In the fifth article of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catechetical Instructions titled “He Descended into Hell,” St. Thomas says, “The death of Christ was the separation of His soul from His body as it is with other men. But the Divinity was so indissolubly conjoined to the Man-Christ that although His soul and body were disunited, His Divinity was always most perfectly united to both the soul and body.
“Therefore, in the Sepulcher, His body was together with the Son of God who together with His soul descended into hell.”
What does it mean that He descended into hell?
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 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. 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.’ Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned (those who died in mortal sin), nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.”
I like to think that the first soul Jesus met was St. Joseph.
St. Thomas gives us three reasons for Christ’s descent.
“First, He wished to take upon Himself the entire punishment for our sin, and thus atone for its entire guilt. The punishment for the sin of man was not alone death of the body, but there was also a punishment of the soul, since the soul had its share in sin; and it was punished by being deprived of the beatific vision; and yet no atonement had been offered whereby this punishment would be taken away.” St. Thomas notes that the souls were there out of necessity while Christ went of His own power and free will.
“The second is that He might perfectly deliver all His friends.
“The third is that He would completely triumph over the devil … To make this triumph complete, Christ wished to deprive the devil of the seat of his kingdom and to imprison him in his own house, which is hell. Christ, therefore, descended there and despoiled the devil of everything and bound him, taking away his prey.”
St. Thomas wants us to take the following away from this event.
“A firm hope in God. No matter how much one is afflicted, one ought always hope in the assistance of God and have trust in Him. There is nothing so serious as to be in hell. If, therefore, Christ delivered those who were in hell, what great confidence ought every friend of God have that he will be delivered from all his troubles!
“We ought to conceive a fear of God and avoid all presumption. We have already seen that Christ suffered for sinners and descended into hell for them. However, He did not deliver all sinners, but only those who were free from mortal sin. He left there those who departed this life in mortal sin.
“We ought to arouse in ourselves a mental anxiety. Indeed, he who during this life frequently descends into hell by thinking of it, will not easily fall into hell at death; for such meditation keeps one from sin, and draws one out of it.
“Finally, there comes to us in this an example of love. Christ descended into hell in order to deliver His own; and so, we should go down there to rescue our own. They cannot help themselves. Therefore, let us deliver those who are in purgatory. We may assist these souls in three ways as St. Augustine tells us, viz., through Masses, prayers, and almsgiving. St. Gregory adds a fourth, that is, fasting. All this is not so amazing, for even in this world a friend can pay a debt for his friend; but this applies only to those who are in purgatory.”
Some final thoughts. Our concept of Hell seems to be softened by today’s culture. Most recently and more familiar to Columbus-area residents is the Major League Soccer rivalry between the Columbus Crew SC and FC Cincinnati referred to as “Hell is Real.” There is nothing in a soccer match that resembles Hell. By being told to “go to hell,” we should be seriously offended. If you’re curious about Hell, look up what some of the saints had to say.