Dr David
Arias presents us with another vivid illustration of how the West’s separation
from the Orthodox Church has caused her to wander into a barren, lifeless
religious land. He quotes Thomas
Aquinas, the famous Roman Catholic theologian, regarding the harrowing of Hades
by Christ, in order to explain the significance of this event for
humanity. Here are some highlights from
his essay:
When reflecting on our Lord’s harrowing of hell, it is, of course,
necessary to distinguish different meanings of the name “hell.” In its most
general meaning, “hell” signifies “the underworld,” which the Hebrews refer to
as, Sheol, and the Greeks call by the name, Hades (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #633).
Further, as the Roman Catechism teaches, there
are three main parts to the underworld. There is gehenna, or hell
in the strict sense, which is the abode of the damned. There is also purgatory
wherein the punishments, unlike those of gehenna, are cleansing and only temporary
in character. Lastly, there is that part of the underworld known as “Abraham’s
bosom” (see, Luke 16:22-26). It was in here that “the souls of
the just prior to the coming of Christ the Lord were received, and where,
without experiencing any sort of pain, but supported by the blessed hope of
redemption, they enjoyed peaceful repose” (Roman Catechism, pt. 1, art.
5).
So, into which part or parts of hell did Christ descend and why? Taking
St. Thomas Aquinas as our guide, we can affirm both that our Lord descended
into all three parts of hell and that He descended into only one part of hell
(i.e., into Abraham’s bosom). . . .
. .
. Christ’s soul, through its
essence, only entered Abraham’s bosom. Nonetheless, through its effect,
Christ’s soul was in some way present in every part of hell. As St. Thomas puts
it, “being in one part of hell, his effect in some way spread to every part of
hell, just as by suffering in one place on earth, he liberated the whole world
by His passion” (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 52, a. 2). More specifically,
St. Thomas teaches that the proper effect of Christ in the underworld was the
bestowal of the beatific vision on the souls of the just waiting for Him in
Abraham’s bosom. This, properly speaking, constitutes the harrowing or
despoiling of hell. For, through granting the souls of the just the vision
which beatifies, the King of all things “robbed” hell of its most prized
possessions. But Christ’s presence in hell also had the effects of giving hope
of attaining eternal glory to the souls in purgatory and of confounding and
bewildering those in gehenna (Summa Theologiae, III, q.
52, a. 2).
These considerations, in turn, cast some light on
the reasons for God the Son’s descent into hell. For one thing, He went there
to manifest His power and authority to the underworld. As St. Paul writes, “at
Jesus’ name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth, and
under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father:
Jesus Christ in Lord!” (Phil. 2:10-11). But secondly, and more importantly, our
Lord came to deliver His loved ones from their exile. He came to reward those
who, from our first father, Adam, to His own foster-father, St. Joseph, had
fought the good fight and had finished the race. The King descended into Hell
in order to bring nothing less than His own beatific vision, the very paradise
which He promised to Dismas just a few hours before (Lk. 23:43), to
these just and holy souls.
. .
.
--https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/04/harrowing-of-hell-david-arias.html
One may note
how the Roman Catholic view of the harrowing is rather limited in its
scope: Christ went down only to bring
the just out of Hades, while for the wicked he gives nothing but vindictive
chastisement (most Protestants reject the idea that Christ rescued anyone
from Hades, so we will focus on the Roman Catholic teachings). The Orthodox teaching has a very different focus. His Grace Bishop Hilarion of Vienna
elaborates:
. . . The doctrine on the descent of Christ
into Hades is an integral part of Orthodox soteriology. Its soteriological
implications, however, depend in many ways on the way in which we understanding
the preaching of Christ in hell and its salutary impact on people[65]. If the
preaching was addressed only to the Old Testament righteous, then the
soteriological implications of the doctrine is minimal, but if it was addressed
to all those in hell, its significance is considerably increased. It seems that
we have enough grounds to argue, following the Greek Orthodox theologian, I.
Karmiris, that ‘according to the teaching of almost all the Eastern Fathers,
the preaching of the Saviour was extended to all without exception and salvation
was offered to all the souls who passed away from the beginning of time,
whether Jews or Greek, righteous or unrighteous’[66]. At the same time, the
preaching of Christ in hell was good and joyful news of deliverance and salvation,
not only for the righteous but also the unrighteous. It was not the preaching
‘to condemn for unbelief and wickedness’, as it seemed to Thomas Aquinas. The
entire text of the First Letter of St. Peter relating to the preaching of
Christ in hell speaks against its understanding in terms of accusation and
damnation’[67].
Whether all or only some responded to
the call of Christ and were delivered from hell remains an open question. If we
accept the point of view of those Western church writers who maintain that
Christ delivered from hell only the Old Testament righteous, then Christ’s
salutary action is reduced merely to the restoration of justice. The Old
Testament righteous suffered in hell undeservedly, not for their personal sins
but because of the general sinfulness of human nature and because their
deliverance from hell was a ‘duty’ which God was obliged to undertake with
respect to them. But such an act could scarcely constitute a miracle that made
the angels tremble or one to be praised in church hymns.
Unlike the West, Christian
consciousness in the East admits the opportunity to be saved not only for those
who believe during their lifetime, but also those who were not given to believe
yet pleased God with their good works. The idea that salvation was not only for
those who in life confessed the right faith, not only for the Old Testament
righteous, but also those heathens who distinguished themselves by a lofty
morality, is developed in one of the hymns of John Damascene:
Some say that [Christ delivered from
hell] only those who believed[68],
such as fathers and prophets, judges and together with them kings, local rulers
and some others from the Hebrew people, not numerous and known to all. But we
shall reply to those who think so that there is nothing undeserved, nothing
miraculous and nothing strange in that Christ should save those who believed[69],
for He remains only the fair Judge, and every one who believes in Him will not
perish. So they all ought to have been saved and delivered from the bonds of
hell by the descent of God and Master - that same happened by His Disposition.
Whereas those who were saved only through [God’s] love of men were, as I think,
all those who had the purest life and did all kinds of good works, living in
modesty, temperance and virtue, but the pure and divine faith they did not
conceive because they were no instructed in it and remained altogether
unlearnt. They were those whom the Steward and Master of all drew, captured in
the divine nets and persuaded to believe in Him, illuminating them with the
divine rays and showing them the true light[70].
This approach renders the descent into
Hades exceptional in its soteriological implications. According to Damascene,
those who were not taught the true faith during their lifetime can come to
believe when in hell. By their good works, abstention and chastity they
prepared themselves for the encounter with Christ. These are that same people
about whom St. Paul says that having no law they ‘do by nature things contained
in the law’, for ‘the work of the law is written in their hearts’[71]. Those
who live by the law of natural morality but do not share the true faith can
hope by virtue of their righteousness that in a face-to-face encounter with God
they will recognize in Him the One they ‘ignorantly worshipped’[72].
Has this anything to do with those who
died outside Christian faith after the descent of Christ into Hades? No, if we
accept the Western teaching that the descent into Hades was a ‘one-time’ event
and that the recollection of Christ did not survive in hell. Yes, if we proceed
from the assumption that after Christ hell was no longer like the Old Testament
sheol, but it became a place of the divine presence. In addition, as Archpriest
Serge Bulgakov writes, ‘all events in the life of Christ, which happen in time,
have timeless, abiding significance. Therefore, the so-called ‘preaching in
hell’, which is the faith of the Church, is a revelation of Christ to those who
in their earthly life could not see or know Christ. There are no grounds for
limiting this event… to the Old Testament saints alone, as Catholic theology
does. Rather, the power of this preaching should be extended to all time for
those who during their life on earth did not and could not know Christ but meet
Him in the afterlife[73]. According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, all
the dead, whether believers or non-believers, appear before God. Therefore,
even for those who did not believe during their lifetime, there is hope that
they will recognize God as their Saviour and Redeemer if their previous life on
earth led them to this recognition.
. .
.
--https://stjamesorthodox.org/files/articles/Bishop-Hilarion---Christ-the-Conqueror-of-Hades.pdf
Such is the
expansive view of the Orthodox Church.
It is no great wonder, then, that as the West has moved away from it,
atheism/indifference to Christianity has been steadily growing since Roman
Catholics and Protestants have so greatly limited the scope and action of God’s
Love, declaring that only certain categories of men will be saved:
The general conclusion can now be drawn
from a comparative analysis of Eastern and Western understandings of the
descent into Hades. In the first three centuries of the Christian Church, there
was considerable similarity between the interpretation of this doctrine by
theologians in East and West. However, already by the 4th-5th centuries,
substantial differences can be identified. In the West, a juridical
understanding of the doctrine prevailed. It gave increasingly more weight to
notions of predestination (Christ delivered from hell those who were
predestined for salvation from the beginning) and original sin (salvation given
by Christ was deliverance from the general original sin, not from the
‘personal’ sins of individuals). The range of those to whom the saving action
of the descent into hell is extended becomes ever more narrow. First, it
excludes sinners doomed to eternal torment, then those in purgatory and finally
unbaptised infants. This kind of legalism was alien to the Orthodox East, where
the descent into Hades continued to be perceived in the spirit in which it is expressed
in the liturgical texts of Good Friday and Easter, i.e. as an event significant
not only for all people, but also for the entire cosmos, for all created life.
At the same time, both Eastern and
Western traditions suggest that Christ delivered from hell the Old Testament
righteous led by Adam. Yet if in the West this is perceived restrictively
(Christ delivered only the Old Testament righteous, while leaving all the rest
in hell to eternal torment), in the East, Adam is viewed as a symbol of the entire
human race leading humanity redeemed by Christ (those who followed Christ were
first the Old Testament righteous led by Adam and then the rest who responded
to the preaching of Christ in hell).
--Ibid.
And also,
The doctrine of the descent of Christ
into Hades is important for an understanding of God’s action in human history,
as reflected in the Old Testament. The biblical account of the flood, which
destroyed all humanity, is a stumbling block for many who wish to believe in a
merciful God but cannot reconcile themselves with a God who ‘repents’ of his
own deed. The teaching on the descent into hell, as set forth in 1 Pet.
3:18-21, however, brings an entirely new perspective into our understanding of
the mystery of salvation. It turns out that the death sentence passed by God to
interrupt human life does not mean that human beings are deprived of hope for
salvation, because, failing to turn to God during their lifetime, people could
turn to Him in the afterlife having heard Christ’s preaching in the prison of
hell. While committing those He created to death, God did not destroy them, but
merely transferred them to a different state in which they could hear the
preaching of Christ, to believe and to follow Him.
--Ibid.
‘The death
of the West’ is a popular topic of discussion, and rightly so since it is a
phenomenon sadly unfolding right before us.
But the cause is known - her being sundered from the Orthodox Church, in
which the Grace of God abides. And
therefore the cure is likewise known - the reunion of the West with that same
Church, which is nothing less than the crucified, risen, glorified, and
ascended Body of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will the pride of the West for her post-Great
Schism ‘civilization’ keep her from reuniting with that which will give her
life?
The holy
icon of the Harrowing of Hades is from https://www.orthodoxroad.com/christs-descent-into-hell-icon-explanation/ . An explanation of this icon is on the same
page.
--
Holy Ælfred
the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to
the Union!
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