Are Adam and Eve in heaven or hell?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, after death, Christ descended into hell, "to search for Adam" and set him free
When we start learning the Catholic Faith, we are shocked by the consequences of the Original Sin committed by our first father, Adam, and we wonder about a world where he did not fail. This thought sometimes also nurtures some dislike towards Adam and Eve, which, in turn, is met with astonishment when we also learn that the Church states that Adam and Eve were saved.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, on $635, quotes an ancient sermon explaining that there was a “great silence” after Our Lord’s death. It was Christ descending into hell in “search for Adam” to free him from sorrow:
“Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. the earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve...” (Catechism Catholic Church, 1995, $635)
In fact, during the middle ages, the Catholic Church even celebrated a feast for Adam and Eve on December 24th (Philip Kosloski, 2017), the day before the Nativity of Our Lord.
As Christ came to redeem us from the Original Sin, a variety of symbology emerged from the fall of Adam and Eve and the restoration brought by Christ.
Here are a few examples from this symbology in the form of comparison by St. Irenaeus:
Between Adam and Christi:
"the sin of the first created man receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten" (Irenaeus, 2019, pp. 469-470)
Between Eve and Mary:
“as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin”
“virginal disobedience (of Eve) having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience (of Mary)" (ibid. p. 469)
Between the tree of the paradise and the cross:
"He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" (Philippians 2, 8) rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree, through that obedience which was (wrought out) upon the tree (of the cross)." (ibid. pp. 463-464)
Now, back to Adam and Eve’s salvation, the same Saint Irenaeus, in the second century, deals with a heretical gnostic sect named Encratites which, among other things, said that Adam and Eve were in hell.
St. Irenaeus rebukes their claims and explains it was fitting for Adam to be saved to rest no doubt that the enemy was conquered. The work of salvation was performed by Christ and performed exceptionally so that not only his children were saved, but also he, our first father, “who was so deeply injured by the enemy”, was freed from captivity:
inasmuch as man is saved, it is fitting that he who was created the original man (Adam) should be saved. For it is too absurd to maintain, that he who was so deeply injured by the enemy, and was the first to suffer captivity, was not rescued by Him who conquered the enemy, but that his children were, -- those whom he had begotten in the same captivity. Neither would the enemy appear to be as yet conquered, if the old spoils remained with him. (ibid. p. 288)
A few hundred years later, Saint Augustine already recognizes that the salvation of Adam “is agreed by almost the entire Church”1 . He also points out that this understanding has been handed down by Tradition, but it is not found expressly in the Sacred Scriptures. Nevertheless, he also recognizes that it is the most common opinion that Wisdom 10:1-2 supports this claim.
Here is Wisdom 10:
[1] She preserved him, that was first formed by God, the father of the world, when he was created alone, [2] And she brought him out of his sin, and gave him power to govern all things. (Wisdom - 10)
For this passage, in the Haydock commentary, we read that "it is clear, that our first parent repented, (Worthington) and was saved.".
In Genesis 5 "all the time that Adam lived, came to nine hundred and thirty years, and he died" a similar comment is made in Haydock:
Adam died penitent, as we are assured by the Holy Ghost. Wis. x. 2.; and tradition affirms the same of Eve, insomuch that the heresy of the Encratites, who condemned our first parents to hell, was exploded with horror. Epip. S. Aug. in hæres. Tirinus
Finally, paintings of Christ freeing Adam, Eve, and the old-testament Patriarchs are found throughout the history of the Church. Here is one beautiful fresco on the lower church of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy, where we see “The meeting between the hands of Christ and Adam” in Limbo.
(In the image above: Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi, Descent into Limbo by Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1320), The meeting between the hands of Christ and Adam)
So, in light of Saint Augustine, Saint Irenaeus, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we see that Adam and Eve, by the grace of God, the tremendous efficacy of the works of salvation and with amendment and repentance were rescued from the Limbo and saved.
Bibliography
Catechism Catholic Church (1995). Catechism of the Catholic Church. [online] www.vatican.va. Available at: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1R.HTM [Accessed 21 Feb. 2023].
Hippo, A. (1887). Letter 164. [online] NewAdevent. Available at: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102164.htm [Accessed 21 Feb. 2023].
Irenaeus (2019). Against Heresies. Kindle Edition ed. Veritatis Splendor Publications.
Philip Kosloski (2017). Happy Adam and Eve Day! [online] Aleteia. Available at: https://aleteia.org/2017/12/24/happy-adam-and-eve-day/ [Accessed 21 Feb. 2023].
"As to the first man, the father of mankind, it is agreed by almost the entire Church that the Lord loosed him from that prison; a tenet which must be believed to have been accepted not without reason, — from whatever source it was handed down to the Church — although the authority of the canonical Scriptures cannot be brought forward as speaking expressly in its support, though this seems to be the opinion which is more than any other borne out by these words in the book of Wisdom. Wisdom 10:1-2 Some add to this tradition that the same favour was bestowed on the holy men of antiquity — on Abel, Seth, Noah and his house, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other patriarchs and prophets, they also being loosed from those pains at the time when the Lord descended into hell" (Hippo, 1887)