The Christian season of Advent and Christmas has taken on special meaning for me this year. During this religious time, Christians remember and prepare for the birth of Christ, who we see as the Saviour of the world. What makes this year different from other years is that I am deeply in touch with our need for a Saviour within our world and culture, but also within the people I see in my palliative work and private practice ministry. In this blog, I want to explore this need we all have, whether we know it or not, for a Saviour. Let me begin with the broader context. The reality of COVID-19 has shocked our human civilization to the core. It has revealed how vulnerable we truly are. On the personal level, COVID-19 threatens our physical health, our mental and emotional health, our social and family connections, our paying jobs, and our ability to pay our rent, mortgage, monthly bills, save for retirement, even to buy food for our tables. At the personal level, we have never encountered anything close to this disruption since the Great Depression when my Dad was born some 86 years ago. On the societal and cultural level, the negative impacts have been just as disruptive with many industries, businesses, and organizations struggling to survive financially as COVID-19 challenges our ability to gather safely in any significant numbers whether it be at work, shopping, travelling, eating out, enjoying sports, music, movies, or enjoying religious, cultural, or communal celebrations. With so many aspects of our lives affected or on hold right now, we struggle with how to bring meaning and purpose to our lives. As we grapple with the negative realities of COVID-19 at both the personal and societal levels, there is a profound powerlessness that we feel. There is so much in our lives that is beyond our control to change. It is this helplessness that causes us to look beyond ourselves for help, to search for a saviour that can help restore order to our lives so that we can again feel some sense of power and control over our lives. When people feel such powerlessness, they often look for their saviour in the world, some political or religious leader who can help them deal with their lost of control. I am suspicious that this is why Donald Trump became President of the USA in 2016. Many people, feeling very powerlessness in their lives, saw him as their potential saviour who could save them. We see similar dynamics in our country of Canada with the tremendous pressure Canadians are placing on our political leaders, both national and provincial, in solving our COVID-19 problem. It is a difficult time to be a leader for there is little hope that our political leaders can meet all of these saviour expectations placed upon them. When these expectations are not met, people often crucify the saviours they at one time hoped would save them from their helplessness. This is how our desire for a saviour gets played out in the world. We are looking for a Divine saviour, a Saviour that transcends the human saviours we see in the world. I see this same longing for this type of Saviour very evident in my ministry in palliative care, spiritual direction and psychotherapy. In my palliative care ministry, the issue of powerlessness is front and centre. No one can beat death. I often hear clients share many stories of how they have arisen above many challenges in life, whether it be health, relationships, or financial issues. As one client said to me, “Gord, I have been a problem solver all my life, but I can’t solve this problem.” Most people look to their health care professionals as their saviours, but when clients receive a palliative care prognosis, they realize their heath care saviours have failed them. They feel totally helpless. Their life is outside their control. Now, what human can be their saviour? When I make my first visit as a spiritual care provider, I know that part of the reason I have been invited is to discern if I could be their saviour in some form. Sometimes, I am not invited back for a second time; I was not the “saviour” they were looking for. They don't realize it yet but they are seeking a different kind of Saviour. In my private practice of providing psychospiritual therapy and spiritual direction, I often encounter a similar issue of powerlessness. This is most evident in people who wrestle with mental health like depression, anxiety, addictions, anger, self hatred, compulsion disorders, etc. They find themselves wrestling with emotional and mental dynamics that are beyond their control. The more they try to fix themselves through managing their thoughts, emotions, and behavior patterns, the worst their mental health issue becomes. They feel helpless to fix themselves. Some of them realize they need a Saviour to bring about the transformation and healing they are seeking. However, I have come to realize that this sense of brokenness is not unique to people struggling with mental health. This feeling of fallenness is more universal in nature for I see it also in my spiritual direction ministry. People come to me for spiritual direction with the hope of deepening their relationship with God, others, and all of reality. As they work with me, they soon discover the ego structures within their soul that interfere with their longing to experience oneness with Spirit and life. Most people try to transform themselves by their own efforts though managing their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and doing spiritual practices with the hope of experiencing God more deeply. But it often does not work for them. The more they try, the more they become frustrated in not feeling the gracious presence of God. They soon realize that they are powerless in deepening their relationship with God. It is beyond their ability. They need someone beyond themselves, a Saviour to help them do something they cannot do for themselves. What do we make of this need for a Saviour that is present both within our society but also the individual soul? It turns out that this human need for a Saviour is not just a present phenomenon but has appeared throughout history. Nicholas Gier, professor of philosopher and religion, wrote an essay in 1979 in the Journal of Dharma titled “The Savior Archetype” where he observes that saviours are at the heart of the major religions. In fact, he noted that there are significant parallels between these “saviors’ attributes, experiences, and plans for human redemption” (Gier, par. 8) . These parallels include:
For those of us raised in the Christian tradition, these traits of the Saviour echo almost exactly with the Saviour of Jesus Christ in our tradition. And yet, as Gier outlines in his article, there are similar stories about Saviours within older religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. Some scholars have argued that these religious similarities are due to cross-fertilization happening between the different cultures and histories of our world. However, Gier comes to a different conclusion. He claims that the "Savior Archetype was not the result of a direct interchange of ideas; rather, it was sui generis to the various religious cultures. The Savior Archetype manifests itself as something deeply psychological, and, therefore, it is not primarily due to religious syncretism. Edward Carpenter’s assessment is correct: 'It is impossible, I think, not to see that the myriad worship of saviors all over the world, from China to Peru, can only be ascribed to the natural workings of some…law of human and tribal psychology springing up quite spontaneously and independently, and (so far) unaffected by mere contagion of local tradition' (Pagan and Christian Creeds [New York: Harcourt, Brown & Co., 1924], p. 155)" (Gier, par. 10). In other words, Gier claims that the Saviour dynamic or archetype emerges from the soul of humans and the deeper common soul of humanity In saying this, Gier is not claiming that no interchange of religious ideas happened between the religions. There is clearly evidence of some sharing between religions. However, he claims their “research has shown solid parallels in terms of the general characteristics of the archetype, but the specific details are most always different. This leads us to conclude that although the Savior Archetype was in place, each religion supplied its own detail according to its own cultural and religious history” (Gier, par 13). It is important to see this Saviour archetype as more than an expression of our common human need for a Saviour that arises during times of profound helplessness. It goes deeper than that. The Saviour archetype points to a deeper spiritual dynamic within our soul and reality that emerges when we find ourselves in a place of powerlessness, when we surrender and trust a deeper spiritual flow of life. When we embrace these moments of surrender, we often find ourselves being ministered to by a Saviour archetype, what Christians call the Indwelling Christ or God’s Spirit or the Holy Spirit. Followers of other world religions would have their own names for this internal Saviour archetype. When we understand the Saviour archetype in this way, we begin to comprehend how the Saviours found at the centre of the world religion became embodiements of this Savior archetype. They were not born saviours at their births like when a royal couple gives birth to a prince or princess. No, they became Saviours by learning how to be with their powerlessness in a prayerful surrendering way that allowed them to follow and merge with the Saviour archetype that was emerging in their soul. As they united with this Saviour dynamic, they began to embody this spiritual energy and guidance and manifest it into our world through their lives. This is why people came to see these spiritual leaders as incarnations of God or Divine Reality in our earthly world. This is why these humans, like Jesus, became seen as Saviours in our world. I don’t know if this is true for the Saviour figures of the other world religions, but Jesus, in the Christian tradition, never pointed to himself as the Saviour of the World. He was a faithful Jewish rabbi who believed what the Torah taught, that there is no other Saviour besides Yahweh (Isaiah 43:11). Many people, during Jesus’ time and following, have seen Jesus as their Saviour but Jesus always pointed to God as his Saviour. Jesus knew God was the source of every dynamic in his life, the source of his wisdom, the source of his healing, the source of his love, compassion, and grace, the source of his power. In the gospel of John, we read Jesus saying, “I can do nothing on my own, but only what I see God doing; for whatever I perceive God willing, I can do” (John 5: 19). But how did Jesus get to this place of knowing how to allow almost every aspect of his life to be an expression of God’s spirit? Jesus had become a friend to his experience of powerlessness. He knew that every time he was in a place of trust and surrender, the spirit of God would manifest in his life in whatever form that was needed at that time whether it be love, compassion, forgiveness, courage, peace, anger, or acceptance. Jesus had matured in this faith in God to the point where he prayerfully asked himself often, “not my will but your will be done.” From this place of trust, Jesus responded through actions, words, listening, or often non-action by compassionately bearing the suffering of others for that was all that could be done. I think this was the message that Jesus was trying to pass on to his disciples and future followers. He was trying to show them how to follow this God that he was following. He was trying to model for them how to become a friend to their own powerlessness experience. It is only when his followers learned to live from this posture of trusting surrender in God would they become able to “do the works Jesus had been doing, and even greater works then these” (John 14:12). In many ways, Jesus was trying to get his followers to follow the Saviour archetype within their soul, that spiritual dynamic within the ground of all reality that is always present and eternal. Now, we are finally getting to the place of understanding why Advent and Christmas have taken on new meaning for me this year. I am very much in touch with this need for a Saviour, both in our world with its many complex seemingly unsolvable problems but also in the people I meet in my ministries. The experience of powerlessness is very prominent everywhere, and I feel it very much myself. But this is where the season of Advent and Christmas provides me hope. Through doing the spiritual readings and practices associated with Advent, we connect to our powerlessness and begin to touch into our need for and experience of a Savior. We join the Jewish people as they long for the Messiah to come to free them from their oppression and economic struggles found in their daily lives. We unite with Mary and Joseph in their powerlessness as they wrestle with what it means to have a Saviour being born into their personal lives—the waiting, the confusion, the uncertainties, the whys, etc. We also wonder with Mary and Joseph as they receive signs from God in these moments of powerlessness that confirm that God is soon bringing a Saviour into their lives. We identify with Mary’s and Joseph’s helplessness when they discover there is no room for them in any inns in Bethlehem for Mary to give birth to the Saviour within her. Then, we are surprised by the people who are open to receiving this Saviour, lowly shepherds, the outcasts of society, and astrologers and scholars from foreign lands. No religious leaders. No wealthy land owners or powerful leaders. It seems that only people who understand the experience of surrendering, trusting, and following are open to seeing the signs of a Saviour. As we travel this Advent journey, we find that aspects of this Christmas story connect with our own personal story and our need for a Saviour. As a result, when Christmas Day finally does come, we find ourselves celebrating with Mary and Joseph and all the surprising onlookers at the wonder of this miracle. We are not just celebrating the birth of the Saviour born in a manger some 2000 years ago, but we are also celebrating the reality of this Saviour in the midst our lives now. Thanks be to God.
Bibliography Retrieved (Dec 13, 2020) https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/307/archetype.htm. (Adapted from N. F. Gier, "The Savior Archetype," Journal of Dharma 4 [1979], pp. 255-267, with additions and deletions) Questions to Ponder:
Gord Alton MDiv, RP, CASC Supervisor-Educator
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