Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, February 23, 2026.

Msgr. Roger J. Landry 
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies 
Daily Reflection for February 23, 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 here on the grounds of the pastoral center of the Diocesesof Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. And I’m standing next to this beautiful bronze statue of St. Teresa of Calcutta whom I had the privilege to meet twice in my lifetime. She’s a great illustration of what the Lord Jesus is going to teach us today on February 23rd, the sixth day of Lent, which just happens to be my twin brother Scots and my birthday. Jesus says that when the son of man comes with all his angels, he’s going to separate us into two groups as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. To those on his right, to the sheep, to those who are saved, he’s going to say, “Come, you are blessed by my father. inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, ill, and imprisoned, and you cared for me.” And Jesus says, “They will reply, Lord, when when did we do any of this for you?” And he said, “As often as you’ve done it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it to me.” He would take personally any act of love that we do for somebody else in his name. But then he said he’ll say to those on his left, to those who are damned, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, and to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for is hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, ill, and imprisoned. And you didn’t lift a finger. You didn’t care for me.” How difficult it must be for Jesus, the good shepherd, who came to die for us, ever to be forced into a situation in which he says those words. He himself doesn’t judge us, but our actions judge us. And when we choose to stiff him in disguise, we are in fact alienating ourselves from the Lord. Which is why out of love, Jesus gives us so many opportunities every day for charity. And he wants us to take advantage of them. St. Teresa of Calcutta showed us how to take advantage of those opportunities. She sought out Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. and she taught she um sought to care for him and to teach sisters in the entire church how not to take that charity for granted. St. Teresa of Calcutta used to pick the maggots out of those who were picked up in urine infested gutters. She was the one who cared for AIDS victims, cared for those who were dying when nobody else loved them. went out for the lowest of the social casts, the Dalites, and she made them feel like kings. Her example is a witness that it is possible for us to live by the charity to which God calls us in today’s gospel. And she particularly did this in a eucharistic way. She said that the only way she would have ever been able to recognize Jesus in the disguise of the poor is to recognize him every day under the appearances of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. Not only would she receive him in holy communion and be strengthened by him on the inside, but in seeing the lamb of God underneath the appearances of bread and wine, she would be able to see him underneath the disguises of the poor. So she said, the same one who said to me, this is my body says to me, I was hungry and you gave me food. Today, strengthened by Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, strengthened by the example and the intercession of St. Polycarp. Let’s put Jesus’ holy words into practice and go out as the entire church like the missionaries do and care for him when he’s hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, ill, imprisoned, or otherwise needy. Because in caring for him, then we are ultimately caring for ourselves forever. God bless you.