The Exorcist Files - He Came To Set The Captives Free

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Father Martins shares a powerful reflection on Jesus' descent into Hell. Follow us @theBethea and @exorcistfiles on IGThank you to our sponsors!Cowboy Colostrum- For a limited time, our listeners get up to 25% off their entire order, just head to https://www.cowboycolostrum.com/EXFILES and use code EXFILES at checkout.Runewood Rosaries- Get 15% off your order when you use our promo code EXFILES at Runewoodrosary.com. Check out Ryan's Work and Shows HereWild Alaskan Co- Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to:  https://www.wildalaskan.com/EXFILESSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to The Exorcist Files, the show where we grow in prayer and sometimes share a scare. I'm your co-host, Ryan Bethay. Today, Father Martins will be offering one of his signature reflections. Now, I'm not talking about the man in the mirror. No, today Father Martins is going to be speaking on something that we actually wanted to put out much earlier, but as fate in schedules would have it, it was just not in the cards. Now, we are getting lots of emails, comments, questions, maybe even a couple threats. Ryan, when are the next case files coming out? We hear you. We are hard at work on a batch of new ones. We do hope to have this batch very, very soon. Please remember, it takes a while, so we do ask for your grace. In the meantime, we are pleased to bring you this wonderful, spiritual, guided reflection from Father Martens. And if you're not a vault member, please do consider subscribing.

It really helps the show. Just head to exorcistfiles.supercast.com or click the link in the show notes. And with that, here is Father Martins. Hello, friends. We're in the Easter season. The feedback for our Lenton retreat was so positive that I thought I would do an Easter one as well. During Lent, we walked with Christ in his suffering. Now, in Easter, the church invites us to enter into the mystery of his victory. But there is a moment we often pass over too quickly. the time between his death and his resurrection. Lent brought us to the cross. Easter proclaims the resurrection,

but between those two moments lies a profound and often forgotten mystery. What happened to Christ after he died and before he rose? In this meditation, we enter into that hidden moment, his descent into hell. The ancient Jews understood hell to encompass two realms. The hell of the damned, which the Jews called Gahanna, literally the garbage dump, and Shoal, the shadowy realm of those who died in holiness, but who were imprisoned until a Redeemer could free them. Both are prisons, but those in Shoal were awaiting redemption from the Christ. The Psalms speak of this place with haunting clarity, for in death there is no remembrance of you. in shul who will give you praise. Psalm 6, verse 5.

The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. Psalm 115, verse 17. Shul is a place of silence, waiting, incompletion. While this is not the hell of the damned, it is a place of significant distress. And how can it not be? It was a place God never intended to exist, a place that was never part of his plan. Psalm 116 describes Shul as a place of such pain that its pain can even be felt by the living but who are threatened with death. The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of Shole laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish.

Psalm 116 verses 3 to 4. Psalm 18 continues the same cry, describing that shoal is not merely passive waiting, but a condition that presses in upon the soul with suffocating force. The cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of perdition assailed me. The cords of shoal entangled me. The snares of death confronted me.

Psalm 18 verses 4 to 5. Shoal is a realm that binds, holds, and restrains, where the soul, though conscious, finds itself unable to reach beyond itself. Unable to ascend, unable to complete the movement for which it was made. It is the experience of life without fulfillment, of desire without attainment, of existence suspended in unresolved tension. The language of Scripture is not accidental. Cords, snares, pangs. These are not the images of tranquility, but of captivity, imprisonment.

And yet, even in shoal, hope flickers. You will not abandon my soul to shoal, nor let your holy ones see corruption. Psalm 16, verse 10. That verse, as St. Peter declares an axe is fulfilled in Christ, but before he fulfills it in the resurrection, he fulfills it in the descent. Until Christ's death, every soul, save Enoch and Elijah, went to hell upon death.

That was part of the consequences of the fall. And that's worth reflecting on. Adam and Eve, every human's first parents, who once walked with God in the garden, were in hell. Abraham, who trusted in God's promise, even when its fulfillment seemed impossible, was in hell. David, who sang of the coming Messiah

and wrote the Old Testament Psalms to glorify him, was in hell. John the Baptist, whom Christ declared to be the greatest man born of woman, was in hell. Jesus' father Joseph, who loved him, taught him carpentry, and provided for his physical needs, was in hell.

The two exceptions were Enoch and Elijah. Genesis chapter 524 says, Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 confirms he was taken up so he would not see death. Second Kings, chapter 2 verse 11 says, Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven. Both men are described as being taken by God without undergoing death. But two facts are crucial to note.

One, they did not die and avoid shoal. Two, they were taken before death, and therefore never entered the realm of the dead at all. Why did God do this? Scripture does not identify a reason, but the tradition, especially among the church fathers, offers several. Intertwined reasons. The first is to offer hope. The two men had intimacy with God. Enok walked with God. Elijah was a prophet of extraordinary zeal. Their being taken up is a visible sign.

Friendship with God conquers even death. It is like a preview, an exception that points to a future state. The second reason is that the act is a prophetic anticipation of resurrection in heaven. God gives two living signs that death will not have the final word. God snatching the two prophets shows that heaven is for real and that he has a plan to bring the righteous into it. The fact that God did so for two persons, not just one, is significant. It shows that heaven is not just for that one lucky, totally exact. exceptional guy. Three. The third reason is to show that God is not bound by his own ordinary laws.

The normal consequence of Adam's fall is death and descent to shoal. But God can suspend that consequence. If he can create from nothing, part the sea, raise the dead, then he can also take a man without death. So the two men being taken by God show that shoal, is not ultimate, only God is. Nevertheless, as far as the Old Testament scriptures are concerned, every other soul, other than these two, was in hell. As Saint Irrhenius writes, Christ descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching his advent there also, and declaring the remission of sins received by those who believe in him. Hell, Shoal, is not merely a place. it is a condition of suspended longing.

What is meant by that? To be clear, we're not talking about the hell of the damned, those in Ghanah, who will experience definitive and eternal separation from God. We're talking about the hell of the righteous. They experienced longing because they belonged to God. They trusted in his promises and lived a good life. But they had not yet received that for

which they were made. So their condition was paradoxical. They knew God was real. They were in right relationship with him, and they knew they were not damned. Yet at the same time, they could not see him. And that produces a unique state. It's not a state of hopelessness. It's not one of despair. It's a kind of fulfilled hope, but one that is not yet completed. And that lack of completion brings suffering because of it. And there is nothing that they can do to get themselves out of such a state. They cannot open heaven themselves. They cannot complete their redemption.

They cannot experience growth or progress in their condition. Everything is oriented towards a single event, the coming of Christ. Until he descends into their realm and sets them free, their longing remains, their hope remains, but their fulfillment is delayed. This is why we say that their condition was one of suspended longing. And it is into this condition, the condition of the hell of the righteous, that Christ descends. So what did Christ himself experience in the descent to hell? His descent began in that shadowed hour when he gave up his spirit on the cross.

So it's Friday afternoon. The sky has gone dark. The veil of the temple has just been torn into. And the son of man has just breathed his last. He has just completed a brutal passion that attacked his person in so many ways. Last evening following the last supper, he had so much anguish that he sweated blood, a medical condition known as hematidrosis. Hematidrosis occurs in extreme stress and anxiety. It triggers the body's fight or flight response so intensely that the tiny capillary veins around the sweat glands suffer distress until they rupture. Blood leaks into the sweat ducts. and comes out mixed with sweat.

The victim literally sweats blood. The Lord was then arrested, he was tried before the Sanhedron, and spent the night in a dungeon. This morning he was tried before Pilot, spat upon, beaten, and brutally scourged, such that his skin opened with every lash. Soldiers then pierced his head with a crown of thorns

and mocked him. He was meant, to carry a heavy cross, then he was stripped naked and nailed to it. The cross was hoisted upright, and he was put on display so the torture of the crucifixion could begin. Crucifixion kills by inducing asphyxiation. When hanging by the arms, the body's weight pulls the chest upward and outward, making it extremely difficult to exhale fully. The diaphragm and the torso muscles become stretched and fatigued. To breathe, the victim has to push up on his nailed feet or pull up on his nailed wrists,

actions that cause searing pain through the nerves, joints, and bones. Each breath required enormous effort, and eventually the crucified victim grew too exhausted to fully lift himself. carbon dioxide built up, oxygen levels dropped, lungs became stiffer as they filled with fluid due to low oxygen and damaged blood vessels. Slow suffocation set in until the victim succumbed. We often look at crucifixion solely in moral or theological terms, but if we look at it biologically, it reveals something absolutely chilling about Roman ingenuity. crucifixion was not a crude or haphazard method of execution that the Romans stumbled upon. It was deliberately engineered to ensure maximum prolongation of pain and psychological impact. The Romans were brilliant engineers.

Case in point, there are 2,000-year-old Roman roads, aqueducts, and even buildings that are still in use today, either directly supplying water or farming part of the system. The Romans engineered them so well that they still function. In terms of practicality, the Romans were geniuses. They knew how to get things done. At its core, crucifixion illustrates Roman practical engineering applied to execution. Romans understood the mechanics of the human body well enough to design a death that was neither immediate nor random. it was slow and agonizing because it made the body fight itself.

They knew that the way to inflict maximum torture is to isolate the heart and the lungs. The heart and the lungs together form one system, the cardiopulmonary system. The positioning of the arms, the angle of suspension, and the use of a footrest for the crucified victim, were calibrated to prolong life while ensuring maximum suffering. The victim died from asphyxiation, but only gradually, when exhaustion finally made it impossible for him to lift his body to breathe. Thus, when the Romans punished and tortured the victims prior to crucifixion, they were careful not to injure the heart and the lungs. They left the cardiopulmonary system intact, so

the victim experienced maximum affliction. The blows and beatings our Lord received, the crown of thorns placed on his head, and even the gruesome scourging he received, did not injure his heart and lungs. This was not accidental, but engineered. Obviously, there was the prolonged agony and helplessness, the victim's inability to escape.

The Romans isolated and insured, that death would only come from exhausting the strongest biological process in the body, the cardiol pulmonary system. But aside from attacking the victim biologically, the Romans had a carefully designed psychological attack that went along with crucifixion. There were two things they did that reduced the victim mentally. The first was that they stripped you naked. The victim's uncovered body became an object of ridicule and degradation as he was put on display. Because his family would be there, the victim not only endured being completely naked, but he also had to see their pain and suffering as they witnessed what was being done to him. The second was the

loss of bladder and bowel control, which added to the psychological evisceration the Romans desired. The extreme torture experienced on the cross weakened the body and put it into shock, producing uncoordinated involuntary movements, including twitching or convulsing. The nails that penetrated the wrist caused intense radiating pain and reflexive spasms, such that even small movements could send shocks through the body. In such a state, normal controls over bodily functions failed. It is important to note also that the meal our Lord had the night before the crucifixion was a Passover meal. That means it was a very substantial, structured meal and not a light snack.

The centerpiece was an entire lamb eaten by a household or by a group of households, and nothing could be left over by morning. But there was also bread, wine, and other foods that had to be eaten. On the cross, the Lord's digestive system would have likely still contained the contents of the meal. With the pressure on the abdomen caused by the crucifixion,

as well as the convulsions and spasms he endured, he would have likely lost complete control of his bladder and bowels. But there is more. The mocking of the gathered crowd would have been cruel and deftes. They mocked his identity as the Messiah. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, Matthew chapter 27, verse 40.

He saved others. He cannot save himself. Matthew 27, verse 42. They mocked his kingship. The charge above him read, king of the Jews, and it became a running joke. They mocked his trust in God, and this was perhaps the most cutting insult. He trusts in God. Let him deliver him now if he wants him. Matthew 27, verse 43. They mocked his miracles. Yes, they recalled his works, but only to weaponize them. You would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, they declared.

Save yourself. He endured mockery from the cross. criminals. One being crucified alongside him says, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. Luke 2339. Thus as death approaches, the mockery carries a consistent message. You are not who you say you are. God is not with you. Your mission has failed. You are powerless. it is precisely at this moment that something profoundly mystical happens. Supplements, powders, pills, oh my, the world is a sea of things claiming to make you feel this or look this way, and to be honest, I ignore most of them.

I am a bit of a health nut, and I do try to research stuff well. But thanks to AI, I now have access to a huge repository of great data, and one supplement that I am actually excited about is cowboy colostrum. Is it a miracle? No. On the X-Rexter's files, we know what a miracle. is. But could this be an effective tool for better gut health specifically? Absolutely. Cowboy colostrum offers the highest quality bovine, that's cow colostrum, available in the U.S. Cowboy colostrum is 100%

made in America from 100% American grass-fed cows. Now, unlike other colostrum brands, cowboy colostrum is true first-day whole colostrum, rich in bioactives like immunoglobians and growth factors. Now, don't worry, cowboy colostrum only collects the surplus colostrum after baby calves have had their fill. Cowboy Colostrum isn't processed or stripped down. Their Colostrum is whole, full fat, and high in protein for ultimate nutrient density, making it one of the highest quality ones you can buy. It comes in a variety of flavors, and let's be honest, that does matter, matcha, vanilla, or even strawberry. For a limited time, our listeners get up to 25% off their entire order. Just head to cowboy colostrum.com slash X-Files and use our code X-Files at checkout. That's 25% off

when you use our code EX Files at cowboy colostrum.com slash X-Files. Hello, friends, Father Martins here. Priests see a certain affliction over and over again, people feeling overwhelmed, spiritually, emotionally, physically. Many often feel they are alone that they have no defense. But that's not true. The church and her wisdom has given us powerful weapons, and one of the greatest is the rosary.

I've seen situations where peace returned to a home simply because someone began to pray the rosary faithfully. I've seen fear give way to clarity, darkness give way to light, not because of anything dramatic, but because someone picked up those beads and persevered in prayer. The rosary is not just a devotion, it's a lifeline. Besides the Eucharistic liturgy, it is the church's most powerful weapon. That is why I want to encourage you not just to own one, but to carry one. Keep it close, use it daily.

Recently, we were sent some rosaries from Runewood Rosary Company, and I've been impressed both by their craftsmanship and their intentionality. These are not disposable items. They're made to last, solid, beautifully crafted, and designed to accompany you in prayer for years. If you don't already have a rosary, now is the time to get one. And if you already do, consider getting one that you'll actually carry around. And if you do, consider getting one for someone else. Visit runwood rosary.com. That's RU-N-E, W-O-O-D-Rosary.com, and use the code X-Files, or E-X-Files, for 15% off your order.

Pick it up, pray it, stay faithful. God bless you all. It consists of Jesus' last act before dying, one that we have read over and over in the Gospels, but for most of us, its meaning goes right past us. And this is from Luke 23, verse 46. Then Jesus crying out with a loud voice said, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. and having said this, he breathed his last.

This act, crying out in a loud voice, informs us that Christ did not die by crucifixion. If crucifixion kills by asphyxiation and he is at the point of death, then it would be impossible for Christ to cry out in a loud voice as there would be no air in his lungs. But if crucifixion didn't kill him, then what? did? He surrendered himself to death. From John chapter 10, verses 17 to 18, I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. Christ surrendered his life, and in that moment endured separation of his soul from his body. And in that instant, when that occurred, all pain was gone.

The crushing weight of crucifixion, betrayal, and cosmic abandonment suddenly lives, not into immediate light and glory, but into a heavy silence. He can no longer feel anything physical, The noise of the crowd is silent. The light of day is no more. It is difficult to describe what Christ experienced in his humanity upon his death because whatever he experienced, he did so without a body. That means he did it without eyesight, hearing, feeling, or with the input of the other senses. His body is left behind on the cross, so there would be no physical physical. sensations available to him. Like others before him, he was left with only his soul, a state of

pure awareness, pure consciousness, and immediately, as the Apostles' Creed informs us, he descended into hell. The first question that can be asked is, why did he descend to hell? The cause of that dissent is his humanity. Because Christ is truly manned, he was subject to the penalty of the sin of Adam. And this answer seems to produce issues. Christ did not have original sin. His mother was the immaculate conception. She was conceived without sin. Being exempted from original sin, she could not pass it on to him. Furthermore, Christ remained free of personal sin his whole life. therefore, in no way could he merit the penalty of Shoal, as he was completely sin-free. Christ was the perfect man. So if Enoch and Elijah merited being assumed body and soul into heaven,

how much more would Christ merit it? While all these facts are true, Paul offers a sentence in his second letter to the Corinthians that shoots down these and every other possible objection. for our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

2 Corinthians 521 while Christ was not subject to the penalty of sin because of his nature because of who and what he was as a man we don't even need to refer to his divinity here He made himself subject to it by accepting the will of his father.

In fact, Paul is super clear. Christ made himself to be sin. This is not a metaphor. It is not poetry. Christ does not merely carry sin. He becomes sin in every legal, existential, and covenantial sense. and therefore he goes where sin leads into death, into separation, into the silence of shoal. The Old Testament foresaw this descent, however dimly.

The cords of shoal entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. Psalm 18 verse 5. They made his grave with a wicked, though he had done no violence. Isaiah 53, 9. And most strikingly, you have laid me in the depths of the pit in the regions dark and deep. Psalm 88, 6.

That Psalm, Psalm 88, reads like the interior voice of Christ in death, experiencing darkness, isolation, abandonment, and yet not despair. Christ does not experience death as we do. He does not descend as one who is overpowered by death, nor as one who is subject to its dominion like other humans. He enters death freely, as part of the saving mission he has embraced from all eternity. Every other man enters death as a defeat. Christ enters death as a mission. Every other man is taken by death. such that death is something done to him, but Christ chooses death.

He enters hell not as one overwhelmed, but one who chooses to go there. Death for every other man is an entry into passivity, into prison. It is the surrender of control, the yielding of the self to what cannot be resisted. But Christ's dissent was not by. passive. It was deliberate and active. He entered the condition of the dead, but because death had no legal hold over him, he did not enter the bondage of the dead. He remains sovereign. Paul's statement, therefore, is a nuclear bomb. Christ does not descend merely because death is the penalty of sin. Paul does not say that Christ took on sin. He says Christ became sin. And understand what this means.

Legally speaking, Christ allowed himself to be the most ugly, the most abhorrent, the most evil thing in all of reality. He allowed himself to be treated as sin deserves to be treated. He entered the place where sin leads, death and the realm of the dead, the furthest place. and state of God's plan for man. He descends because he has taken upon himself the entire human condition, including its final consequence, separation of soul and body and entry into the nether world. This was necessary to heal the human condition. In the words of St. Gregory Nazienzin, the 4th century church father,

where the Lord not to assume the human condition, it could not be transformed. What is not assumed is not healed, he declared. If Christ does not truly enter death, death remains unredeemed. If he does not enter Shoal, Shoal remains unconquered, separated from God. So he goes, not as a victim, but as a victim. the messianic invader. He didn't just accept punishment. He invaded the last place human beings go

so that no place would remain untouched by his redemption. So what does Christ experience as he enters hell? He experiences death from the inside, like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, not in a state of confusion. and loss, but a lucid sovereign awareness. He enters the realm of the dead, but as one who is life itself. He is not deprived of power. Death strips every other man, but it cannot strip him.

He does not arrive in helplessness, as though he were merely one more shade among the shades. Even in death, he remains the eternal son, the one through whom all things were made. Although his body and soul are separated, he possesses the full glory of God. Just consider this astounding fact. God himself has entered hell. The very place where the demons dwell, the place set up for those who despise God, those who want nothing to do with God, God himself enters it. Can you just imagine? imagine the demon's reaction when they saw him. The very one whom they rejected forever is now standing in front of them face to face in their own living room, so to speak. Now, I want to take

you back. Jesus, the son of God. He's just been resurrected. He shows up in the disciples' midst for a nice, just close, intimate meal. And to prove he was real, what did they give him? They gave him a piece of fish. Isn't that interesting? The son of God was really busy that weekend, and fish was his first meal. Just saying, what a segue to one of our great partners, Wild Alaskan. Wild Alaskan Company offers incredible seafood delivered straight to your door. In fact, do you need to be delivered from mediocre seafood? Well, you need Wild Alaskan. Now, each Wild Laskin box comes with individually portion filets, vacuum sealed, easy to prep, and great for any meal. No matter how quick or elevated, All the fish is quick frozen, fresh from the Alaskan waters,

which helps lock in that freshness, texture, flavor, and key nutrients like the much Ballyhooed, Omega-3s, whom I love deeply. And it's also fish you can trust. With no GMOs, antibiotics, and no other additives, every order supports sustainable harvesting practices and Alaskan fishermen whose history is tied to the region and practice. Now, I've shared many awful puns on this show,

many of them on these ad reads. But it is true. I do love salmon and I do love cod. In fact, you might even say I'm a coddly man. And they come with a money-back guarantee. Wild Alaskan company is so confident that their fish is the best, they offer 100% satisfaction and money-back guarantee, so you can try your first box risk-free.

So go to wild-alaskan.com slash X-Files for $35 off your first order, a premium wild-cott seafood. That's wild-alaskan.com slash X-Files for $35 off your first order. Hey friends, Ryan here. People ask me all the time. How did you get started in podcasting? It wasn't always exorcism. Here's what happened. A few years ago, I had a dream. At an age when many people buy their first home, I instead bought an old airport shuttle bus. Why? Well, great question. I wanted to have a mobile studio that could travel all across the country and meet the most interesting people to get their best wisdom for life and hear their craziest stories.

Because let's be honest, life is very weird. And everyone has a story. So I tore out the back and I put a fake campfire in it. and thus was born my first podcast I went camping with. Shout out to my dear friend Mark, who said, sure, I'll drive with you across the country and we'll just see who God puts in our path for guests. We had no guest booked. We simply drove out in faith. And you know what? God connected us with Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld.

PGA and Master's legend, Bubba Watson, Kathy Lee Gifford, Chuck Liddell, and even Andy Weir from the Martian and Project Hail Mary, which is awesome. And pro-server Laird Hamilton. Now, I never actually got a chance to upload these to Spotify on video. So I'm going to be re-releasing them on Spotify video for the first time. You can see the cool little night set and fake campfire with the mountains. It's really fun. So if you have found yourself saying for some inexplicable reason, known only to you and God,

that you want more of Ryan's dad jokes, more interviews, more of my run-on questions with just the occasional pearl of priceless wisdom, then I want you to subscribe right now to the Ryan Bethay Show, wherever you get your podcast. Or just click the link in the show notes to subscribe anywhere and everywhere. Check out the Ryan Bethay Show wherever you get your podcasts. Lucifer and his angels definitively abandoned God, but now God comes to them. He does not come to gloat. It would be beneath God to gloat. God is pure glory.

Yet he does come to declare merely through his presence, you thought you could defeat my plans. You could not. you thought you would never again be in my presence. You are. He is not subject to the devil. Others having fallen under the reign of sin had become captives beneath that dark dominion. But Christ enters not as a prisoner dragged downward, but as a king descending into the depths of his own realm of conquest. He comes freely, deliberately, sovereignly. He comes to empty hell of the righteous. He does not ask the devil's permission to do so.

He doesn't plead. He doesn't negotiate. He does not need to rest concessions from Satan as Moses once stood before Pharaoh and demanded, Let my people go. Christ is greater than Moses, and the devil is now less than Pharaoh. The moment Christ enters into that place, his very presence is the proclamation of victory. His very being is the command.

Christ presents himself in death as the Lord of death. My suspicion, my own personal suspicion, is that Christ said nothing at all to the devil or his minions when he entered hell. He didn't need to. What would he need to say? What command would need to be spoken by the one whose mere presence undoes the ancient tyranny, the original curse of man? His arrival is itself the defeat. Satan's power had always been parasitic. He never possessed life in himself. He could only corrupt, accuse, bind, and terrified. But now before him stands the sinless Christ, dead yet unconquered, descended, yet sovereign, in the realm of death, yet himself the Lord of both the living and the dead. In that moment, all the boasting of hell collapses. The devil does not face a victim. He faces his conqueror. His appearance is itself the judgment upon the devil and the kingdom of darkness. Christ's presence in hell is itself the shattering of hell's dominion.

So Christ does not enter death as one defeated by it, but as one who fills it with his majesty. He does not merely visit the dead. He invades death with divine. life. He stands in the midst of its darkness as uncreated light. He enters the stronghold of the enemy not to bargain, but to empty. And I think the Lord did it without saying a word. Recall that passage in Acts where the angel sets Peter free from prison. It says the angel led him to the prison's iron gate and it opened for them, quote, of its own accord, end quote. Acts chapter 12, verse 10. If the angel didn't have to say a word, much less would Christ.

But what of Peter's declaration that Christ preached in hell? He writes in his first epistle, quote, He went and preached to the spirits in prison, end quote. First Peter 319. surely if he preached he couldn't be silent because christ is the logos the word even in silence he speaks his very presence speaks the eternal word of god but he certainly didn't speak with his mouth because his body is still hanging on the cross he spoke with his presence he frees those kept in shoal What that was like is extremely difficult to describe because the event was completely spiritual.

Neither the demons nor the souls in hell had bodies. We have to turn to art and poetic language to, quote unquote, in flesh that event for us. I'm going to do so with a reading from the church's liturgy of the hours for Holy Saturday. It is an ancient reading from the early centuries of the church. And no one is entirely sure of the authorship. But every priest, none and religious brother, reads it on Holy Saturday. I look forward to it every year. It zeroes in on one aspect of the emptying of hell.

One particular aspect, which is so beautiful. Christ's freeing of acts. Adam. Naturally, this is a artistic rendering. It uses poetic language and symbolic imagery, but it is hauntingly beautiful. Let it speak to you and enjoy. Something strange is happening. There was 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 ever slept since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. 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. And Christ answered him. and with your spirit. He took him by the hand and raised him, saying, awake, oh, 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 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 re-fashioned 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 sheed the sword that was turned against you. Rise, let us leave this place. the enemy led you out of 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. It's 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. Happy Easter, everyone. Next week, I'll give another meditation. That one will zero in on Christ's descent into hell.

from the perspective of the demons.