Today we recall when Christ descended into hell. Not in the disgusting Balthasarian sense, but in the knowledge that:
Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison: Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
1 Peter 3:18-20
It's in the Creed, so don't ignore this part of the Triduum. There's more to it than just suffered, died, rose again, and it goes to the entire reason for the Passion. Nobody went to heaven before this. They waited on salvation with faith in the Messiah to come. That faith is why they weren't condemned.
28 Q. How, then, were the Patriarchs of old, the Prophets, and the other just men of the Old Testament, saved?
A. The just of the Old Testament were saved in virtue of the faith they had in Christ to come, by means of which they spiritually belonged to the Church.
The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X
This is significant because it truly shows that God gives sufficient grace of all to be saved, whether they lived in time to hear the fullness of His revelation or not. He makes allowances for such, which should strengthen our own hope for heaven some day.
Have a blessed Easter Vigil this evening.
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