Exert from "The Divine Life of the Most Holy Virgin"- Venerable Mary of Agreda
"Pilate, finding that all his endeavors to save Jesus had failed, thought to have him scourged in the hope that the Jews might think that He was sufficiently chastised and allow Him to be set free; but in this he acted against all justice, for he had already acknowledged the perfect innocence of Jesus.
To execute this flagellation, they chose six young men most remarkable for their strength and barbarous cruelty. They led Jesus into the court in which there was a column, and removed the handcuffs chains and cords. They tore off His garments, leaving His sacred person almost entirely naked. The flagellation commenced under the eyes of the afflicted Mother.
Jesus was bound to the column so tightly with little cords that they entered his flesh, and His divine hands became much swollen. Afterwards they began to scourge Him in pairs, one after the other with a cruelty of which human ferocity was not capable, but Lucifer had incorporated himself into the hearts of the pitiless executioners. The first tow scourged the innocent Jesus with large twisted cords, exerting their utmost violence and greatest fury upon Him. The first blows which fell upon His divine and delicate body inflicted large livid bruised, which swelled to a frightful extent and seemed as if the blood was about to burst from them.
When these cruel men were exhausted by fatigue, they were succeeded by the second two, who, using heavy leather thongs, broke the flesh of the bruises inflicted by the first, so that the Precious Blood not only covered the body of Jesus, but also saturated the garments of the sacrilegious murderers and fell upon the ground.
When exhausted, they were succeeded by the third party, who used as their instruments of torture the sinews of beasts, which were very hard and dry, resembling twigs. Their blows, being repeated over the wounds inflicted by the first and second executioners, caused Jesus the most intense agony. But as His divine body was but one entire wound, they could no longer new wounds; their blows, therefore, falling on His sacred flesh, tore out pieces which fell to the ground, and in many places left the bones exposed to sight. Not content with this, they satiated their cruelty by striking Him on the face, hands and feet, and sparing no part of His body. So bruised, torn and disfigured was the countenance of the Lord as to be no longer recognizable."
This graphic description of the suffering of Jesus is what Mel Gibson used for his movie "The Passion of the Christ".
To see it click here.
