Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for October 25, 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. It’s Saturday, October 25th, and today in the Gospel, Jesus continues to try to urge us to be very prudent in the choices that we make in life, especially the biggest choices. And he used what we would say was the daily newspaper, in order to try to wake everyone up. the the people to whom he was preaching knew of a terrible atrocity that Pontius Pilate had committed. He wiped out many Galileans in the temple area when there was a riot. And Jesus asked, “Do you think those who perished by the evil of Pilate were any more guilty than many of those who didn’t perish?” He said, “By no means.” And then he said, “Do you remember when the tower of Silwam fell and crushed 18 people? Do you think that those 18 who perished were more guilty than others? No way. He said, and he said, unless you repent, you’ll all perish the way they did. We should use the ugliness that we see in our daily newspaper to let us know that we don’t have all the time in the world necessarily, just as the innocent sometimes die through natural disasters, through the through the evil of other people randomly sort of taking people’s lives. We should always be ready for the Lord and he wants us to bear the fruit of that vigilance. In the second half of the gospel, he tells a little parable about a fig tree where uh vineyard owner went on out and he saw a fig tree which normally gives fruit in its third year still totally sterile. And so he wanted to cut it down because it was dead and wasn’t producing fruit. But then he said, “No, I’ll give it one more year. I’ll fertilize all the way around it so that it might bear fruit. Every day we have is an opportunity for us to say, have I been bearing fruit with the gift of time that God has given me, with the gift of life, with all the other blessings? Because we never know what’s going to be our last day. That shouldn’t frighten us. That shouldn’t lead to all types of neurosis. It should enliven us that again if today is the last day of my life, how would I be able to spend it for good? What good could I do? And because it might be the last day, if we live every day that way, how much fruit we will bear today on this Saturday, we remember our lady. Our Lady was one who bore the greatest fruit of all, the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. She was one who was constantly in little things and big saying fiat or amen or yes to what God was asking of her. She’s interceding for us that we might take advantage of the gift of life that we have and not wait for some natural disaster or human atrocity to wake us up, but to allow her son to wake us up today so that we might endear bear fruit in him, fruit that will last by remaining attached as branches to him who is the vine. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”