Rizal and Christ
Monday, June 20, 2011
JOSE Rizal and Jesus Christ had at least three things in common: they both died in their early 30s, they were both executed for their causes, and their messages were misunderstood by their respective followers.
Most Filipinos today know Rizal through the two novels he wrote, the Noli and the Fili, because the syllabus of the required Rizal course in college is mostly discussion of the two novels.
Many of the teachers teaching the Rizal subject are also not Rizal experts, but generalists in Social Sciences, which means they are capable only of relaying perfunctory information about Rizal's life and works, without getting into deeper discussion of his thoughts and ideas.
To worsen the already bad situation, students only read the plot summaries or comics versions of Noli and Fili, and teachers give quizzes and exams that only test students' factual knowledge, not their analysis and critical thinking - because those are easier to check and because, well, that's as far as the teachers themselves can go.
I am describing here the state of Rizal education during my college days, which was about 30 years ago. I do not know how much progress the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education have made in making Rizal not just a cardboard figure to Filipino youth today, but a flesh-and-blood compatriot who can inspire them to similar heroism and provoke revolutionary ideas that can really transform society.
But there's one thing that has not changed about today's education: teachers still do not motivate students to read.
Even if you read the full texts of Noli and Fili, and not just their summaries or comics versions, you will still be missing the real genius of Rizal and the real meat and flavor of his message. Why? Because you have not read his letters yet.
Rizal wrote over 1,000 letters. Many of those who teach the Rizal subject themselves have also not read these letters.
For example, most of us have heard about Rizal's letter to the young women of Malolos. But how many of us have actually read it?
I myself read it only last night, and I was shocked to find in it Rizal's bitterest anti-clerical attacks. And I had thought his letter to the women of Malolos was all about their beauty and cooking skills!
In that letter, Rizal told the women to teach their children love for freedom and reason, not servitude. "Christ never gave his hand to be kissed," Rizal wrote. "He never catered to the rich, never mentioned scapularies or made rosaries, never solicited offerings for the sacrifice of the Mass, never exacted payment for His prayers. St. John the Baptist did not demand a fee on the River Jordan, nor did Christ teach for a fee. Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in advance?'
Rizal went on: "Even if all the cloth on earth were converted into scapularies, and all the trees in the forests into rosaries, and if the skins of all the beasts were made into holy belts, and if all the priests of the Church mumbled prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue if there is no repentance."
Rizal continued his attack on the friars: "For a fee, they will revoke the numerous prohibitions, such as those against eating meat, marrying close relatives, etc. You can actually do almost anything if you but grease their palms."
Rizal then told the women of Malolos that if that was the kind of God the friars preached, "then I turn my back against that God."
It was such bold statements that rattled the Spanish colonial establishment and outraged the friars, who then plotted his execution.
It must be pointed out that Rizal did not attack God, or the Catholic Church, or even the clergy. He attacked only the abusive members of the clergy.
In a way, Rizal was even more Christian than many of us, because like Christ, he wanted to liberate people from their suffering even if that meant changing the world order and losing his life in the process.
Like Christ, Rizal was a gentle philosopher and thinker, but like Christ, he had nothing but contempt for those who exploit people in the name of God - the Pharisees during the time of Christ, the Spanish friars during the time of Rizal.
Every time He came face to face with abusive Jewish priests, Christ seethed with anger, calling them hypocrites and other names, including "whitewashed sepulchres."
The Pharisees made Christ's blood boil because instead of a forgiving, compassionate God who understands and embraces even the most evil of men, they preached a God who is vengeful, petty and prone to bribery.
In his letter to the women of Malolos, Rizal urged them to bring up their children "to be the image of the true God, not of a blackmailing God but of a God who is father to us all, who is just, who does not suck the lifeblood of the poor like a vampire."
How ironic that after Christ paid with His own life the price of attacking the Jewish clergy for misleading the people about God, His own priests would later do the exact same thing.
And how ironic, too, that Rizal, who merely repeated Christ's revolutionary message, would also pay the ultimate price in the hands of Christ's own priests.
