Harrowing of Hell

"For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."

"(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?"

"[Given Christ's descent into hell] there is no death that cannot be recovered, not even the most damned, because who among the children of men can compare himself to the eternal Son, when it comes to the experience of eternal origin from God the Father, of eternal dependence and ever-new outpouring from him, of existence in the source of generation? Who, then, like him, can evaluate in the ultimate depth what it means to be abandoned, forsaken by the Father? What “poena damni” is comparable to this?"

"O madman of love! Was it not enough for you to become incarnate, that you also wanted to die? Was death not enough, that you also descended into hell, drawing out the holy fathers, to fulfill your truth and mercy in them? For your goodness promises good to those who serve you in truth. Therefore, you descended into limbo, to draw out of pain those who had served you and give them the fruit of their labors."

"In the descent of Holy Saturday into the underworld, in which von Speyr is given to participate mystically, Christ encountered and defeated sin, the reality hostile to God and man cast out of the world. Passing through this reality without life or breath of spirit in the extreme night of truly cadaverous obedience, Jesus carries the cross beyond sin, beyond the evil of the world. Hence von Speyr's conclusion, which reaches that of Barth and Origen: the ultimate reality cannot be man's no, but God's yes. And if Hell is so real as to cause pain and suffering (it is therefore absurd to speak of its non-existence), it is also true that, since Christ passed through it and defeated it with his obedient death, we can reasonably hope that it is empty."

"Before rising again, he ‘'descended into hell’', into the dark depths of history and matter, to give it energy and direction towards light, love, and freedom. If I begin to think that in the depths of matter and of my flesh, in the darkest parts of my being, he descended to illuminate and transfigure, to resurrect love and beauty, then I too participate in the resurrection of Christ who rises for eternity from the depths of my being, energy that ascends, seed of life, germinating life."

"The descent into hell is the ultimate consequence of the incarnation. The Son was first a simple God in himself, pure immensity. Then he became man, thousands of relationships with other men, thousands of changing and temporal states, efforts, and initiatives. He experienced all this in a fleeting destiny, in something without boundaries, which was always available to the infinity of the Father. Now he still lacks the knowledge of pure non-being God, of pure opposition to God, so to speak, of simple limitation in limitlessness."

"Your Son, Father, after dying on the cross, also accepted to be sent to hell, to the most abandoned and desolate place where no living person has ever set foot. He did this to participate more fully in all your mysteries, to show you that he is never tired of your service and is never satiated with his love for you. With this surplus of his descent into hell, he went beyond the surplus of the cross."