Decended into Hell

Descended into Hell
The Apostle’s Creed is the essence of the Christian faith. Legend says that on the first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended, Apostles started to pray with the creed. But the Rome in 4th century is said to use it to educate the new Christian converts. I recite every morning the creed in my prayer.

I noticed that a version of the creed translated into a different language is missing one verse as compared with the English counterpart. The missing part is ‘descended into Hell.’ I know not whether the original Hebrew or Latin version includes this verse.  Anyway, all Jesus narration on  of conceived by the Holy Spirit, descended into Hell to rise again, and ascended into Heaven is included in the creed, in which ‘descended into Hell’ is probably the lowest point and a scandal to Jesus in the eyes of men not to be remembered. However, the creed is understood as a whole in the realm of faith.

The Holy Saturday (the day after the Crucifixion) was the day God was dead from the human perspective. It was a dark, dark day. The Apostles who followed Jesus was devastated. We cannot imagine a world without God even for one day. Our whole hope would have gone into void. No hope, no life. This one day is like a thousand years in darkness. Many bad things can happen in one day as we know. I do not know what Jesus did on that day when they were helpless in the dark abyss.

I have had days I felt like in darkness without light falling into the bottomless pit alone several times in my life. Fear was my worst enemy.  I lost the hope I had, the hope I probably picked up on the street on false promises. But only after the hope was broken asunder, I often found the true hope looming up on high. It is a transformation from false hope to true hope. We are in Hell as long as we are in fear enchanted by false hope.

We often find the darkness in us and try at any cost to hide it out of the fear of exposure only to fail. Jesus cried at the Cross not for Him but for us, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ The night before, He prayed, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' Jesus died alone for us. Nevertheless the experience of dark abyss could be a part of life’s journey for us to suffer and overcome each and every day.

The Resurrection has taken place only after Jesus ‘descended into hell.’ The resurrected Jesus had the incorruptible body. God be praised for this revelation. (May 11, 2015, KYP)