LYCEUM OF TUAO

5TH MODULE

INSTRUCTOR: BRAJAM GONZALES BARRIAS

COURSECODE: THEOLOGY 1
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: THE APOSTLES CREED

ARTICLE 5
He descended to the dead,
on the third day He rose again …

THE LORD DESCENDS INTO THE DEAD

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The
whole earth keeps silence because the King is sleep. The earth trembled and still because God has fallen
asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept over since the world began. God has died in the
flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parents, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in
darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is
both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the
victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to
everyone: “ My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “ And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand
and raiser him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
I Am your God, who for your sake had become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now
by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be
enlightened, all who are sleeping arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held
prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life and dead. Rise up, let us leave this place, for you are in
me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake, I, your God, become your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the
heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of a man, I became like a
man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, and I was crucified in a
garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed in you. See there the
marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back, see the
marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands,
nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought fort Eve from your
side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that
pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that
paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was symbol of life, but see, I who am
life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you, as slaves are guarded, but now I make
them worship you as God. The throne form by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal
chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all
good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
TERMS TO REMEMBER:
 Sheol – Where the souls of the dead remain before the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
 Heaven – an intermediate state after death for expiatory purification; specifically; a state of
punishment wherein the souls of those who die in God’s grace may make satisfaction for past sins and
so become fit for heaven; a place or state of temporary suffering or misery.
 Hell – a nether world in which the dead continue to exist:
HADES: the nether realm of the devil and the demons in which the damned suffer everlasting; a place
or state of misery, torment, or wickedness.
 Cenacle – a place where the apostles gathered and fellowship.
 Thomas – the unbelieving disciple or the doubter. He challenged to believe only if he’ll be able to
insert his fingers in the wounded palms and side of Jesus. It was done, and he believed. “His word of
belief: “ My Lord and my God"
 Two Disciples on the way to Emmaus – Jesus appeared to them along the way. He preached and
broke bread with them and they realized Jesus.
 Peter – The apostles who denied Jesus three times and was asked by Jesus a three time manifestation
of his love. “Peter, do you love me more than these?” Jn. 21:15-17. He is the head and shepherds of
the Church.
 Galilee – is where the final apparition of Jesus before he ascended into heaven took place. (Mt. 28:16-
20)

SALVIFIC IMPORTANCE OF CHRIST’S RESSURECTION

1. His resurrection confirmed everything Christ had done and taught.
 It fulfilled both Jesus' triple prediction of His Passion, Death and resurrection in the Synoptics
( cf. Mk. 8:31; 9:30; 10:32) and His triple prediction of being “lifted up" in John’s Gospel ( cf.
Jn 3:14; 8:28; 12:32)
 Christ’s exaltation vindicated all he claimed to be, as he himself asserted in his trial before the
high priest ( cf. Mk 14:6 ff)
2. Through His resurrection, Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies promising a Savior for
the entire world. ( cf. Psalm; Dn 7:13)
 The history of God’s Self-revelation, begun with Abraham and continuing through Moses, the
Exodus, and the whole OT, reached climax in Christ’s resurrection, something unprecedented
totally new.
3. The resurrection confirmed Jesus' divinity.
  St. Paul preached that Jesus was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness by His resurrection from the dead.” ( Rm 1:4; cf. Phil. 2:7-8)
 Upon seeing the Risen Jesus, Thomas cried out; “My Lord and my God" (Jn 20:28)
4. Christ’s death freed us from sin, and his resurrection brought us a share in the new life of adopted
sons and daughters of the Father in the Holy Spirit.
 “If then we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him"
5. The Risen Christ is the principle and source of our future resurrection.
 This means Jesus rose not only to a “glorious” higher state of life himself, but also to become
the source of this new life for all.
 “ He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables
him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Phil. 3:21)
 “In Christ all will come to life again" (1 Cor. 15:22)

THE RESURRECTION AS JESUS' PRESENCE

Resurrection is the center of our faith. “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless
and your believing is useless”.
The presence of the Risen Jesus was not confined to his appearances. Rather, active presence was
intensely felt by the early community, and linked with life in the spirit. “We ourselves although we have the
Spirit of first fruits, groan inwardly while we await the redemption of our bodies” ( Rm 8:23). Jesus' presence
was especially felt in three areas, corresponding to our present Doctrine – Morals – Worship,
1. Source of the teaching and authority of the Christian community’s leaders.
2. In the moral exhortations of the Pauline Epistles
3. In the community worship, especially Baptism and the Eucharist.
1. TEACHING AND AUTHORITY
 The risen Christ commissioned his disciples: You are to “ teach them to carry out everything I have
commanded you" ( Mt. 28:20)
 Jesus and the Father abide in anyone who is “ true to my word … we will come to him and make our
dwelling place with him" (Jn. 14:23)
 This abiding presence is affected through the Holy Spirit who “will instruct you in everything and
remind you of all that I told you" ( Jn 14:26)
 For the Spirit “bears witness" to the Risen Christ ( cf. Jn. 15:26)
 He “ will guide you to all truth … announce to you all the things that are to come. In doing this he will
give glory to me because he will have received from me what he will announce to you" (Jn 16:13-14)
2. PAULINE MORAL EXHORTATIONS
 The Risen Christ’s Paschal pattern of new life through death determines the shape of all Christian life
in the Spirit. Christ’s Resurrection makes spiritually present he to whom every Christian belongs.
 Paul writes: Continually we carry about in out bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life
of Jesus may also be revealed” ( 2 Cor. 4:10)
 He exhorts his Corinthian converts: “ Christ our Pascal Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us celebrate
the feast not with the old yeast of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth” ( 1 Cor 5 7-8)
3. LITURGICAL WORSHIP
 The Risen Christ’s presence was experienced perhaps most clearly in the sacramental worship of the
Christian community.
 “ In Baptism you were not only buried with Him but also raised to new life with him because you
believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead" ( Col 2:12)
 The Eucharist, for Paul, makes present Christ's Paschal Mystery: “ Every time, then, you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you proclaimed the death of the Lord until he comes” ( 1 Cor 11:26)
 John stresses the notion of abiding presence through the Eucharist: “ Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56).