Jesus said to his disciples: “For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.

They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

In the last verses about his ministry in Jerusalem, Jesus continues to teach his disciples how to face the end. They should not allow their guards down. They should not be engaging in drunkenness and immoral acts, for the end will come by surprise, like the flood during the days of Noah when the people did not care about doing good.

Jesus also exhorts them to pray for strength to stand the trials and tribulations. Today, we start the new liturgical year: Year One or Cycle A. We will be using more the Gospel according to Matthew on Sundays.

Advent is a season of preparation to celebrate the birth of Christ. We may be wondering why the Gospel reading for today is about the end of time or about his second coming and not about his first coming when he was born in this world.

The Church wants us to be prepared spiritually for Christmas beginning today. We must struggle much because there are many distractions. We may be like the people in the days of Noah who were caught unprepared for the deluge, and so they all perished, except the family of Noah. They were taunting Noah when he was constructing the ark.

The Gospel exhorts us to stay awake and be mindful of doing the will of God. As Christians living in this highly secularized world, where money matters so much, let us exercise caution, for its acquisition of-ten leads us to do evil.

Let us not be swallowed by its system. We are still free to warmly welcome Christ beginning today until the end of our lives. We can stay awake by joining Advent recollections and participating in the liturgical celebrations. Let us start expropriating what we have wrongfully appropriated as our own and give to the poor before the end overtakes us.