This a great mystery, on which today the Church seems to prefer to remain silent, almost as if it were aphonic. And yet the Fathers of the Church, mainly in the ancient liturgy, wanted to sing this action done after his death. In a homily attributed to Epiphanes we read: “Today there is a great silence on earth. The Lord died in the flesh and has descended to the nether world to shake it. He goes to look for Adam, the first father, as if he were looking for the lost sheep. The Lord descends to see those who lay in the darkness and in the shadow of death.” And this is what we read in a hymn by Ephrem the Syrian: “He who had said to Adam ‘Where are you?’ descended to the nether world after him, he found him, he called him and said to him ‘You, created in my image and likeness, come! I descended to the place where you are, to bring you back to your promised land!’.” Jesus who, by means of his death, descended to the nether world — a death which became an “act,” a death which was assumed and completely felt — destroyed the very death in an admirable fight, as the Syriac liturgy recalls: “You, Lord, you had been fighting against the death for the three days of your dwelling in the grave, you sowed joy and hope among those who dwelt in the nether world.”