From Today’s Gospel, from St Matthew: ‘When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world …”’

St John Chrysostom commented: ‘He commended them for doing what was right. He reveals how great is His bond of love for them and has been from the beginning. “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” To what other blessedness could this blessedness be compared? To be blessed of the Father! Why were they counted worthy of such a great honour? “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” What honour! What blessedness! He did not say “take” but “inherit” as one’s own, as your Father’s, as yours, as due to you from the first. “For before you were,” he says, “these things had been prepared and made ready for you, because I knew you would be such as you are’.

God has known from the beginning how each one of us would be and what we would, or could, become.

By His grace may we reach that total blessedness, and may God bless you this day.