He Is Risen As He Promised

𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐋 𝟏𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘 - 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐋

𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐞𝐧 𝟏:𝟏-𝟐:𝟐

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟏𝟖:𝟏-𝟐𝟑 “𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐚, 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐚, 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐚!”

𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐞𝐧 𝟐𝟐:𝟏-𝟏𝟖

𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐑𝐨𝐦 𝟔:𝟑-𝟏𝟏

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐋𝐤 𝟐𝟒:𝟏-𝟏𝟐

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑯𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒏!” (𝒗.6)

As we await the glorious resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ as he had promised, let us first establish the predicate so that we may have a greater appreciation of the redemptive work of Jesus the Christ. This is also important to clear some of the wrong impressions we may have about Jesus descending into hell although this is what we pray in the Apostles’ Creed.

The Church refers to this day as Holy Saturday and or Black Saturday which means that the Church is in mourning. In Roman Catholic churches, the sanctuary remains stripped completely bare (following the Mass of Holy Thursday) while the administration of the sacraments is severely limited.

Holy Communion after the Good Friday service is given only as Viaticum to the dying. Baptism, Penance, and Anointing of the Sick may be administered because they, like Viaticum, are helpful to ensuring salvation for the dying.

Masses are severely limited and no Mass at all is celebrated in the normal liturgy for this day, although Mass can be said on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday for an extremely grave or solemn situation with a dispensation from the Vatican or the local bishop.

Many of the churches of the Anglican Communion as well as Lutheran, Methodist, and some other Churches observe most of the same; however, their altars may be covered in black instead of being stripped.

In some churches, provision is made for a simple Liturgy of the Word on this day, with readings commemorating the burial of Christ while the Daily Offices are still observed.

Liturgically speaking, Holy Saturday lasts until 6:00 p.m. of Saturday, after which the Easter Vigil is celebrated, marking the official start of the Easter season. The service may start with a fire and the lighting of the new Paschal candle. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the "𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂" of the Mass is recited once again and the church statues and icons that were covered with purple veils during Passiontide, are dramatically unveiled.

Now let us qualify what the reference that Jesus descended into hell means. While the ancient writings that found their way into the Apostles’ Creed said that: “𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒖𝒔 𝑷𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅, 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅. 𝑯𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍…” It is probably the intention of the Church to clarify this understanding of Holy Saturday that the Church has deigned it necessary to bring back the Nicene Creed where this scenario is simply stated as: “𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅.”

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church (𝐂𝐂𝐂𝟔𝟑𝟑) says that Christ went down into hell, the situation of the souls that were there were not identical which means that Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.

The place that Christ went into was called “𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐨” and this is quite distinct from purgatory although both share one thing in common that the souls who are there have no vision of God. The difference is that while there may be pain being suffered in purgatory, there is none in the place called limbo and limbo is also different from hell where the pain is eternal. Limbo is what is called in the Scripture as the “𝒃𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒉𝒂𝒎” (𝑳𝒌 16:22).

When Christ died, he went down into limbo to announce to the souls detained there the news of the redemption and to set them free. St. Ephiphanius affirmed this to be true and so did St. Irenaeus and St. Ignatius of Antioch saying that Christ returned with a large company of souls.

As he did this, Christ also revealed himself even to the souls in hell, and they were compelled to 𝐛𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦 (𝐏𝐡𝐢 𝟐:𝟏𝟎). 𝐂𝐂𝐂𝟔𝟑𝟒 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬: “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝." (𝟏 𝐏𝐞𝐭 𝟒:𝟔) The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus' messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

And 𝐂𝐂𝐂𝟔𝟑𝟓 states that: 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 "𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆." (𝑱𝒏 5:25; 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕 12:40; 𝑹𝒐𝒎 10:7; 𝑬𝒑𝒉 4:9) Jesus, "𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆", by dying destroyed "𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 [𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅] 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒈𝒆." (𝑯𝒆𝒃 2:14-15; 𝑨𝒄𝒕𝒔 3:15)

Henceforth, the risen Christ holds "𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒆𝒚𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔", so that "𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒘, 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉." (𝑹𝒆𝒗 1:18; 𝑷𝒉𝒊 2:10)

So tonight, we gather to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord as he had promised. As revealed in Luke’s gospel and those of Matthew, Mark, and John, Jesus Christ rose from the dead to prove to one and all that He is God and that we too, are to rise again.

There was no way for his disciples to have rolled away the stone without waking up the guards and if indeed his body was stolen the guards could have been punished. To further prove that he indeed has risen from the dead, Jesus appeared to many of His disciples, and it is this realization of his deity that his disciples would later become witnesses of the resurrection.

The nature of their witness does not allow an option to deceive others because they confessed to empirical evidence, claiming to have eaten and drank with Him, touched Him, and walked with Him and if Jesus was not raised from the dead, there could only be one alternative – that the witnesses who testified to His death and Resurrection were liars and deceivers and it is just not possible that men would be willing to suffer and die to propagate a lie.

When we carefully examine the lives and testimony of the witnesses of the resurrection, the only reasonable conclusion to draw was that they really saw what they claimed concerning Jesus regarding Jesus – that "𝐇𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐧!"

And in the words of St. Ambrose, if we are to rise from the grave of the flesh, we must rise from the grave of our sins. Let his resurrection then provide us with the realization that His death on the cross has given us the power to rise from our sinful nature and live again. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 19, 2025)