Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, June 2, 2026

Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for June 2,2026

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 Tuesday, June 2nd. I’m coming you from before the Chapel of Christ the King on the campus of the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. Today’s Gospel, we have the famous scene when the arch-enemy the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were super strict and rigorous. The Herodians were super laxist and didn’t want to obey every anything at all. They co-conspired to try to ensnare Jesus. So, they went up to him together and with great um duplicity said, “Teacher, we know you were sent from God and that you’re not doing anything to win people’s opinion. So, tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” That was one of the most controversial applications of Jewish moral life at the time. Can you give anything to the Romans or do you have to totally resist and pay the consequences of that resistance? Jesus knew exactly what they were trying to do and so he said, “Bring me a denarius. Why are you trying to trap me?” He says, “Whose inscription is here?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And then Jesus said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus was teaching us a very important principle, not only and not principally about a separation of realms that we can be good citizens and good Christians, but that he was teaching us that we have been made in God’s image. That when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we’re to give God the things that are God’s. But it’s totally fine in the civil order to pay taxes and do the rest. This is a principle that’s guided the church. The church has never sought a theocracy because there’s a legitimacy to the authority of the Romans, there’s a legitimacy to the authority of the US government or you name it. And we’re called to be good citizens, but But also called to be first and foremost good Christians. And that’s why we’re always called to remember in whose image we’ve been made and live up to that image and likeness. In these days right after the solemnity of the most blessed Trinity, we remember we’ve been made in the image of the Trinity. We’ve been made in the image of God. What does that mean? We’re called to live in true communion with others. Just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an eternal loving communion, so we’re made to live in a family, not just a natural family of origin imaged after God, but also in human family. And the church is meant to be that image of that human family. That we’re supposed to be in communion, that we’re supposed to be living according to that image as one great family as loving family members treat each other. Today, let’s pray for missionaries who are crisscrossing the globe trying to bring the human race into that family. To let people know that they’ve been made in God’s great image and likeness, that this is the source of their true dignity, and that God is calling them into an eternal communion which fortifies [snorts] that dignity. Let’s pray that people everywhere will be open to that message and come into that family. Today, I encourage you every time you deal with any coin or any currency, to remember you’ve got the whole sort of civil realm with which we use money to carry out our business, but use all of these as reminders that we have ultimately been made in God’s image and to ask God’s help to live up to that great dignity and calling. God bless you.

The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on: