Why Hell Trembled, Alleuia!

One can only imagine the Devil’s blindness that Jesus’ death on the cross was his demise. The Devil’s mission within God’s salvific plan was to destroy man and woman. Made from the love of the Father, the Devil, the antithesis of love, sought to bring spiritual havoc and calamity to the children of God by any means necessary. A liar from the beginning, choosing to be greater than God, the Devil sought out man like a ravenous wolf waiting to ruin more souls. The mayhem that ensued after the fall initiated man’s journey to resurrect his relationship with God the Father. The relational and salvific history between God and man reveals a constant tension between the omnipotent and patient love of the Father versus the distorted and perverted desires of man. This tension has many examples in Sacred Scripture, such as the disparity in moral actions between Cain and Abel, Abraham’s doubt of the Lord’s command to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, the Israelites' obstinacy toward Moses after their release from bondage, David’s infidelity, and Jeremiah’s anger toward God. These realities reveal different levels of man’s dissension from God the Father. Sin had become synonymous with man’s behavior toward God, even when God revealed his love toward man in word and deed.

The Incarnation of the Son of God demonstrates the depth of God’s love for us because it meant God taking on a human form and choosing the assistance of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, who would serve as the Mother of God by giving birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The birth of Christ demonstrates that the pain of sin and death outside the grace of God’s love will no longer take precedence over humanity. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to destroy the works of the Devil and to resurrect man's relationship with God, which had fallen into despair.  Now, the tension between God and man has a Savior, Jesus Christ. This is why the Devil was desperate both in the desert, through the exorcisms performed by Christ, and at Gethsemane to somehow and in some way derail the salvific actions of Christ that would culminate with his death and resurrection and a path to new life.

At the moment of his death, Jesus descended into the realm of the dead, or the abode of the dead. His death and descent released those who died in communion with God. In his first Epistle, St. Peter provides context to this reality,

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,[1]

Jesus’ descent to the realm of the dead was to free the just, but also to reveal and proclaim the Gospel not only for the living but for the dead. Sin and death can no longer claim any perverted sense of victory over God. Jesus has destroyed sin and death. And this very fact would make hell tremble. The Catechism tells us,

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.” 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.” 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.^[2]

The magnificence of this exposition of Jesus’ descent into the abode of the dead reveals something quite striking: the visible reality of love, mercy, and grace. Violence, despair, and hatred no longer await a person’s passing from this life to the next. What awaits is the love of the Son of God revealed through his death and resurrection. The Devil is now in a perpetual state of fear and trembling because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, has conquered sin by His death, and by His Resurrection from the dead, He has given us a new life.

The Suffering Servant has caused Hell to tremble, and for the Church to proclaim Alleluia, He is Risen from the dead. Death no longer has victory over our life in communion with Christ. The Devil is now faced with the reality that Jesus Christ, who is God, is Lord over him. The Lamb of God who has indeed taken away the sins of the world.[3]

Christ is risen from the dead!

Dying, he conquered death;

To the dead, he has given life.[4]