Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

Transcript

"O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. And I will bring you back to the land of Israel. You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O mighty people."

Welcome to Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts. Today is March 22nd, 2026, the Fifth Sunday of Lent. 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.

Okay, so this is the episode for the fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22nd, 2026. And oh my goodness, I have a lot here. You have a lot here. Dr. Gerry is back with us. We're going to share all of this with you, our listeners, and especially for you exiles that are allowed to be here with us today. And we really appreciate your managers in your systems, allowing you to kind of take this in. It's so good to be with you. I know it can be really unusual for podcast hosts and guests to be reaching out directly to exiles. That's just, I don't know of another podcast that does that. So it's really an honor to be with you, Gerry, here as we have the honor of being with you exiles here.

Yeah. And there's good stuff. I mean, I would like to start with the gospel because the other readings just sort of totally speak to the gospel, ultimately, as I read them. And of course, here we have the story of the raising of Lazarus. You know, I can't imagine a better example of an exile literally unattainable, like inaccessible exile. And I have worked with clients before, right, in trauma treatment where they have had a part they believe to be dead, that even kind of showed up dead. And to me, that's heartbreaking. And my natural inclination is, you know, wake it up. Let's go, you know.

And, you know, and, and in a way, in this story, we have, you know, Jesus kind of proclaiming that, you know, there's a resurrection and that it's now. And, you know, he comes to raise Lazarus when everyone else believes he's dead, like, and he's dead, dead. They don't want to move the stone because there's a stench. Look at that, they don't want to move the stone. What is moving the stone? If I think about it from a parts perspective, I think of it as moving something, you know. And usually here the managers have to agree. And so, Martha and Mary, right. Martha has to agree. And to move the stone gives you access to what's in there and what's in there for Mary and Martha is something they cannot go near. Right. It's their dead brother who, you know, stinks. And so they just assume there's no going in there. There's no hope. Right. But instead, you know, Jesus still. I mean, he comes and they do move the stone and he is of course, raised, you know. And so this is like a tremendous message of hope for our exiles, even the ones we think are just completely out of reach, maybe an exile that has been so abused, so hurt, so neglected, that the whole system doesn't think there's any reason, any good that would come out of pushing that stone aside. And yet here Jesus is, and he commands it, and it happens.

Yeah. That's amazing. You know, you were talking about like the conditions of these exiles. And, you know, I was also thinking about how exiles can be so numb or so silenced or so distanced. I'm reminded of a clinical condition called Cotard's syndrome. Sometimes it's called Cotard's delusion, and it involves the belief that one is dead, or at least that a part of one's body is dead. You know, putrefying, or that body parts are missing. It can take on a variety of different forms, these delusions. And that's what really struck me about this whole set of readings. What came out over and over again in the first reading from Ezekiel, from the responsorial Psalm, not so much the responsorial Psalm, but the second reading from Romans and the gospel, this theme of dead bodies. It's in all three of the readings. When exiles are seen, heard, known and understood. When you exiles are seen, heard, known and understood in a way that feels safe enough for the other parts of your system and safe enough for you, and when that unburdening can happen, it is like coming to life again for some of these exiles.

Yeah, I love it. I mean, in that first part of Ezekiel reading, it says, "O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them." Like I see our exiles, you know, coming up out of their graves, out of their hidden, banished places and being seen. "And I will bring you back to the land of Israel." They're being invited back home again. It's that theme of coming home. "Then you shall know that I am the Lord. When I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people." Additionally, in Ezekiel says, "I will put my spirit in you, that you may live." I don't know, I see in that putting the spirit in the exile, for example. To picture it that way would be about, I guess, unburdening, but filling that exile with new life. So that the exile in that part of you can be restored to the true purpose, to its true purpose, to its fullness, and usually for children. When I see this clinically, these exiles who are usually children, they suddenly become joyful, playful, alive, full of life, you know, and they're just delightful, just like a happy child is. And so in a way like that spirit that is being put in them, you know, it's beautiful. They're being called out of the graves. They're being given this new spirit. And then I will settle you upon your land. They're being brought home. It's perfect imagery for our exiles.

What you're talking about reminds me of this homily by Charles Finney in 1852. He was a Presbyterian minister, and he was president of Oberlin College. It's called The Childlike Spirit: An Essential Condition for Entering Heaven. And I distilled out these qualities where he lists: awe, wonder, trust, humility, confiding, candor, vulnerability, affection, transparency, reverence, openness, dependency, questioning, delighting, and playing. These are all qualities of children that we need to be able to get into heaven, right? And I think it's so often not so much the managers that carry these particular 15 qualities, but it's the parts that have been exiled. You know, it's the parts that have leapt into the breach and taken on the burdens and had these qualities and then in a sense, lost them because of the intensity of the burdens and the intensity of the experience, the unresolved trauma or the wounds or what have you. And so when there is this coming back to life, as it were, there's this rejuvenation of all of these qualities.

It's a total renewal. I absolutely love it. Yeah. It's interesting. Again, when you look at Romans there, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh. On the contrary, you are in the spirit if only God, the Spirit of God, dwells in you." So in a sense, like when we lose those qualities that you were describing, those childlike qualities. It's like we have lost a part of our spirit. Right? It's not about our body per se or the flesh. I guess it's about an aspect of our soul, our spirit, who we are, this energy, this beautiful energy of, you know, childlike love. And so this is being restored. So our exiles are being called back to receive that. That was always meant to be theirs.

Exactly. Well, and I like your concept of original trauma. You discuss that in your book, Litanies of the Heart. You know, obviously we're familiar with the concept of original sin, but trauma is the effects, right? And so when you're talking about original trauma, you're talking about the traumatic effects of original sin and how that has this fragmenting and frankly, deadening quality to it.

Mhm. Yeah. No, I love it. And the fact that the consequences of trauma are passed down to all of us. So we all experience that as opposed to just looking at it as simply sin. I mean, there is sin for sure, of course, but looking at this trauma, there's actually something kind of hopeful in it because that can be healed, that can be restored, and we can give it an explanation and understanding for why. You know, we struggle the way we do, and there can be a way to overcome that through healing of those traumas. And I think that's what's interesting in all these really throughout the Gospels themselves, is Jesus comes to heal and he comes to To repair the damage that's been done. So it is all about healing from trauma, in my view.

Well, I'm going to read the last bit of this gospel here. "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, 'Untie him and let him go.'" And what I was reflecting on here is Jesus could have miraculously just removed all of those burial cloths as well. He could have, you know, kind of just like freed him from all of that while he was still in the tomb. So he came out, you know, totally without that. But it's interesting. Jesus didn't undo those himself. He commanded that to the other people. And I think this is where the other parts of us are to help our innermost self by untying, you know, our exiles, as it were, unraveling these bands that were put on them when they had died or when they had been banished. And so I just was thinking this sort of a kind of a parallel there. And I was curious how that, you know, how that landed with you. But it's not just about Jesus doing everything. He involves us in caring for ourselves and caring for each other.

Yeah, no, I like that. And I feel like there's a sense in which he was brought back to life. And so therefore, the burdens that, you know, are kind of maybe represented by those wrapped cloths, they're just discarded. Right? That is an action I guess they take, but it's like they have to go and there's no second thoughts about it. Right? Like they just, yeah. You know, you just go, oh, this is all the trappings of my death. And then they just get discarded. And then I'm assuming he'll be cared for by his sisters. Right. I mean, yeah, there's a sense in which this event of being brought back to life also brings this family right. These siblings closer again. Right. And in obviously greater relationship with Christ. But, you know, and they support each other in that.

It's beautiful. Well, thank you, Dr. Gerry, for being with us again. And thank you for taking this in and considering these scripture passages through an entirely different light, bringing in parts and systems thinking.

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.

Draw 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.