In today’s first reading, Naaman, the Army commander of Aram gets angry. When he travels all the way to Israel from Aram to be healed by Israel’s God, he expects something dramatic. He expects that the prophet will come out to meet him, call upon God, and move his hand over the spot of his leprosy to effect a cure. But the prophet Elisha doesn’t even come out of his house. Elisha simply sends a message to Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman comes expecting magic and he’s told to go take a bath. That doesn’t go over well with him at first, and he resists. But eventually his servants calm him down, he follows the instructions, and he’s cured. Only then does he return to the prophet and proclaim his new faith in the God of Israel.

I’ve always found this passage wonderfully reflective of a common human impulse. We often want change in our lives. We recognize a need for healing, or conversion, or improvement, but we have our expectations about how all that should come about. For physical changes we seek quick cures, revolutionary medicine, fad diets, or miracle workouts, and in the spiritual realm we long for dramatic revelations or signs and wonders. But so often, when we turn to God or his messengers and ask how to get better, we are told to do very simple things. Go to bed at a reasonable hour. Eat a well-balanced diet and keep up your exercise. Commit to twenty minutes of mental prayer and meditation every day. Keep up a routine of spiritual reading. Make a monthly confession. Go to Mass. Read your bible. Love your family. Serve your neighbor. 

The recipe for lots of healing and spiritual growth is very often simple and decidedly undramatic, and like Naaman, in our pride or stubbornness we can often resist it, looking for something quicker, flashier, dramatic, or extraordinary. But that is not how God usually works with us. 

So today, may we skip the drama and just get about the business of following God’s instructions. May we take the simple, everyday steps for healing and growth like those that were recommended to us on Ash Wednesday — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. May we trust that these simple actions will yield their desired results, and may we always come back to God to give him the glory when miraculously, following God’s simple instructions yields fruit.