ARTICLE 5 - "HE DESCENDED INTO HELL.
ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN"
631 Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who
also ascended far above all the heavens."[475] 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:
Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on
all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.[476]
Paragraph I. Christ Descended into Hell
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.[477] 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 Saviour, proclaiming the
Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.[478]
633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" -
Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the
vision of God.[479] Such is the case for all the dead, whether 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 was received into "Abraham's
bosom":[480] "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Saviour in Abraham's
bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."[481] 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.[482]
634 "The gospel was preached even to the dead."[483] The descent into hell brings the
Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. 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.
635 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."[484] 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."[485] Henceforth the risen
Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."[486]
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."[487]
IN BRIEF
636 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" (Heb 2:14).
637 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 who had gone before him.
Paragraph 2. On the Third Day He Rose from the
Dead
638 "We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this day he
has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus."[488] The Resurrection of Jesus is the
crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the
first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the
documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal
mystery along with the cross:
Christ is risen from the dead! Dying, he conquered death; To the dead, he has given
life.[489]
I. THE HISTORICAL AND TRANSCENDENT
EVENT
639 The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were
historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about A.D. 56 St. Paul
could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I
also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he
was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. . ."[490] The Apostle speaks here of the
living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates
of Damascus.[491]
The empty tomb
640 "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."[492]
The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty
tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from
the tomb could be explained otherwise.[493] Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an
essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing
the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then
with Peter.[494] The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the
empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed".[495]
This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of
Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned
to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.[496]
The appearances of the Risen One
641 Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of
Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of
Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One.[497] Thus the women were the
first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves.[498] They were the
next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to
strengthen the faith of his brothers,[499] and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on
the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and
has appeared to Simon!"[500]
642 Everything that happened during those Paschal days involves each of the apostles -
and Peter in particular - in the building of the new era begun on Easter morning. As
witnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of his Church. The faith
of the first community of believers is based on the witness of concrete men known to
the Christians and for the most part still living among them. Peter and the Twelve are
the primary "witnesses to his Resurrection", but they are not the only ones - Paul speaks
clearly of more than five hundred persons to whom Jesus appeared on a single occasion
and also of James and of all the apostles.[501]
643 Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as
something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an
historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the
test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold.[502] The
shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at
once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized
by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking
sad"[503]) and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the
tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale".[504] When Jesus reveals himself to
the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen."[505]
644 Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful, so
impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In their joy they
were still disbelieving and still wondering."[506] Thomas will also experience the test of
doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen Lord's last appearance in Galilee
"some doubted."[507] Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by
the apostles' faith (or credulity) will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the
Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of
the reality of the risen Jesus.
The condition of Christ's risen humanity
645 By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct
contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost
and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body
that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion.[508] Yet
at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious
body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for
Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to
the Father's divine realm.[509] For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign
freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar
to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith.[510]
646 Christ's Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the
raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus' daughter, the young
man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons
miraculously raised returned by Jesus' power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular
moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen
body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus'
Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life
in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is "the man of heaven".[511]
The Resurrection as transcendent event
647 O truly blessed Night, sings the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, which alone deserved
to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the dead![512] But
no one was an eyewitness to Christ's Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one
can say how it came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing
over to another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an
historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of
the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the
mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the
risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who
came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the
people."[513]
II. THE RESURRECTION - A WORK OF THE
HOLY TRINITY
648 Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of
God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one,
and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father's power "raised up" Christ his
Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into
the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as "Son of God in power according to the
Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead".[514] St. Paul insists on the
manifestation of God's power[515] through the working of the Spirit who gave life to
Jesus' dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.
649 As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus
announces that the Son of man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise.[516]
Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. . . I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."[517] "We believe that Jesus
died and rose again."[518]
650 The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person
of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were separated
from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in
each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the
separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by the union of the
two."[519]
III. THE MEANING AND SAVING
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESURRECTION
651 "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in
vain."[520] The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ's works
and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their
justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine
authority, which he had promised.
652 Christ's Resurrection is the fulfilment of the promises both of the Old Testament
and of Jesus himself during his earthly life.[521] The phrase "in accordance with the
Scriptures"[522] indicates that Christ's Resurrection fulfilled these predictions.
653 The truth of Jesus' divinity is confirmed by his Resurrection. He had said: "When
you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he."[523] The
Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly "I AM", the Son of God and
God himself. So St. Paul could declare to the Jews: "What God promised to the fathers,
this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second
psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.'"[524] Christ's Resurrection is
closely linked to the Incarnation of God's Son, and is its fulfilment in accordance with
God's eternal plan.
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by
his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all
justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."[525] Justification
consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in
grace.[526] It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus
himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren."[527] We
are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains
us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
655 Finally, Christ's Resurrection - and the risen Christ himself is the principle and
source of our future resurrection: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who have fallen asleep. . . For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be
made alive."[528] The risen Christ lives in the hearts of his faithful while they await that
fulfilment. In Christ, Christians "have tasted. . . the powers of the age to come"[529] and
their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of divine life, so that they may "live no
longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."[530]
IN BRIEF
656 Faith in the Resurrection has as its object an event which as historically attested to
by the disciples, who really encountered the Risen One. At the same time, this event is
mysteriously transcendent insofar as it is the entry of Christ's humanity into the glory of
God.
657 The empty tomb and the linen cloths lying there signify in themselves that by God's
power Christ's body had escaped the bonds of death and corruption. They prepared the
disciples to encounter the Risen Lord.
658 Christ, "the first-born from the dead" (Col 1:18), is the principle of our own
resurrection, even now by the justification of our souls (cf. Rom 6:4), and one day by the
new life he will impart to our bodies (cf.: Rom 8:11).
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