What is the most important work of the Church?

The Church offers love as her most important work. According to St. Clement of Alexandria , “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, says the Lord, fixing his regards here on the holy assembly of love , the heavenly Church. Love , then, is something pure and worthy of God, and its work is fellowship .”¹⁰²²

St. John Chrysostom gave two homilies on “Eutropius” — whom the emperor trusted and consulted in all that concerned the empire, and who took advantage of this to use every means to persecute the Church. When the emperor discovered that Eutropius planned to assassinate him, Eutropius fled and took refuge in a church. He held onto the horns of the altar and sought the intervention of the Archbishop, St. John Chrysostom. Many people gathered and asked Chrysostom to deliver Eutropius to the authorities to be tried, so what did the saint do? He addressed Eutropius saying:

“The Church which you treated as an enemy has opened her bosom and received you into it; whereas the theaters which you courted, and about which you were oftentimes indignant with me have betrayed and ruined you. And now the hippodromes (i.e., theaters), having exhausted your wealth, have whetted the sword against you, but the Church which experienced your untimely wrath is hurrying in every direction, in her desire to pluck you out of the net …

“For who was more exalted than this man? Did he not surpass the whole world in wealth? Did he not climb to the very pinnacle of distinction? Did not all tremble and fear before him? Yet lo! He has become more wretched than a prisoner, more pitiable than a menial slave, more indigent than a beggar wasting away with hunger, having every day a vision of sharpened swords and of the criminal's grave, and the public executioner leading him out to his death … But even if I try my best, I shall not be able to present to you in language the suffering which he must naturally undergo, in the hourly expectation of death …

“When all have despised him in his desolation, she alone like an affectionate mother has concealed him under her cloak, opposing both the wrath of the king, and the rage of the people, and their overwhelming hatred. This is an ornament for the altar. A strange kind of ornament, you say, when the accused sinner, the extortioner, the robber is permitted to lay hold of the altar (that the church loves her enemies) … Grudge not then, O man. We are the servants of the crucified one who said: ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’ (Luke 23:34).”¹⁰²³

1022 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor or Christ the Educator (Paedagogus) 2.1 (ANF 2:238).

1023 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Eutropius (NPNF I/9:251).

Origen spoke about the love that unites heaven and earth saying, “One of the most supreme virtues according to the divine Word is the love of neighbor. And we must suppose that it is far more present in the saints who have already fallen asleep toward those struggling in life than in those who are still in human weakness and struggle alongside their inferiors. For it is not only here below that there applies to those who love the brethren the saying, ‘if one member suffers, all the members suffer together ; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice together’ (1 Cor. 12:26).”¹⁰²⁴