Christ's Descent into Hell (Catechism Series Part 13) - Auspice Maria Ep. 43
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Transcript:
Welcome back to the Auspice Maria podcast. I'm Bishop James Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland in Maine. And today we continue with our series on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And I'll be talking today about paragraphs 631 to 682. It's about Jesus descending to the dead, rising, ascending into heaven, and then our proclamation boldly saying that he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
But before I begin, I would like to also offer a prayer and ask the Holy Spirit's guidance and inspiration as we embark on these very beautiful and meaningful and rich paragraphs of the Catechism. Holy Spirit, come enlighten us, inspire us, help us to understand truly our dignity as your sons and daughters. Thank you for the gift of Jesus, his death and resurrection and ascension. And as we await his return in glory, Lord, give us hope. Give us a deeper faith. Inspire those who may listen to this podcast today. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
So there's a moment in the Creed when the language becomes, it seems, a little slower, a little more deliberate, a little more contemplative. It's the lines, "he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." Now these are not simply events in the life of Jesus that we beautifully walk through and proclaim in the Creed. He suffered, was crucified, was buried, descended, rose, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. These really are decisive moments in salvation history.
And what the catechism unfolds for us in these paragraphs, 631 to 682, is not only what happened to Christ, but what has now become possible for us. In these mysteries, we are standing really at the threshold of eternity. Let's delve into this a little bit more.
First, the part about descending to the dead. The Catechism teaches, and this is from paragraph 632, "the frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was raised from the dead presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection." When we profess in the creed that Christ descended into hell, we must understand this correctly. This does not refer to the hell of the damned. Rather, it refers to the abode of the dead, what scripture calls Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek. It is the state of all the dead before the coming of Christ where the just awaited the fulfillment of God's promises.
And this is important because it means that there is no dimension of human experience, not even death itself, that Christ has not entered. Saint Peter in his first letter tells us he went and preached to the spirits in prison, chapter 3 verse 19. Now, Christ does not simply die. He enters into death fully. He enters into its silence, its stillness, its waiting. But he does not enter as one overcome. He enters as Savior.
The Catechism expresses this with clarity in paragraph 633: "Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him." So there in the realm of the dead, Christ proclaims the gospel. In 1 Peter, again, it says, chapter four, verse six, "the gospel was preached even to the dead." And so we are invited to contemplate those who awaited him in hope.
Let's think about this for a moment. The just ones of Israel, those who trusted in the promises of God: Abraham who believed, Moses who led, David who sang, the prophets who spoke of a salvation they would not see. Now the fulfillment stands before them. These things they hoped for, the longings of their heart, the prophecies, the promises of God, now the fulfillment stands before them.
The ancient homily for Holy Saturday that the Catechism cites captures this moment very beautifully and profoundly. And I just read you a line of that homily: "I order you, O sleeper, to awake. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead." Now imagine Christ standing before us. We are in the realm of the dead, awaiting the fulfillment of our hope, the fullness of life. And Christ, the risen one, comes among us and says these words: "I order you, O sleeper, to awake. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."
Now, this is not merely a theological claim. It is a moment of encounter. Christ enters into the deepest human darkness and brings light. And this really has profound meaning for us, because it means that there is no darkness in our lives that Christ has not already entered. No suffering, no grief, no experience of abandonment that lies beyond his reach. He has gone before us.
Now, St. Paul writes with clarity in his letter to the first Corinthians 15:17, talking about resurrection. Now we're going to kind of move from Jesus descending to the dead, and we're going to move now to the resurrection, sort of this beautiful movement that we experience liturgically over the days of the Triduum, the Easter Triduum.
St. Paul writes. So the resurrection is not just one doctrine among many. The Catechism tells us in paragraph 638, "the resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ." But again, what does this mean? The resurrection is not a return to earthly life. It is not the resurrection of a corpse, the resuscitation of a corpse. It is truly transformation. It is the definitive victory over sin and death. It is the beginning of a new creation.
And the gospel accounts do not present the resurrection as some abstract idea, but again, they present the resurrection of Christ and the resurrected Christ in this sort of scenario of encounter. Let's consider Mary Magdalene for a second, St. Mary Magdalene. St. John tells us, "In the garden, Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' This is before Mary recognized it was Jesus, the risen Christ. 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?'" And she thought, Mary thought it was the gardener. Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him, in Hebrew, "Rabboni."
Now, let's try to imagine this for a moment. Mary comes to the tomb in grief, mourning the death of her friend, whom she loves so much. Her love for Christ, though, did not end with his death. Her love for Christ remained faithful, even amidst the sorrow of her grief. But interestingly, she comes to the tomb and does not recognize him. She sees the tomb empty, but does not recognize the risen Christ until that key moment when he calls her by name. And in that moment, her grief is transformed into recognition and her recognition into an abundance of joy.
So the resurrection is not only an event. It is personal. The risen Christ is alive, and he knows us. He calls each of us by name. The Catechism also teaches that the risen body of Christ is both continuous and transformed. He is the same Jesus who was crucified, bearing the marks of his passion, and yet he now lives in a glorified state. He is no longer bound by limitations of earthly existence.
And this reveals something very important. It reveals not only who Christ is, but what humanity is now called to become. Again, I refer back to Saint Paul, and this time his letter to the Romans, chapter six, verse four: "Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life."
So here, let's be a little more precise. Christ's resurrection is the victory over sin and death. But this victory is not applied to us automatically or abstractly. We are incorporated into it through the sacraments, above all through the sacrament of baptism. In baptism, we die with Christ and rise with him. And so the resurrection opens for us a real participation in new life.
Sin constrains us, it distorts us, it holds us back from the fullness of who we are created to be. But in Christ, a new possibility has been opened: a life freed from the dominion of sin, a life transformed by grace, a life oriented toward eternal, eternal communion with God. The resurrection is not only something we believe, it is a life we are called to live.
So continuing with these beautiful lines of the Creed, so after 40 days of appearing to his disciples in his resurrected state, Jesus ascends. Christ descends, and St. Luke tells us in Acts 1:9, "As they were looking on, these disciples, he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight."
Now at first glance, this can seem like a departure, but the Church understands it as something far greater. In Catechism, paragraph 665, it says, "the ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus' humanity into God's heavenly domain." So Christ does not leave humanity behind. He brings humanity into the very life of God.
Seated at the right hand of the Father, he now shares fully in the Father's authority and glory. And from that place, he does not cease his work. So seated at the right hand of the Father, he shares fully in the Father's authority and glory. And the letter to the Hebrews tells us, in chapter 7, verse 25, "he, Christ, always lives to make intercession for them, for us." Christ intercedes for us. He presents our humanity before the Father.
This means that heaven is no longer distant. It has been opened. Christ has gone before us as the head of the body. And the Catechism expresses this in paragraph 666: "Jesus Christ, the head of the church, precedes us into the Father's glorious kingdom so that we may live in the hope of one day being with him forever."
The ascension, then, is not absence nor abandonment. It is exaltation. And it is also mission. For in the Father's plan, the exalted Christ pours out the Holy Spirit upon the Church. He does not abandon his people. He remains present through the Holy Spirit in the sacraments, in the inspired word of God, the Scriptures, and in the communion of the Church.
We now live in the age of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded in the catechism that it is a time of the already and not yet. In paragraph 670, "since the ascension, God's plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at the last hour." So really, this kind of captures the state of the Christian life.
We live in a tension. The victory has been won, but it is not yet fully revealed. Christ reigns, but the world still struggles. Grace is present, but sin has not yet been completely overcome. Oh sure, the victory is won, but the concupiscence, the remnant of original sin that evidence itself when we choose to commit personal sin, but sin has this trace or this concupiscence. It still lingers.
And so we wait, we wait, and we live in this tension. But we do not wait passively, of course. We live as a people who have already tasted the resurrection. We know, we know what is to come. Through the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ is already at work within us. And we are called to participate in the unfolding of the kingdom, to live lives marked by faith, hope, and charity, and to become signs of the new creation that has already begun.
So the catechism goes on and talks about Jesus coming again in glory, this other part of the creed that we profess. So this part directs us forward. The creed directs us forward: "Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." Now, of course, this is not meant to inspire fear, but it grounds us in truth, in hope.
The Catechism teaches in paragraph 679, "Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as Redeemer of the world." So the one who will judge is the one who has saved. The one who will come again is the one who descended into death for us. And the one who will judge the world is the one who knows us intimately, who loves us unconditionally, who calls us by name.
So the final word of history is not death, it is life. So in conclusion, what these mysteries reveal is the full pattern of the Christian life. Christ descends into our darkness, Christ rises into new life, Christ descends into glory, and Christ will come again. This is not only His story, it is ours.
Because in baptism, we have already begun to share in this movement. We have died with Him, we are raised with Him, we are called to live with Him. And so the Christian life is marked by a profound hope, not a vague optimism. It is grounded by a certainty in the person of Jesus Christ that no darkness is final, that no sin is definitive, that no death has the last word, because Christ has gone before us and he's leading us into the fullness of life.
Thank you for joining me for this Auspice Maria podcast, and I'd like to conclude again by invoking the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
