THE HARROWING OF HELL

Your voice speaks to my soul:

 Be not afraid of my golden garments, have no fear of the rays of my candles,

For they are all but veils of my love, they are all but as tender hands covering my secret.

I will draw them away, weeping soul, that you may see I am no stranger to you.

How should a mother not resemble her child?

All your sorrows are in me.

I am born out of suffering, I have bloomed out of five holy wounds.

I grew on the tree of humiliation, I found strength in the bitter wine of tears.

I am a white rose in a chalice full of blood.

I live on suffering, I am the strength out of suffering, I am glory out of suffering:

Come to my soul and find your home.

 “Passion” (Exerpt) by Gertrud von Le Fort translated from the German 

by Margaret Chanle  in Hymns to the Church 1953

All during Holy Week we have been showing the art of Ukrainian artist Kateryna Shadrina. She has many icons of Jesus descending into hello to bring the souls awaiting His Glory.  Several of these icons have been labeled “Harrowing” of hell.  I had to look this one up. By definition harrowing in an adjective meaning extremely painful, agonizing, excruciating, torturous. We know that Jesus has died and cannot experience pain or suffering anymore, so the agony here refers to the poor souls waiting to be released from bondage.  

The artist's colors here are once again muted. I would sometime, when I have time, check dates when her icons were written, to see if there is a change after the Russian invasion.  In the past two years, this very young artist, has been busy at work.

In triumphant descent, Christ brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. The Old Testament view of the afterlife was that all people when they died, whether righteous or unrighteous, went toSheol, a dark, still place. The realm into which Jesus descended is called Hell, in long-established English usage, but is really Limbo so-called by some Christian theologians to distinguish it from the Hell of the damned. 

The Harrowing of Hell is mentioned or suggested by several verses in the New Testament:

Matthew 12:40: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth."