Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, July 20, 2026

Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 20, 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 in the United States. It’s Monday, July 20th. I’m coming to you from the grounds of Mundelein Seminary, St. Mary of the Lake, in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Today, in the Gospel, Jesus is challenged by those who were following him for another sign. He had already worked many signs, things pointing to his divine authority behind all his teaching, but they didn’t want to accept any of them. And in fact, many of them accused him of working those signs by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, rather than by divine power. So, Jesus said, “No sign will be given this generation, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Jonah was first and foremost a sign of conversion for the Ninevites. He was sent by God to preach conversion. “40 more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” And then he was The next day, he was it took 3 days to cross Nineveh. Supposed to say 39 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. But the Ninevites, pagans, got the message on the first day. That message spread throughout and from king down to pets, they were all in sackcloth and ashes begging for God’s mercy. Jesus is going to say, “You’ve got a greater than Jonah here.” The Jesus was preaching conversion, but many of those who were asking him for signs weren’t seeking to convert at all. He says, “Just as Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of the earth, sorry, in the belly of the whale, so will the son of man spend 3 days in the earth.” And as Jonah was expunged on that third day, so Jesus would rise from the dead from that tomb. But there’s a greater than Jonah, Jesus said here. Jesus’ great sign would be his resurrection and we know that after he had risen from the dead, many still wanted to resist that sign. And the chief leaders of the Jews bribed the guards in order to plant the lie that the disciples had come and stolen Jesus’ body when they were asleep. It wouldn’t require a great lawyer to recognize, “How could you tell it was his disciples when you were sleeping?” But then Jesus likewise continued and said, “The Queen of Sheba traveled for over 1,660 mi through the desert in order to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but there’s a greater than Solomon here.” She said Jesus was wisdom incarnate. And so if people are going to take Jonah’s message seriously, his message of conversion, and the sign of the miracle of salvation from the whale, people have got to take Jesus’ sign of resurrection and his preaching of conversion seriously. People were hungry and would wisely travel across deserts and leave so much wealth just to spend a few days listening to Solomon’s wisdom. How much more should we hang on every word that comes from Jesus? Missionaries are those who take the message of the resurrection, who proclaim repent and believe in the gospel, and who bring the wisdom of Jesus into the ends of the earth. Today we pray for them. Likewise, we pray for the seminarians here at Mundelein and all those preparing for the priesthood anywhere, including in missionary seminaries, that they might learn Jesus’ wisdom sitting at his feet, that they might heed the message of conversion so that they’ll be able to preach it in their own body language, constantly turning with the Lord. And so that they’d be true living witnesses, living signs of his risen life living within them, living among us, changing everything. God bless you.

The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on: