“For the poor ye have ever with you.” The Lord shews in these words as of set purpose, that they were not to be blamed who ministered of their substance to Him while He dwelt in a mortal body; forasmuch as the poor were ever in the Church, to whom the believers might do good whensoever they would, but He would abide in the body with them but a very short time.
Whence it follows, “But me ye shall not have always.”
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).