Meditations on Our Lord Jesus Christ, on Holy Saturday, Descending into Hell
Excerpt from the book The Life of Christ by St. Bonaventure
The beginning of this meditation is exclusively the work of St. Bonaventure, but in the second part he turns to St. Bernard of Clairvaux to more fully flesh out in more detail what we owe our Lord for all He suffered in His passion and what a great reward was won for us by His freeing of the souls from hell prior to His resurrection.
Yours in Jesus and Mary.
From the book The Life of Christ by St. Bonaventure (Rivingtons, 1888, pages 286-296)
Meditations on Our Lord Jesus Christ, on Holy Saturday, Descending into Hell
Now we must consider what the Lord did on the day of the Sabbath. Immediately upon His Death He descended into Hell, to the Holy Fathers, and remained with them. Were they not then in glory — for the sight of the Lord is perfect glory? Consider, then, here, and observe what kindness, what charity, what lowliness, Christ showed in going down into Hell. For He might have sent one of His angels to them, and freed all His servants, and then vouchsafed His Presence when He pleased. But His infinite love and humility would not have been satisfied with this course; therefore He went down Himself, and visited them, not as servants, but as friends, though He was Lord of all, and abode with them even till Sunday dawned.
Think, then, of these things; admire, and strive to imitate the virtues which are manifested. The Holy Fathers rejoiced, indeed, at His Advent, and were filled with immense sweetness; all disquietude was at once expelled; and they continued to sing canticles of praise and joy before Him, upon which you may meditate in this manner. Imagine them, as if clothed with bodies such as shall be theirs after the Resurrection, and likewise that most benign Soul of our Lord Jesus Christ. For as soon as they felt His saving Advent, they met Him joyously, exhorting one another, and saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people,” (Luke 1:68) and the rest. “Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh,” (Luke 21:28) “Arise, arise, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck.” (Isaias 53:2) “Behold, thy Savior cometh, to loose us from our chains.” “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in,” (Psalm 24:7) We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, our most loving God. And falling down, they worshipped Him, with joy and great gladness.
But consider them, for with reverence and great exultation, and joyful countenances, they stand before Him, and give utterance to such praises as we have named. And in similar praises, canticles, and songs, they continued in those borders till nearly daybreak on Sunday. A multitude of angels, we can conceive, would join them in their jubilations. Then the Lord led them forth from hell with triumph, going before them gloriously, and placed them in a Paradise of delights. After which, He remained with them a brief space, it may be in sweet converse with Elias and Enoch, who recognized Him, and then He said, “It is time that I raise My Body; I will go and resume it.” Whereupon all fell on their faces, and said, “Go, O Lord, King of Glory, and return quickly, if Thou wiliest; for we long to see Thy most glorious Body.”
You have, then, matter for meditation, on the Lord Jesus, His mother and disciples, and the Holy Fathers, for the Saturday in Holy Week. Now, as I have run through the entire history of the Passion, without adding quotations, for fear that by doing so I might have called off the mind’s attention from the great theme; I now propose to add a few authorities, by which to stir up our spirit to a more fervent and devout meditation.
Hear, then, according to our wont, what St. Bernard says. “You owe,” says he, “all your life to Jesus Christ, because He laid down His life for you, and endured such bitter torments, lest you should have to suffer eternally. For if all the days of the sons of Adam, and all ages, or all the labors of men whoever have been or shall be, were gathered into one, yet would such bear no comparison in moral worth to that Body, which is beautiful and wonderful, even in the sight of heavenly intelligences, in its conception by the Holy Ghost, in its Birth of a Virgin, in its innocence of life, in the affluence of its teaching, in the coruscation of its miracles, in the revelation of Sacraments. For as heaven is higher than earth, so is His Life above ours. In fact, there is no possibility of instituting any comparison between terms which are so distant, for no life is more worthy than His, none more miserable than ours. When, then, I dedicate to Him all that is in my power, it bears in comparison with His self-sacrifice, the proportion of a star to the sun, of a drop to a river, of a stone to a mountain, of a grain to a bushel.”
And again, “The emptying of Christ of His glory was not a solitary act, or one of limited character; on the contrary, He humbled Himself to the flesh, to death, to the Cross. Who can ever form an adequate estimate of His lowliness, His meekness. His condescension — a God of Majesty, to be clothed with flesh, to be punished by death, to endure the shame of the Cross? But, shall we say, the Creator was not able to mend His work, without resorting to such extreme measures? He was able, but He preferred to suffer Himself, lest there should be any longer occasion or excuse for man’s ingratitude, a vice most odious and base. Truly, He embraced much fatigue, so that, through His great love, He might make man a debtor; and that the very difficulty of His Redemptive Work might move man to gratitude, whose creation through its facility had failed to call it forth. For what did man, created and unthankful, in effect say? ‘I have been made, it is true, but my creation cost my Maker nothing, no toil, no labor. He only spoke the word, and I was made, and all else besides me.’ ” (Sermon 11 in Canticle)
And further on, “ ‘But the mouth of those that speak evil shall be stopped.’ It is clearer than the day now, O man, what thou hast cost thy God. From the Lord to become a servant, from the rich poor, from the Word the flesh, from the Son of God the Son of man, He disdained not. Remember, if at no cost He made, He did not at no cost redeem thee. In six days He made all things, and thee among them. But for the whole of thirty years, He labored for thy salvation in this earth. O how did He labor, bearing the necessities of the flesh, and the temptations of the enemy! He could not intensify any further the shame which He endured on the Cross; He could not heighten the honor of His Death.”
And again, “That which makes Thee lovable to me, O good Jesus, is the cup which Thou didst drink in order to accomplish my salvation. Here is that which exacts a return of love from me. This, I say, it is, which woos our love and kindles our devotion, and even commands it out of justice, and binds us to it and greatly moves us. Much, indeed, did the Savior labor to redeem us, but in creating the whole world, the Creator suffered no fatigue. He spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created. But in redeeming, He bore contradiction as to His words; treachery, in actions; derision, in sufferings; reproach, in death.” (Sermon 20 in Canticle)
“In the exceeding greatness of His love, Christ gave up His Soul to death, and from His own Side, He paid the price of Satisfaction, to reconcile man to the Father. In which there is an allusion to the words of the Psalmist, ‘With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.’ (Psalm 130:7) Yes, indeed, ‘plenteous,’ for it was not a drop, but streams of blood which issued from the five Sacred Wounds of Christ’s Body. What could He have done for us that He did not do! He gave sight to the blind, He set the prisoner free, He brought back the wanderer, He reconciled the guilty. Who would not run after Him, willingly and gladly — Him who frees from error, effaces faults, who in life obtains merits, and in death acquires a recompense? What excuse can he have, who does not run in the odor of His ointments, unless he has lost his sense of smell? But the odor of His life fills all the earth. For ‘the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,’ (Psalm 32:5) and ‘His mercies are over all His works.’ (Psalm 144:9) He, then, who does not perceive this vital fragrance, which is spread everywhere, must be either dead or in a state of decay.”
Again, “The Spouse is not ashamed to be black, because she knows that this color was once that of the Bridegroom, and it is a glory for her to resemble Him. Nothing is more glorious than to bear the reproach of Christ. Hence, that word of exultation and salvation, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Galatians 6:14) The ignominy of the Cross is grateful to him who is not offended at the Crucified. This blackness, then, is but the form of and resemblance to the Lord. Go to the sacred pages of Isaiah, and he will tell you what he saw in spirit. What else does he speak of, but ‘of the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who had no beauty that we should desire Him’ ? (Isaias 53:3) And he adds, ‘We did not esteem Him — as if a leper, as one smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed.’ ” (Isaias 53:5)
And again, “In the end, He made Himself ‘sin;’ do I fear to say ‘black’ ? Behold Him, in mean attire, livid with blows, covered with spittle, pallid with death.”
Again, “Could He have been more deformed, or have appeared blacker to the spectators, than He was when His two Hands were stretched on the Cross, in the midst of two thieves, a sight to call forth derision from the wicked, but tears from the faithful, when He alone was mocked, Who should have caused terror, and ought to have received homage?”
And elsewhere, “The rock is a refuge for the wild goats; and are not the wounds of Jesus a firm and safe hiding-place for the weak? So much the more secure I dwell, as He is the more powerful to save; the world may roar, the body press down, the devil lie in wait — I fall not. For I am founded on a strong rock. I have committed a great sin, my conscience is disturbed, but not overwhelmed, for I will remember the wounds of my Lord. He, forsooth, was wounded for our iniquities. Who, then, so near to death, that He may not be saved by the Death of Christ?”
And below, “The nail cries, the wound cries, that truly God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. The iron passed through His Soul, it was plunged into His Heart, that He might henceforth be able to compassionate our infirmities. The secret recesses of His Heart were laid bare through the wounds of His Flesh, that great mystery of love was laid bare, that mercy of our God whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us. How were those inner yearnings of the Heart of God disclosed, if not by these wounds? In what, more clearly could the love of God have been manifested than in Thy Wounds; for Thou, O Lord, art good, and gracious, and full of loving kindness? For no one hath greater mercy than this, that he should lay down his life for those who are condemned and given over to death.”
And, in another place, St. Bernard says, “Meditate on the Passion of the crucified Body, and see if there is any member in it which does not plead for thee to the Father. For thee, that Divine Head was encircled with the prickly tresses of thorns, which were driven into the tender covering of the brain, and so fixed. ‘My people,’ says the Lord by His Prophet, ‘have surrounded Me with the thorns of their sins’ (Psalm 119:109). It is, therefore, that your head may not ache, or your intentions be wounded, that His Eyes were dim with death, and for a while were darkened, whose brightness illuminates the world. Was it not when they were darkened that darkness covered all the earth, and, with those two great luminaries, other lights were withdrawn? But all this was done, that your eyes might be turned away, lest they behold vanity; or, if they did, might shun it. Those Ears which hear in Heaven, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts’ hear on earth ‘Thou hast a devil;’ (John 7:20) ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him’ (Luke 23:21) And why this? But that your ears might not be deaf to the cry of the poor, nor be open to words of vanity, or drink in the venom of slander. That beautiful Face, fairer than the sons of men, was besmeared with spittle, injured by blows, regarded with derision. For thus it is written, ‘Then did they spit in His Face, and buffeted Him, . . . saying, Prophesy unto us, who is he that smote Thee?’ (Matthew 26:27-28) Why was this? But that thy face might be enlightened, and, being enlightened, may be confirmed, and ‘be no more sad’ (1 Samuel 1:18). That Mouth, which teaches angels and instructed men, which spoke and it was done, was now tormented with vinegar and gall; but this came to pass, that thy lips might speak the words of truth and justice, and confess the Lord thy God. Those Hands, which laid the foundations of the Heavens, are stretched upon the Cross, and transfixed with the sharpest nails, that thine hands may be stretched out towards the poor, that you may be able to say with the Psalmist, ‘My soul is alway in my hand’ (Psalm 118:109) What we have ever in our hand we do not easily forget ; so he who applies his soul to good works, will not easily forget it. That Breast, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, was wounded by the soldier’s spear, so that thy breast might be purified from all evil imaginings; and having been purified, might be sanctified, and having been sanctified, might be kept holy. Those Feet, whose footstool we ought to adore, because it is holy, were pierced by the cruel nails and fixed, that thy feet might not hasten towards evil, but run in the way of Thy commandments. What shall I say more? ‘They pierced My hands and My feet; I may tell all My bones.’ (Psalm 22:16) For thee He laid down His flesh and life, to gain for Himself thy body and spirit. He gave all for all.”
Again, “Awake now, O my soul, and shake off your dust, and contemplate this wonderful Man, whom, ‘in the mirror of the Gospel,’ you may behold as present. Consider, my soul, who is this, who advances with the mien of a king, and nevertheless is covered with confusion as though the vilest slave. He walks crowned, but His crown brings Him torture. At a thousand points His Blessed Head is wounded. He is arrayed in royal purple, yet this contributes rather to contempt than to honor. He bears a scepter in His Hand; but with it they strike His venerable Head. They worship before Him, bending their knees to the ground, and proclaim Him king; but immediately they spit upon His lovely cheeks, strike Him on the mouth, and dishonor His noble neck.”
“Behold, my soul, how that Man by all is pressed and insulted. He is ordered to carry the weight of His Cross, to bear His ignominy to the place of execution. They give Him myrrh and gall to drink. On the Cross He is raised, and He cries, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. Who is this, who does not give vent to one word of complaint, of threatening, or malediction against those accursed dogs amidst all His sufferings, but His last word was one of blessing on those unjust men, such as had never been before heard? Whom hast thou ever seen, my soul, so meek, so loving? But draw closer to Him, who is worthy to be regarded with the greatest admiration and compassion. Behold Him, stripped of His raiment, torn with stripes, bound ignominiously to the Cross by the iron nails, in the midst of two thieves, given gall and vinegar to drink, pierced, when dead, in the side by the spear, with rivers of blood flowing forth from His five wounds, His Hands, His Feet, His Side. O, my eyes, begin to weep, my soul to melt with compassion at the wounding of this most lovely of the sons of men, whom you behold amid such meekness, oppressed by so many sufferings.”
Again, “Look down, O Lord, Holy Father, from Thy sanctuary, from Thy dwelling on high in the heavens, and behold this sacred offering, which our great High Priest offers to Thee, Thy Holy Child, the Lord Jesus, for the sins of His brethren, and pardon the multitude of our offences. Behold the Blood of our Brother, Jesus, cries unto Thee from the Cross — Behold, I am crowned with glory and honor. At the Right Hand of Thy Majesty He stands for us before Thy Face; for He is our Flesh and our brother.”
Again, “Look, O Lord, upon the Face of Thine Anointed, who is obedient to Thee, even unto death; let not those wounds depart from Thine eyes forever, that You may remember what a satisfaction He has paid for our sins. Would that our sins, whereby we have deserved Thy wrath, were placed in one scale of the balance, and all that Thine Innocent Son endured for us in the other. Certainly that Passion would be the greater and thus the more worthy of exciting Thy mercy towards us, than our sins of calling forth Thy wrath. O that every tongue might thank Thee, O Lord and Father, for the abundance of Thy goodness, who spared not Thine only begotten Son, but delivered Him up to death for us, to the end that we might have so faithful an Advocate in the heavens before Thee.”
Again, “And to Thee, O Lord Jesus, most brave Champion, what thanksgiving can I render which shall be worthy of Thee — I, a man, dust and ashes, and vile clay? For what for my salvation wouldst Thou have done, more than Thou hast done? From the sole of Thy foot, even to the top of Thy head, Thou hast been plunged in an abyss of suffering, that Thou mayest extricate me from all suffering. And the waters entered even into Thy Soul. For Thou didst give Thy Soul over unto death, that Thou mightest restore mine, already dead. Lo, Thou hast bound me to Thyself by a twofold debt, by what Thou hast given me originally, and by that which Thou, by suffering, hast restored to me. I am debtor to Thee, for my life, twice given to me: once, at Creation, again in Redemption. What, then, can be more fully Thy due than my life? But for Thy precious Life, Thy Soul so troubled, what can I repay Thee! For if I could offer Thee heaven and earth, and all their garnishment, it would all fall infinitely short of what Thou hast given me. Thy gift must precede all return on my part, for I am myself Thy gift: it is, therefore, only through Thy gracious condescension that I can offer Thee any return whatever. I ought to love Thee with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, all my strength; and to follow Thy footsteps, who didst deign to die for me; but how can I do this, except through Thee? My soul shall cleave unto Thee, for all my strength depends on Thee?”
Thus also St. Bernard. And you have, indeed, in St. Bernard, mellifluous and most lovely outpourings on the Passion of our Lord. See that you imbibe them. And, with the aid of these passages, go over with all your heart’s devotion the account of our Lord’s Passion, because meditation thereon surpasses all other, for the Passion is the most efficacious part of His Life. Now, let us turn to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.