“…he was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell.” This is what Catholics confess at Mass during the Creed. What does this really mean? When one thinks of the paschal mystery, one often has in mind Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But what exactly goes on, on Saturday, the period when Jesus is in the tomb? Hans Urs Von Balthasar bases a large chunk of his theology specifically on this in ‘The Mystery of the Easter’ which is widely known as the Holy Saturday.
So, there is a clear picture of Christ dying on Friday and resurrecting on Sunday. Where was God on Saturday? In an ancient homily on Holy Saturday we find that,
“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 slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.”
http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010414_omelia-sabato-santo_en.html
God took the initiative to become human. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI stated that, having made himself man, God reached the point of entering man’s most extreme and absolute solitude, where not a ray of love enters and where total abandonment reigns without any word of comfort… HELL. In the letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul says that, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Therefore, the whole idea of the Paschal Mystery including Holy Saturday was God’s Plan all along. This therefore implies that the purpose of the Incarnation was the Paschal Mystery itself. Jesus was born so he could die not vice versa.
Jesus was the key to heaven. It is through him that humanity reaches salvation. Thus, before the Paschal Mystery took place, the doors of heaven were still awaiting the arrival of the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Upon his death, ‘he descended into hell,’ bringing back all the good souls where they belong, to heaven , which has then been unlocked by Christ himself. Only Christ was able to redeem humanity because due to his human nature, he was able to die and indeed descend into hell. Consequently, due to his divine nature, he was then able to come back to life and save the souls. “For as death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by the union of the two” (CCC 650). This is exactly what the theology of the holy Saturday is all about. This is exactly what God was doing between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, saving souls!
The Church cherishes this event to the extent that the salvation of souls is the suprema lex, the supreme law of the Church (c. 1752). The salvation of humanity is so intertwined with the mission of the Church that the Church not only considers this pastorally but it is also included in the CIC 1983, the Church’s legal system.
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