Catechism Cath. Church 586


III. JESUS AND ISRAEL'S FAITH IN THE ONE GOD AND SAVIOUR

587 If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could be occasions of opposition to Jesus by Israel's religious authorities, his role in the redemption of sins, the divine work par excellence, was the true stumbling-block for them.(363)

363
Lc 2,34 Lc 20,17-18 Ps 118,22

588 Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves.(364) Against those among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others", Jesus affirmed: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."(365) He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves.(366)

364
Lc 5,30 Lc 7,36 Lc 11,37 Lc 14,1.
365 Lc 18,9 Lc 5,32 Jn 7,49 Jn 9,34. 366 Jn 8,33-36 Jn 9,40-41.

589 Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them.(367) He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet.(368) But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?"(369) By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God's equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make present and reveal God's name.(370)

 367
Mt 9,13 Os 6,6
368 Lc 15,1-2,22,
369 Mc 2,7 370 Jn 5,18 Jn 10,33 Jn 17,6.

590 Only the divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so absolute a claim as "He who is not with me is against me"; and his saying that there was in him "something greater than Jonah,. . . greater than Solomon", something "greater than the Temple"; his reminder that David had called the Messiah his Lord,(371) and his affirmations, "Before Abraham was, I AM", and even "I and the Father are one."(372)
371
Mt 12,6-42. 372 Jn 8,58 Jn 10,30.

591 Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father's works which he accomplished.(373) But such an act of faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above" under the influence of divine grace.(374) Such a demand for conversion in the face of so surprising a fulfilment of the promises(375) allows one to understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer.(376) The members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of "ignorance" and the "hardness" of their "unbelief".(377)

 373
Jn 10,36-38 374 Jn 3,7 Jn 6,44.
375 Is 53,1
376 Mc 3,6 Mt 26,64-66
377 Lc 23 Lc 34 Ac 3,17-18 Mc 3,5 Rm 11,25,


IN BRIEF

592 Jesus did not abolish the Law of Sinai, but rather fulfilled it (cf. Mt 5,17-19) with such perfection (cf. Jn 8,46) that he revealed its ultimate meaning (cf.: Mt 5,33) and redeemed the transgressions against it (cf. He 9,15).

593 Jesus venerated the Temple by going up to it for the Jewish feasts of pilgrimage, and with a jealous love he loved this dwelling of God among men. The Temple prefigures his own mystery. When he announces its destruction, it is as a manifestation of his own execution and of the entry into a new age in the history of salvation, when his Body would be the definitive Temple.

594 Jesus performed acts, such as pardoning sins, that manifested him to be the Saviour God himself (cf. Jn 5,16-18). Certain Jews, who did not recognize God made man (cf. Jn 1,14), saw in him only a man who made himself God (Jn 10,33), and judged him as a blasphemer.


Paragraph 2. Jesus Died Crucified


I. THE TRIAL OF JESUS

Divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus

595 Among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples of Jesus, but there was also long-standing dissension about him, so much so that St. John says of these authorities on the very eve of Christ's Passion, "many.. . believed in him", though very imperfectly.(378) This is not surprising, if one recalls that on the day after Pentecost "a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith" and "some believers. . . belonged to the party of the Pharisees", to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all zealous for the Law."(379)

596 The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take towards Jesus.(380) The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers.(381) To those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation", the high priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."(382) The Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been accused of sedition.(383) The chief priests also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to death.(384)

378
Jn 12,42 Jn 7,50 Jn 9,16-17 Jn 10,19-21 Jn 19,38-39. 379 Ac 6,7 Ac 15,5 Ac 21,20. 380 Jn 9,16 Jn 10,19. 381 Jn 9,22
382 Jn 11,48-50 383 Mt 26,66 Jn 18,31 Lc 23,2,
384 Jn 19,12 Jn 15,21.

Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death

597 The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost.(385) Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders.(386) Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on our children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence.(387) As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . . neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.(388)

All sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion

598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured."(389) Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself,(390) the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him.(391)

Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.(392)

 385
Mc 15,11 Ac 2,23 386 Lc 23,34 Ac 3,17 387 Mt 27,25 Ac 5,28 Ac 18,6. 388 NAE 4 389 Roman Catechism I, 5, 11; He 12,3 390 Mt 25,45 Ac 9,4-5 391 Roman Catechism I, 5, 11; He 6,6 1Co 2,8 392 St. Francis of Assisi, Admonitio 5, 3.


II. CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION

"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"

599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus (was) delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."(393) This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.(394)

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."(395) For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.(396)

 393
Ac 2,23
394 Ac 3,13
395 Ac 4,27-28 Ps 2,1-2 396 Mt 26,54 Jn 18,36 Jn 19,11 Ac 3,17-18

"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"

601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin.(397) Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures."(398) In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant.(399) Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant.(400) After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.(401)

 397
Is 53,11 Is 53,12 Jn 8 Jn 34-36 Ac 3,14
398 1Co 15,3 Ac 3,18 Ac 7,52 Ac 13,29 Ac 26,22-23.
399 Is 53,7-8 and Ac 8,32-35 400 Mt 20,28 401 Lc 24,25-27,44,

"For our sake God made him to be sin"

602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake."(402) Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death.(403) By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."(404)

402
1P 1,18-20
403 Rm 5,12 1Co 15,56 404 2Co 5,21 Ph 2,7 Rm 8,3

603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned.(405) But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(406) Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son".(407)

405
Jn 8,46
406 Mc 15,34 Ps 22,2 Jn 8,29 407 Rm 8,32 Rm 5,10.

God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love

604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."(408) God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."(409)

605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."(410) He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.(411) The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."(412)
408
1Jn 4,10 1Jn 4,19.
409 Rm 5,8
410 Mt 18,14
411 Mt 20,28 Rm 5,18-19
412 Council of Quiercy (853): DS 624 cf. 2Co 5,15 1Jn 2,2


III. CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS FATHER FOR OUR SINS

Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father

606 The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do (his) own will, but the will of him who sent (him)",(413) said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."(414) From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work."(415) The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"(416) expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "(for) I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."(417)

607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life,(418) for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour."(419) And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?"(420) From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst."(421)

"The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world"

608 After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".(422) By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover.(423) Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."(424)


Jesus freely embraced the Father's redeeming love

609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."(425) In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men.(426) Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord."(427) Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his death.(428)

At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life

610 Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the twelve Apostles "on the night he was betrayed".(429) On the eve of his Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: "This is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."(430)

611 The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice.(431) Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it.(432) By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."(433)

The agony at Gethsemani

612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemani,(434) making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ."(435) Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death.(436) Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life", the "Living One".(437) By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."(438)

Christ's death is the unique and definitive sacrifice

613 Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world",(439) and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins".(440)

614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.(441) First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.(442)

Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience

615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous."(443) By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities".(444) Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.(445)

Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross

616 It is love "to the end"(446) that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life.(447) Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died."(448) No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.

617 The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the source of eternal salvation"(449) and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us."(450) And the Church venerates his cross as she sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."(451) 413 Jn 6,38
414 He 10,5-10 415 Jn 4,34 416 1Jn 2,2 417 Jn 10,17 Jn 14,31.
418 Lc 12,50 Lc 22,15 Mt 16,21-23 419 Jn 12,27 420 Jn 18,11
421 Jn 19,30 Jn 19,28. 422 Jn 1,29 Lc 3,21 Mt 3,14-15 Jn 1,36 423 Is 53,7
424 Mc 10,45
425 Jn 13,1 Jn 15,13. 426 He 2,10.
427 Jn 10,18 428 Jn 18,4-6 Mt 26,53 429 Roman Missal, EP III; Mt 26,20 1Co 11,23 430 Lc 22,19 Mt 26,28 1Co 5,7 431 1Co 11,25 432 Lc 22,19
433 Jn 17,19 cf. Council of Trent: DS 1752 DS 1764
434 Mt 26,42 Lc 22,20
435 Ph 2,8 Mt 26,39 He 5,7-8 436 Rm 5,12 He 4,15 437 Ac 3,15 Ap 1,17 Jn 1,4 Jn 5,26. 438 1P 224 Mt 26,42 439 Jn 1,29 Jn 8,34-36 1Co 5,7 1P 1,19 440 Mt 26,28 Ex 24,8 Lv 16,15-16 1Co 11,25.
441 He 10,10
442 Jn 10,17-18 Jn 15,13 He 9,14 1Jn 4,10
443 Rm 5,19
444 Is 53,10-12 445 Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1529
446 Jn 13,1 447 Ga 2,20 Ep 5,2, 448 2Co 5,14
449 He 5,9
450 Council of Trent: DS 1529 451 LH, Lent, Holy Week, Evening Prayer, Hymn Vexilla Regis.

Our participation in Christ's sacrifice

618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men".(452) But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery" is offered to all men.(453) He calls his disciples to "take up (their) cross and follow (him)",(454) for "Christ also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example so that (we) should follow in his steps."(455) In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.(456) This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.(457) Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.(458)

452
1Tm 2,5
453 GS 22 5; cf. 2.5; cf. 2.
454 Mt 16,24
455 1P 1P 2,21
456 Mc 10,39 Jn 21,18-19 Col 1,24 457 Lc 2,35 458 St. Rose of Lima: cf. P. Hansen, Vita mirabilis (Louvain, 1668).


IN BRIEF

619 "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" (1Co 15,3).

620 Our salvation flows from God's initiative of love for us, because "he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1Jn 4,10). "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2Co 5,19).

621 Jesus freely offered himself for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper, he both symbolized this offering and made it really present: "This is my body which is given for you" Lc 22,19).

622 The redemption won by Christ consists in this, that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many" Mt 20,28), that is, he "loved (his own) to the end" (Jn 13,1), so that they might be "ransomed from the futile ways inherited from (their) fathers" (1P 1,18).

623 By his loving obedience to the Father, "unto death, even death on a cross" Ph 2,8), Jesus fulfils the atoning mission (cf. Is 53,10) of the suffering Servant, who will "make many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities" (Is 53,11 Rm 5,19).


SECTION TWO

Paragraph 3. Jesus Christ was Buried

624 "By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one".(459) In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins"(460) but should also "taste death", experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was raised from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in the tomb,(461) reveals God's great sabbath rest(462) after the fulfilment(463) of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe.(464)

459
He 2,9
460 1Co 15,3 461 Jn 19,42 462 He 4,7-9
463 Jn 19,30 464 Col 1,18-20

Christ in the tomb in his body

625 Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the "Living One" can say, "I died, and behold I am alive for evermore":(465)

God (the Son) did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.(466)

626 Since the "Author of life" who was killed(467) is the same "living one (who has) risen",(468) the divine person of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human soul and body, separated from each other by death:

By the fact that at Chnst's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one person is not itself divided into two persons; for the human body and soul of Christ have existed in the same way from the beginning of his earthly existence, in the divine person of the Word; and in death, although separated from each other, both remained with one and the same person of the Word.(469)
465
Ap 1,18 466 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech. 16: PG 45, 52D. 467 Ac 3,15
468 Lc 24,5-6
469 St. John Damascene, De fide orth. 3, 27: PG 94, 1097. (NT) Ac 2,24

"You will not let your Holy One see corruption"

627 Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthy human existence. But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for ‘it was not possible for death to hold him’ (NT) and therefore ‘divine power preserved Christ’s body from corruption.’ (470) Both of these statements can be said of Christ: ‘He was cut off out of the land of the living’, (471) and ‘My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.’ (472) Jesus’ Resurrection ‘on the third day’ was the sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death. (473)

"Buried with Christ. . ."

628 Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."(474) 470 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 51, 3. 471 Is 53,8 472 Ac 2,26-27 Ps 16,9-10
473 1Co 15,4 Lc 24,46 Mt 12,40 Jon 2,1 Os 6,2 Jn 11,39
474 Rm 6,4 Col 2,12 Ep 5,26

IN BRIEF

629 To the benefit of every man, Jesus Christ tasted death (He 2,9). It is truly the Son of God made man who died and was buried.

630 During Christ's period in the tomb, his divine person continued to assume both his soul and his body, although they were separated from each other by death. For this reason the dead Christ's body "saw no corruption" Ac 13,37).


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)
475
Ep 4,9-10
476 Roman Missal, Easter Vigil 18, Exsultet.

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)

477
Ac 3,15 Rm 8,11 1Co 15,20 He 13,20
478 1P 3,18-19
479 Ph 2,10 Ac 2,24 Ap 1,18 Ep 4,9 Ps 6,6 Ps 88,11-13.
480 Ps 89,49 1S 28,19 Ez 32,17-32 Lc 16,22-26 481 Roman Catechism 1, 6, 3.
482 Cf. Council of Rome (745): DS 587 Benedict XII, Cum dudum (1341): DS  1011; Clement VI, Super quibusdam (1351): DS 1077 Council of Toledo IV (625): DS 485 Mt 27,52-53.
483 1P 4,6
484 Jn 5,25 Mt 12,40 Rm 10,7 Ep 4,9
485 He 2,14-15 Ac 3,15
486 Ap 1,18 Ph 2,10
487 Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday: PG 43, 440A, 452C; LH, Holy Saturday, OR.


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" He 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)
488
Ac 13,32-33
489 Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion of Easter.


Catechism Cath. Church 586