“There is no past so ruined, no history so compromised, that it cannot be touched by mercy.” The underworld “is not only the condition of the dead.” It is also “the daily hell of loneliness, shame, abandonment and the struggle of life”, from which Jesus sets us free through his descent on Holy Saturday. For him, there are no “spirits in prison”, but rather a “creation made up of people lifted up, hearts forgiven, tears dried”. In his catechesis for the weekly General Audience, Leo XIV resumed his reflection on Holy Saturday, which he had begun last Wednesday. In the Biblical conception, he emphasised, Holy Saturday “is not so much a place as an existential condition: that condition in which life is depleted and pain, solitude, guilt, and separation from God and others reign.”
At the conclusion of the catechesis, during the greetings to the Italian-speaking faithful, the Pope called on all believers to pray the Rosary for peace each day throughout the month of October. He then made a surprise announcement: “the evening of Saturday 11 October, at 18.00, we will pray it together here in Saint Peter’s Square, during the vigil for the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, also commemorating the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.”
“Christ reaches us even in this abyss, passing through the gates of this realm of darkness”, the Pope assured in his catechesis: “He enters, so to speak, in the very house of death, to empty it, to free its inhabitants, taking them by the hand one by one.”
“The Son of God entered the deepest darkness to reach even the last of his brothers and sisters, to bring his light down there too. In this gesture there is all the strength and tenderness of the Paschal message: death is never the last word”,
Leo said quoting from an apocryphal text entitled the Gospel of Nicodemus, which manifests “the humility of a God who does not stop in front of our sin, who is not afraid when faced with the human being’s extreme rejection.” The apostle Peter tells us that Jesus, made alive in the Holy Spirit, went to take the news of salvation even “to the spirits in prison.” For Leo, “it is one of the most moving images”: “In this gesture there is all the strength and tenderness of the Paschal message: death is never the last word.”
“Christ’ descent “does not relate only to the past, but touches the life of every one of us.”
the Pope reminded the faithful that “Christ enters the daily hell of loneliness, shame, abandonment, and the struggle of life. Into all these ‘dark realities’ to bear witness to the love of the Father. “Not to judge, but to set free. Not to blame, but to save. He does so quietly, on tiptoe, like one who enters a hospital room to offer comfort and help.” “The Fathers of the Church, in pages of extraordinary beauty, described this moment as a meeting: that between Christ and Adam”, said the Holy Father: “an encounter that is the symbol of all the possible encounters between God and man.
The Lord descends where man has hidden out of fear, and calls him by name, takes him by the hand, raises him up, and brings him back to the light. He does so with full authority, but also with infinite gentleness, like a father with the son who fears that he is no longer loved.”
In the eastern icons of the Resurrection, Christ is depicted breaking down the doors of the underworld, stretching out his arms and grasping Adam and Eve by the wrists: “He does not save only himself; he does not return to life alone, but carries all of humanity with him”, the Pope remarked: “This is the true glory of the Risen One: it is the power of love, it is solidarity with a God who does not want to save himself without us, but only with us. A God who does not rise again unless he embraces our miseries and lifts us up to a new life.” Holy Saturday, then, “is the day in which heaven visits earth most deeply.” “It is the time in which every corner of human history is touched by the light of Easter.”
“And if Christ was able to descend all the way own there, nothing can be excluded from his redemption”, Leo assured: “Not even our nights, not even our oldest faults, not even our broken bonds.”
“To descend, for God, is not a defeat, but the fulfilment of his love”, the Pope explained, “it is not a failure, but the way by which he shows that
no place is too far away, no heart is too closed, no tomb too tightly sealed for his love.
This consoles us, this sustains us.” “And if at times we seem to have hit rock bottom, let us remember: that is the place from which God is able to begin a new creation”, concluded Leo XIV: “A creation made of people lifted up, hearts forgiven, tears dried. Holy Saturday is the silent embrace with which Christ presents all creation to the Father to restore it to his plan of salvation.”
