Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

"Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes."

You're listening to Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts. Today is January 13, 2026, Tuesday in the First Week in Ordinary Time. Today, we are joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Peter Malinoski, the co-founder and president of Souls and Hearts and host of our sister podcast, Interior Integration for Catholics.

It is good to be with you. We are reviewing the Gospel reading, 1:21-22. And it reads, "Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." Let's break this down.

What was surprising? What was awe inspiring for the listeners? Why were they astonished at his teaching? Because he taught them as one having authority. He taught them not as the scribes did, the scribes who did not have authority.

In fact, later on in Mark, in chapter 12, Jesus tells his followers to be aware of the scribes because of their hypocrisy. In Matthew 23, he has that whole series of, "woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites," and he goes on and on. So there's a difference here. The people are picking up a difference in authority. Now let's take this inside.

Let's take this into our internal systems, and I'll use an example from my own system. So before I discovered internal family systems and parts work and systems thinking, I was very dominated by a team of three managers, and one of them was my good boy part. This good boy part, spiritual manager, is really like what we call a standard bearer, Catholic standard bearer. He bears the standards. He assumes he knows what God's will is for me and my system.

But at that time, he was not in touch with our Lord. He was not actually discerning in relationship with God what was best for my system. And so good boy taught as though he were a scribe. He taught through his own lights in a sense in my system. Right?

When he was blended, when he was taken over, which was a lot of the time, he was condemning my exiles because of his narrow understanding of what God wanted. But when we allow our exiles to come into contact with the living God, in this more integrated way, under the leadership and guidance of the innermost self, not a part, not even a self-like manager part, but with the innermost self leading and guiding, it's an entirely different experience. So I'm just gonna challenge you managers now that speak as though you have authority. Do you really? Do you know God?

Are you in relationship with him, or are you just giving us what you think God wants? And would it be possible to allow space so that our exiles could come into contact with God? Now that's often very frightening for managers, and it's really important that you exiles know that. It's really important that you see that your managers are trying to make things acceptable to God, not knowing the depths of God's mercy, not knowing how wonderful God is. And so an invitation here to work together for you, exiles, not to overwhelm, to cooperate, collaborate with the innermost self if there's enough unblending for the innermost self to emerge more so that you can enter into relationship with God and share that sense of wonder and that sense of awe as you experience the authority of his teaching.

Now it's also important to remember that even though Jesus was hard on the scribes in this passage and in other passages, even though he was hard, he loved them. He loved those scribes, every one of them. And I think what was going on with those scribes is that they were dominated by their spiritual manager parts, just like I have been with my good boy part in the past.

Once again, that was Dr. Peter Malinoski, and listeners can find more content from him on the podcast that he hosts called Interior Integration for Catholics, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts. You can also subscribe to his semimonthly reflect reflections by going to soulsandhearts.com/content/blog. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you again tomorrow.

Our Lady, Our Mother, Untier of Knots, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.