"Christ Descended Into Hell" - A Brief Reflection

Jesus descended into Hell.
Early 16th century icon (Museum of Icons, Recklinghausen, Germany)
The evening of Good Friday and Holy Saturday are often seen only as a time of silence and
stillness, as the world waits in suspenseful anticipation for the Lord Jesus to rise from the dead
on Easter Sunday morning. But while on the surface nothing appears to be happening, in reality
a great deal is going on beneath it. Jesus is not simply lying motionless in the tomb, waiting for
morning to spring into action. Instead, during this time, he is actively at work on our behalf,
doing the work of liberation from sin and death. Here is how an ancient preacher, in a homily
delivered on Holy Saturday, describes what we proclaim in the Apostles Creed as Christs
descent into Hell and what in Old and Middle English was referred to as the harrowing of Hell:
Something strange is happeningthere is a great silence on earth today, a great

silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The
earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised
up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell
trembles with fear.
Dennis Sardella, Easter 2015

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit
those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow
the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord
approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the
sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out
to everyone: My Lord be with you all. Christ answered him: And with your spirit. He
took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the
dead, and Christ will give you light.
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for
your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to
come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I
order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise
from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were
created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you;
together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I,
whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For
your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead.
For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I
was crucified in a garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed
into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped
nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the
burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you
who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and
brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will
rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword
that was turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not
restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that
was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed
cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as
God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal
chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the
treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared
for you from all eternity.
On this Easter morning, that harrowing, that harvesting, that liberation, has been accomplished.
Jesus stands triumphant astride the broken gates of Hell, that place of darkness and emptiness,
depicted in the icon as a black pit (black being not the color of Hell, but the absence of light, the
emptiness of a place where God is not). He has reached out his hands to draw Adam and Eve,
and by extension all who yearn for his freedom, into his life-giving Light. In the words of a
prayer from the Eastern Christian tradition, Christ has risen from the dead, and by his death he
has trampled upon death, and has given life to those who are in the tombs.
Dennis Sardella, Easter 2015

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Jesus descended into Hell.

Early 16th century icon (Museum of Icons, Recklinghausen, Germany)

Something strange is happeningthere is a great silence on earth today, a great

Dennis Sardella, Easter 2015

Dennis Sardella, Easter 2015

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