Main news for 10 February 2026

Church history knows many disputes about the purpose of the Church, about the tasks before her, about her role in society. Incidentally, helping the poor and dispossessed, what today is usually called social ministry, was considered one of the most important forms of church activity. But Jesus, evaluating the act of the woman who anointed Him with myrrh, points to something more important that the Church has: Himself.

What, then, do His words mean when He says that we do "not always" have Him? Of course, this also concerns what awaited the apostles ahead, when He Himself would have to go to the cross. But that is not the whole matter. The point is also that social problems, poverty among them, have existed and will exist as long as fallen humanity has existed and will exist. But the Kingdom has never been in the world and never will be; it comes into the world from outside, and it does not come by itself. The Messiah sent by God brings it with Him.

Therefore the chief task of the Church in every age has been to carry the Kingdom into the world and bear witness to it. All other forms of church activity are only means for solving this chief task, because everything else church communities do could be entrusted to other organizations not directly connected with the Church. But no one except the Church can bear witness to the Kingdom and carry it into the world. That is why Jesus draws His disciples' attention to what is the foundation and meaning of their community's existence: to Himself and to the Kingdom He has brought into the world.