Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for October 16, 2025
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. This is October 16th. I’m here in St. Peter’s Square and today’s gospel, Jesus says at first some very disconcerting words. He is trying to convert the scribes and the Pharisees. And he tells them, “You build the monuments to the prophets your fathers killed.” He recognized that at that very moment the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people at the time were plotting to murder him because he was inconvenient. But we know what God did with that sacrifice. He brought about the greatest good out of the greatest evil. And that’s what he does all the time. Behind me is the largest monument of all time. It’s the largest church built over the remains of St. Peter the Apostle. He brought Jesus in the gospel. Here on the facade behind me, we see the other apostles standing on the tops of the pillars and the polasses of the facade showing that they are the real pillars in the public face of the church. From each of their martyrdoms, God brought great fruit. And it’s the same thing in every age. from the sufferings of missionaries today, from those missionaries who are put in prison or even slaughtered as a result of our faith. For those new Christians in place like Nigeria who have already been killed to the tune of 8,000 through the end of September alone, the Lord is bringing great fruit for the building up of the church. And so from here, the heart of the church, as we await Pope Leo’s coming on outside for the Jubilee of Missions, we give thanks for the fidelity of so many over the course of the century who have followed Jesus all the way, picking up their crosses through death into eternal life. And that is the pilgrimage of the church. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
The Lord said:
“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute’
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.