1st Sunday of Advent Year A

I remember the poem NO TIME. It says:
I knelt to pray but not for long
I had too much to do
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to souls in need,
But at last.....the time to die.

I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes,
For in His hands God held a book,
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said,
"Your name I cannot find,
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time."
This is what the Gospel reminds us today; to give time for God. In the days of Noah, people did not give time to God. They missed the message God relayed to Noah regarding the flood.
Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 24:37-44.
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… Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
On this first Sunday of Advent, we are called to “stay awake.” In other words, “Do not sleep!” We have to give time for God. We have to spend times for prayers. Praying means staying awake. On one hand, it means we have to give God our time until we meet Him face to face. On the other hand, we have to give time for God in remembering and reliving the Lord’s First Coming –which we call Christmas day. We have to be conscious and aware of renewing our warm welcome to Jesus once again. We prepare our Christmas decorations, our Christmas gifts, our Christmas carols, etc. While doing this, we shall rejoice. However, our rejoicing is different from such rejoicing of the people during the days of Noah. They rejoiced too much that they forgot about God. They never gave time for God. But for us, we shall rejoice because we remember everything about God who sent His only Son, Jesus Christ. We rejoice because we have time to show to God we celebrate this season not for any other reason but for Jesus.