Dr. Tom Williams

We don't talk about hell itself.

We don't talk about the possibility of condemnation.

We don't talk about judgment.

We don't talk about the eternal truths.

And this is we're not doing justice to the fullness of the Christian message when we pass over these essential, central teachings of the Christian and the Catholic faith.

So I think that's kind of the short answer to this.

It's also something very tough for people to understand.

Again, we don't talk about hell at all.

Look, in the Apostles' Creed, what do we say?

We say, he descended into hell, right?

I mean, it's actually there, but nobody goes and explains, bothers to look, what does that even mean, right?

This idea that there was an entire human race of those who have been deemed just

whether they were, as you say, the pagan philosophers and those who were just Gentiles, if you will, but also all the Jewish patriarchs and prophets, all the Jewish holy people who had not been able to enter heaven until Christ opened it for them.

This is something absolutely remarkable and wonderful.

And it is mysterious.

It's something that is very hard to understand.

But it's something that is at the core of what we believe as Christians.

And it's so good that you bring this back by having us talk about this on Holy Saturday.

A second thing, I'll say this just as kind of a segue so we can go back to the other as well.

Another part of the Christian tradition is a great devotion to Mary on Holy Saturday.