Therefore, the descent to the nether world becomes the extension of the salvation of all the universe, of the human being in his wholeness: Christ descends to the heart of the earth, to the heart of creation, to the nether regions dwelling inside each man. What will become then of the nether world, after “its being visited” by the glorious Christ? Cyril of Alexandria states that Christ’s preaching in the nether world — about which Peter the Apostle says: “put to death in his flesh, but made alive in his Spirit, he went to announce salvation to the spirits who were waiting in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19) — meant that Jesus emptied it: “Immediately Christ, emptying the whole hell and opening its impenetrable doors wide for the spirits of the dead, left the devil alone there.” Hell, where is your victory?

Today Christians should not forget the mystery of the Great and Holy Saturday, a real prelude to Easter and to the reading of Christ’s descent to the nether regions which dwell inside each Christian as well, in spite of his wish to follow Jesus. Who doesn’t recognize inside himself the presence of these nether regions? Regions which are not evangelized, zones of incredulity, places where God is absent, and where we can do nothing but invoke Christ’s descent so that he may evangelize them, enlighten them, change them from regions of death under the rule of the devil into fertile ground able to germinate life, thanks to God’s grace. Thus, the Holy Saturday is like the time of pregnancy, it is a time growth towards the childbirth, towards the triumph of a new life: its silence is not muteness, but it is a time full of energy and life.