Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

Transcript

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, 'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.' I did not know him."

Welcome back to Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts. Today is January 18th, 2026, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. 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.

So here we are, Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. And yeah, we're launching with a new set of readings today. We've got, you know, Isaiah, we've got a responsorial Psalm, we've got First Corinthians, and then we've got the Gospel reading from the first chapter of John. And so I'm just really curious, like, lead us off, dear Dr. Gerry, with what you've got for the exiles in our audience.

Yeah, I have a thought. I'm curious how you're going to take it in, you know, how you're going to see this. But this is what came to me. I was focused on the fact that John the Baptist is baptizing people, right. And he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, 'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'" But the line that I am especially like focused in on is, "I did not know him." Now John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin. So it's possible that, you know, they didn't, like I have cousins that I haven't seen very much of growing up for various reasons and don't know them very well. It's possible that maybe John the Baptist was just concerned about like, oh, I didn't know him to be, right, the Son of God. But he says, "I did not know him." I kind of wonder about this and whether or not for John the Baptist, Jesus felt like he was brand new. And so on some way, Jesus himself is the exile who is coming into being present, being known, for the first time. Even though John the Baptist would have known who he was, technically, right, he didn't really know who he was. And I think that's true for exiles. Like, there's so many ways in which when we encounter an exile for the first time, even though they've been with us our entire lives, we don't know them. A lot of the time we think of them as some kind of monster or some kind of frightening presence or something we have to keep away, or just a side of ourselves we don't like or something. But when we actually come to know our exiles, we realize, oh my goodness, it's a beautiful child. Oh my goodness. This is a part of me that I needed to bring closer, not further away. And I think that's what's happening with Jesus right here in this passage.

It's really interesting. It reminds me of what we've talked about before. Macrocosm, microcosm. You know, there's a way that this is representing something that can happen within us, because these exiles are also made in the image and likeness of God as being part of us. But yet so often our primary managers see these exiles as the burdens that they carry. It's a very one-dimensional kind of way of looking at us exiles. And so it can blow the managers' minds when they start to experience you as you are, not as they've construed you to be or not just in terms of your burden or the role that they perceive you having, the disruptive role they perceive you having in the system or something like that. So. And I would also say the innermost selves don't know the exiles either. Sometimes I think there's this kind of idea that the innermost self has a sort of localized omniscience and just knows everything that's going on. I don't think that's the case. That's not been my experience, and it's not the experience of a lot of people I've worked with. So this coming to be known.

But here, suddenly, it says, "I saw the spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him." Now, this is Jesus, of course, right? But when the dove from heaven remains upon our exile, we suddenly see the exile in totally new eyes.

Wow. Yeah, that's really, really interesting. Now we want to be careful to not equate an exile with Jesus. You know, on the one hand, you know, we want to make sure that we're being clear that way. But on the other hand, we don't want to underestimate, and you and I have talked about this before, and we're going to be talking about this in upcoming episodes of the Interior Integration for Catholics podcast, theosis, divinization, deification. Like we are to partake in God's divine nature, as we hear in 1 Peter 4.

That every part of ourselves is also a reflection of the image of God, like maybe the inmost self is the best reflection of that, the purest, right, that pure inner mirror, that access. But every single part, including the exiles, are being called to be reflections of Christ, are being called to be transformed by Christ, are being called into union with him, including and especially these exiles.

Well, I think actually that our innermost self reflects the innermost self of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. But each of our parts may also reflect the parts of Jesus in his humanity, like there may be like counterparts there, you know. And so this is really exciting, this idea that no part is to be left out, no part is to be left behind. That when we are commanded by Jesus to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, that means all of our parts included, which means all of our parts need to participate in that redemption, you know?

And it means that the the verse that's also for the Sunday from Corinthians makes more sense even more. Not that it needs to make more sense, but is more impactful. "You who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus are called to be holy." That includes our exiles. "With all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father." Like this is every exiles being called to this holiness right out of exile into relationship with Christ. So it makes sense suddenly.

Well, and it jumps back up even to our responsorial psalm, right, which is Psalm 40 and we're looking at like verse 2, "Here I have waited, waited for the Lord. And he stooped toward me and heard my cry." I think about that from the perspective of the exile, from you exiles, right, crying out. It may feel like nobody's hearing you, but this is what your destiny is. This is what you're called to. And so, you know, I'm just inspired by, like, this imagery of being known. And that in a lot of ways we're already known, but that we can come into that knowing in relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. That includes all of our parts.

Yeah. And then even the passage from Isaiah, the exile is being also invited to be, "You are my servant, through whom I show my glory." Even the exile is being called for God to show his glory in.

Well, I so want to thank you for this, Dr. Gerry. It is so fascinating that we come into these discussions and we don't know where we're going, you know, and somehow, like, we really get into some beautiful things. And so I treasure these moments together with you. And I want to thank the managers of those that are listening in, in the audience for allowing your exiles to be able to hear this. Really appreciate that. And just to gently suggest that you don't know your exiles yet, and to invite you into this adventure of finding out who you really are and how you are in all of your parts, made in the image and likeness of God.

Amen.

Listeners can find more content from Dr. Gerry Crete, including a link to his book, The Litanies of the Heart, in the description of today's show. Thanks for joining us and we hope to 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.