Gospel Reflection on Matthew 24:37-44

November 30, 2025

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

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Rudyard Kipling wrote a famous poem. It includes the lines "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you." These words I think provide the key to understanding the story of Noah and the Ark. What's going on in this story? Are we ready to believe that at a certain time in history the whole earth was flooded and that one man Noah had the foresight to build a boat on which he placed a male and female at every living species on earth so as to save them from extinction. Clearly the story is not to be taken literally. Like a number of other biblical stories of the origins of history it's not a

historical videotape of what happened but it's rather a story of the human heart.

A story which is truer than true in that it happens again and again inside of our lives; and how does it happen?

Well the story might be recast this way. Floods are necessary in the life of each one of us. Many things need to be washed away at regular intervals so that we can make a new beginning. In our culture today were obsessed by physical beauty, nutrition, well-being and

security both financial and physical. If we've constructed our life around these

goals and our ego is the master, the lord of our house.

When a crisis comes we are going to have difficulty coping. We'll be like the people at the time of Noah who were swept away by the disaster.

Jesus says the Son and Man is coming like a thief at a time you do not expect. We tend to think we know everything and understand everything according to the circumstances around us but it's only when we begin to look at things from an infinite horizon and act accordingly that things ultimately turn out well.

We must try to behave and act according to this more authentic vision.

Advent encourages us to look beyond today to look at the end of things, to have a non infantile perspective. Children can't see past the present moment but adults have to look beyond at what needs to endure.

Noah's ark is an invitation to us to see ourselves as a kind of boat, a boat that contains vision, idealism, decency, charity. These virtues give us the ability to float above the chaos that drowns things; and our decency, our charity, our faith and our vision, contain within themselves all that's precious and that needs to be protected and given a continued chance for life.