In recent months, natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and man-made fires have occurred with unsettling frequency. Many view these events as signs that the end of the world is drawing near.

But these disasters and calamities may be nature's way of urging us to rethink how we live, how we care for one another, and how we safeguard our planet. Our collective apathy, greed, selfishness, and indifference pose a far greater threat to the world than any storm or earthquake. The earth groans under the weight of human neglect.

This sad reality reminds me of the 1975 book, “The Invisible Landscape,” The authors, Terence and Dennis McKenna, predict “the end of the world” not as a literal apocalypse but as a point in time when human consciousness undergoes a radical transformation.

Drawing on fractal mathematics, time-wave theory, and emerging models of cognition, the McKenna brothers suggest that human history is accelerating toward a new “temporal zone” where current modes of understanding become obsolete, giving way to an undreamed-of experience of reality.

While many of their ideas remain speculative and require further validation, their insistence that history is not locked into a grim, predetermined trajectory is both compelling and hopeful. Following their logic, we can say that we can avoid being victims of the past. We can reshape history by intelligent decisions that will break destructive patterns and open new paths for progress. Instead of fixating on forces beyond our control, we can create pivotal “change points” that shift the course of events and steer humanity toward a better future.

Following their logic, we can say that the best way to predict the future is to create it through human creativity and decisive action. This is not naïve optimism but a recognition of our God-given capacity to shape the world and our own lives through deliberate choices. Creating the future requires more than imagining what could be. It demands commitment and perseverance. Hope takes work. We must take responsibility for our lives and for the world we inhabit by remaining attentive to the opportunities the present moment offers us.

Blaise Pascal once lamented our tendency to squander the present through constant planning for the future. He observed: “It is unfortunate that we use the present merely as a means to be happy in the future. By always preparing for future happiness, we never actually experience happiness.” It would indeed be tragic if someone were to write on our tombstone: “Here lies a person who would be happy tomorrow.”

This is the proper context for understanding Jesus’s command in today’s Gospel reading: “Stay awake” (Matthew 24:37–44). Staying awake does not refer to a form of sleep deprivation caused by FOMO (fear of missing out), which is fueled by the relentless barrage of livestreamed entertainment. This dulls our ability to discern what truly matters and to act with clarity and purpose.

“Stay awake” does not mean the constant alertness exhibited by those who are obsessed with posting photos, stories, or videos on social media, hoping that their digital footprints would make people remember them. This is an illusion because even the most carefully crafted online presence eventually disappears into obscurity.

What endures is not our virtual image but the impact that our lives make on others. Our small acts of kindness, compassion, and sacrifice carve themselves into the hearts of others in ways no digital archive could ever capture.

Yes, we have to stay awake as Jesus said, but not in fear, but in readiness; not in anxiety, but in purpose. Good deeds done today are better than great things planned for tomorrow. Our life is short, and when it ends, the only legacy that will truly endure is the love we gave, the faith we lived, and the lives we touched.