Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

Transcript

"To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness."

Welcome to Scripture for your inner outcasts. Today is Sunday, January 11th, 2026, the Baptism of the Lord. Today is a special Sunday episode of Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts, as we are joined by both Dr. Gerry Crete and Dr. Peter Malinoski, the co-founders of Souls and Hearts. They will be offering a joint reflection on today's readings.

Well, it is good to be with all of you and our audience, especially all the exiles that are tuning in. I am so glad to be here with Dr. Gerry Crete, a dear friend, and we are discussing the baptism of the Lord, the liturgy for the baptism of the Lord today.

As you know, this is one of my favorites, right? Because it's one of the epiphanies. My parish is Epiphany of the Lord, and baptism is our main thing. And when your church is named after an event, the actual patron is saint, in this case, Saint John the Baptist.

Oh, most excellent. Excellent.

Our patron.

Yeah. He's our patron. Yeah. And because he prepares the way for the Lord. And that's not just for one part or two parts or just the spiritual managers, it's for all of you parts, including you exiles. And so I had two verses here that really leaped out at me. But I want to hold back. And just so you all know, we never discussed this beforehand. It's not like we come in here and we say, what's our plan or anything like that? We just see what strikes us. And so I'm really curious if you would lead us off today, Gerry, with what verse moved you or what verses moved you from the first reading, second reading, responsorial psalm, Gospel, whatever it was.

Yeah. Well, honestly, um, I mean, I think the passage in Isaiah links so well with the Gospels. They're very well linked, so they're probably going to be a bit of a crossover for me.

Okay.

I'll tell you the line that hit me the most though, because I'm less familiar with the actual Isaiah passage and more familiar with the actual baptism passage. And so I thought it was interesting that this passage in Isaiah says, "he is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, whom I'm pleased, upon whom I put my spirit." So this sounds great. "He shall bring forth justice to the nations." Wow. "Not crying out. Not shouting." That's the part that landed for me.

Okay.

"Not crying out, not shouting. Not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth." And so for me, like sometimes I think my own exiles, if they hear you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, they think that's for somebody else, first of all.

That's right.

Right. It's definitely, it's not for me, as an exile and I think what is interesting is that I think this passage in Isaiah speaks to the exiles that are being called to great things, but don't believe that they can do it. And the fact that it says not crying out and not shouting, the exiles don't have to be loud. They don't have to be extroverted. They don't have to be like the most charismatic out there person. They can come with their gentleness. And anytime I've come to know people's exiles, a lot of the time they're little children, right? Or they're gentle. And so to me, this is beautiful because it says you don't have to be loud. You don't have to be crying out and shouting, but you are called to something important. You know, this is about bringing justice, you know, on earth. Even our exiles are called to that important work. And I think our exiles may not think they're worthy or they're not actually called or or what not, but they are. And to me, that was what was beautiful in this passage for me.

Well, and I am sort of really tracking with that because a little further on in Isaiah 42:7, he says, "to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement and from the dungeon those who live in darkness." And that's like a description of exiles. I often will use the imagery of exiles being the parts of us that are in prison, and the managers who guard them like the prison guards, you know, so this idea that these prisoners will come out of confinement, out of the dungeon, out of the darkness, into the light, and this gospel reading, you know, it's an epiphany reading, as you pointed out, like it reveals, like what their destiny is. It's to be integrated in us, to participate in the fullness of what we're called to. And it won't be complete without our exiles. We won't be complete in our response to the call and into the sharing of the glory, unless all of our parts are with us. And so that's what really caught my attention today.

Absolutely. It's beautiful. And with that is the line, "I have grasped you by the hand." There's something beautiful that even though this might be hard, even though you might be coming out of a dungeon or something like that, he's holding your hand. I just see the exile, you know? I just see whoever like Jesus. Maybe it's our innermost self reaching out and holding out a hand for the exile to take. They don't have to do it by themselves.

I have done that a lot of work, both in the RCC and with my clients, just around this imagery of holding a hand, and it's been incredibly powerful. You know, what does it mean to be able to have that sense of connection? And these are often parts that have been really isolated for a really long time. I mean, that's the place where a lot of parts have been for most of a person's life, and it's an amazing thing when there can be that connection. And I'm not even talking about unburdening here. I'm just talking about there being like a relational connection. And then we see, yeah, that the Lord desires this because so often exiles have this idea of God as being very distant, very disconnected, very, I don't know, separate. And we're learning something here about how God reveals himself to us, even if we haven't yet experienced him that way.

Yeah, I love it. I mean, it says in the reading in Acts, "in truth, I see that God shows no partiality. In every nation, whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him." He's really saying, I'm calling even you.

Yeah.

If you repent, if you turn your heart, if you, you know, fear him is kind of odd, or if you honor him, then you are acceptable to him. You do not have to be more than you are otherwise, right.

Well, and this is a really astounding thing for Peter to be saying in the first century to a Jewish community to say that the exiles, in a sense, the Gentiles are also welcome. That's like mind blowing to an Israelite mindset because they were the chosen people, and now it's open to everybody. And so if we take that inside, you know, to the inner kingdom, you know, I think there's this parallel to our exiles being included. So any any final thoughts as we bring this down? Anything else that you would like to share with the exiles that are tuning in? The people you know?

Yeah. Just that this is such a beautiful, important passage in Matthew and there's parallels, but that, "you are my beloved son in whom I'm pleased." And that God is speaking to, obviously, he's speaking to Christ in this moment, in this passage. But as adopted sons and daughters, he's speaking directly to us. Through our baptism, we become beloved sons and daughters. And that includes the exiles. That includes, that's all of you.

That's right.

Not just the parts that seem like they've got it all together, but it includes the exiles. So I want to speak directly to each exile who's listening, to say, you are a beloved son or daughter.

For further reading on the topic of God the Father and the Blessed Virgin Mary as your primary parents, check out the article linked in the description of today's show.

And with that, let's bring this to a close by invoking our patroness and our patrons. Our lady, our Mother, Untier of Knots.

Pray for us.

Saint Joseph.

Pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist.

Pray for us.