287 You Are Worth More Than Many Sparrows

Transcript Speaker 1: So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. Speaker 2: Welcome back to Scripture for your inner outcasts. Today is June 21st, 2026, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today is a special Sunday episode of Scripture for your inner outcasts, as we are joined by both doctor Jerry Green and Doctor Peter Malinowski, the co-founders of Souls and Hearts. They will be offering a joint reflection on today's readings. Speaker 1: So the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time. And when I first read that doctor Jerry, I thought to myself, yeah, that's like a really ordinary Sunday. A 12th one in ordinary times seems very ordinary. But then as I got into the readings, you know, some, some, some really interesting things came up and I'm sure they did for you. It is good to have you here. Speaker 3: Oh, it's great to be here too. Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's great to be here with all of you listeners, especially all of you exiled parts. So glad that you can be joining us today. Thank you to all the managers, protectors that are kind of allowing exiles to hear the good news, hear the gospel as we cover these readings from the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. And I had two lines that really stood out to me, and I really just focused in on those two lines. I'm expecting you had a little broader perspective on this, but yeah, what have you got for us today for the exiles and the listening audience? Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, I think I started with Jeremiah, of course, and Jeremiah's never comfortable, you know, terror on every side, denouncing let us denounce him. All those who are my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. I mean, that just sounds so much like a part that's scared and a part that is feeling threatened. So that really spoke to me. I hope it speaks also maybe to your, you know, listeners, exiles, because we have this voice, right? This part that says they're watching, they're waiting for you to fail. Don't trust anyone. Everyone is looking for a reason to take you down. Right? And we recognize that that's a burden part probably comes out of a season of life when we actually were threatened in some way. Right. And yet we carry that with us, some memory, perhaps, of an environment that just wasn't safe. Our exiles, our outcasts have learned that this is the world. People betray us. Even friends become enemies. And we have to stay vigilant, stay defended. Don't let your guard down. So, Jeremiah, he's giving voice to something real and deeply human, right? He's being honest about the internal experience of a threatening world. And there's something extraordinarily courageous, actually, about that kind of honesty in the scriptures. Speaker 3: And it's directed toward God. Right? So I love this brutal honesty and toward God, and he. So he's not just saying everything's okay like I. Some of us have a tendency, like we're not going to let God even see our exiles. Like we're just going to show up to God and tell God everything's okay. Right? Right. That's so funny to me. So instead, you know, no brave spiritual face here, right? Right. Just going to say this is what it's like inside of me right now. And oh my gosh, God, I need you. I need you to show up. Can we let you exiles just be yourself today? Let yourself be honest with God, with your whole system. What is actually going on inside? What is amazing? And I know you'll jump from here, but where are this whole, you know, the rest goes right? I'm thinking in the Gospels, you know about fearing no one, right? Fear no one. You know, so there's almost an answer to that anxiety in Jeremiah I find in the Gospels themselves. He knows even all the hairs of your head are counted, right? You're no one. You are worth more than many sparrows. So to me, the gospel answers the anxiety expressed so beautifully. Speaker 1: So often we come at this from very different perspectives. But today we are tracking exactly the same. I really loved this line, so do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. The Responsorial Psalm also gets into basically the omniscience and the omnipotence of God. So often the people who didn't love our exiles, and maybe the people who should have loved us in our entirety. They didn't. Or the love was conditional, or it was limited, or it was deeply flawed, imperfect, whatever. And we can assume that God either doesn't know or doesn't see or doesn't have the power or doesn't care. There's, you know, these corrupted God images. And what does the responsorial Psalm, especially the, the, the refrain, the response, it says, Lord, in your great love, Answer me. And what I like about that so much is that there is this assumption and profession that God has great love right in your great love. Answer me. You know, so there's this expectancy to and, and that's an act of faith. That's an act of faith that that perhaps uxelles can make, you know, when you're listening to this, when you're responding in mass, maybe you can be allowed in to that response, Lord, in your great love, answer me. And that me. Yes, it means us as a unity, but I think it also means us in our parts because some parts might really need an answer. You know, in God's great love more than other parts in a given moment. Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that. I feel like what even Saint Paul's vision of grace is all about, you know, not just reaching the clean perfect, but overflowing into the broken, the in, you know, the burden, the parts that didn't even choose their wounds. And so, Jesus, you know, he's looking at his disciples who are about to be sent into this hostile world. Right? And that's how it must feel for our exiles at times. But he doesn't say, toughen up. Speaker 1: Right? Speaker 3: Right. Right. He says, you are known, you are counted. You are worth more than you think. And nothing, not shame, not exposure, not even death can take away what you are in the father's eyes. Speaker 1: Wow. This is. This is really beautiful, right? If parts can be included. And that confidence in God, even when it looks difficult, even when maybe vision of parts is limited. Because when parts are not integrated very well, when there's not that that interior integration, it can look really dark. They don't have the benefit of that broader vision. But if parts can share in that faith, in that confidence, and if other parts would be willing to give our exiles a seat at the table, you know, in the spiritual life, maybe a seat at the table during mass, right? Our inner table like to actually be able to hear this again, if you haven't been to mass yet, you know, to, to see if you can really tune in to some line in here, you are worth more than many sparrows. Or the other line that really caught me, that responsorial Psalm line, you know, Lord, in your great love, answer me. The psalmist, teach us how to pray. We can. We can demand an answer from God. This isn't a request. This is a command to God. You know that we're encouraged to actually imitate, that we're that the liturgy that the church gives us in the liturgy to repeat, Lord, in your great love, answer me. Speaker 4: Mhm. Mhm. Speaker 3: I love it, I love it. Um, yeah, I feel like the Psalms, Um are speaking to exactly to our exiles here. Um, there's something important about these exiles. They don't just carry pain from what happened to them. They carry a story about themselves. Speaker 1: Mhm. Speaker 3: And their conclusion for that story could be I'm an outcast. I'm a stranger. There's something wrong with me. I am so much. I'm not worth, you know? Whatever. That's what the exiles carry. It's a story. And because the burden is so heavy and so painful, the system creates these managers and firefighters to lock them away and all that. But listen to what we're being invited to write. We're being invited to something completely different. We're being invited to enter into a brand new story for these exiles. Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just thinking about the exiles as scapegoats. Like in the literal sense, right? Just where the sins, the burdens that the unwanted inner experiences are just piled on and then they're banished. Speaker 3: And what the psalm is doing here, and I think the Gospels then brings out, you know, to completion here is that. No. You're being invited to this new story that has this new identity for you. And all this hope and all of this excitement comes with that. And we're being invited. Art, to you by all the exiles listening. You're being invited into this new story. Speaker 1: So beautiful, doctor Jerry, and so good to be with you and so good to be with all of you. Listeners in all your parts, in all parts are good. All parts are welcome. 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: And with that, we'll close by invoking our patroness and our patrons, Our Lady, our mother, Untier of knots. Speaker 3: Pray for us, Saint Joseph, pray for us. Speaker 1: Saint John the Baptist. Speaker 3: Pray for us.