Praying with icons - May 4, 2025

Christ’s Descent into Hades

When someone we know dies, we commit their body to the earth. It's a way of reminding ourselves that we've come from the earth and we return to the earth. And this is one of the sadnesses of mother earth that all of our children eventually return to the place where there is no life. We would do anything we could to escape this. We protect ourselves.

We build bigger houses. We collect allies, resources. But in the end, the rich die, the poor die, the healthy die. We all die. The sadness of mother earth is that not one of her children have ever escaped from that place of death until now.

One of the mysteries we celebrate Easter that's so important is that today we celebrate how a child of the earth, born of Mary, and a child of God, born of the spirit, has returned from death. This is the first time this has ever happened. If we were to try to imagine, it would be like the earth is a cold dead place, and then suddenly there's a volcano emerges. And fire and lava pour out of the earth. And it suddenly realizes that there's fire down there.

Well, something similar to that has happened in the resurrection. When Jesus rises from the dead from the dead, we have this understanding that there is life in this place of death. We don't have to be afraid. We don't need to protect ourselves. Yes.

We're going to die, but that death is not the end. We rejoice on this Easter season that Christ has been raised from the dead, but more importantly, we rejoice because now we don't have to fear death. We know that now in that place of death, there is a source of life, And we can entrust our lives and those who are dear to us that they too will share in this triumph, this victory over the grave.

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