Stephen Morris's Blog, page 17

Dragons, Dragons Everywhere

Every culture has dragon folktales and these dragons share the same characteristics. David Jones reaches fascinating conclusions about our fear and fascination with these creatures, including that we are essentially “hardwired” to believe in them. Get a copy here .

Dragons are not just fairy tale creatures who like to eat an occasional princess or fight a knight or two. Dragons are mythic-poetic creatures used in tales or sermons to make sophisticated points. Perhaps rooted in early human experience of three major predators–lions, eagles, and large serpents–dragons both warn of danger and show how to escape that danger.

Although we think of dragons as fire-breathing serpents with legs and wings, the oldest stories report that dragons had a foul, poisonous breath, the stench of which could kill anything that inhaled it. Dragons are Chaos. Dragons are spiritual and emotional energy that is out of control. Unfocused. Wild. They are in stories or texts what horses with loose, untied tails are in icons.

In the New Testament (Revelation 12:3) we read about a vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the four beasts from the sea in the Book of Daniel and the Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. This dragon is the enemy of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of 12 stars upon her head: the Church. The dragon attacks the Church at the End of Days and slays the martyrs as Judgement Day approaches. In the lives of the saints–such as SS. Margaret or George–a dragon is the enemy of the saint or of specific persons now, during history.

In the story of St. Margaret, she is swallowed alive by a dragon in her jail cell but she makes the sign of the Cross and the dragon’s stomach explodes… allowing her to step out, unharmed. (Not unlike Red Riding Hood and her grandmother stepping unharmed from the wolf’s stomach.) In the story of St. George (whose horse’s tail is always tied in a knot), the dragon is attacking a town and is about to devour a princess as its most recent victim but George is able to kill it; in some versions, he wounds it so that it becomes a tame beast and he can lead it into the town with a leash made of the princess’ belt.

St. Margaret is clearly attacked by the enemies of God but is able to overcome them by her faith in Christ, crucified and risen. The princess (soul) is attacked by the passions–anger, jealousy, greed, etc.–but is able to either overcome them by the help of the saints and the Cross of Christ (the wooden spear of St. George). In the versions where the dragon is wounded, it means the soul is able to redirect its energy away from destructive desires into constructive desires, such as righteous anger on behalf of the oppressed, desire to care for the needy, or peace-making between enemies.

Dragons are the great enemy both at the End of Time and now, as history plays itself out. They are the spiritual energy that we can channel to come close to God or that we can let it create chaos in our lives to destroy us. We can embrace the dragon within or we can tame it. The choice is ours.

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St. Mary Major and the Miracle of the Snow

The mosaics found in Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major) are among the oldest representations of the Virgin Mary. One scholar writes that “… the iconographic depiction of the Virgin Mary was chosen at least in part to celebrate the affirmation of Mary as Theotokos (bearer of God) by the third ecumenical Council of Ephesus in AD 431.”



Under the high altar of the basilica is the Crypt of the Nativity or Bethlehem Crypt, with a crystal reliquary said to contain wood from the Holy Crib (manger) of the nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem. In the crypt is also the burial place of St. Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century.

Who doesn’t need a miracle right about now? Although the miracle of St. Mary Major and the snow occurred in Rome during early August, I don’t think we need to wait until August to appreciate it.

According to the story, a rich Roman and his wife wanted to leave their estate to the Church in order to build a new church but they were uncertain where it should be built. They were promised in a dream that a miracle would show them the place to have the church built. A few days later, on August 5 in the mid-late 4th century, a miraculous snowfall occurred atop one of the hills of Rome. The couple understood this to be the miracle they had been told to expect. (Other versions of the story say that the Pope had chosen the site for a new church but his decision met with resistance; he marked the area to be excavated for the church foundations and had the dream promising a miracle to vindicate his choice of location. The next day the snow fell exactly–and only!–within the area he had marked for excavation.)

The legend is still commemorated by dropping white rose petals from the dome of the church during the celebration of the Mass on August 5th, similar to the red roses that are dropped from the dome of the Pantheon at Pentecost.

The mosaics in the church are among the most stunning examples of early Christian art and iconography. They illustrate events in the life of the Mother of God and of Christ and events from the Old Testament that are understood to be allusions or anticipations (types) of the events in the life of Christ and His mother.

The church is known as St. Mary Major because it is the most important of all the churches in Rome dedicated to the Mother of God; it is also sometimes called Saint Mary of the Crib (Sancta Maria ad Praesepe), a name it was given because of the relic of the crib or manger of the Nativity of Christ: four boards of sycamore wood believed to have been brought to the church, in AD 640–649. The Pope traditionally celebrates the Mass three times on Christmas Day; one of these celebrations is held at St. Mary Major because of the relic there.

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Mary, Pentecostal Teacher of the Church

17th century Icon of Pentecost (from the border of Russia and Finland)

Some icons of Pentecost show Mary the Mother of God in the centre, occupying the “Teacher’s Seat.” Mary was present at Pentecost; she is the ultimate exemplar of a Christian. With Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit acts within people, and through the saints, Christ is manifest in the world. Mary is therefore shown in the “teacher’s seat” as the best example we have, and the person on earth who most resembled Jesus Christ (both physically, as His mother, and spiritually as His disciple).

By the 9th century the Church came to recognize Mary as the Stella Maris, the Star of the Sea, an image reminiscent of sailors who would chart their course by the stars. Mary points the way to Christ.

The presence of the Apostle Paul in the icon, even though at that time he had not yet converted on the road to Damascus, hints that this icon is more than a purely historical picture. Sometimes, the evangelists Luke and Mark are also shown, despite also not having been present in the upper chamber at Pentecost. The gathering, then, is a representation of the Church. The Apostles are shown as equals, with no individual among them taking the central seat of authority. They are seated in a semi-circle, representing a unity and harmony similar to that found in Icons of the Holy Trinity. As in icons of the Holy Trinity, a semi-circle, rather than a full circle, is used so that we as observers are drawn into the unity.

See a Pentecost sermon that includes the role of the Mother of God here, preached at St. Matthew’s, Sheffield (a Church of England parish).

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When the Mother of God Went to Hell

Icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child with SS. George, Theodore and angels, 6th century, Saint Catherine’s Monastery . An antiphon from the Saltair Mhuire, attributed to Domhnall Albannach Ó Troighthigh, in a manuscript dated 1477, reads, “Ave Marie mater Domini nostri Iesus Christi regina celi domina mundi imperatrix inferni misere mei & totius populi Christiani Amen.” (“Hail, Mary — mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Queen of heaven and Lady of the world, Empress of hell: have mercy on me and on all Christian people. Amen.”)
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There was an early Christian folktale that the damned in Hell got a short reprieve every year: their suffering was reduced–or stopped altogether–for the fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday (Pentecost) or Trinity Sunday. Around the year AD 1000, this reprieve was said to be the result of the prayer of the Mother of God who was said to have gone to Hell to see the suffering of the damned. Escorted by St. Michael the Archangel, she went on a tour of the Underworld and was moved to tears at what she saw. She pleaded with her Son to spare the damned as much of their suffering as possible. So it became common practice in the Middle Ages to offer special prayers for the dead at Pentecost as the punishment of the damned began again.

In one story, a man makes a deal with the devil and sells his soul in exchange for special favors from the devil during life. As the man was dying, he is sorry about his decision and begs the Mother of God to help him. Mary is infinitely merciful, so she does. She girds her loins for battle, descends into hell, and steals back the contract giving the man’s soul to the devil!

In this story, Mary’s mission to hell is portrayed as warfare. The tale evokes the devil’s anger, and uses the language of violence and theft to describe Mary’s actions. In her guise as empress of hell–that is, more powerful even than Satan–she is not the mother of mercy, she is the “queen of vengeance” against the devil and the powers of Hell.

I think these stories are all trying to express an intuition about the power of the Mother of God to save us from ourselves and our own worst choices and behavior. They also show the inability of Hell to confine anyone who really wants to escape, underlining the original understanding that when Christ smashed down the gates of Death and Hell, everyone who wanted to escape did and now only those who choose to remain in Hell–unable to accept responsibility for their actions and thus unable to accept forgiveness–are there.

Curious about these stories? Read more here and here. This is another good one to read. See how many of them there are?

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Witnesses of the Resurrection

Relics of the martyrs (lit. “witnesses”) whose lives and deaths testify to the power of Christ’s Resurrection, even in the midst of affliction and death . “You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” (Psalm 66:12)

In ancient Greece, a martyr was a witness who testified in court. When Christians were arrested and asked to testify in court about their religious beliefs, they were therefore called “martyrs.” But that testimony would usually result in their execution for refusing to practice one of the legitimate religions of the Greco-Roman world; the Church has continued to call those who were executed for their testimony martyrs; their faith, even as they were tortured and killed, was a testimony to the power of Christ’s Resurrection.

After the martyrs were executed, other members of the Church would come collect the corpses or fragments of their tortured bodies for burial. They would gather at the tombs and burial places of the martyrs to celebrate the Eucharist. The bodies were treated with great care and devotion because they had been washed with the waters of baptism, anointed with holy oil, had tasted Holy Communion, and were simply one aspect of the deceased’s existence: a person is made of a body and soul together. Often, portions of the bodies–called “relics,” from the Latin for “remains”–would be placed in new altars, as described in the New Testament, “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony.” (Rev. 6:9)

One of the earliest sources that describes the power of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20–21:

20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

Another often cited passage is Acts 19:11–12, which says that Paul’s handkerchiefs were imbued with healing power by God.

Relics are typically divided into three categories:

First-Class Relics: items directly associated with the events of Christ’s life (manger, cross, etc.) or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr’s relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints. Parts of the saint that were significant to that saint’s life are more prized relics.

Second-Class Relics: items that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, rosary, book, etc. Again, an item more important in the saint’s life is thus a more important relic. Sometimes a second-class relic is a part of an item that the saint wore (a shirt, a glove, etc.).

Third-Class Relics: any object that has been in contact with a first- or second-class relic. Pilgrims would often bring home these Third-class relics as a remembrance of a pilgrimage to a shrine.

For a post about the blood relic of St. Januarius (San Gennaro), first published in 2015, click here.

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Prophet Daniel: Shepherd to the Lions

Daniel in the Lion’s Den has been portrayed since the beginning of Christian art. See many more examples here.

Daniel in the lions’ den (chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel) tells of how the prophet Daniel is saved from lions “because I was found blameless before God” (Daniel 6:22). It parallels and complements chapter 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the burning fiery furnace: each story begins with the jealousy of non-Jews towards successful Jews and an imperial edict requiring them to compromise their religion, and concludes with divine deliverance and a king who confesses the greatness of the God of the Jews and issues an edict of royal protection. Both stories are understood by Christians to foreshadow the Resurrection of Christ.

Daniel in the Lion’s Den from the walls of an early Christian catacomb.

The king of Babylon orders that no one should pray to any god but himself and that no one should practice any foreign religion. (Christians understood this to be similar to the Roman law insisting that they worship the emperor rather than Christ.) Daniel, a Jewish man promoted to an important government position in Babylon, is accused by his Babylonian enemies of prying to the God of Israel and practicing the Jewish religion. The king is forced to obey his own law although he does not want Daniel to be killed. The king orders Daniel to be thrown into the den of hungry lions and a heavy stone is used to shut the den. When the stone is rolled away, Daniel is found unharmed (“a shepherd to the lions as though they were sheep,” as one Christian hymn says) and the lions attack his enemies instead.

Daniel in the lions’ den: Middle of a sarcophagus frontal, AD 300-325

Ancient Christian preachers–such as St. Jerome–have always pointed out that the den of lion’s was a cave sealed by a large stone, just as Jesus’ tomb was a cave sealed by a stone. Daniel was as good as dead when the stone was sealed shut by the king but emerged alive–as if resurrected!–the next morning when the stone was rolled away at dawn. (The lion’s den is sometimes identified as a dry pit, much like the dry pit that Joseph was thrown into by his brothers before they sold him into slavery in Egypt. That pit is also sometimes seen as an anticipation of Christ’s tomb, just as Joseph is seen as a type or anticipation of Christ. The lions–the powers of Death–are tamed by Daniel just as Christ tamed Death by his own death and burial.

An early (2nd century) commentary attributed to Hippolytus of Rome tells us that “… when the angel appeared in the den, the wild beasts were tamed and the lions, wagging their tails at [Daniel], rejoiced as being subjected by a new Adam. They, licking the holy feet of Daniel, rolled around to taste the soles of his feet and they longed to accompany him. For if we believe that, after Paul was condemned to beasts and that a lion was set upon him, it reclined at his feet and licked him all around, how do we not also believe what happened to Daniel…?”

Hippolytus goes on to tell us, “You see, Babylon is the world today, the satraps are its authorities, Darius is their king, the den is Hades, the lions are punishing angels. And so imitate the blessed Daniel who did not fear the satraps and do not obey a human decree, so that after being cast into the den of lions you may be guarded by the angel, and you may tame beasts, and you may be worshipped by them as a slave of God and no destruction may be found in you, but being alive you may be brought up from the den and may be found as a sharer of the resurrection and you may rule over your enemies and you may always give thanks to the living God. For to him be glory and might unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.”

You can read more of the commentary on Daniel by Hippolytus of Rome here.

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Three Young Men in the Burning Fiery Furnace

He who saved the three young men in the furnace became incarnate and suffered as a mortal man. Through his sufferings he clothed what is mortal in the robe of immortality. He alone is blessed and most glorious: the God of our fathers. (Paschal Matins)

The story of the three young men in the burning, fiery furnace found in Daniel 3 was traditionally the last Old Testament reading of the Easter Vigil, the “hinge reading” connecting the Old Testament prophecies to the blessing of the font and the celebration of Holy Baptism. (It is still the last of the Old Testament readings in the Orthodox Church.) The great canticle of the men in the furnace–with its tremendous refrain, “Praise the Lord! Sing and exult him forever!”–would follow, with a prayer and the procession to the font. In ancient practice, when baptisms were celebrated in a separate baptistry chapel because the adults to be baptized were all nude, the baptisms were conducted while the last of the Old Testament lessons were being read and the newly-baptized would come back to the church during the singing of this canticle.

How does this story of the three young men in the burning fiery furnace connect to Holy Baptism and the celebration of the Resurrection? In the book of Daniel, we read that the three young men were thrown into the great furnace because they refused to worship a giant idol the king of Babylon had set up. (The fire in the furnace was so terrible that the soldiers that threw the young men into the falmes were killed as well.) But the witnesses of the execution saw that the three young men were not burned in the fire but instead could be seen walking and singing in the midst of the flames and that a fourth man–who looked like “the Son of God,” the text reports– could be seen in the furnance as well. That “Son of God,” a fearful, beautiful Angel of the Lord was understood to be a divine reflection of God himself and he protected the three men from the flames. When the three men were finally extracted from the fire, they were found to be unharmed–not even their clothers or hair was singed and there was no smell of smoke on them! Christians have always understood that Angel of the Lord, the fourth angelic Son of God in the furnace to be a revelation of the Word of God who would later be incarnate of the Virgin Mary and who would descend through the Cross into Hell itself to smash the gates of death.

These young men in the furnace are understood to prefigure both the Incarnation and the Resurrrection. They prefigure the Virgin’s birthgiving because she, on receiving the Fire of the Godhead within her womb, was not burned, but remained virgin, even as she was before giving birth. But more specifically in terms of the Resurrection, the early Christian preachers and hymnographers tell us:

 “According to the story of the Three Children in Babylon [Dan. 3], the flame of fire was divided; for when the furnace poured forth fire forty-nine cubits high it burned up all those around [Dan. 3:22], but by the command of God, it admitted the wind within itself, providing for the boys a most pleasant breeze and coolness as in the shade of plants in a tranquil spot; for it was as the blowing of a wind bringing dew. It is far more wonderful for the element of fire to be divided than for the Red Sea to be separated into parts, Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord divides the continuity and unity in the nature of fire. Although fire seems to human intelligence to be incapable of being cut or divided, yet by the command of the Lord it is cut through and divided. I believe that the fire prepared in punishment for the devil and his angels [Mt. 25:41] is divided by the voice of the Lord, in order that, since there are two capacities in fire, the burning and illuminating, the fierce and punitive part of the fire may wait for those who deserve to burn, while its illuminating and radiant part may be allotted for the enjoyment of those who are rejoicing. Therefore, the voice of the Lord divides the fire and allots it; so that the fire of punishment is darksome, but the light of the state of rest remains incapable of burning.” (extract from St. Basil the Great, in his Homily on Psalm 28, which says “The voice of the Lord Who divides the flame” [Ps. 28:7])

St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Book of Daniel, tells us that this experience can be shared by all the baptized: “When the soul is oppressed with tribulation and taken up with various vexations, having lost hope of human aid and turned with its whole heart to God, an Angel of the Lord descends to it. That is to say, the supernatural being descends to the aid of the servant and dashes aside the fierce heat of the violent flames, that the fiery shafts of the enemy utterly fail to pierce the inner citadel of our heart and we escape being shut up in his fiery furnace.”

How many, during these weeks of quarentine and lockdown, have experienced tribulation and various vexations How many have perhaps lost hope of human aid? It is at times such as these that we look for the Angel to protect the inner citadel of our hearts from the fiery attacks of our Enemy.

“Almighty and everlasting God, the only hope of the world, who by the preaching of thy holy prophets hast prefigured the mysteries of this present time: mercifully increase the devotion of thy people, since none can grow in any virtue without thy inspiration ….” (traditional collect after the reading from Daniel 3 at the Easter Vigil)

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“Go, Tell My Brethren”

“The myrrhbearing women, at the break of dawn, drew near to the tomb of the Life-giver. There they found an angel sitting upon the stone. He greeted them with these words: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you mourn the incorrupt amid corruption? Go, proclaim the GOSPEL to his disciples.” (Paschal Matins) (Detail from a larger 18th cent. Resurrection icon; photo by S. Morris)

“How filled with bliss were these women who, taught by the angel’s account, were found worthy to announce the triumph of the resurrection to the world and to proclaim that the sovereignty of death, to which Eve became subject when she was seduced by the serpent’s speech, had been utterly destroyed! How much more blissful will be the souls of both men and women equally, when, aided by heavenly grace, they have merited to triumph over death and enter into the joy of a blessed resurrection, while the condemned have been struck with trepidation and well-deserved punishment on the day of judgment!” (excerpt from Homily II.7, St. Bede, Homilies on the Gospels, vol. 2, translated by Martin and Hurst)

The knowledge of the gospel, the “good news,” depends on the preaching of the women who came to the tomb and discovered that Christ had risen. The angel at the tomb sent them back to preach the good news to the male apostles who were still hiding after the Crucifixion, frightened and alone. If the women had said nothing, no one would have ever heard that Christ had destroyed Death. Their participation in the divine plan of salvation was critical. All subsequent Christian experience depends on them having gone to the tomb and then telling everyone what had happened there.

We see a contrast between Eve and the Virgin Mary, the second Eve–just as Christ is the Second Adam–insofar that Eve was confronted by a (fallen) angel and chose to defy God, bringing Death into the world while the Virgin Mary was confronted by an angel (Gabriel) and chose to cooperate with God to bring true Life into the world. (Read more about this in St. Irenaeus of Lyons.) We can also see a contrast between the Myrrhbearing Women and Eve insofar that Eve hid from God in a garden and was given an apron of fig leaves to hide her nakedness while the Myrrhbearing Women stepped forward to meet the Risen Christ in a garden and were able to “put on Christ” (Galations 3:27) to remove their sinfulness.

St. Bede says something similar in another homily, where he contrasts the several Myrrhbearing Women to the one woman (Eve): “You see that several [women], instructed by the angels, proclaim that the death which one woman, seduced by the devil, had brought upon the world was now destroyed. One woman, coming [out of the garden] opened a path [that led away] from heavenly joys; many, coming back from their present exile, gave the information that the gate had now been unbarred for regaining the heavenly fatherland.” (Homily II/10, p. 94)

The stars of Orion’s belt in the night sky are sometimes called “the Three Marys” or “the Myrrhbearing Women;” these same stars are sometimes called “the Magi,” and identified with the Wise Men who came to visit the Christ Child. This association demonstrates the similar roles of the Myrrhbearing Women and the Magi in the Easter/Christmas stories as they were Outsiders (women and pagan philosophers) who were responsible for proclaiming the good news, the gospel, of Christ to the world.

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“The Day of Resurrection…!”

“Let us purify our senses and we shall see Christ shining in the unapproachable light of his Resurrection. We shall clearly hear him say, ‘Rejoice!’ as we sing the song of victory.” (Paschal Matins) A contemporary stained glass window depicts St. Thomas, who probes the wounds of the risen Christ. (St. Luke’s Church, Forest Hills; photo by S. Morris)

The gospel accounts in which Christ greets the Myrrhbearing Women at the tomb or the apostles in the Upper Room after his Resurrection tell us that his first word was, “Rejoice!” (Alas, too often modern English translations render this as “Greetings!”) This is also the first word Gabriel utters when he greets the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation: “Rejoice!” (We are more familiar with the Latin translation, “Ave!” which in English becomes, “Hail!”) The gospel, the “good news,” begins and ends with the same word and is summed up in this one word: Rejoice!

In the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, when the priest or deacon finish giving Holy Communion to the congregation, one of the prayers they say as they return to the altar is:

“O Christ our God, who art thyself the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, who didst fulfill all the dispensation of the Father: fill our hearts with joy and gladness always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

In this short prayer, we greet Christ as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, i.e. the entire Old Testament. He is what everyone in the Old Testament was expecting, waiting for, hoping for. As the fulfillment of all that had come before, he fulfilled the dispensation, i.e. the divine plan for salvation (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4) which the Father had in mind since eternity. Receiving the gift of Holy Communion, we participate in this fulfillment. Our participation in Christ is the consummation of everything he did. In a real way, everything God did in the Old Testament and in the life-death-resurrection of Christ was in order to share Holy Communion with us. Having received Holy Communion, we are caught up in the divine joy and gladness–the divine love–for us, our neighbors, the entire world.

God is made flesh. Death is destroyed. What else can we do but rejoice?

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“Today Hell Cries Out Groaning….”

This 8th-century panel painting, now at the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt, is the oldest known painted depiction of the dead Christ on the cross. We see Gestas, the unrepentant thief, on the left; Dismas, the Good Thief, was probably on the right (which is now missing; we can see the first letter of his name in the space beside Christ). At the foot of the Cross, there are 3 soldiers gambling for Christ’s seamless robe. On the Cross, Christ is wearing a tunic, known as a “stola,” a garment worn by those who had permission to speak to the emperor. Christ has the boldness to speak to God, his Father, on our behalf because of His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection and his battle with Death on the Cross.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary. He came and destroyed my power. He has shattered the gates of brass. As God, He raised the dead that I had held captive.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “My dominion has been shattered. I received a dead man as one of the dead, but against Him I could not prevail. From eternity I had ruled the dead, but behold, He raises all. Because of Him do I perish.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

In these hymns from Holy Saturday, we hear Hell cry out in agony as Christ enters and destroys it from the inside out. Truth exposes the Liar. Light shines in the Darkness. Life confronts Death. The gates of Hell are torn down and the chains broken. Only those who want to remain in Hell are still there.

Christ fought Death and the Devil, the Liar, on their own turf. In the ancient world and the figurative language of the Bible, three places belonged to the Death and the demons: deep water, the desert, and the air. Christ went down into the deep water at His baptism and then went out into the desert for forty days. In both places he confronted the enemies of God. But how did He fight them in the air?

Early Christians thought Christ had to die on the Cross because crucifixion was the only way to die in the air. Raised on the Cross, Christ was able to fight the powers of Darkness in their own territory and thus enter Hell. St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote: “… if the Lord, by His death, broke apart the wall of partition divinding people (Ephesians 2:14) and called all the nations to Him, how could that happen except on the Cross? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. Furthermore, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about in the air (Ephesians 2:2) … well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took place in the air, I mean the cross? Being lifted up on the Cross, He cleared the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; and made a new opening of the way up into heaven as He says once more….”

Having slain Christ on the Cross, Death and Hell thought they had won their battle. But once Christ had entered Hell, they discovered their mistake and realized that what they had thought was their ultimate victory was instead their ultimate defeat.

Want to read more about this? Read The Victory of the Cross by James R. Payton, Jr. or On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

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