We Really Do Need a Savior

by Ellen Hogarty

I try to make an annual Ignatian silent retreat each year. It is a time to go apart for a few days of quiet solitude with the Lord to hear more clearly what He wants to say to me.

A few years ago, my retreat happened at the same time a boys’ soccer team and their coach got lost and trapped in a cave in Thailand. The world was glued to the news, watching as this drama unfolded. With oxygen levels dropping and heavy rains predicted, the rescuers made the decision to attempt the daring plan they had devised to get the team out, and the day I started my retreat, four of the boys had just been freed from the cave.

Reading the news reports before I entered into silence, the vivid image of the flooded cave and what was needed to save the boys stayed in my mind as I embarked on my meditations. Two highly skilled divers were to accompany each boy; the lead diver would carry the boy’s oxygen tank. Tethered to the lead diver and followed closely behind by the second, the boys were taken on this treacherous journey to safety.

Asking God for help

As I prayed with those images, I realized that I was like the trapped boys. There was no way they could have gotten out of that cave without the rescuers’ help. And there is no way that I can rescue myself. I need a Savior.

I recall reading an article written by Fr. Bob Wild, a priest from Madonna House, where he said, “When I am giving spiritual direction and someone is struggling with some problem or pain, I often ask the person, ‘Have you asked God for the grace to help you with this?’ Very often the answer is ‘not really,’ or ‘not very much.’”

Fr. Wild continued, “Often we think we can change ourselves by using willpower. The saints knew that doesn’t work. They knew that we are not able to change our own hearts or heal ourselves. They knew that only God can do these things.”

We Need God

With all the emphasis today on self-help materials and the way that self-reliance is touted as a key virtue, it is easy for us to forget that we really do need a Savior. We can’t make it on our own, whether in the big crises and trials, or in the little challenges we face in daily life.

“The Lord is my shepherd,” Psalm 23 reminds us. “I shall lack nothing.” The Good Shepherd wants to take care of His sheep, wants to provide, delights in providing, has no trouble providing what we need. But we need to ask. We need to acknowledge our need and ask for God’s help.

The young boys and their coach in Thailand could not have escaped the cave without help. They were completely stuck and cut off from the outside world, and would have perished if it hadn’t been for this outpouring of help from experienced people coming to their rescue.

Whether you are in a good and peaceful space or in the midst of pain and tribulation, practice turning to God with a simple, heartfelt prayer: “Jesus, I need You. Jesus, I trust in You. Come and rescue me. Amen.”

And then watch what the Lord will do.