On Holy Saturday we commemorate the ‘Harrowing of Hell.’ It’s a doctrine found in the Apostle's Creed when we say, "He descended to the dead. " (For a short reflection on this event, please read this ancient homily.
     To understand this event most accurately, it is necessary to know that Hell in this circumstance is not the fiery furnace of eternal separation from God.  Instead, it is the realm of the dead, the netherworld like we see in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, or Sheol in Jewish tradition, or Hades for the Greeks.  It is to this place that Christ descends on the day between his death and resurrection.
     But why?
     In the Garden of Eden there were two trees: the Tree of Life ("eat of it and live forever") and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ("when you eat from it you shall die).  When the original sin was committed, God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden, and placed a cherubim at the gate to guard the way to the Tree of Life.  With no access to this tree, humanity faced the natural consequence of sin: death.  And all who died went to the netherworld, the realm of the dead.
     The theological import of the descent to the dead is profound. During the Proclamation at the Easter Vigil, the priest proclaims, "This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld."  But Jesus also freed the Holy Souls, those who died between The Fall in Genesis and his own resurrection, thus creating a true distinction between heaven, an eternal union with God, and hell, an eternal separation from God.
     It is Christ who says, "I am the true vine" and "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  It is he who grants access back to the Tree of Life, and his Harrowing of Hell is the means by which the cherubim guard was defeated.  From that time forward, all souls are granted the ability to "take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you."
David Palmieri, author of this story, is a parishioner and chair of the Theology Dept. at Xaverian Brothers High School.