Here are the lines I’m currently working through in the Creed:

Nicene Creed: Apostles’ Creed:
he suffered death and was buried, was crucified, died and was buried;
  he descended into hell;
and rose again on the third day on the third day he rose again from the dead;

In my last article, I was working to unpack the line from the Apostle’s Creed that states “he descended into hell”. St. Peter alludes to this in his first letter (1 Peter 3:19-20, 4:6) and we see many early writers in our Church tradition speaking of this. We also see that our Lord makes a prophesy about this in St. Matthew’s Gospel (12:40) (“Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”) and St. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 4:9 (‘“He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men.” What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended into the lower [regions] of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.’)

When Christ was in these lower regions, the netherworld, or Hell as we usually call it, what did he do? This is where we turn to the Fathers of the Church. St. John Chrysostom’s Easter homily, which I shared with you all on Easter, speaks of this “Harrowing of Hell”:1

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered when it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

Hell became bitter when it “tasted of His flesh”, because Christ is the source of life. Entering the domain of death, Christ abolished Death’s power over humanity, he humiliated the forces of death and shattered the gates that kept his children in the prison of death. Death, the age-old enemy of humanity, was humiliated by its utter powerlessness in the face of Christ. St. John Chrysostom ends his Easter homily saying:

Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.

Another perspective on this incredible event can be found in the “an ancient homily for Holy Saturday” that is read in the Liturgy of the Hours, during the Office of Readings on Holy Saturday. This ancient author writes: 2

“What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.

The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: ‘My Lord be with you all.’ And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

Christ’s descent into Hell, far from being a footnote in salvation history, is an incredibly important moment. In the time between his death and resurrection, Christ freed the souls of the just from their imprisonment, and he conquered Satan and Death and Sin, and all the forces united with those spirits definitively.

Next week, we will begin to ponder the Resurrection of Christ!

  1. St. John’s Easter Homily can be found here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Paschal_Homily ↩

  2. The Ancient Homily can be found here: https://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010414_omelia-sabato-santo_en.html ↩