Our creed tells us that Jesus “descended into hell”? What does this mean?
This question was submitted way back in the winter, but I hadn’t stumbled on a really meaningful answer until hearing Ron Rolheiser’s presentation at the most recent Gerald Martin Conference (GREAT annual conference here in the Detroit area early in August. Always top-notch speakers and Fr. Joe records it so audio files are always available in our library...great listening for your morning commute!) This is a paraphrase of what he said….
Rolheiser begins by telling the story of a young woman he knew who had attempted suicide. She had a very supportive family who got her the very best medical and psychiatric care available. They did everything they possibly could, but they were not successful. Two months later, she killed herself. She had descended into a place into which no human love, medicine, or psychiatry could penetrate, a private hell beyond human reach. How do we cope with our human helplessness in situations such as this?
Rolheiser says that it is our doctrine of Christ’s decent into hell that consoles us when we stand helpless before depression, anger, suicide, alienation and pain that we can’t penetrate. We are helpless, but this doctrine assures us that God is not.
We believe as Christians that our God has revealed in the cross of Jesus an unconditional love that is so powerful that even when we can’t help ourselves, God can help us. Rolheiser says that this the most of consoling doctrine in ALL of religion; there is nothing in Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, or any other religion that approximates it. This doctrine tells us that there is no place we can go where Christ has not been, no hell where Jesus is unable to meet us and redeem us, no place where God is not with us in our suffering. There is no place that God is unwilling to go to find us and love us into life.
Rolheiser cites the famous painting that shows Jesus outside a door with a lantern knocking and a desperate soul inside, but the knob is only on the inside of the door, suggesting that there is no way Jesus can enter unless we open the door to let him in and he says this is all wrong! This painting does not reflect what our Gospels tell us is true.
Rather, the Gospel of John tells us that after Jesus suffered his own personal hell of crucifixion, all his disciples were huddled in fear inside a locked room. But Jesus doesn’t stand outside the door and knock, waiting for them to open the door. He goes right through the locked doors, stands inside their huddled circle of fear, and breathes out peace to them. He isn’t helpless to enter when they are too frightened, depressed, and wounded to open the door for him. He can descend into their hell by going through the doors they have locked out of fear.
We all have private hells where others can no longer reach into our pain and where we are too wounded, frightened, and paralyzed to open the door to let anyone in. But Jesus can enter those locked doors…he can descend into our hell.
He ends by saying this doctrine assures us that the young woman who took her own life woke up on the other side finding Jesus standing inside her fear and sickness and breathing out peace, love, and forgiveness. Now THAT is good news indeed.
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
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