Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 26, 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 the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 26th, the traditional feast of the grandparents of God, Saints Joachim and Anne, and I’m coming to you from Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. Today’s gospel, Jesus gives us three parables about the kingdom, three ways we’re supposed to relate to him and to what he has brought into the world. The first two are similar. The first is about a worker in a field, farming, and he finds a buried treasure. In the ancient world, it wasn’t finders keepers, losers weepers. If you found something on somebody else’s property, that person owned what was found. So, this servant, seeing the treasure, went and sold all that he had to buy that field so that he could obtain that treasure. Second is of a merchant in search of fine pearls. He scours the ancient world looking for a pearl of great price. And Jesus says, when he finds that most precious pearl, he sells everything else he owns, all the other pearls he has, his house, you name it, in order to purchase that pearl. We see a similar lesson here. Whether we happen upon a treasure or whether we’re in search of the treasure, once we find it, we’re called to prioritize it, to see that everything else pales in comparison to it. And Jesus wants us to look at him that way, to look at his kingdom that way. Whether we’ve found it accidentally or whether we’ve been searching for the truth and searching for God and found them after a long journey. Once we find God, he’s worth everything else in our life combined. We need to put him first. We need to put his kingdom first. That’s what he’s saying. Because otherwise, we don’t appreciate God or don’t appreciate the kingdom adequately. The third parable is of a dragnet. Fisherman going out and they cast their nets and they bring in everything that’s in the net. Some good fish, some bad. They keep the good fish, they toss the bad away. And Jesus says, “That’s the way it’s going to be at the end of time.” That at the judgment, there will be that separation between the good and the bad. What do we learn from it? In the Lord’s kingdom, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are occasionally some bad fish. There are some corrupt people. We wait until the end of time for Jesus to fix that. He said something similar earlier in this series on the parables when he focused on the weeds and the wheat in the field. We’re tempted to eradicate the weeds immediately, but Jesus tells us to trust him until judgment time. We’ve got to have that trust that even in the midst of the kingdom, it’s not going to be a utopia. There are still going to be some hypocrites. There are still going to be corrupt people. Maybe it’s going to be us. And there’s a thing of hope that there’s still time until judgment for the dramatic metamorphosis that Jesus wants, in which weeds become wheat, and in which bad fish can become really good fish. Today, as the church remembers the grandparents of God, Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are able to recall what happened in Saint Anne’s womb. That the redemption came at the very moment she conceived Mary, who was preserved free from all evil, from all stain of original sin, so that no evil would touch Jesus the redeemer when at last he would come. Mary was preserved free thanks to Jesus’ eternal act of redemption about 47 to 50 years after it would have occurred. So, we pray for all grandparents in a special way today, those who have passed on the gift of the faith to their kids and their grandkids.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household
who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”