hebrews moved out from Egypt into the night. I can imagine Abraham and Sarah’s journey, too, was a journey into darkness; God after all asked him to count the stars in the night.
And the Master who will come, no one knows when, may likely appear at night as well, for we are warned to keep our lamps burning and ourselves wide awake in readiness. Futures, in the light of Luke’s gospel today, are always somewhat obscure.

This is the story of every person. We do not know exactly where we are going, however we do have some control over how we will go. Whether we hesitate to leap into the future or doubtful about our creative possibilities, decisions have to be made by men and women of this age.

Friends, our dare to push into the next unknown space will depend on our hopefulness and trust in the One who has prepared the space for us. “Faith,” we read in the letter to the Hebrews, is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see (Hebrew 11:1-2). Abraham and Sarah believed and trusted the Mysterious One who had made the promise. The Mysterious One, we call God, was worthy of the trust.

At this point in my life, I do not know exactly what’s ahead of me and the decisions I will take. But it should not deter me from setting out into the deep. I can only do it in faith for if I wait for clear certainty, I would be waiting forever. The Hebrews would have died in slavery if they had not trusted in the God of Abraham.
Abraham lived under the stars of heaven and so shall we. The wait goes on from one transition to another and we Christians are called to live it with constant hope of ‘some day’…’one day’.

What is the quality of the hoping and the surety of the One in whom we hope for?