We are still in the Easter Octave so it’s not too late to talk about something we often forgot to think about during the Triduum: The Harrowing of Hell.
But, before we talk about the Harrowing of Hell, let’s talk about harrowing.
A harrow is a sort of heavy field rake, more imposing, that is used to break up heavy soil and remove weeds. It causes distress to the soil.
If someone tells us they have had a harrowing experience, they’re talking about being distressed, but they’re generally not talking about working in a field. They’re talking about being chased by a rabid dog or getting their shoelaces caught in the wheels of a train.
So, what is the Harrowing of Hell? It is a term we do not hear very much these days, and yet it refers to an event that we mention every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed: “He descended into hell …” It comes right after “He was buried,” – and right before “On the third day He rose again.” It is what happened between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. There is no direct reference to it in the Gospels, but the First Epistle of St. Peter clearly says that Jesus “preached to the spirits in prison,” (3:19-20) after his death and before he rose from the tomb.
Most theologians argue that the Descent into Hell was to Sheol, the place of the dead, rather than Hell, or the Inferno, Gehenna, the place of the damned. The righteous souls who died before Christ needed to have an encounter with Christ before being released from “prison.” Because even though they were righteous, they weren’t quite. For as Isaiah says and St. Paul repeats, “None are righteous, not one.” They still needed the Grace of God which comes only through the Son of God, the Redeemer.
A poem entitled “The Harrowing of Hell” by Orkney poet George Mackay Brown imagines Jesus descending a step at a time and encountering the Old Testament prophets and kings who had anticipated him:
He went down the first step.
His lantern shone like the morning star.
Down and round he went
Clothed in his five wounds.Solomon whose coat was like daffodils
Came out of the shadows.
He kissed Wisdom there, on the second step.The boy whose mouth had been filled with harp-songs,
The shepherd king
Gave, on the third step, his purest cry…Joseph, harvest-dreamer, counsellor of pharaohs
Stood on the fourth step.
He blessed the lingering Bread of Life.He who had wrestled with an angel,
The third of the chosen,
Hailed the King of Angels on the fifth step.Abel with his flutes and fleeces
Who bore the first wound
Came to the sixth step with his pastoralsOn the seventh step down
The tall primal dust
Turned with a cry from digging and delving.Tomorrow the Son of Man will walk in a garden
Through drifts of apple-blossom.
It would seem at first that term Harrowing of Hell is more a reference to the field action, Jesus pulling souls out of the spiritual soil of the underworld. But why would souls be compared with weeds? Why not the “Harvesting of Hell?” I suggest that The Harrowing of Hell is a deliberate reference to the Distressing of Hell. Furthermore, I would suggest – in order to keep the argument going with those other theologians who are paid for their opinions – that before the coming of Christ the souls of the dead were all together, undamned and unredeemed, and were awaiting the resolution of the states of their souls.
What is the distress involved?
It might be distressing to hell when someone comes in and makes things even worse. It might be distressing to hear the Gospel when you are busy cursing God. It might be distressing to suddenly find yourself the presence of Christ … in hell. You might be a weed getting pulled up and thrown into an everlasting fire.
Perhaps this is why The Harrowing of Hell is depicted in many of the medieval Corpus Christi Mystery plays with low brow slapstick humor. In fact, I was Florence just a few weeks ago and saw the monastery of San Marco where Fra Angelico painted all the frescoes in each monks cell, and one of them depicted The Harrowing of Hell. When Jesus knocks down the door of hell, it comically crushes a demon beneath it.
As for the souls to be saved, there might also be distress in meeting your Savior while still suffering in your sins. It might be rather fearful to face the One you have offended. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You would be something like a clump of soil being broken up and suddenly made useful.
But it seems it would be most distressing to the one who imagined he was the ruler of this realm of the dead, the adversary who thought he had scored his great victory at the Cross. Hell would certainly be distressed when Jesus showed up and took the souls from Satan that he thought he had. The Lord brought order to the place of the dead.
What did G.K. Chesterton write about the Harrowing of Hell? I knew you were going to ask this. The answer is, well, about as much as is written in the Scriptures. But there is one pertinent GKC line, which just happens to be one of my favorites: “It is not always wrong to go down to the lowest promontory … and look down on hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made.”
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An interesting, plausible rendering of Christ’s descent into Hell. I assumed it was Sheol, the ‘detention center’ of the worthy dead rather than Hell. Yet, there were words expressed by saints of Christ preaching in Hell. That didn’t seem plausible.
Ahlquist’s vision of a place where both the potentially saved requiring assent to Christ, and the damned were placed makes sense and ties up some of the loose ends mentioned. George Mackay Brown’s poem an enjoyable extra.
Kindly answer the question directly. Did Jesus decend into hell or not?? One of my relations says it is not in the bible that Jesus decended into hell. Thankyou
As the essay states: “…but the First Epistle of St. Peter clearly says that Jesus “preached to the spirits in prison,” (3:19-20) after his death and before he rose from the tomb.” The longer quote from 1 Peter 3:
And, as the essay notes, the Apostles Creed states:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a section on Christ’s descent into Hell, which provides Scriptural and patristic sources, as well as theological reasons for why Christ did so.
Matthew 27:46 The Death of Jesus.
And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1320
At three o’clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. I will allow you to enter into My mortal sorrow. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that will make a request of Me in virtue of My Passion…
“Hell in Catholicism is the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed” which occurs by the refusal to repent of mortal sin before one’s death, since mortal sin deprives one of sanctifying grace. Like most Christian views on hell, the Catholic view is based on Sheol and Gehenna in Judaism. The church regards Sheol or Hades as the same as hell, being the place where Jesus descended to after death.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_in_Catholicism
I have had many, many, Catholics correct me. They tell me Hell is not burning fires, but instead, hell is total abandonment by God. So how can God enter into total abandonment by God, which is hell? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus tells us that the greatest agony of His Passion was his being abandoned by God. How can Jesus take our punishment of hell upon Himself, if He were not to go to hell for our sins? Hell being total abandonment by God.
God cannot die, yet Jesus died. God cannot be Eternally Begotten of God, yet Jesus was Eternally Begotten of God. God cannot carry our sins into total abandonment by God, which is hell, but Jesus Did! Thus the huge Catholic Crux. We believe that Jesus is fully God incapable of sin, and we also believe that Jesus is fully free-willed man capable of sin, yet never sinned, during His life on earth. I say that Jesus was Eternally Begotten of God into the ‘Eternal Now’ Spiritual realm, upon His Resurrection, where He then lives Spiritually, Eternally before physical realm Creation, as Eternal God, and helps bring the physical realm into existence. This solves the great Catholic crux.
John 17:4
“I have given you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Do you now, Father, give me glory at your side, a glory I had with you before the world began.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:30
God had sworn to him that one of his descendants would sit upon his throne. He said that he was not abandoned to the nether world, nor did his body undergo corruption, thus proclaiming beforehand the resurrection of the Messiah. This is the Jesus God has raised up. and we are his witnesses. Exalted at God’s right hand, he first received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father, then poured this Spirit out on us.
Acts of the Apostles 13:32
“We ourselves announce to you the good news that what God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, in raising up Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm, You are my son; this day I have begotten you.”
1 Peter 3:18
He was put to death insofar as fleshly existence goes, but was given life in the realm of the spirit.
Revelation 1:17
“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.
Colosians 1:15 Fullness and Reconciliation.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures. In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, principalities, or powers; all were created through him, and for him. He is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being. It is he who is head of the body, the church; he who is the beginning, the first-born of the dead, so that primacy may be his in everything.