By Fr. Glenn Jones

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” 

Such is the actual text of “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns, often regarded the national poet of Scotland, though we Americans know the adage more commonly as “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” It’s rather a sadness that poetry is now so neglected, for few texts concentrate more human experience and wisdom into few words than poignant poetry. Indeed, many, if not most, of the wise adages we can access immediately from memory is not from novelists, but from poets. Like a treasure map, good poetry requires a bit of thought, imagination and unearthing of meaning, but reward far exceeds effort.

Each of us experiences the truth of Burns’ text—dashed hopes, unforeseen obstacles, unexpected precipices in our plans in life, no matter how carefully we plan. Who can foresee all the unanticipated events in life which upend our plans in a moment, whether it be sickness, accident, or crime … or, more joyfully, the long-hoped pregnancy, the repentance and return of a prodigal child, the unexpected recovery from a serious illness.

Yes, we all have our upset plans and confounded expectations. But I always remember the story in 2 Kings 5 about Naaman the Syrian. He was not Israelite or even a Jew, but a foreigner who had even warred against the Israelites—a pagan, and worse, a leper—an illness then considered a divine curse. Yet … in desperation, he goes to the prophet Elisha in hope that the God of the Jews might heal him.

Now Naaman was a great general, and the scripture says: “Naaman came with his horses and chariots,” …with all his entire entourage and in all his glory… “and halted at the door of Elisha’s house.” And Elisha sent a messenger to him who simply said, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”

You can imagine Naaman’s reaction. “What?! Bathe in that muddy creek that cattle and sheep wallow in? … not even coming out yourself, but sending a messenger!? That is beneath my dignity. I am important … a great man!  And it says: “Naaman was angry, and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out…and call on the name of the LORD his God…and cure the leprosy… Are not the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?’…So he turned and went away in a rage.” (2 Kings 5:9-11)

Isn’t that what we often do? When God doesn’t (apparently) produce on demand, we give up or mentally go off in a huff? After all, don’t we pray “MY will be done on earth…?” Oh … wait; that’s not it.

And Naaman’s story continues: “But his servants came near and said to him, ‘…if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5:13) Naaman then realizes that his servants are right, humbles himself, and obeys the command of the prophet of God, plunging into the Jordan the seven times, and is healed. Only by obedience to God’s word given through the prophet is he healed.

Naaman had his own sorrows and plans to cure them. But only when he accepts that his plan is not necessarily God’s plan, he puts his pride aside and follows the word of God regardless of how much he found it counterintuitive in his own mind’s eye, and is healed.

We Christians know that such healing awaits every person who trusts in God and seeks to follow His will in the teaching and in discipleship in Christ. Even with the trials endured in this life, we say with St. Paul: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things…in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection…Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own…one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead: I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:8-14)

Now, the end of Burns’ ode to his little mouse goes like this:

Like Burns, we often “guess and fear” about uncertain future, but are comforted in the knowledge that God forsakes none, even when it seems He cannot be found. In fact, God cannot forsake, as each person is His creation and child, we recalling that beautiful passage of Isaiah: “…Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” (Isaiah 49:14-15) No matter the illness, the misfortune, and even the tragedy, God is there … if we only call upon Him in faith and seek to do the good which is His will.

Our lives are not always a bed of roses, even when we DO follow God with all our heart. All the saints endured suffering.  But they looked at Jesus as their model, He who suffered incomparably in His crucifixion—the worst of upset plans in the apostles’ time-bound vision and looked to be the greatest tragedy of history, and yet resulted in the greatest of possible goods:  the resurrection, and eternal life with God … offered to all.

[Jesus said:] “Everyone who drinks of [earthly] water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.