So here in this fresco, Fra Angelico paints the devil crushed under the door as a symbol of Christ’s victory over death. This is why we say God is the author of life and the devil, of death. They represent the men and women of those countless others behind them whose faces we can’t see, all of whom are righteous symbolized by the halos on their heads.īecause the devil maliciously caused Adam and Eve to sin, physical and spiritual death was the result in human nature. And behind them on the right is King David depicted with a crown. Behind them on the left is Moses depicted by the rays shining from his face. Behind him are Adam and Eve in clothes that appear to be made of grass. Interestingly, Sheol is also known as The Bosom of Abraham. (More on this exciting tidbit in bit.) He is holding out his right hand to usher out Abraham who is usually depicted as an old man with a long white beard. With his left hand he holds a banner with an insignia of the cross since the cross is the ironic instrument of his victory over death. It is glowing (and should remind us of the Transfiguration), and he is floating on clouds – it is definitely not an ordinary body. In the painting we see the gate forcibly smashed open, presumably by Christ. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captivesĪnd to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Interesting that when Jesus began his public life, he read the words of Isaiah: He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written in Isaiah: It is almost like a dark and gloomy tomb whose only light is that of Christ who entered it, not to be trapped inside, but to let out its captives. So in this painting, we see Christ had entered into Sheol, which is depicted as a cave with a gate to imprison those who have entered the realm of the dead. Because “hell” was deemed as a deprivation of God, this word was used correctly here but only in that context – not in the sense that the souls were eternally separated from God. The Apostle’s Creed – an older and shorter Creed – uses the words: “he descended to hell.” It is imperative to remember that “hell, in this context, is not the place of the damned. That is the place where Christ went when we say in the Creed: “he descended to the dead.” (ccc 633) Since they could not go to heaven and be with God (yet) they were stuck in that state. It is not a place of punishment, but we can think of it as a prison for good people who do not belong there. They languished in the abode of the dead called Sheol, or Hades.

But what happened to all those good men and women who died before Christ’s death? They couldn’t go to heaven because Christ had not opened its gates yet – figuratively speaking, of course. For Catholics we believe this is normally received during baptism where sins are forgiven and sanctifying grace is restored. When Christ was obedient unto death, he restored sanctifying grace for those who want to receive it. Unfortunately, when Adam and Eve fell from grace, they lost sanctifying grace (because it was not part of human nature but a supernatural gift – a gift above our nature – to perfect it), and all of their children down the generations inherited their human nature, which lacked this very important gift. So unless humans have sanctifying grace, we can’t live with God. However through a SCUBA gear, we are allowed to do that. (ccc 2000) A good analogy is that our human nature is different than from fish, and we cannot possibly live with them under water the way they do. So he gave us a gift called Sanctifying Grace so we can participate in his life. Because we are not of the same nature as God, we can’t “live” with him the way he does. We believe that when Adam and Eve were created, God endowed them with original holiness and justice so they could live with him. This painting by Fra Angelico reflects our understanding of Christ’s immediate activities after his death on Good Friday. Part of it proclaims that Christ descended to the dead. In every mass we profess our Faith when we recite the Creed.

Christ in limbo meaning