Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, September 21, 2025

Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for September 21, 2025

Here is the video of today’s reflection.

The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:

I am Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. It’s Sunday, September 21st. In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us a very challenging message, especially for those of us in the United States, those of us in an a relatively affluent culture. He said a parable about a rich man who was brought in to the one who had entrusted his wealth to him because he was wasting that richer man’s wealth. He said, “You’ve been squandering my property. repair an account because you can no longer be my steward. And so this broker basically said, “What am I going to do? I’m too ashamed to beg. I’m too old to work a hard job out in the fields.” So he said, “This is what I’ll do. I’ll call in the master’s debtors and I’ll do favors for them.” And so called in the debtors. One owed 100 measures of olive oil and he said, “Here’s your loan. Write it for 50.” Another had uh 100 measures of wheat and he said write your loan for 80.

And the master in the parable Jesus tells us commended the servant rather than criticizing him for acting wisely. This is sometimes called the parable of the dishonest steward. But we have to understand a little bit about what was happening at the time. Loans worked somewhat differently then than they do now. What would happen is if you were to loan somebody else’s property, then you were owed that back to give to the master with a little bit of interest, but anything you could tack on beyond

that was yours. So, for example, if you loaned out 50 measures of olive oil, the master would be owed 55 back, but if you charged 75, you’d keep the 20. And so what was likely happening in this parable is that this man was cutting his own commissions in order for these people to be grateful to him so that when he was kicked out they would welcome him into their homes. And Jesus used this commendation of the worldly wisdom of the steward as a challenge to all of us.

He says the children of this world are much wiser than the children of light. We don’t know how to use the realities of human life for the most important things like this man did because there’s something more important than money. Jesus ultimately at the end of the parable said we can only serve one master. We’re either serving man and money and material things or we’re serving God. It can’t be both ways. And so the real thrust of this is for us to use all our resources.

Everything God has given us for others so that when we die, he says, the poor may receive us into eternal dwellings so that they will take us into their homes at Abraham’s bosom in heaven. This is one of the reasons why we support the missions, the spread of the faith, so that others can come to know the same Lord Jesus we know and love and find true meaning and life in him. The more we sacrifice for the spread of the faith, the more we give our resources to the authentic work of the church, the more we’re building up a treasure in heaven. That’s Jesus’ message this Sunday.

God bless you.

The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on: