The Piercing is presented as Casca's trying to get the whole thing over with, as he is hungover and disgusted with the whole day. He was trying a "mercy kill" which backfired horribly. As Christ says to him at that moment:
"Soldier, you are content with what you are. So you will remain, until we meet again..."
He is cursed forever after that. He begins wandering the Earth, figthing in wars, always searching for the Jew he wounded.
. . . . SPOILER if you haven't seen the movie . . . .
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In The Passion, Longinus is troubled by Christ's heroic suffering and forgiveness of his persecutors. He turns away from the other soldiers' game of dice at the foot of the cross. After the earthquake and darkness, he stops the other soldiers from breaking Christ's legs to hasten his death by telling them he is already dead. Ordered to "make sure", he pierces his side with the spear and is covered with blood and water. He kneels, transfixed. It's a stunning moment in a film full of stunning moments. I think he's also one of the soldiers who later helps Joseph of Arimathea and Mary take Christ's body down from the cross.
The movie is excellent and well worth seeing. It helps to have a good working knowledge of Catholic iconography because the film is multi-layered with tradition as well as what we know from the Gospels. It is fairly gory, but if the gore didn't bother my mother (who is notoriously tender-hearted) it shouldn't be too bad for anyone. As mom said, it's the tender scenes that get you. And Satan gave me the lead pipe creeps - very effective.
"Soldier, you are content with what you are. So you will remain, until we meet again..."
He is cursed forever after that. He begins wandering the Earth, figthing in wars, always searching for the Jew he wounded.
If you enjoy the Mel Gibson The Passion of the Christ film, you are in for a bit of research, as well as a reading treat or two:
A vision of Saint Longinus:
''I saw the Lord dead on the cross. I saw all the people standing around in just the same positions as on Good Friday. It was at the instant in which the legs of the crucified were to be broken. Longinus rode a horse or a mule, but not like our horses; it had a thick neck. He dismounted outside the circle of soldiers and went in on foot, his lance in his hand. He stepped up on the mound at the foot of the cross, and drove the lance into the right side of Our Lord. When he saw the stream of blood and water, he was most powerfully affected.This is from ''The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich'''; an excerpt dated July, 1820. It was being related to her confessor, a Father Limberg, and later written down by Clemens Brentano.
He hastily descended the mountain, rode quickly to the city and went to tell Pilate that he looked upon Jesus as the Son of God, and that he resigned his appointment in the army. He laid down his lance at Pilate's feet and left him. I think it was Nicodemus he met next, and made the same declaration; after which he joined the disciples. Pilate esteemed this lance dishonored, since it had been used as an instrument of punishment, and I think he gave it to Nicodemus.''
The ocassion was upon touching a relic of the sacred lance; and it caused her great pain in her own side. She is, of course the well-known visionary and stigmatized Augustinian nun. The book of her life and visions was granted an imprimatur by Peter Joseph, bishop of Limbourg, in Germany, around the 1870's. The fact her words here were spoken to her confessor should be significant of her truthfulness in the matter. Her amenuensis Clemens Brentano also deserves mention. He was a poet and close friend of all the leading writers of Germany at the time, and as famous for his work as Goethe and Schiller. Yet, he abandoned public life to become the biographer and servant of the visionary. Composer Gustav Mahler set many of his poems to music, in the collection ''Knaben Wunderhorn''.