1 Peter 3:19-20. "[In the spirit] he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah ... in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water."

In the first clause here, Peter is referring to Jesus' descent into hell, as we call it in the Creed (there is also much more to this verse, but I want to stick with the descent into hell). Until Jesus made His sacrifice, every soul who had ever lived was separated from God because the gates of heaven had been closed by the Fall. A lot of people struggle with this concept of every soul being separated from God, and thus "in hell," and Jesus Himself having to descend into "hell." How, I have been asked, could St. Joseph possibly be "in hell" for any period of time? Some make a distinction between actual hell (eternal separation from God), and a limbo-like state where certain souls are waiting, separated from God, yes, but eventually to be saved. That is certainly one way to look at it, but I personally don't think it gives enough consideration to the reality of what we're talking about (there is a reality to all of this, and that is the area I most like to think about). I know I am pushing some heavy thoughts here, but hear me out.

We are all what Peter refers to as "people who did not obey". No one except the Virgin Mary and Jesus Himself are or were untouched by sin. Every single one of us, even the Church Fathers, even St. Joseph, are in need of Jesus' salvific sacrifice (and Mary needed her Son's sacrifice as well, her Immaculate Conception was more of the timey-wimey stuff I'll talk about later!). The people who died before Jesus came are "spirits in prison who did not obey", as Peter calls them, but the people who were alive in His time, and anytime after, including us, are also souls who do not (always) obey. None of us obeys perfectly; all, even St. Joseph, are in need of salvation, and there is no salvation except through Christ. The gates of heaven were closed to all, even St. Joseph, until Jesus died. That is not because St. Joseph was not a saint, but because when St. Joseph died, the necessary sacrifice of the Lamb of God had not yet occurred in time. As Peter says, when Jesus died, He did so for all sins and sinners, that he might bring us all to God (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, and His spirit, released from his flesh, went to the realm of the dead and preached to them His message of salvation. I'm sure St. Joseph was first among his welcoming committee, but there were many others who needed to hear what Jesus had to say and had not had the opportunity while they were alive. This is where I think the distinction between "actual hell" and "limbo" as spaces in time gets tricky. There could not be an "actual hell" before those in it had had a chance to either accept or reject salvation. So I believe when Jesus descended into hell, He went to all the souls there, there was no one to whom He did not offer salvation. Some, I'm sure, rejected it and refused to follow Him through the now unlocked gates (and possibly into Purgatory first, if they were in need of it), that is choosing actual hell. But until they did so, they had the same chance at salvation as St. Joseph did.

Now, allow me to seem to negate everything I just wrote. I want to talk a little bit about time. How could it be that Moses appeared with Jesus at the transfiguration If Jesus had not yet died, and thus Moses was, technically, in "hell"? How could the repentant thief be with Jesus in Heaven the very day of his death, when Jesus had not yet descended into hell?  I believe this all hangs together logically, and in reality, only when we remember that God, Heaven, and hell are all outside of time. Once Jesus died in time, His sacrifice spread throughout eternity. When Jesus opened the gates, then, they had always been opened (even though they had formerly been closed (sorry, I know that is confusing!). When Moses and the good thief each died, they left time, encountered the resurrected Jesus in that space outside of time, accepted Him joyfully, and were brought into Heaven. The same, I believe, is true for St. Joseph, and every other soul.

The particular judgment of each person always has been and always will be one in which we are offered Christ's redemptive sacrifice by Christ Himself and choose whether to accept it or not. Jesus can descend into that space at the moment before our death (which can last as "long" as He desires), to preach to us and try to get us to accept His salvation. For the people who died before His death, and thus could not be offered His salvation at the moment of their death, He descended into hell and offered it to them, but He could do that the very moment of their deaths because His sacrifice, once made, exists for eternity, backward and forward. His descent into hell and preaching to the souls there was absolutely necessary, and absolutely happened, but had affects on reality, especially the reality of the spiritual realm that exits outside of time, beyond what we can understand. (That’s what I’m thinking, at least!:))