The Second Coming of Rizal

In this article, different beliefs have been brought up. Apparently, I cannot believe anything that has been written in that article mainly because as a Catholic, I believe that there are only three Gods. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Is it not funny to think that there would be a God Rizal? In my own perception of these issues and beliefs, none of these are true or even proven. The fact that Rizal might have been another form of Jesus Christ for he has been believed to have lived the same way but in a different manner as compared to Jesus just doesn’t make any sense. I do not judge the people who believes these things or the people who has faith in Rizal. We do know that Rizal may have offered a lot for our country but come on, let us put these questions to our minds. Did Jesus roam around the world and had a ‘girl’ in whichever place he went? Of course not! That would be preposterous.

Another thing that I noticed was that they were comparing Rizal’s birth to Jesus’ birth. Logically speaking, these ancient beliefs or stories are not all true and because of this, it made me realize that other people, even in the same place since they have different groups or divisions has their own version of the story on how Rizal was born. Rizal as a prophet may be accepted in some way but not to the point that the Church will accept Rizal as a prophet sent by God from the heavens mostly because during Rizal’s time as he was writing his other books, he somewhat opposed the Church.

So what is his relevance to the Church? Nothing, right? I know we may not have the same point of view but for me, everything in this article does not make any sense. Well it does, to other people or the ‘Rizalians’, but as a Catholic, I would not give in to this kind of idea nor even believe whatever other people believe in with regards to their beliefs in Rizal’s so called similarity to Jesus. Above everything I just said, I respect the people who has their own beliefs for we are not the same. Each of us was brought up by our own beliefs in life and we do not and shall not oppose to whatever beliefs other people have. Dela Cruz, Arianne Oli A.

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“Veneration Without Understanding”

When I was about to read this article by Renato Constantino, it started off with the words.. “In the histories of many nations, the national revolution represents a peak of achievement to which the minds of man return time and again in reverence and for a renewal of faith in freedom.” To me this made it really interesting to read. I mean, this article in fact is really long for us to read and with regards to history, not all of us are really in to reading these kinds of things, but this changed my mind. I started to think of how Rizal ought to be a National Hero when there are far more Filipinos who was killed because they love our country and to be frank, they are way more deserving. Again, this is my own opinion. What I love about this article is that, a lot of Filipinos have been patronizing Dr. Jose Rizal as our National Hero, when in fact not everyone knows what he has done throughout his life or whatever he must have been doing and going through during his rise and fall.

What I liked most about Rizal is that, he gave ‘liberty’ and ‘independence’ a different meaning. He was born to become a writer and a fighter at the same time without using any violence and this made me very interested in him. How could someone fight for independence without using any violence? So this was pretty much questionable because as a National Hero, he must have been a part of a revolution but he was one of the people who did condemnation to the revolution. I think this is what made Filipinos think about Rizal being the National Hero when he turned his back on the Revolution that Bonifacio planned to do and declined to support the Katipunan. If I were Rizal, I would get caught in between. One is the choice to become a part of the Filipino people in joining the Revolution and the second is the choice to make a better country along with the help of the Spaniards. Rizal’s choice was pretty clear and this made me a bit confused on which side is he on. The Spaniards, or the Filipinos?

One thing is for sure; he made a decision to make it all better for the country. Pretty much because he was an ilustrado therefore it meant that he was a well-educated man. According to what I have read, they were saying that Rizal was a sponsored hero by the Americans because he was declared as the National Hero during the time of the American Colonization in the Philippines and at the same time, he was dead. Most probably because the Americans thought that Rizal would not do any harm to their government anymore for he was already dead. In my own point of view, even though I have not lived during that time, if I was one of the Filipinos, I would really be against Rizal being declared as a National Hero. Why? Because it was too biased!! Bonifacio was living during that time and I think that even though he was not successful with the Katipunan, he should have been given credit for his efforts and sacrifices for the poor Filipinos. Another thing to add, being a national hero does not mean you should be well-educated.

In this article written by Renato Constantino does not show that he is Anti-Rizal but for me it is just own way of saying that not all of us know who Rizal really was and no one will ever know everything about him. Some of it may be true but not a hundred percent of it is true. For me everyone can become a hero but being a hero does not mean you should die for the country with no reason. Dying for the country with a principle and a reason are two different things. We choose to believe in what we want to believe, and we choose to do what we want to do. We do not let other people dictate what we ought to do but what we are supposed to do is to put ourselves out there to live and love our lives as Filipinos but also live according to and by the law for this is what makes our lives more systematic.

There is really one good quote that I have read from the article, “We must discard the belief that we are incapable of producing the heroes of our epoch, that heroes are exceptional beings, accidents of history who stand above the masses and apart from them. He true hero is one with the masses: he does not exist above them. In fact, a whole people can be heroes given the proper motivation and articulation of dreams.” I guess this is what we should stick to our minds right now, be our own hero but to become our own hero.. I guess we should know who the real hero is.