Longinus and the Crucifixion

"My Jesus, by the sorrows You did suffer in Your agony in the Garden, in the scourging and crowning with thorns, on the way to Calvary, in Your crucifixion and death; the rips of Your heart open with a lance opening a profound wound shed the last drops of blood and water contained in Your enflamed heart, have mercy upon the souls in Purgatory, especially those who are forgotten; deliver them from the unspeakable pains they suffer; call them and admit them to Your most sweet embrace in paradise."

The verse would seem very familiar to people who grew up in families who make it a tradition to pray for the agonies of Christ for the salvation of purged souls.

I also happen to come from a family like that.

But, reading it in the light of history and tradition, the line springs to life a rich and vivid image most iconic to us Christians, especially as we contemplate on the agonies of Christ this Lenten Season.

The scene is unmistakable.

Three crosses on top of a hill, two robbers, Dimas and Aestas hanging beside the Christ. Soldiers keeping watch, swords drawn. Veiled women weep at the bottom of the cross.

As the crucifixion happened while the community was nearing the feast of the Passover, the Jews do not want men hanging on the cross alive when the feast comes.

An order was given, the soldiers have to break the legs of those crucified so death comes before the feast.

Breaking the legs would keep the crucified men from pushing themselves up and make their death come creeping. Both thieves” legs were broken.

When the soldiers came to Christ, they saw he was already dead so there wasn’t any need to break his legs.

Instead, one soldier, which tradition would call him Longinus, a blind in one eye centurion, thrust his lance (spear) to the side of the hanging Christ and out gushed blood and water from the wound.

Thus:  the rips of Your heart open with a lance opening a profound wound shed the last drops of blood and water contained in Your enflamed heart...

(The lance, the nails, the crown of thorns, having had pierced the holy body of Christ were later believed to have been infused with the supreme powers associated with the Christ.)

Longinus, who would later be converted happened to be so close to the cross that when blood and water gushed out from Christ’s would, some of it spattered on his blind eye, instantly healing him from his sight problem.

The Moriones festival in Marinduque tells the details of the story of Longinus: the time when the entire community sought for his head for sharing his testimony.

Ultimately, Loginus was beheaded, but not after he has converted a good number of Jews to believe in the Christ they had murdered.

But what happened to the lance? Ah, that is a good question. That too is another related article.