Do we live as if we needed a savior?

With all of our technological advances, it can be tempting to think that we don't need a savior, and that we can save ourselves through the next shiny device.

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Advent is a perfect time to reflect on our need for a savior, specifically our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yet, in modern times it can be difficult to feel the need for a savior.

For example, right now all we need to do is talk into our smart phone to unlock the entirety of human knowledge.

Nearly ever question we could ever ask can be answered by our shiny devices.

Furthermore, with recent medical advances it can seem like every disease can be cured through our own hands.

In many ways we likely don’t have that everyday feeling in our heart for a savior to save us.

Salvation “at a cheap price”

Pope Benedict XVI recognized this cultural movement and asked the question in his 2006 general audience about our need of a savior:

[I]s the humanity of our time still waiting for a Savior? One has the feeling that many consider God as foreign to their own interests. Apparently, they do not need him. They live as though he did not exist and, worse still, as though he were an “obstacle” to remove in order to fulfill themselves. Even among believers – we are sure of it – some let themselves be attracted by enticing dreams and distracted by misleading doctrines that suggest deceptive shortcuts to happiness.

We often seek salvation from our technology, hoping that our smartphones, computers or even the internet will save us.

Pope Benedict XVI saw these as imitations, salvation “at acheap price“:

Of course, false prophets continue to propose a salvation “at a cheap price,” that always ends by producing searing disappointments.
The history of the past 50 years itself demonstrates this search for a Saviour “at a cheap price” and highlights all the disappointments that have derived from it.

What’s interesting is that even in these earthly pursuits, there lies hidden a desire for salvation, as Pope Benedict XVI pointed out:

Yet, despite its contradictions, worries and tragedies, and perhaps precisely because of them, humanity today seeks a path of renewal, of salvation, it seeks a Savior and awaits, sometimes unconsciously, the coming of the Savior who renews the world and our life, the coming of Christ, the one true Redeemer of man and of the whole of man.

We are all in need of a savior, whether we realize it or not. The key for us is to whom do we turn for salvation?

Do we trust that God will save us? Or do we turn to our own knowledge and skill in hopes that we can save ourselves?