Holy Saturday. Our Lord Jesus Christ descends to hell.

Our Catholic faith teaches that Jesus Christ, at his death, descended into hell. This is what we profess in the Apostles' Creed, or brief Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, descended into hellHe rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen

Apostles' Creed

In the same sense, as it could not be otherwise, the Catechism pronounces itself:

ARTICLE 5
"JESUS CHRIST DESCENDED INTO HELL,
ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD".

631 "Jesus descended to the lower regions of the earth. This one who descended is the same one who ascended" (Ef 4, 9-10). The Symbol of the Apostles confesses in the same article of faith Christ's descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because it is in his Passover that, from the depths of death, he brings forth life:

Christus, Filius tuus,
qui, regressus ab inferis,
humano generi serenus illuxit,
et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

(It is Christ, your risen Son,
that, coming out of the tomb,
shines serene for the human lineage,
and he lives and reigns glorious forever and ever. Amen).

(Easter Vigil, Easter Proclamation ["Exultet"]: Roman Missal)

Paragraph 1
CHRIST DESCENDED INTO HELL

632 The frequent New Testament assertions that Jesus "rose from the dead" (Ac 3, 15; Rm 8, 11; 1 Co 15, 20) presuppose that, before the resurrection, he remained in the abode of the dead (cf. Hb 13, 20). This is the first sense that the apostolic preaching gave to the descent of Jesus into hell; Jesus knew death like all men and joined them in the abode of the dead. But he descended as Savior, proclaiming the good news to the spirits who were detained there (cf. 1 P 3,18-19).

633 Scripture calls hell, sheol, or hades (cf. Flp 2, 10; Ac 2, 24; Ap 1, 18; Ef 4, 9) to the abode of the dead where Christ descended after death, because those who were there were deprived of the vision of God (cf. Salt 6, 6; 88, 11-13). Such, in fact, was, while awaiting the Redeemer, the state of all the dead, wicked or just (cf. Salt 89, 49;1 S 28, 19; Ez 32, 17-32), which does not mean that their fate is identical as Jesus teaches in the parable of poor Lazarus received into "Abraham's bosom" (cf. Lc 16, 22-26). "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Deliverer in Abraham's bosom, whom Jesus Christ freed when he descended into hell" (Roman Catechism, 1, 6, 3). Jesus did not descend into hell to free the damned (cf. Council of Rome, year 745: DS, 587) nor to destroy the hell of damnation (cf. Benedict XII, 1, 6, 3), Libel Cum dudumDS, 1011; Clement VI, c. Super quibusdam: ibid1077), but to liberate the righteous who had preceded him (cf. Council of Toledo IV, year 625: DS, 485; cf. also Mt 27, 52-53).

634 "Even to the dead the Good News has been preached ..." (1 P 4, 6). The descent into hell is the complete fulfillment of the Gospel proclamation of salvation. It is the last phase of the messianic mission of Jesus, a phase condensed in time but immensely broad in its real meaning of extension of the redemptive work to all men of all times and all places because all those who are saved become sharers in the Redemption.

635 Christ, therefore, descended to the depths of death (cf. Mt 12, 40; Rm 10, 7; Ef 4:9) so that "the dead may hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear may live" (Jn 5, 25). Jesus, "the Prince of life" (Ac 3:15) annihilated "by death the lord of death, that is, the devil, and set free those who, through fear of death, were in lifelong bondage "(Hb 2, 14-15). Henceforth, the risen Christ "holds the keys of death and of Hell" (Ap 1:18) and "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and in the depths" (Flp 2, 10).

"A great silence envelops the earth; a great silence and a great loneliness. A great silence, because the King sleeps. The earth is afraid and in awe, because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and has awakened those who have slept of old [...] He goes in search of our first Father as if he were the lost sheep. He wants to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death. He, who is both God and the Son of God, is going to free Adam and Eve from their prisons and their pain [...] I am your God, who for you and for all who are to be born of you have made me your Son. To you I command you: Awake, you who sleep, for I did not create you to remain captive in the abyss; arise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."

(Old homily on the great and holy Sabbath: PG 43, 440. 452. 452. 461).

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Click here.

And in the summary, the same Catechism says:

637 The dead Christ, in his soul united to his divine person, descended to the abode of the dead. He opened the gates of heaven to the righteous who had preceded him..

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Click here.

So much for public revelation and Catholic doctrine. If we also consider private revelation, which we do not have to believe, but which is revelation nonetheless, even if it is private, we have the blessed Anna Katherina EmmerichThe text is as follows:

He visto al Señor en diferentes puntos, sobre todo en el mar: parecía que santificaba y libertaba toda la creación; por todas partes los malos espíritus huían delante de Él y se precipitaban en el abismo. Vi también su alma en diferentes sitios de la tierra. La vi aparecer en el interior del sepulcro de Adán debajo del Gólgota; las almas de Adán y de Eva vinieron con él, y les habló. Lo vi visitar con ellas los sepulcros de muchos Profetas, cuyas almas vinieron a unirse con él sobre sus huesos. Después con esas almas, entre las cuales estaba David, lo vi aparecerse en muchos sitios marcados con alguna circunstancia de su vida, explicándoles con un amor inefable las figuras de la Ley antigua y su cumplimiento.

This is the little that I can remember of my visions of the descent of Jesus into hell and the freedom of the souls of the just. But in addition to this event fulfilled in time, I saw an eternal figure of the mercy that He exercises today with the poor souls. Each anniversary of this day casts a liberating glance into purgatory: today, at the very moment when I had this vision, he has taken out of purgatory the souls of some people who had sinned at the time of his crucifixion. Today I have seen the freedom of many known and unknown souls, but I will not name them.

El descendimiento de Jesús a los infiernos es la plantación de un árbol de gracia destinado a comunicar sus méritos á las almas que padecen. La redención continua de esas almas, es el fruto que da este árbol en el jardín espiritual de la Iglesia. La Iglesia militante debe cuidar ese árbol y recoger sus frutos para comunicarlos a la Iglesia paciente, que no puede hacer nada para sí misma. Lo mismo sucede con todos los méritos de Cristo; para participar de ellos hay que trabajar para Él. Debemos comer nuestro pan con el sudor de nuestra frente. Todo lo que Jesús ha hecho por nosotros en el tiempo, da frutos eternos; pero hay que cultivarlos y recogerlos en el tiempo; si no, no podríamos gozar de ellos en la eternidad. La Iglesia es un padre de familia; su año es el jardín completo de todos los frutos eternos en el tiempo. Hay en un año bastante de todo para todos. ¡Desgraciados los jardineros perezosos e infieles si dejan perder una gracia que hubiera podido curar un enfermo, fortificar un débil, satisfacer a un hambriento! Darán cuenta de la más insignificante yerbecita el día del juicio.

Anna Katherina Emmerich, "The Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ", GEOAKE, Madrid, 1980. It is a facsimile edition of the one published by Garnier Brothers in 1882, translated from the French edition. ISBN 84-371-1345-8.

Hoy. Sábado Santo, se puede lucrar indulgencia plenaria. Igual que se pudo ayer, Viernes Santo adorando la Cruz en los Oficios, y anteayer, Jueves Santo, cantando el Tantum ergo al final de los Oficios, como puede usted comprobar by clicking here.

A nosotros, por su gloriosa resurrección, por medio del bautismo, nos ha sido dado, no sólo creen en Cristo, sino también padecer por Él (Filipenses, I, 29). Les recordamos que, por lo mismo, nos ha sido dado, con causa en los sufrimientos de Cristo, que administra la Iglesia, la capacidad de lucrar una indulgencia plenaria cada día, que podemos ofrecer en favor de almas del purgatorio, acogiéndonos a los méritos de Cristo y a la disciplina de la Iglesia, y por tanto cumpliendo las condiciones habituales (aversión al pecado incluso venial, rezar por el Romano Pontífice, comunión en el día, confesión en la semana antes o después), y con prácticas de piedad cotidianas muy sencillas:

• Praying the Rosary as a family, in community, two or more people, or by yourself alone in a church or oratory (conc. 17 § 1).
• Making the Stations of the Cross in a church (conc. 13, 2°)
• Adoration of the Eucharist for half an hour (conc. 7 § 1, 1°)
• Reading or listening to Sacred Scripture as spiritual reading for half an hour (conc. 30). Podcasting or analogous is also acceptable.
• On pilgrimage to any of the patriarchal basilicas of Rome (conc. 33 § 1, 1°). They are the following: St. Peter's in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major.
• Rezando el himno Akathistos o el himno Paraclisis (conc. 23 § 1) en cualquier iglesia.

You can see it all in detail by clicking here o by clicking here.