The answer
Origen used to commend the true believers for their victory over Satan and sin. The Church “men” crush all the powers of darkness by the divine grace and “the gates of Hades shall not prevail on them” (Matt. 16:18).
Origen says, “Having torn and trampled the nets, He so emboldens His Church that she too dares to trample now upon the snares and to pass over the nets and with all joy to say, ‘Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped’ (Ps. 124:7). Who rent the snare except He who alone could not be held by it? For, although He suffered death, He did so willingly and not as we do, by necessity of sin, for He alone was free among the dead. And because He was free among the dead, when He had conquered him who had the empire of death, he brought forth the captives that were being held by death. And He did not raise only Himself from the dead, He also raised together with Himself, those who were held by death and made them to sit with Him in the heavenly places. For ascending on high, He led captivity captive, not only bringing forth the souls, but also raising their bodies as the Gospel testifies, ‘The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves, after His
1105
resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many’ (Matt. 27:52).”
He also says, “The church, as a building of Christ who built His own house wisely upon the rock (Matt. 7:24), is incapable of admitting the gates of Hades which prevail against every
1106
man who is outside the rock and the church, but have no power against it.”
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty