“I thought that he would surely come out, stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy.” With this, Naaman the Syrian turned about in anger and left. It would be safe to say that Naaman speaks for all of us when he questioned the sense behind him being asked by the prophet Elisha to go wash in the waters of the Jordan as part of his cleansing process. He was not only angry at being asked to wash in an "inferior" body of water, but he was also angry at the inability of the prophet of God to instantly rid him of his leprosy. An important person that he was, Naaman was definitely a busy man and perhaps did not want to waste his valuable time making seven trips to the Jordan river. He was a man in authority who was used to having things happen in an instant at his orders. Perhaps his responsibility as an army commander had made him come to think that everything could be achieved at the wave of a hand. 
With all the "instant" remedies introduced into the consumer market today, we easily get irritated when we still have to wait or even queue for some services. The thought of having to "wait" for something infuriates us because it gets us involved in the process. Why should we get involved if it can be done for us? It is a manner of thinking that becomes scary when we apply it to our relationship with God. We know that our God is all powerful, all knowing, and all seeing. God can do it all by himself. Why should we be asked to do anything and yet the Almighty God can make it happen on our behalf? Perhaps this is what Naaman expected to happen when he found himself before Elisha the Prophet. He did not expect to be asked to "participate" in the process of his cleansing and he seethed with anger when he was asked to do so. It took the counsel of his servant to bring him to do as the prophet had told him. 
A saying attributed to St. Augustine goes thus: "God who created us without us cannot save us without us." Of course, God can definitely do it if God wanted to, but God knows that such a move will turn us into mere robots and would rid our salvation of a very important aspect: our participation. Salvation, as it were, must be intrinsic to us. In other words, inasmuch as our salvation comes from God, it must still be “induced” from within us. We must long for God from the depths of our hearts. We must feel from deep within us that something is amiss and then come to the realization that it is only in God that it can be found. And once we reach out to God, God will do the rest. 
Experience has shown that we human beings become better stewards of that in which we have invested. We have to be involved and get invested in our salvation process and own it if it has to benefit us. May our Lenten reflection awaken in us the realization that God can only save us if we allow him. May our Lenten reflection help us to become active participants in our salvation process.