Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for May 30, 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 of America. It’s Saturday, May 30th. I’m coming to you from the beautiful campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, Ohio, before the little chapel called the Portiuncula, modeled after the Portiuncula in Assisi, which was the first church of Saint Francis of Assisi, next to which he died 800 years ago this year, which is why it’s a special indulgence year for Saint Francis for us to come to Franciscan places just like this. Today in the Gospel, Jesus is interrogated by the chief priests and the scribes about what we talked about yesterday when he overturned the money changers’ tables and threw out those who were selling doves and other animals for the sacrifices. They said, “But what authority are you doing these things?” And so Jesus said, “I’ll ask you a question, and if you answer that question to me, then I’ll tell you by what authority I’m doing these things.” Jesus wanted them on a level of sincerity. If they were going to be asking questions, he wanted them to be seeking the truth and living in it. And so Jesus said, “Saint John the Baptist’s baptism, did it come from above or from below? Was it of human origin or was it of divine?” And so they talked among themselves and they said, “If it we say it’s of divine origin, then people will say why weren’t we following John the Baptist? If we say it’s of human origin, the crowds are going to turn on us because they all believe it was by divine.” And so, with deceit, they said, “We don’t know.” And then Jesus said to them, “Well, then neither will I tell you by what by what authority I’m doing these things.” If they didn’t want to live in the light, if they didn’t want to seek the truth, Jesus wasn’t going to just satisfy their curiosity and basically give them a news to hang them because they were looking to put him to death. Jesus wants to have real conversations with everyone. Yesterday as you remember, we talked about prayer. How the temple supposed to be a house of prayer, not of deceit or not of trying to make money. And that prayer is effectual that we can even make fig trees wither or transplant mountain ranges into the sea. Jesus wants to have that type of sincere conversation with us, but we have to be willing. We can’t just be asking questions out of authority questions out of curiosity or just to make time. Jesus wants to ask us questions and he wants us to take seriously the things that he’s done. We know that John’s baptism was of divine authority. We know our baptism was of divine authority. It’s got everything within that’s necessary to make us great saints. We know that our baptism too made us missionary disciples sent out to continue Jesus’s mission as the cells of his mystical body. We know that Jesus can’t touch the people in the world except through his mystical body through us. We know that the vine can’t produce fruit except through the branches who we are. And that’s why through our incorporation in Jesus by baptism, we are his body, his eyes, his ears, his hands, his feet, his heart stretched out across the world. That’s why it’s so important for us to take seriously our conversations with the Lord so that we might in fact act according to his sublime calling. Today let’s learn from the mistakes of the interrogators of Jesus who didn’t ask with sincerity how to speak candidly with the Lord, to listen, and to take seriously the incredible gifts of supernatural and divine origin he has already worked in our life. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem.
As he was walking in the temple area,
the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders
approached him and said to him,
“By what authority are you doing these things?
Or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question.
Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”
They discussed this among themselves and said,
“If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”–
they feared the crowd,
for they all thought John really was a prophet.
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”
Then Jesus said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”