Defeated

Christ's Descent Into Hell

One of today's readings for the second Saturday of Pascha is Acts 5:21-33.

Something stuck out to me that St. Peter said here: "...Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Isreal..."

Repentance in Greek is "metánoia", a change of mind. The work of life is repentance. St. Isaac of Syria says, "This life is given to you for repentance." Yet, it is not something that God requires of us, but something that is offered to us. God does not demand you to change your mind (and therefore your life. As Elder Thaddeus says, "Our thoughts determine our lives."); instead he offers you to walk in the change He is willing to give. Perhaps this is why Fr. Thomas Hopko had said that we don't convert anybody. Christ affirms this in the scriptures : "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (John 6:44)." The service of receiving new members into the Orthodox church, that is chrismation, itself works not as a choice not as a sort of "call" but as an offering. But it isn't even so much a response from us either.

In the icon of Christ's descent into Hell we see that he is grabbing Adam and Eve by the wrists and pulling them up.

This is the image of repentance for us.

Christ's comes into whatever our Hell may be in this life and pulls us up out of it. To reject it is to simply pull away and fall back into death.

(Remember the picture links to a song)