Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 21, 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, standing in front of the Archbishop’s residence in Krakow. This is where St. John Paul II lived when he was the Archbishop of Krakow between 1967 and 1978. You see that mosaic image over the main door. That’s where from a window he used to address the crowds when he would come back as the 264th Peter. We ask his intercession today for all missionaries especially the chief missionary of the church Pope Leo. Today in the gospel, Jesus is challenged by his critics to give them a sign. Now Jesus had been working nothing but signs throughout his public ministry. Signs in which he’s curing deaf people, blind people, lame people, mute people, healing lepers, where he was feeding great multitudes with a few loaves and fish, where he’s calming even stormy seas, and quieting down the winds and the rain. But they wanted another sign because they were constantly waiting for Jesus to strike out so that they’d be able to pretend as if he never should have been a major league ball player in the first place. And Jesus said in response to that challenge that no sign would be given this evil generation asking for a sign, except the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah was a twofold sign. First, it was a sign of conversion. Jonah was the instrument God had used to convert the ancient pagan Ninevites. 40 more days in Nineveh would be destroyed. He never got to 39 because the king all the way down to the pets converted in sackcloth and ashes on the first day. Jesus simile was a sign calling us to a new life. The second aspect of that sign was just as Jonah had spent three days in the belly of the whale before he was spit on the shore. So Jesus would spend three days in the belly of the earth before he would rise from the dead. The resurrection is the great sign. Missionaries are those who are called to be both signs of conversion and living signs of Jesus risen from the dead, showing the difference the risen Jesus makes in a life today. We pray for all missionaries. St. John Paul II was that sign calling us to divine mercy and calling us to the risen Jesus. We pray through his intercession for Pope Leo and for all of us that we might be those two-fold signs, a sign that can convert even our generation. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
He said to them in reply,
“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and there is something greater than Solomon here.”