Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for August 1, 2026
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of the Church in the United States. It’s Saturday, August 1st, the Feast of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists, and a Doctor of the Church, and I’m coming to you from Saint Mary of the Lakes Seminary, Mundelein, in Chicago. Today, we begin the month of August with a passage we’ll hear again on August 29th. It’s about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. In the Gospel today, Saint Matthew tells us that when Herod began to hear about what Jesus was doing, he said, “This is John the Baptist risen from the dead.” You could tell that Herod had a guilty conscience about what he had done to John. In today’s Gospel, we hear about what he had done. On his birthday, he threw a party for all his courtiers. And Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had taken as his own wife, and she was both of their niece, she saw an an opportunity to be able to eliminate John the Baptist, who was such a threat to Herod’s affections because John the Baptist was fulminating saying, “It is not lawful for Herod to take his brother’s wife as his own.” And so, she wanted John out of the picture. And during Herod’s birthday party, as they were all getting drunk, she saw her opportunity. She got her daughter, Salome, to perform a lustful dance in front of Herod and his courtiers. To think about a mom putting her daughter out as an object of lust for so many drunken men, it’s almost unconscionable. But, she knew Herod’s weakness. She probably knew Herod had been setting eyes on her daughter. And so, when Herod, blown away by that dance, said, “Ask for whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you, even half my kingdom for a simple dance.” It’s what lust can do. It can have people lose their minds. She went to her mom and said, “What should I ask for?” And instead of half the kingdom, she said, “Tell him to give you John the Baptist’s head on a platter.” Again, what mom would solicit such a sin from a child? But in Salome came and she said, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” Herod didn’t want to do it, but because he had sworn an oath that he would give her anything she asked, including half of her kingdom, he felt constrained. He was more concerned about keeping his oath before them than he was being a just man before God. And so, he sent his soldiers to decapitate John. And instead of bringing a birthday cake to the sound of happy birthday, brought in John the Baptist’s head on that platter and presented it to the girl who presented it to her mother. John the Baptist was a great prophet. He was the one who pointed out Jesus the lamb of God who had taken away the sins of the world. He had pointed to Jesus in the womb when he leaped, pointed to him in the desert before he showed up to be baptized at the Jordan, and he was now pointing to him in martyrdom. Jesus himself would be that lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, including the awful sins of Herod, Herodias, and Salome, if only they would receive the Lord’s mercy. Today the church celebrates another great prophet, another great teacher, another great person who pointed to Jesus, St. Alphonsus Liguori. In the 1700s was a saint who brought so many people back to the faith. He was a wunderkind lawyer. He never lost a case until his last case. In in the humiliation of losing because he had missed a piece of evidence, he decided to give himself all over to God, and he became a priest. He founded the Redemptorists. He suffered tremendously, even from his sons in the Redemptorist order. But he was purified until the end. We ask his intercession that we might be like him and John the Baptist, pointing out Jesus and following him all the way in celebrating the Lord’s great gifts with truly joyful and virtuous activities. God bless you all.
Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus
and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist.
He has been raised from the dead;
that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”
Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison
on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,
for John had said to him,
“It is not lawful for you to have her.”
Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,
for they regarded him as a prophet.
But at a birthday celebration for Herod,
the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests
and delighted Herod so much
that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.
Prompted by her mother, she said,
“Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests who were present,
he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison.
His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,
who took it to her mother.
His disciples came and took away the corpse
and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.