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About the Author

Catherine O'Hagan Wolfe is a member of the class of 1977. She is married, and the mother of three teenage daughters. She is currently working as a lawyer in New York City.

Thinking Out Loud

Living the hectic life that characterizes most Americans, of each generation, I came to these readings several weeks ago hoping to rest in solitude for a bit, contemplate the scripture and prepare these reflections. Of course, it didn't quite happen that way. When 'the' schedule - not 'my' schedule since I seem to have no control of it - squeezed out my private time, I postponed sitting down with the readings for several days. When I fell asleep one night, bible in hand, the "B Plan" emerged. I read for a few minutes on the commuter train, in the parking lot before yet another 8th Grade basketball game and in the ER awaiting word on a daughter's injured wrist. At several points in all these doings, someone(s) in my personal or professional life invariably came down with what we Wolfes call the "Screaming Me-Mes" - that is, "Mememememe... Right now it's all about ME!!" And if I didn't actually scream it, I sure did think, "What about me?!"

Enter Jeremiah: "Blessed are they who trust in the Lord,
whose hope is in the Lord.
She is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
Its leave stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress
But still bears fruit."

Simply writing - now re-reading - these words brings peace and stillness to my harried soul.

Those intrusions, demands, obligations and 'gotta haves' that I respond to and, in some instances, create easily define and so, consume me. I lurch from one to the other at top speed ever focused on what is relentlessly immediate. And so, not surprisingly, I lose perspective, forgetting that I am Jeremiah's tree and ignoring the essential grounding of my life - my intimate relationship with God who loves me. If you visit this Holy Cross site, these are probably your experiences, too.

How then do we re-learn the lessons of Jeremiah? To trust in the Lord? To hope in the Lord? How do we recall the protection and strength that come from roots that stretch deep in the soil - and soul? Luke's Beatitudes. Jesus in this passage offers us the opportunity - and challenge - to see ourselves in different roles. He asks us to look beyond ourselves to our neighbors in the human community who are poor, have no food or drink, grieve from loss, or suffer persecution. When we do, we see God's love for those who ostensibly 'have not' and who often are invisible to us in the bustle of our lives. We see the promise of wholeness in God's reign, the satisfaction of being complete, and the joy of happiness. And we see the challenge to us to embrace those whom God loves - locally and globally.

Jesus also invites us to see ourselves, spiritually barren, as poor, hungry, grieving and persecuted. In our suffering, like our neighbors, we find the same promise of God's comfort and sustenance.

Third, Jesus challenges us to recognize ourselves as the rich, overly full and hearty in our prosperity - 'front-loaded', in current market parlance. He challenges us to see how we shortchange ourselves in the myopia of our here and now lives. In our present self-satisfaction that is too busy for God, we are oblivious to the inchoate emptiness and wanting pain we suffer now and which stands to accompany us for all time.

Returning to Jeremiah's tree as a metaphor for our lives, roots that are fed by the Beatitudes make for a tree that offers shade and bears fruit. With our roots deeply connected to God and those He loves, we can meet the demands and obligations that will continue to characterize our lives with a more detached perspective - one that has no need for the'Screaming Me-Mes". With this renewed strength we can weather the heat waves and droughts of our lives until the resurrection St. Paul describes in Corinthians.