250 So You Also Are Now In Anguish
Transcript
Speaker 1: Jesus said to his disciples, Amen, Amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a mother is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Scripture for your inner outcasts. Today is May 15th, 2026, Friday of the sixth week of Easter. Today our guest presenter is Doctor Catherine Wesseling. Doctor Catherine is a behavioral scientist, the founder of Catholic Story Groups and a co-developer of the Virtue Quest Strengths Survey. A quick note that parental caution is advised for this episode.
Speaker 1: Today's reading comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verses 20 through 23. Jesus said to his disciples, Amen, Amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a mother is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. The word anguish stands out to me, particularly for my unburden exiles. They old great emotional pain, sorrow, fear, rage and shame. Shame can be one of the most unbearable emotions. More recently, I've discovered a few exiles that are or were perceived as disgusting and hold a lot of shame. For example, I have a baby part that was seen as disgusting by a caregiver who didn't like the shape of her nose. My nose as an infant. I also have a pre-teen part who experienced disgust as she began to grow more bodily hair and get her period. I have an adolescent part who received an experienced a distorted view of sexuality. Each of these exiles were seen as disgusting. The emotion of disgust is visceral. It's felt in the body. It's written on the face with the cinching up of one's nose as they are, as if they are smelling or seeing or tasting something that's bad or gross.
Speaker 1: They are viewed as dangerous in this shame of being viewed as dirty, bad, disgusting, or disgusting. I need to witness these exiles experiences, learn their stories, sit in the discomfort of the disgust feeling, and then grieve with them that they were ever viewed this way in the first place. They are good, and this is against their dignity. When possible, I bring Jesus into the scene. He was most attracted to what was culturally viewed as disgusting. He gravitated towards the adulterers, the prostitutes, the lepers, the unclean. Jesus did some pretty disgusting things himself from a natural human perspective. He spit in the dirt and then put the muddy mixture on a man's eyes. He also stuck his fingers in a deaf man's ears. Gross. I have a protector part that thinks this is really disgusting. Jesus even said, you must eat my body and drink my blood. And to the Jews and to many of his disciples, this was disgusting and morally wrong. Can I and can you, dear listeners, get more curious about your own experience of disgust. Who viewed you or parts of you as disgusting? What parts of you view others as disgusting? It's a good chance they have acts out parts of you as disgusting. Lord, help me search out these parts of me, these exile parts, so I may be with them, retrieve them, grieve with them, unburden them so that they may be brought into a new life and experience joy. Amen.
Speaker 2: If today's episode resonates with you, you can find similar content at Souls and hearts.com/content. Thanks for joining us and we hope to see you again tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Our lady, our mother, Untier of knots. Pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint John the Baptist pray for us.
Creators and Guests
