The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 90: Christ Descended into Hell

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Have you ever said the words from the Creed at Mass, “he descended into hell” and wondered, “Really? Jesus did? Why?” The Catechism shares the secrets of this line from the Creed and shows us how Jesus’ descent into hell “brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment.” Fr. Mike makes it clear to us that Jesus did not come to save only the righteous who happened to be alive during his time here on earth, but he came to save all those righteous men and women who came before him and would come after him. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 631-637. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy If you have found this podcast to be helpful in your faith life and would like to help us continue bringing this Catholic media to as many people as possible, please consider making an ongoing financial gift at ascensionpress.com/support. Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Categism and Ear or the Bible in your podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives. And because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question though. The question is, what does the ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is, we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God every day. And we do it all for free.

If you found this podcast be helpful in your life and would like to help us continue making free Catholic content we can post online. Please consider making a financial contribution and ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com slash support. That's ascPress.com-support. Thank you and God bless. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to The Catechism in the Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in the Year is brought to you by Ascension.

In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is a 90. That means you've been going this for three months. I mean, give or take, there are some months that have 31, but you know, some that have 28. So we're reading paragraph 631-637 as always, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catacasim, which includes the foundations of Faith Approach, but you can follow along with any recent version

of the Catacasim of the Catacagage Church. Also, you can download your own Catacasim and your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. As we get started, just thank you so much for all those who have supported the production

of this podcast with your prayers, with your financial gifts. Couldn't deal with those. Thank you so much. As I said, it is day 90. We were reading paragraphs 631 to 637. It is Article 5. And if you're following along with your reading plan and following along in any categories, and you can see, Article 5 is, he descended into hell.

On the third day, he rose again from the dead. Remember yesterday, we talked about how Christ truly died. And what is death? Death is the separation of body and soul. Now we also maintained that even in death, Christ possessed his body to preserve it from corruption and Christ preserved his soul. Why? Well, one is because of this article today.

Paragraph 1, Christ descended into hell. We're going to talk about this and here's his mission. Now one of the things we recognize as the first meaning given to the Apostolic preaching of Jesus' descent into hell is that Jesus, like all men, experienced death in a soul, he joined the others in the realm of the dead. Now that's one of the things we recognize that he truly experienced death and his soul went to the abode of the dead. Now, at the same time, this is the end of paragraph 632, but he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the good news to the spirits in prison there. We get that from 1 Peter 3 verses 18 and 19.

Now, that's such an incredibly important thing that Jesus truly, like we said yesterday, truly experienced death and at the same time, as he descended to the realm of the dead, he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the good news to the spirits in prison there. So, now when we say the abode of the dead, we say, hell, what do we mean? Well, in Scripture, Shayol is the Hebrew term and Habies is the Greek term for the abode of the dead. Because those who were there are deprived of the vision of God.

That's what Catechism 633 says. Now, eternal hell, right, is this permanent deprivation of the vision of God, permanent separation from God. Now, this is important to understand. When we're talking about the abode of the dead, prior to Christ, in 633 it says this, yes, those who are there are deprived of the vision of God, such as the case for all the dead,

whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer. Now, at the same time, that does not mean that their experience, their lot, is identical. As Jesus shares that, you remember the parable, the rich man and Lazarus, where the rich man, he dies and Lazarus dies. And the rich man goes to a place of torment, whereas Lazarus goes to rest in the bosom of Abraham. So there's a place of peace, a place of rest.

So it's not the same experience, even though the abode of the dead is that place where all the dead would go and would be deprived of the vision of God until, until what, until Christ came and preached to the souls of the righteous to bring them into heaven. Now it's very important to understand. In paragraph 633, Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of the nation, but to free the just who had gone before him. Now that's going to be very, very important for us, that there are the souls of the just in the old covenant, the souls of the just prior to Jesus.

And it's to them that here is Christ who announces the good news. He comes to that place of the dead, the abode of the dead, to deliver those who are righteous as their Savior. And this is just really important. This is what we're going to talk about today. And when I'm so excited because this is one of those articles, can we say in the Apostles Creed, every single time we pray it, we say it in the nice in Creed, we talk about it, it descended into hell, it descended to the abode of the dead.

When we say this, what do we mean? We get to hear about that today. So it's open our hearts, it's open our minds to just be able to enter into this truth that Jesus Christ descended all the way to hell for us. He's ended all the way to hell to demonstrate that there is no place, there's no depth to which he will not go. Let's just ask the Lord to help us today. We pray Father in heaven.

We give you praise. We thank you so much for bringing us to this moment. We thank you so much for the gift of your Son. We thank you so much for the fact that his love knows no bounds, that even the abode of the dead is not out of bounds for your love. We thank you for the fact that Christ descended into hell, that he descended to the abode of the dead, to rescue the righteous, help us to walk with righteousness, help us to walk in right relationship with you,

so that we can live forever, in right relationship with you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. As I said, it is a 90-perreterity paragraph 631-637. 5. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also also ascended far above all the heavens. The apostles creed confesses in the same article, Christ's descent into hell and his resurrection

from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover, it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth, as we pray at the Easter vigil in the Roman Missile. The one morning star who never sets, Christ your son, who coming back from death's domain, has shed his peaceful light on humanity, and lives and reigns forever and ever, amen."

Paragraph 1 Christ descended into hell. 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. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the good news to the spirits in prison there. Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, hell, shayol and Hebrew, or Hades in Greek, because those who are there are deprived of the vision of

God. Such is the case for all the dead with their evil or righteous while they await the Redeemer, which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows, through the parable of the poor man Lazarus, who is received into Abraham's bosom. It is precisely these holy souls who awaited was received into Abraham's bosom. It is precisely these holy souls who awaited their Savior and Abraham's bosom whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell. Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just to had gone before him. The gospel was preached even to the dead.

The descent into hell brings the gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus' Messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time, but vast in its real significance. The spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved, have been made sharers in the redemption. Christ went down into the depths of death, so that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Jesus, the author of life, by dying, destroyed him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. Henceforth, the risen Christ holds the keys of death and hate so that, at the name of

Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, in on earth, and under the earth. As an ancient homily holy Saturday states, Today, a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence, and a great stillness, a great 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. He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, 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 Adam in his bonds and Eve captive with him. He who is both their God and the Son of Eve. I am your God, who for your sake have become your Son. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell, rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead." In brief, by the expression he descended into hell, the apostles creed confesses that Jesus did really die, and through his death for us conquered death and the devil who has the

power of death. In his human soul, united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just to had gone before him. Okay, as I said, those are paragraphs 631 to 637, just remarkable, incredible. Again, Jesus truly experienced death. That's one of the things we're affirming. He also descended to hell. Why? As the Savior. So important that we understand this reality about the abode of the dead prior to Christ, that yes, all of the dead there would be deprived

of the vision of God, and yet their experience of death would prior to Christ, that yes, all of the dead there would be deprived of the vision of God, and yet their experience of death would be different. One would be, you know, a sense of place of peace, a place of rest in the abysmal of Abraham. The others would be, again, the place of torment that hell actually is. Now, Jesus descending into hell, we just want to reaffirm this, did not deliver the damned, because those who have chosen against God, they cannot change their choice and they don't want to change their choice. You need to not also destroy the hell of damnation,

but you freed the just who have gone before him. Now, this is crazy, paragraph 634, and says, the descent into hell brings the gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. Now, why would that be the case? This is a really bold statement. The descent into hell brings the gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. Why? Because it says, it goes on to say, this is the

last phase of Jesus' Messianic mission. The last phase. Jesus didn't just come for those people who happened to be alive while he was on this earth. But this messianic mission was for them, of course, and for all those who came after him, of course. But this mission was for all men, at all times, in all places. And so as Jesus descends to the abode of the dead, death which comes to every human being and had come to every human being who had existed prior to Jesus on this earth. This phase of his Messianic mission is condensed in time but vast in its real significance, that's the paragraph in 634 says, it says that the last line is the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times in all places for all who are saved have been made

sharers in the redemption. That it's not just for those who came after Christ. That's the big question some of those people ask, they say, what about everyone who existed before Jesus? What about all those people who had died before Christ could open the gates of heaven? The answer is, well, he came for them as well. When he descended into hell, when he descended to the realm of the dead,

he went to rescue all of those who had chosen God. Those who had not rejected, rebelled against God, but who were unable to enter into God's presence. So what happens? God goes to them to deliver them. Think about this. This is the logic of the incarnation. God goes to them to deliver

them, just like how God comes to us to deliver us. In the incarnation, what does God do? He comes to us to deliver us. In the sacraments, what does God do? He comes to us to deliver us. In his grace and his Holy Spirit, what does God do? He comes to us to deliver us. And to those souls held captive in the abode of the dead, what does he do? He goes to them to deliver them. And to those souls held captive in the abode of the dead, what does he do? He goes to them to deliver them. And I love this ancient homily for Holy Saturday. We read it every Holy Saturday as priests and deacons, as religious sisters and brothers. And as laypeople, you get to read this too if you want.

This ancient homily that talks about how he's gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. I actually literally right now, as I'm standing here recording this, there was an image right in front of me right above this catacombs him. That is an image of Jesus descending into hell. And he has two people by the wrist. He's grasping them by the wrist.

It's an icon. He's grasping them by the wrist and he's lifting them out of their graves. And it is Adam and it is Eve. I am your God who for your sake have become your son. I order you, O sleeper, to awake, and I love this line. I did not create you to be a prisoner and hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.

And that's just such a powerful truth. The God did not create you. You did not create me to be a prisoner and hell. And so, long before we can choose it. We choose Jesus. So grateful. So grateful to the Lord who demonstrates that his love literally knows no bounds. Then he comes to rescue us. Again, he comes to us to save us just like he always does. And so we give God praise today. We pray today and we give God thanks today. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.