Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for August 4, 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 is Tuesday, August 4th, the feast of the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Mary Vianney, the Cure of Ars, and how appropriate I’m coming to you from Mundelein Seminary, this seedbed, this seminary forming future priests, hopefully in the image of St. John Mary Vianney. Today in the gospel, it’s a scene we don’t often encounter. The scribes and the Pharisees begin to complain that Jesus’ disciples ate their meals with unclean hands. There was, as I’ve mentioned before in these videos, a tradition that didn’t come from the gospels, didn’t come from the Hebrew Bible, that to wash your hands, you had to have 1 and 1/2 eggshells that you’d pour down over your hands this way, and then you’d dry them with the back of your hands, and then another 1 and 1/2 eggshells this way before you’d be able to eat as if that was the most important thing for God. And Jesus clarified, and he said, “It’s not what comes from without that defiles, it’s what comes from within.” Jesus was constantly, throughout the Sermon on the Mount and beyond, trying to say that morality comes from the heart, it comes from what we desire, it comes from the actions that flow from what we’re thinking and what we’re willing. It’s not from touching an impure pot or an impure kettle or bed, or eating with unwashed hands. That’s not the most important thing. Are our hearts washed? Are our minds cleansed? Are our desires pure? And so Jesus said that about the scribes and the Pharisees, that they were blind guides leading the blind. They didn’t realize they were blind. They thought that they saw things clearly, but in fact, they were leading people into ditches. St. John Vianney was a different type of guy. He was one who was purified by the Lord so that he could see clearly and lead his people, especially there in ours, to God. And he continues to lead priests in particular and through them so many of the faithful across the world to see things clearly. St. John Vianney is the greatest confessor in the history of the church. He, for 31 years, heard confessions from 12 to 18 hours a day. I remember my first Advent penance service when I heard confessions for three consecutive hours. I used to be a collegiate athlete and boy was I exhausted over those three hours. The longest I’ve ever heard in one stretch was 13 hours, but at the end I think I had to rest for about 10 hours. John Vianney used to hear 16 18 hours of confession for the last three decades of his life. That’s how much he wanted to help people see clearly, to excise their hearts and their eyes and their minds and their lives from sin. And in so doing, he helped so many to see clearly, including those originally in ours. It wasn’t easy for him to be this type of confessor. When he arrived in ours, almost nobody was practicing the faith. He had to wait for them in the confessional almost for 10 years. But eventually, after that decade of waiting, people started to come from all over France. It’s an extraordinary lesson for us all of the importance of confessors, of the importance of God’s work of mercy so that we can see God clearly, see the moral law clearly, see how to love, and so that we can be effective guides to others, for priests to their pastors and everybody else entrusted to them, for parents and godparents and grandparents for their children, for teachers their students. St. John Vianney intercedes for all the priests in the world today that they themselves might be able to reconcile many to the Father through the gift of the sacrament of confession so that people seeing clearly might follow the Lord in this world and be able to look on him with pure eyes forever in the beatific vision. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?
They do not wash their hands when they eat a meal.”
He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand.
It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles the man;
but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.”
Then his disciples approached and said to him,
“Do you know that the Pharisees took offense
when they heard what you said?”
He said in reply, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted
will be uprooted.
Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.
If a blind man leads a blind man,
both will fall into a pit.”