HOLY SATURDAY

 

HOLY SATURDAY

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

(From a reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday)

By the expression “He descended into hell”, the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil “who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14) [CCC 636]. In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him (CCC 637).

(🎨 After his death on the cross and before his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ grants salvation to the souls of the just who lived during all those centuries prior to His entry into Time by the Harrowing of Hell. Fresco, by Fra Angelico, c. 1430s)

➡️ What happens during Holy Week?