Article V: He Descended into Hell, the Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead

  • Jesus Descended into Hell
    • “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,  who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.” 1 Peter 3:18-20 
    • “Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)” Ephesians 4:8-10
    • “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your devout one see the pit.“ Psalm 16[15]:10
    • “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.” Colossians 2:15
    • “I will set your captives free from the waterless pit.” Zechariah 9:11
    • Saint Peter said in Acts 2:24 that “But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
    • An ancient Holy Saturday Homily from the Office of Readings
  • Purgatory
    • Three Common Objections to Purgatory
    • 1 Corinthians 3:13-15
      •  “each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
  • The Resurrected Body
    • Seven Properties of the Resurrected Body
    • The Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Resurrection of the Body
      • The Integrity of the Risen Bodies.–Both the good and the wicked shall rise with all soundness of body which is natural to man. He will not be blind or deaf or bear any kind of physical defect: “The dead shall rise again incorruptible,” this is to mean, wholly free from the defects of the present life.
      • The Age of the Risen Bodies.–All will rise in the condition of perfect age, which is of thirty-two or thirty-three years. This is because all who were not yet arrived at this age, did not possess this perfect age, and the old had already lost it. Hence, youths and children will be given what they lack, and what the aged once had will be restored to them: “Until we all attain the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.”

A problem that Ecclesiastes 9:5 seems to pose

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 RSVCE

Should we believe in “soul sleep” as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists do? That are the dead unconscious? Fr. Charles Grondin responds this way:

Prior to the resurrection of Jesus, all the dead were in Sheol, and after the Resurrection the righteous were brought to heaven. The author of Ecclesiastes is writing within the context of all the dead being in Sheol.

In Jewish tradition, Sheol was a shadowy place where the dead awaited judgment. The full revelation of heaven had not yet occurred (Heb 1:1-2). The Jewish concept of Sheol developed over time and can’t be locked into any one Bible verse.

We must also take into account the context of Ecclesiastes. The book is written from a very human-centric point of view. It is written almost as if by a human bystander to the events of life and records the appearance of things rather than their ultimate reality.  

Bishop Richard Challoner, the translator of the famous Challoner Douay–Rheims Bible, has this to say about the verse’s phrase “but they no nothing [more]”:

Know nothing more: Viz., as to the transactions of this world, in which they have now no part, unless it be revealed to them; neither have they any knowledge or power now of doing any thing to secure their eternal state, (if they have not taken care of it in their lifetime) nor can they now procure themselves any good, as the living always may do, by the grace of God.

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LITANY OF HUMILITY (by Cardinal Merry del Val)

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Let us pray:

LORD Jesus, though You were God You humbled Yourself in the extreme of dying on the Cross to set an enduring example to the shame of my arrogance and vanity. Help me learn Your example and put it into practice so that, by humbling myself in accordance with my lowliness here on earth, You can lift me up to rejoice in You forever in Heaven. Amen.