Did Jesus Really Descend into Hell? #AskAFriar (Aquinas 101)

Did Jesus really descend into hell? What happens to souls after death? Is Judgment Day just a metaphor? Big questions like these have been popping up in the comment boxes of our Aquinas 101 videos since the start of our very first season. In this video series with Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P., we will attempt to provide some answers.

Want to participate? You can submit your big questions to Aquinas 101 using #AskAFriar in the YouTube comments and on social media. And don't forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think!

The big question featured in this video was taken from the comments section of:

Did Jesus Really Descend Into Hell? #AskAFriar (Aquinas 101) - Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P.

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[michelemcdermott]

I never understood final judgement. Now I do. If only that had been explained to me the way you explained it. I'm 74 and a cradle Catholic!!! Thank you.

[BrambleHead]

Wow, super insightful! I've been a christian my whole life and never really understood judgment in this sense. Thank you for this small yet concise teaching, cannot wait to share with my friends!!!

[johnalombardi]

Thank you, Father Ambrose, this is a brilliant exposition of what the Creeds describe as " He descended into Hell". Your emphasis on offering Mass and prayers for dead will be something that I'll begin. Godspeed!
John A. Lombardi

[luzgg]

God is holy! Yesterday I was wondering in my thoughts whether people were saved or not prior to Christ and here is God answering the doubts in my heart by sending this ad. You see, I was born into a Mexican "Catholic" family that like many, never really read the bible and remained in ignorance and living in full sin. My elder sisters have been deep into the community for over a decade but I always judged them and thought of them as hypocrites not knowing that I was looking into a mirror. Now, I thank the Lord for their lives because through their prayer my mother, my daughter, and I have been seeking God's Word, Forgiveness, and Glory. We all have been amazed over the past couple of months by how he works in beautiful and perfect ways even when it is not our own ways. He has changed my complete view of the world and I am forever grateful. I can now freely and proudly say that I am a Catholic and that I have much to learn and I am willing to allow the Lord to take the person I once claimed to be and use me for whatever purpose he has for me and mold me to his will. I now understand the true meaning of Love. This world has lied to us and fed us with false joys in life, with temporary peace and misinformation. We should be the proudest among humans because we serve the Lord of mercy, the one and only God almighty. Now I understand that I should not only say I love and believe in God but act like it. Now I could care less about what anyone thinks of me for defending my creator, for spreading his word and love. His opinion of me is the only opinion I want to ever care of. I am praying for all of you and your beautiful families! Please pray for me and my family!

[anthonyw]

this is beautiful. It's just like God to make even the grimmest, scariest and macabre into beautiful. Thank you and may God continue blessing you and in turn us.

[leojagawaga]

Such wonderful information for Catholics and all people Thank You for such a Great Video

[iqgustavo]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:09 🙏 The episode discusses questions about death, Jesus descending into hell, Judgment Day, souls after death, and prayers for the deceased.
01:33 ⛪ Belief that Jesus descended into hell is part of the Creed; he saved holy people from the limbo of the Patriarchs, but not those in the hell of the Lost.
03:41 ⚖️ There are two judgments: the particular judgment after death and the last judgment at the End of Time; the last judgment accounts for lasting effects of actions.
05:45 💒 The Holy Mass is a powerful prayer for souls in purgatory, applying Jesus's merits; offering individual masses for the deceased is a pious practice.

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[therese_paula]

The effects of our actions that last even beyond our earthly death....

[gregorythorne]

Thank you, Father Ambrose, you have a real gift, I appreciate your sharing these insights into what matters. They reach right in. God bless you and all the TI !

[mikefanelli]

It's true that what we do here on earth surely echoes into eternity.

[byron]

Thank you Father Ambrose Little for this insightful and enlightening teachings! About the limbo ofthe Patriarchs and the limbo of the loss! For the limbo of Patriarchs they are entitled for the saving Grace of God, Particular Judgement that will apply to all of us at the moment of our death and the Final Judgment a public Judgment in the end of the World! It really struck to me that is why there’s a Final Judgement Day is that our Good and Bad actions have still an effect and will reverberate like a ripple in a pond after our death in the future! As for me Im already 57 years old and honestly if somebody ask me what is the legacy that my father left unto me i will reply without hesitation that all the memories that my father left to me are bad ones in general but the Good thing is now after i processed all these negative emotions the traumas and hatred in my heart and mind i donot regret him anymore as my father, Amor Fati as the Stoic Philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius has said Love your fate! Now i have clarity and acceptance that the Good Lord God placed me in that particular situation with a particular father so that I’ll have a template a guide a compass in my future life of what bad things and evil things bad habits I should avoid and Good thing to balance everything God gave me a saintly mother as aGood example of what should be a Good virtues life is! I have watched the movie St Augustine the Bishop of Hippo 330 AD that we have like similar parents! He summed it all up his teaching in his Book the Confession that Our hearts are restless O Lord God until it rest unto Thee! Gautama Buddha once said In order to Honor a person living or dead is for us to follow and try to emulate and relive their legacy in life! That is to follow what Good example they gave us and to unfollow or try to avoid the bad things they showed to us. There are only two kind of person in this world, the one that brings happiness to us and the other one who teaches us lessons in life! K

[mauricesimms]

What is your scriptural support for the existence of purgatory? What is the origin of the teaching on purgatory in the Roman Catholic Church? What is your scriptural support for the mass applying the merits of Jesus' death and resurrection to people who died? Where is the scriptural support for praying for the dead?

[melvindias]

Actually the word is Hades or Sheol or grave not hell.

[noahsart]

Love these videos so much! What is the final temptation? Can the devil tempt us immediately following death? If so how can we prepare?

[d.o.]

Excellent questions #1&2; my guess is that all christians are confused about these issues, because - as this presentation shows- these answers are NOT biblical, and formed through the imagination of St. Thomas. Thank you for the clarification it helps a lot.

[theophilus]

Many thanks for this and all the videos and materials from the TI. I have benefitted a great deal, but I am left puzzled by this one. Doesn't Aquinas here become an ethical consequentialist? Isn't this odd for someone so influenced by Aristotle? What about the problems of consequentialism anyway?

[AidenRKrone]

I'm a _sola scriptura_ Protestant fundamentalist and about as far away from Roman Catholicism as someone could be, but I agree with the Catholic idea that Jesus Christ descended into Hell after His death on the Cross and preached the Gospel to the Old Testament saints (I'm using the word "saints" in the Protestant sense). There's enough evidence in the Bible, I think, to prove that Jesus descended into Hell.

[eddieyoung]

Jesus died and was put into the tomb until his resurrection, and the hell he went to was only the grave. Peter in Acts 2:27 applies the following words to Jesus: 'Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption'. The point he's making is that Jesus' body was not left in the grave to corrupt, but was raised by God, his father, from the dead. The words are quoted from Psalm 16 where David speaks of himself and his future resurrection and prophetically of his greater son, Jesus. Regarding David, Peter says 'that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day'. He says this to show that David's body was left in hell (the grave), and did see corruption, in contrast to Jesus who was not left there and saw no corruption.

[yagranillo]

#askafriar Thank you for the explanation of if Jesus did indeed descend into hell. I have a follow up question regarding this same topic. You stated the holy people of the Old Testament were waiting on our Lord to break then free to enter the kingdom. However, in the synoptic gospels, the authors describe the Transfiguration of Jesus and how Moses and Elijah appear next to Jesus and Jesus speaks to both Elijah and Moses. How is this possible if Elijah and Moses were in this limbo place?

[acohan]

Can you only have masses offered for catholics?. . I'm Catholic ( convert) but my deceased mother was Jewish