Conversion at the foot of the Cross

Our traditional celebration of the Passion is full of dramatic actions. They were very often mercilessly violent, painfully bloody and selectively inhuman. This was the behavior of the Roman soldiers led by their leader known as the centurion. He supervised the public shaming and torture of Jesus.

Non-Jews and unbelievers, they were stunned and wondered by the behavior of Jesus. St. Luke continues to describe Jesus’s behavior. “When the centurion saw what had taken place, he gave praise to God and said, ‘Truly, this was an upright man'” (23:47). St. Mark is more personal, “The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was Son of God'” (15:39). St. Matthew describes even the environment affected by Jesus’s death, “The centurion, together with the others guarding Jesus, had seen the earthquake and all that was taking place, and they were terrified and said, ‘In truth this man was son of God'” (27:54).

The conversion of the Roman centurion and his soldiers is the mystery that reveals the power of the suffering and death of Jesus. This power has been revealed down the centuries in the conversions resulting from the sufferings and deaths of thousands of our saints and martyrs in imitation of Jesus.