Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for August 6, 2025
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 here in Napa, California. It is August 6th.
August 6th is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. And we know what happened in that scene. Jesus took Peter, James, and John, the three disciples who were closest to him, hiking up an exceedingly high mountain.
We’re on a mountain vineyard right now. It’s not as high as Mount Tabor, or Mount Hermon, where the transfiguration took place, but they were still at exertion to get on up here. We sometimes have to work for the faith in order to journey uphill with Jesus following him on the way of the cross.
And then when he got to the top of the mountain, he was transfigured among them. His glory started to radiate. He started to talk to the two figures in the Old Testament whose bodies you didn’t have, Moses and Elijah, who were both expected to have some role in the upcoming Messiah. And the three of them were talking about Jesus’ upcoming Exodus, his upcoming journey, leading people to the promised land just like Moses had. And that would be the exodus through death into life with his passion, death, and resurrection.
And after that conversation, a cloud came, covered everyone, and from the cloud, a voice from God the Father saying, “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to him.”
The great thing we need to do in our faith is listen to Jesus. Peter, James, and John by this point had already been listening to Jesus for 2 years. But God the Father knew that they were selectively listening, and particularly they were blocking out the message of the cross. They didn’t want to hear it. But it was only through the cross that they were going to come to the resurrection.
And so today we listen to Jesus. And Jesus is trying to send us out so that we can announce to everybody else who he is in his glory, to everyone else what his exodus is so that they can join us on that pilgrimage to the eternal promised land. That’s what saints Peter, James, and John are praying for us today. That’s what Moses and Elijah are interceding for us today. That’s what St. Paul VI, who died on this day in 1978, is likewise praying for.
We pray for Pope Leo, St. Paul VI’s and St. Peter’s successor. We pray for all missionaries that we might be transfigured by the love of Jesus so that we can go out and bring people so that they one day will see Jesus in glory like those at the top of Mount Tabor. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up a mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.