Expectations

We all seem to have expectations, realistic or unrealistic, of ourselves and others, or of the way things should be done. Naaman, the Syrian army commander, whose story is told in today's Gospel, was angry because the remedy for the cure of his leprosy was so simple. He had imagined that it might have been done with elaborate ceremony or esoteric ritual to match his importance as a commander. Yet, when convinced that he should at least "try it" the way Elisha proposed, he found that it worked and gave praise to the God of Israel, as the only true God. We have expectations of our children, our students, ourselves and one another. We look for the ideal and wish that they or we would fully comply to our image of it, one that exists only in our minds, and is far from reality. Letting go of these imagined expectations might be the Lenten sacrifice that would really have the lasting effect of allowing us more peace in our hearts and souls, and bring us to a deeper appreciation of God's role, of God's plan. How presumptuous for us to "allow God to be God", but that's the reality. God is the Creator, the Savior; our role is to lay aside our pride, and humbly seek to fulfill God's expectations. Like Naaman, the leprosy we carry can disappear by this simple cleansing action or turning our expectations into God's. Bro. Rene