When Jesus speaks about the end times it's not just something about what will happen in some distant time. It is certainly not something that is unrelated to us. It is both futuristic and present-life-based. He says such and such will be at the end of the age, and so you act in such and such way.
He exhorts us to follow two things in life. One: be vigilant (Mt. 24:42); two: be ready (Mt. 24:44).
The two may seem to be the same thing. Although they are related, the two are two different things. Being ready / being prepared, I would say refers to the right action / dutiful action. Each of us should do our duty, or fulfil our function. We should not act wrongly. He clarifies this point through an example. "Who is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has appointed to give his household their food at the proper time": His duty is to serve others with a sense of dutifulness. However, if he "begin to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards," he is doing what is right; not fulfilling his function. Do the right action. In other words, to do what is right is to do what is ought to be done.
Being alert or being awake refers to the way of doing the right action or doing your duty. Jesus gives two examples about it. "Two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, and the other will be left." Both groups were doing their duty. One can say that the duty is to be done with awareness, with mindfulness, with the presence of mind. Although these expressions are more or less driving home some aspects of it, I think they convey only very rudimentary notions. While cooking the food, working in the garden, eating the food, playing games - do everything with mindfulness. That is what we all understand when we say 'doing it with awareness'. But, I think that there is more to it. Two men in the field, working. Two women grinding grain at the millstone. Four are involved in doing the right action. But why only two out of four are accepted?! Duty should be done with a sense of purposiveness- intentionality. Cooking food, working in the garden, eating food, playing games - what ever it be, should be done with a sense of purpose. This action that I do is the work that I have to do. My duty. There is an earthly purpose to what I do; and there is a beyond-the-earth purpose to what I do. No action is without a purpose. This way of doing the right action or doing the Dharma, I would call the Yajna- a sacrifice. A sacrifice is to achieve certain goals. When something is done as a sacrifice, it becomes an offering, it becomes worship. Ora and Labora become fused into one there.
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