John 12:8

So powerful is the praise of a good work of this kind that it exhorts all of us to fill the Lord's head with fragrant and rich works so that it may be said also of us that we have done a good work on his head. Because as long as we are in this life we will always have the poor with us, and those who have advanced in word and have become rich in the wisdom of God need to care for them, but [this] cannot be equal to having always with them, by night and day, the Son of God, the Word and Wisdom of God, and whatever also the Lord our Savior is.

What then saith Christ? "She hath done a good work for My burying." But why did He not expose the disciple in the case of the woman, nor say to him what the Evangelist hath declared, that on account of his own thieving he rebuked her? In His abundant longsuffering He wished to bring him to a better mind. For because He knew that he was a traitor, He from the beginning often rebuked him, saying, "Not all believe," and, "One of you is a devil." He showed them that He knew him to be a traitor, yet He did not openly rebuke him, but bare with him, desiring to recall him.

"Let her alone," He saith, "for against the day of My burying hath she done this." Again, He maketh mention of the traitor in speaking of His burial. But him the reproof reacheth not, nor doth the expression soften him, though sufficient to inspire him with pity: as if He had said, "I am burdensome and troublesome, but wait a little while, and I shall depart." This too he intended in saying, "But Me ye have not always."

But none of these things turned back that savage madman; yet in truth Jesus said and did far more than this, He washed his feet that night, made him a sharer in the table and the salt, a thing which is wont to restrain even the souls of robbers, and spake other words, enough to melt a stone, and this, not long before, but on the very day, in order that not even time might cause it to be forgotten. But he stood out against all.

If, he says, you are really sincere in your mercy for the poor, there is much time left for you to benefit them. There will never be a shortage of them in this world. But it will not always be easy for you to perform a service for me: I am staying with you for a short time, and then I will leave. First he purified the woman from the blame with these words by modestly saying that a greater honor had to be attributed to him than to the poor because he was staying with them for a short time. Then he reproved the intention of Judas because Judas did not care about the poor at all, nor should the woman be reproached because of the perfume she had poured.

(Tr. l. 13) He was speaking of His bodily presence; for in respect of His majesty, providence, ineffable and invisible grace, those words are fulfilled, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. (Mat. 28:20) (c. 12.). Or thus: In the person of Judas are represented the wicked in the Church; for if thou art a good man, thou hast Christ now by faith, and the Sacrament, and thou shalt have Him always, for when thou hast departed hence, thou shalt go to Him who said to the thief, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise. (Luke 23:43) But if thou art wicked, thou seemest to have Christ, because thou art baptized with the baptism of Christ, because thou approachest to the altar of Christ: but by reason of thy wicked life, thou shalt not have Him alway. It is not thou hast, but ye have, the whole body of wicked men being addressed in Judas.

"For the poor ye have always with you, but me ye will not have always." We can certainly understand, "the poor ye have always;" what He has thus said is true. When were the poor wanting in the Church? "But me ye will not have always;" what does He mean by this? How are we to understand, "Me ye will not have always"? Don't be alarmed: it was addressed to Judas. Why, then, did He not say, thou wilt have, but, ye will have? Because Judas is not here a unit. One wicked man represents the whole body of the wicked; in the same way as Peter, the whole body of the good, yea, the body of the Church, but in respect to the good.

And the Savior also brings forward an argument that convinces us that nothing is better than devotion toward him. For, he says, love for the poor is very praiseworthy, only let it be put after veneration of God. And what he says amounts to this: The time, he says, that has been appointed for my being honored, that is to say, the time of my sojourn on earth, does not require that the poor should be honored before me. And this he said with reference to the incarnation. He does not, however, in any way forbid the sympathetic person to exercise love toward the poor. Therefore, when there is need of service or of singing, these must be honored before love toward the poor. For it is possible to do good after the spiritual services are over. He says therefore that it is not necessary always without intermission to devote our time to honoring himself or to spend everything on the priestly service but to lay out the greatest part on the poor. Or think of it this way: As he asks his disciples to fast after he had ascended to the Father, so also he says that then they may more freely give attention to the care of the poor and exercise their love for the poor with less disturbance and more time, which indeed was the case. For after the ascension of the Savior, when they were no longer following their Master on his journeys but had leisure, then they eagerly spent all the offerings that were brought to them on the poor.

The Lord does not rebuke Judas, although He knows that he said this with the intention of a thief. For He did not wish to put him to shame, teaching us also to bear with such people for a long time. Nevertheless, the Lord covertly reproaches Judas for the betrayal and for the fact that he would betray Him to death out of covetousness.
Therefore He mentions the burial as well, striking at his senseless heart so that he might be corrected, and the addition has this meaning: "You always have the poor with you," He says, "but you do not always have Me; yet a little while, and I will depart, since you have prepared death for Me. Therefore, if I am disagreeable to you and the honor done to Me is burdensome to you, endure a little longer, and you will be rid of Me; and then it will be revealed whether it is for the sake of the poor that you are concerned about the sale of the myrrh."

For the poor you will always have with you; Deuteronomy fifteen: "The poor shall not be wanting in the land of your habitation." But me you will not always have, according to bodily presence; below in chapter sixteen: "I go to the Father, and you shall see me no longer"; and therefore it is more expedient that a benefit of kindness be shown to me: therefore you should not be troublesome: Matthew twenty-six: "Why do you trouble this woman? For she has wrought a good work upon me."

Then when he says, the poor you always have with you, he rejects the spiritual reason which Judas feigned when he said: "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor." Our Lord answered, the poor you always have with you. Here it might be remarked that sometimes one should do what is less needful if the opportunity remains for doing what is more needful. Thus, although it was more needful that this ointment be given to the poor rather than having it used to anoint the Lord's feet, nevertheless, because there was still opportunity to do the former, since we always have the poor with us, our Lord allowed what was less needful.

In the statement that the poor you always have with you, we are led to understand the fellowship the rich should have toward the poor: "Make yourself companionable to the poor" (Si 4:7).

But you do not always have me. Yet we read in Matthew (28:20): "I am with you always, to the close of the age." Augustine gives this reply. When our Lord said, but you do not always have me, he was speaking of his bodily presence, that is, as he appeared and in the form in which he would ascend into heaven: "Again, I am leaving the world" (16:28). But he is always with us as present in his divinity; and he is also present sacramentally in the Church.

Another explanation would be this. When our Lord said this he was thinking of the presence of his divinity. Now some seem to possess Christ spiritually, either in the sacrament or in professing the faith; yet they will not always possess him because they belong to the Church only nominally, and not by merit. These are the servants. But the children will always possess him because "the son continues for ever" (8:35). Thus he said to Judas, but you do not always have me, because you have made yourself unworthy of this.

As Chrysostom says, our Lord was rebuking Judas when he said this: for by being annoyed that this respect was shown to Christ, he seemed to consider Christ's presence as a burden. So Christ said, you do not always have me. This was like saying: I am a burden to you; but wait awhile, and I will be leaving.

There remains always this great boast, perhaps the greatest boast that is possible to human nature. I mean the great boast that the most unhappy part of our population is also the most hilarious part. The poor can forget that social problem which we (the moderately rich) ought never to forget. Blessed are the poor; for they alone have not the poor always with them. The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.