Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for December 15, 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 coming to you from our chapel in Manhattan. It’s December 15th, and today in the gospel, Jesus is questioned by the scribes, the Pharisees, and the chief priests in the temple area about by what authority he was preaching and driving the money changers and all the animal sellers from the temple. And so Jesus knowing what was going on said, “Let me ask you a question and if you answer mine, I’ll answer yours.” So He asked about John the Baptist baptism. We’ve been focusing on John the Baptist throughout this part of Advent. Was it from God or was it from the human race? And rather than just simply answer the question honestly, those who are opposing Jesus would eventually co-conspire to have him executed lied. They co-conspired and they said, “If we say it was coming from God, he’s obviously going to ask and all the crowd will ask,” Why didn’t we follow John? If we say it wasn’t from God, they’re all going to lynch us basically because they all believe that John was acting for God.” So, we’re going to pretend as if we don’t know and just simply say, “Don’t know.” They were being duplicitous. And Jesus said that neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. if they were not going to meet him at the level of sincere sincere honesty, neither was he going to just play into their traps. But the question that Jesus asked is so important for you and me. Was John the Baptist baptism from heaven? Or was it just a worldly thing that came from this weirdo who went out into the desert and ate locusts and wild honey? Was it divine or not? We know the answer to that question. We don’t have to um evade Jesus’ interrogative. We know John’s baptism came from God and we have to take John’s baptism seriously. Why was John out there at the Jordan baptizing? Because he was trying to lead the whole people of God to convert before the advent of the Messiah. We can’t just meet Jesus on our own terms. We need to go out to meet Jesus who’s coming to us in history and mystery and majesty on his terms. and his terms require holiness. And so that’s what John was doing. And he was washing people in the Jordan River as a sign that they needed to be cleansed of their sins. The baptism you and I have received through the church in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so much greater than John’s baptism. John’s baptism was like shooting blanks. It showed the need to be cleansed of sins, but it couldn’t deliver that cleansing. The sacrament Jesus himself established when he entered the Jordan River actually delivers on that hope. And as we are baptized, we are cleansed interiorly. Our soul has all sin, original and personal, wiped away. We know that gift comes from God. And we’re called to live in accordance with that reality. One of the aspects of baptism we know is that we are incorporated into Jesus in his prophetic work in his sharing the word of God with others. This is where missionaries come from. You don’t have to be a priest or religious to be a missionary. Every Christian by baptism is summoned to be a missionary. And if we take the sacrament of baptism seriously, we’re going to take the mission of the church seriously. That’s what the Lord wants us to do as we enter more deeply into Advent. Advent is a time in which we’re trying to proclaim to the entire globe the hope that we have in Jesus so that they might join us in going out to meet him in Bethlehem, go out and out to meet him in prayer in the sacraments and being ready to run forth to meet him with cleansed souls when he comes on the clouds of heaven. We know the authority of baptism. We stake our life on that authority and we go throughout the entire world proclaiming the gospel
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
When Jesus had come into the temple area,
the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him
as he was teaching and said,
“By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me,
then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.
Where was John’s baptism from?
Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”
They discussed this among themselves and said,
“If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd,
for they all regard John as a prophet.”
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”
He himself said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”