National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies

Daily Reflection for August 10, 2025

I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, National Director  of the Pontifical Mission Society’s, coming to you from the North American College in Rome.

It’s August 10th, Sunday, and in the Gospel,  Jesus teaches us how to live our life with a  proper focus, with real priorities. He says that   we are to store up for ourselves a real treasure in heaven, recognizing that the things that we have on earth are meant to be used ultimately for  his Kingdom.  So he tells us to give alms and store up for ourselves a treasure that moths can’t  attack, that rust can’t corrode, and that even the IRS can’t take in taxes. He gives a couple  parable images.

He says that we’re supposed to be like servants awaiting their master’s return, ready to open up, no matter what time he returns, in awe. Rather than those who say, “My master’s long delayed,” and begin to waste their time and drunken revelry, he wants us excited for his  return.

Missionaries are those who live with these types of priorities. They are storing up for  themselves a rich treasure in heaven by accounting Jesus, their pearl of great price, their treasure  buried in a field worth their whole life. And they go all throughout the world trying to help  others live by these same priorities.

Today on this Lord’s day, united with them, especially  in the prayer of the creed across the globe, let’s ask for the grace to be able to imitate those priorities. Jesus tells us in the Gospel to give alms and store up for ourselves a  treasure in heaven. Can we do that? Especially for missionaries. Can we give alms to support their crucial work? Many dioceses across the globe function entirely off what the church in the  U.S. gives them, only about $40,000 or $50,000 a year to run a whole diocese for 365 days. Priests survive exclusively on the mass stipends that are sent, $5 a day or $10 at most from which they’re  supposed to give out their gift for the poor families in their parishes.

So today all of  us reflecting on Jesus’ words can prioritize about what we’re really doing with our life so  that we can become those good and trustworthy servants of a master waiting to come back to  embrace us forever, and hoping that we will prepare through our own generosity and our own  faith so many to embrace him too. God bless you.

Gospel

Luke 12:32-48

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,

for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

Sell your belongings and give alms.

Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,

an inexhaustible treasure in heaven

that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,

ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants

whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,

have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

And should he come in the second or third watch

and find them prepared in this way,

blessed are those servants.

Be sure of this:

if the master of the house had known the hour

when the thief was coming,

he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,

the Son of Man will come.”

“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”

And the Lord replied,

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward

whom the master will put in charge of his servants

to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.

Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant

in charge of all his property.

But if that servant says to himself,

‘My master is delayed in coming,’

and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,

to eat and drink and get drunk,

then that servant’s master will come

on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour

and will punish the servant severely

and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

That servant who knew his master’s will

but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will

shall be beaten severely;

and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will

but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating

shall be beaten only lightly.

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,

and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”