Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies August 17, 2026

Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for August 17, 2026

Here is the video of today’s reflection.

The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:

I am Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of the Church in the United States. I am in Fall River, Massachusetts, before the Cathedral of St. Mary, where I was ordained a priest in June of 1999 by now Cardinal Sean O’Malley. So, it’s always a beautiful place for me to come back to the place where I was made capable of bringing Jesus from heaven to earth and absolving sins in Jesus’ name. Today is August 17th. It’s a Monday. And we have in the gospel one of the pivotal scenes that show the real challenge of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s the scene of the rich young man, where a young man comes up to Jesus and says, “What must I do to in- inherit eternal life?” And Jesus describes to him, “You have to keep the commitments.” And then he starts with the commitments really of love of neighbor. He was seeing into the man’s heart. The man clearly already loved God, but there was a gap Jesus could see in his love of others. He says, “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” And the rich young man said, “I’ve kept all of these from my youth.” At least he thought he did. At least he wasn’t, as far as he was aware, violating them in terms of breaking them. But was he really fulfilling those commitments, doing what they were really leading us to? The man asked, “What still do I lack?” And Jesus paradoxically said to him that what he lacked was that he had too much. He said, “If you wish to be perfect, if you wish to have it all, if you wish to find the fulfillment for which your heart has been made, go sell all that you have. Give the money to the poor, and you will be rich in heaven. And then come follow me. He knew, Jesus did, that the rich young man’s problem was he was too attached to his stuff. And even though he wasn’t hurting other people, he wasn’t yet loving them to the point of sacrifice, to the point of really sharing with all those who were who were around him. And the rich young man, when given that choice between fulfillment and his just static life, between Jesus and his stuff, chose his stuff. And so he went away sad. We’re going to see what happens in the gospel tomorrow when provoked by this scene, the apostles start to ask whether they are capable of the commitments that our Christian faith demands. But Jesus, to each of us, is always asking, “Are you able to use all the talents, all the blessings, all the gifts I’ve given you for the sake of loving God and loving others, or are you going to be owned by what you supposedly own?” This is the story of every vocation. This is the story of my vocation. Was I going to use whatever God had given me for his kingdom and for the love of others, or was I going to use it to make a name for myself, or make money, or you name it, to seek worldly glory instead of heavenly treasure? It’s the story that so many missionaries themselves have gone through, in which they realized Jesus was the pearl of great price, worth giving up everything else they had to obtain. That is the ongoing story of so many to whom the missionaries are preaching the gospel for the first time, putting that choice before them. Let’s pray for all those in missionary territories, that they might choose Jesus above all their stuff, above all their talents, above all their gifts, and come to find fulfillment in this world and forever with him. God bless you.

The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on: