00:00Hello dear brothers and sisters! Greetings again from this section of Knowing to Love.
00:07Well, look, today María de Lourdes writes to us from the State of Mexico and tells us
00:14Father, I would like you to explain to me what it means when we pray the creed, the part where it says
00:21He descended into hell. Does this mean that Jesus was actually hell?
00:28Could you please explain this to me? Thank you.
00:58Well, my dear Maria de Lourdes, Jesus did not go down to hell, a place destined for
01:09Satan and his angels, but he descended to the place of the dead. Let me explain, I'll explain.
01:16A little more. The text you quote is taken from the oldest version of our profession.
01:24of faith, which could probably date back to around the year 52, when Christianity was
01:31widespread mainly among Jews.
01:34The Latin text says Descendit ad inferos, where the word inferos essentially refers to
01:44to the tomb, as Saint Paul says. Jesus descended to the lower regions of the earth,
01:51In Latin, ad inferos. That which descended, that is, died, is the same as ascending, resurrecting.
02:00as he says in his letter to the Ephesians. With this he is essentially referring to death and
02:06The physical and real resurrection of Christ. Now, the experience of the tomb, or going down
02:13Deep in the earth, it was known to the Jews as the place of the dead.
02:19However, they distinguished two places of the dead, Sheol or Hades, which is
02:26The underworld, or let's say, the mansion of the dead. It was considered a temporary place.
02:33And when the doctrine of resurrection was accepted, it came to signify the place of final punishment.
02:43which is the meaning of the word queena, used by Jesus in the New Testament.
02:49According to Acts 2:27 and Luke 16:23, all the dead are in Hades, while for
02:59Peter, in 1 Peter, and in Revelation 20, are only the wicked, while the
03:08Guena refers to the place of eternal death, which for us would be hell, since
03:18which is understood as the place of fire and eschatological punishment after the final judgment
03:23and of eternal duration, as Matthew 13 says.
03:29What the church confesses when it says that Christ descended into hell is that he descended to
03:35the lower regions, to free those who were captive, awaiting their liberation.
03:41That is why the catechism of the church says the following: scripture
03:49He calls the walls of the dead, where Christ descended after Christ, hells, Sheol, or Hades.
03:58dead, because those who were there were deprived of the vision of God.
04:03It is precisely these holy souls who awaited their liberator in the bosom of Abraham, the
04:11that Jesus freed when he descended into hell.
04:16In other words, Jesus did not go down to hell to free the condemned, nor to destroy
04:23not to the hell of damnation, but to free the righteous who, therefore, had not yet arrived
04:32to heaven.
04:33So, that's the idea behind this expression in the creed.
04:39So what we confess in the Apostles' Creed is the fact that
04:45Jesus really died and rose again, and that his resurrection freed us from the power of death.
04:53to those who, being righteous, had not yet been able to enter heaven.
04:58Jesus went for them and brought them with him into the eternal dwellings.
05:04Hopefully, this brief explanation will give you a clearer understanding of what it is when
05:10We recited the creed and he descended into hell.
05:15And well, that concludes our commentary on this segment.
05:18Hopefully it will be very useful for our friend, our friend Maria de Lourdes, and for
05:24all of you.
05:26And well, see you in our next segment.
05:28We look forward to seeing you here so that we can continue reflecting on our faith.
05:33I invite you to share these short videos and to find us on our evangelization page.
05:39and on all our social media channels to learn more about the Lord.
05:44Until next time, and blessings to you all.
06:09Thank you.
06:39Thank you.
06:40Thank you.
07:09Thank you.
07:10Thank you.
07:39Thank you.
07:40Thank you.
07:41Thank you.
