According
to Christian tradition today is called Holy Saturday, the “day in between” Good
Friday and Easter Sunday. It recalls the phrase in the Creed that says Jesus “descended
into hell” after his death on the cross. But, today is not a day to try to
imagine what happened on that day two millennia ago after Jesus died on the
cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. Nor is it exactly the same as Dante’s journey
through Hell in the Inferno. All
those people were dead. According to Nathan Michel, “What the paschal triduum
[the three days: Friday, Saturday, Sunday] actual celebrates is mystery, not
history…”[1]
And mystery is always about the present. “They celebrate not what once happened
to Jesus but what is now happening among us as a people….”[2] What does it mean then that “Jesus descended
into hell?” It fits of course with the
whole story of Jesus in the Gospels. Early in his life as a young adult, he
made an option and moved very consciously to stand with those who were on the “periphery”
of society. He entered their hell.
OK, so what
is there today that corresponds to Jesus “descent into hell?” I would like to suggest we consider those who
“live in hell” today: those living in refugee camps, the drug addicts, the
homeless, those living in the favelas on the outskirts of the major cities of
the world or in the inner city slums. We might also want to take some time with
those living with the last stages of a fatal disease like cancer, Lou Gehrig’s syndrome,
clinical depression, schizophrenia, paranoia…. These people “live in hell” How
about also those whose relatives, children, parents, mothers, sisters or
brothers have disappeared, sometimes years ago?
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| https://revbmw.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/discerning-the-body/ |
Today? Jesus lives and walks among us with the same
heart full of love and compassion. Pope Francis has repeated, and in audiences
asked those present to repeat with him, “God’s mercy has no limit” … no limit!
Jesus is risen in his people, in his “church.”
He lives there, here, in and through us. We, today, are called to live
this “mystery.” (You know that in Greek
the word refers to something profound that is profound and hidden but open to
discovery.) We, who are the church, the assembly of God’s people, are called
also to descend into hell, to go to the encounter of those who live there (or
to that part of us that lives there). God’s mercy knows no limit. We are
called, like Jesus, to gather them up out of hell, to walk with them as they
journey out of hell.
In my way
of understanding Christianity, we journey toward that utopic moment when there
is no more hell because all those who were there have left, they have left
because they found brothers and sisters who walked with them out of hell.
Today I
want to salute all those health workers, social workers, psychologists, doctors, parents,
family members, teachers, pastors, nuns, volunteers and … friends… who dedicate their lives
to just this.
Some job!
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