By Edwin D. Bael*
December 30, 1896 marked the culmination of Rizal’s preparations for sowing into the Filipino soul the ideas and virtues of love of country, dignity, inner strength, inner peace, integrity, honor, bravery for liberty, courage to stand up and, if need be, to die for one’s convictions.
Almost six years before, he wrote Mariano Ponce: “We die only once and if we do not die well, we lose a good opportunity which will never come up again … If one has to die, at least one must die in his own country, by his country and for his country.” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, Brussels, 9 July 1890, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 386, p.)
About a month prior to that, he wrote his sister Soledad on the importance of honor even in seeming defeat: “To fall with the head high and a serene brow is not to fall; it is to triumph. The sad thing is to fall with the stain of dishonor.” (Letter to his sister Soledad, Brussels, 6 June 1890, Epistolario Rizalino, III, Doc. No. 383, p.56)
On the way back to Manila after his trip to Cuba was aborted and he was arrested for alleged complicity in the revolution, he wrote in his diary: “I believe that what is happening is the best that can happen to me. Always let God’s Will be done! – I feel more calm with regard to my future. This afternoon I have meditated because I had nothing else to do nor could I read. I feel that peace has descended upon me, thank God! Oh God! Thou art my hope and my consolation! Let your Will be done: I am ready to obey it. Either I will be condemned or absolved. I’m happy and ready.” (Diary: Barcelona to Manila, 1896, p. 3)
Right before his execution, he wrote his family: “Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my death. I die resigned hoping that with my death you will be left in peace. Ah! It is better to die than to live suffering. Console yourselves. (Letter to his family, without signature or date, Documentos Rizalinos, p. 91)
In an article, he wrote: “When one dies for love or for the conviction that his death will do some good, death is a pleasure.” (“The Creator Gazes on the Philippine Islands”, MS)
He was motivated by love of his country which he described as follows: “…love of country is never effaced once it has penetrated the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp which renders it eternal and imperishable. It has been said that love is the most powerful force behind the most sublime actions; well then, among all loves, that of country is the greatest, the most heroic and most disinterested.” (Article “Love of Country”, La Solidaridad, Madrid, 31 Oct 1890, p. 247).
These snippets of his writings indicate that Rizal was ready for his death. Thus, his pulse was normal before the firing squad.
But what good did he die for?
We cannot add to the eloquence of his expression in the fifth stanza of his Ultimo Adios: “Enchantment of my life: my ardent avid obsession: To your health! Cries the soul, so soon to take the last leap: To your health! O lovely: how lovely: to fall that you may rise! To perish that you may live! To die beneath your skies! And upon your enchanted ground the eternities to sleep!” (English translation by Nick Joaquin)
Like the rice seed that must perish in the ground so the seedling can spring forth, Rizal intended his death for the rising and living of his nation.
But what kind of rising and living? And how?
He wanted freedom, dignity, self-respect and respect by others for his people: “My dreams when a lad, when scarcely adolescent: my dreams when a young man, now with vigor inflamed: were to behold you one day: Jewel of eastern waters: griefless the dusky eyes: lifted the upright brow: unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished and unashamed”. (4th Stanza, Ultimo Adios, Nick Jaoquin translation)
He wanted moral and material development of his country: “… the thought of my whole life has always been love of my country and her moral and material development …” (Letter to the Governor and Captain General of the Philippine Islands, Hongkong, 21 Mar 1892, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 577, p. 306). Because: “Man is not a brute, he is not a machine … xxx … His object is to seek happiness for himself and his fellow men by following the road towards progress and perfection.” (“The Indolence of the Filipino”, La Solidaridad, 15 July 1890, p.159) Isn’t this a vision to try to realize in our archipelago an approximation of the Lord Jesus Christ’s intention: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”? (John 10:10)
He wanted his people to win freedom with courage, honor and education: “Liberty is a woman who grants her favors only to the brave.” (Letter to the Members of “La Solidaridad”, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 250, p. 158). “… let us win it by deserving it, exalting individual reason and dignity, loving the just, the good, the great, even dying for it.” (El Filibusterismo, Ghent, 1891, p. 283). “I have given proofs as one who most wants liberties for our country and I continue wanting them. But I put as a premise the education of the people so that through education and work, they might have a personality of their own and make themselves worthy of them. In my writings, I have recommended the study of civic virtues without which redemption is impossible.” (“Manifesto”, 15 Dec 1896, Fort Santiago, p. 1, MS)
He dreamed of a politically free Philippines: “Tomorrow we shall be citizens of the Philippines whose destiny will be beautiful because it will be in loving hands.” (El Filibusterismo, Ghent, 1891, p. 191). Thus, he wanted politics to be done right: “… my ambition is not to win honors or hold positions but to see that what is just, exact, suitable, is done in political matters …” (Letter to Juan Zulueta, Europe, 14 Aug1891, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 471, p. 211).
He had an approach to abuse that contemporary government may want to take heed: “A nation wins respect not by covering up abuses but by punishing them and condemning them.” (“The Philippines a Century Hence”, La Solidaridad, 15 Dec 1889); “… demoralization cannot be corrected by sealing the lips of accusers … but by the government inquiring into the cause, persecuting the crime, and letting fall who may fall.” (“The Truth for All”, La Solidaridad, 31 May 1889, p.85).
He dreamed about a responsible and deserving citizenry, because: “Every country meets the fate that she deserves…” (“The Philippines a Century Hence”, La Solidaridad, 15 Dec 1889); thus, he encouraged Filipinos to have one general goal: “Let this be our only motto: For the welfare of the Native Land.” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, 27 July 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II, 32); and demanded of them to be good citizens: “The principal thing that should be demanded from a Filipino of our generation is not to be a literary man but to be a good man, a good citizen who would help his country to progress with his head, his heart, and if need be, with his arms. With the head and the heart we ought to work always; with the arms when the time comes” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, London, 27 June 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 177, p.21).
He reasoned: “The duty of modern man to my way of thinking is to work for the redemption of humanity, because once man is dignified there would be less unfortunate and more happy men that is possible in this life.” (From “Science, Virtue and Labor”, a paper read by Rizal in 1883, at Solidaridad Lodge, Madrid). And advised: “He who wants to help himself should help others because if he neglects others, he too will be neglected by them. One midrib is easy to break, but not a bundle of many midribs tied together.” (Message to the Women of Malolos, Europe, February 1889, Epistolario Rizalino, II Doc. No. 223, p.117)
He envisioned himself being eclipsed by so many other Filipinos: “I am neither immortal nor invulnerable, and my greatest joy will be to see myself eclipsed by a pleiad of fellow countrymen at the hour of my death. If they kill or hang one, at least twenty or thirty would take his place, so that they may go cautiously about killing and hanging us. Many people do not want to kill ants because they say the more they multiply. Why should we not be ants?” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, London, 27 June 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 177, p.21)
Yes, he even wanted our people to be like ants, as in Proverbs 6:6-9: “Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom; for though she has no chief, no commander or ruler, she procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest; how long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep?” And, we might add: ants don’t move like columns of soldiers in straight lines as in magnetic atoms; rather, individual ants move in an un-rhythmic sometimes zigzag-like or seemingly chaotic pattern but in one general direction as a group. Isn’t this a good description of democracy?
These excerpts from Rizal’s works give us some answers as to what kind of rising and living, and how. In essence, I submit, these constitute what he sowed and planted on December 30, 1896.
But as the Prophet Ezekiel would ask: “True, it is planted, but will it prosper? Will it not rather wither, when touched by the east wind, in the bed where it grew? (Ezekiel 17:10).
Especially, when such east wind would consist of the triple concupiscence that many Catholics may have forgotten or never learned about? - “The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 377)
Still, there is always hope. For “for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”. (1 John 4:4) And we are, after all, recipients of abundant grace. As Dr. Rizal wrote to Fr. Pastells: “I, too, pray now and then, but really when I do so, it never occurred to me to ask for anything. I believe I have everything and as all that happens to me is His will, I am contented and resigned.” (Letter to Fr. Pastells, Dapitan, 1 Sept 1892, Epistolario Rizalino, IV No. 566, p. 39) This seems to affirm Saint Paul’s teaching in 2 Cor 9:8 that “…God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.”
The parable of the sower, with Rizal as the sower – in imitation of Christ - brings us to the conclusion of this short piece. “"Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."” (Mark 4:3-9) xxx “The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." (Mark 4:14-20).
Fellow Filipinos: In regard to what Dr. Rizal has sown, we have the power to determine whether our hearts/minds/souls become the path, the rocky ground, the patch of thorns, or the rich soil. The choice and the responsibility are ours.
It is never too late for us to nurture the tree of Inang Bayan, watered by the blood of Dr. Rizal 114 years ago, as well as by those of our other heroes, and make it grow more and yield the fruits of moral and material prosperity, human dignity, self-respect and respect by others.
================
* Edwin D. Bael is a Knight Commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal. He was Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles, California (2000-2002) and is now the Managing Principal of Bael Consulting, LLC based in Phoenix, Arizona.
December 30, 1896 marked the culmination of Rizal’s preparations for sowing into the Filipino soul the ideas and virtues of love of country, dignity, inner strength, inner peace, integrity, honor, bravery for liberty, courage to stand up and, if need be, to die for one’s convictions.
Almost six years before, he wrote Mariano Ponce: “We die only once and if we do not die well, we lose a good opportunity which will never come up again … If one has to die, at least one must die in his own country, by his country and for his country.” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, Brussels, 9 July 1890, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 386, p.)
About a month prior to that, he wrote his sister Soledad on the importance of honor even in seeming defeat: “To fall with the head high and a serene brow is not to fall; it is to triumph. The sad thing is to fall with the stain of dishonor.” (Letter to his sister Soledad, Brussels, 6 June 1890, Epistolario Rizalino, III, Doc. No. 383, p.56)
On the way back to Manila after his trip to Cuba was aborted and he was arrested for alleged complicity in the revolution, he wrote in his diary: “I believe that what is happening is the best that can happen to me. Always let God’s Will be done! – I feel more calm with regard to my future. This afternoon I have meditated because I had nothing else to do nor could I read. I feel that peace has descended upon me, thank God! Oh God! Thou art my hope and my consolation! Let your Will be done: I am ready to obey it. Either I will be condemned or absolved. I’m happy and ready.” (Diary: Barcelona to Manila, 1896, p. 3)
Right before his execution, he wrote his family: “Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my death. I die resigned hoping that with my death you will be left in peace. Ah! It is better to die than to live suffering. Console yourselves. (Letter to his family, without signature or date, Documentos Rizalinos, p. 91)
In an article, he wrote: “When one dies for love or for the conviction that his death will do some good, death is a pleasure.” (“The Creator Gazes on the Philippine Islands”, MS)
He was motivated by love of his country which he described as follows: “…love of country is never effaced once it has penetrated the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp which renders it eternal and imperishable. It has been said that love is the most powerful force behind the most sublime actions; well then, among all loves, that of country is the greatest, the most heroic and most disinterested.” (Article “Love of Country”, La Solidaridad, Madrid, 31 Oct 1890, p. 247).
These snippets of his writings indicate that Rizal was ready for his death. Thus, his pulse was normal before the firing squad.
But what good did he die for?
We cannot add to the eloquence of his expression in the fifth stanza of his Ultimo Adios: “Enchantment of my life: my ardent avid obsession: To your health! Cries the soul, so soon to take the last leap: To your health! O lovely: how lovely: to fall that you may rise! To perish that you may live! To die beneath your skies! And upon your enchanted ground the eternities to sleep!” (English translation by Nick Joaquin)
Like the rice seed that must perish in the ground so the seedling can spring forth, Rizal intended his death for the rising and living of his nation.
But what kind of rising and living? And how?
He wanted freedom, dignity, self-respect and respect by others for his people: “My dreams when a lad, when scarcely adolescent: my dreams when a young man, now with vigor inflamed: were to behold you one day: Jewel of eastern waters: griefless the dusky eyes: lifted the upright brow: unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished and unashamed”. (4th Stanza, Ultimo Adios, Nick Jaoquin translation)
He wanted moral and material development of his country: “… the thought of my whole life has always been love of my country and her moral and material development …” (Letter to the Governor and Captain General of the Philippine Islands, Hongkong, 21 Mar 1892, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 577, p. 306). Because: “Man is not a brute, he is not a machine … xxx … His object is to seek happiness for himself and his fellow men by following the road towards progress and perfection.” (“The Indolence of the Filipino”, La Solidaridad, 15 July 1890, p.159) Isn’t this a vision to try to realize in our archipelago an approximation of the Lord Jesus Christ’s intention: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”? (John 10:10)
He wanted his people to win freedom with courage, honor and education: “Liberty is a woman who grants her favors only to the brave.” (Letter to the Members of “La Solidaridad”, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 250, p. 158). “… let us win it by deserving it, exalting individual reason and dignity, loving the just, the good, the great, even dying for it.” (El Filibusterismo, Ghent, 1891, p. 283). “I have given proofs as one who most wants liberties for our country and I continue wanting them. But I put as a premise the education of the people so that through education and work, they might have a personality of their own and make themselves worthy of them. In my writings, I have recommended the study of civic virtues without which redemption is impossible.” (“Manifesto”, 15 Dec 1896, Fort Santiago, p. 1, MS)
He dreamed of a politically free Philippines: “Tomorrow we shall be citizens of the Philippines whose destiny will be beautiful because it will be in loving hands.” (El Filibusterismo, Ghent, 1891, p. 191). Thus, he wanted politics to be done right: “… my ambition is not to win honors or hold positions but to see that what is just, exact, suitable, is done in political matters …” (Letter to Juan Zulueta, Europe, 14 Aug1891, Epistolario Rizalino, III No. 471, p. 211).
He had an approach to abuse that contemporary government may want to take heed: “A nation wins respect not by covering up abuses but by punishing them and condemning them.” (“The Philippines a Century Hence”, La Solidaridad, 15 Dec 1889); “… demoralization cannot be corrected by sealing the lips of accusers … but by the government inquiring into the cause, persecuting the crime, and letting fall who may fall.” (“The Truth for All”, La Solidaridad, 31 May 1889, p.85).
He dreamed about a responsible and deserving citizenry, because: “Every country meets the fate that she deserves…” (“The Philippines a Century Hence”, La Solidaridad, 15 Dec 1889); thus, he encouraged Filipinos to have one general goal: “Let this be our only motto: For the welfare of the Native Land.” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, 27 July 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II, 32); and demanded of them to be good citizens: “The principal thing that should be demanded from a Filipino of our generation is not to be a literary man but to be a good man, a good citizen who would help his country to progress with his head, his heart, and if need be, with his arms. With the head and the heart we ought to work always; with the arms when the time comes” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, London, 27 June 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 177, p.21).
He reasoned: “The duty of modern man to my way of thinking is to work for the redemption of humanity, because once man is dignified there would be less unfortunate and more happy men that is possible in this life.” (From “Science, Virtue and Labor”, a paper read by Rizal in 1883, at Solidaridad Lodge, Madrid). And advised: “He who wants to help himself should help others because if he neglects others, he too will be neglected by them. One midrib is easy to break, but not a bundle of many midribs tied together.” (Message to the Women of Malolos, Europe, February 1889, Epistolario Rizalino, II Doc. No. 223, p.117)
He envisioned himself being eclipsed by so many other Filipinos: “I am neither immortal nor invulnerable, and my greatest joy will be to see myself eclipsed by a pleiad of fellow countrymen at the hour of my death. If they kill or hang one, at least twenty or thirty would take his place, so that they may go cautiously about killing and hanging us. Many people do not want to kill ants because they say the more they multiply. Why should we not be ants?” (Letter to Mariano Ponce, London, 27 June 1888, Epistolario Rizalino, II No. 177, p.21)
Yes, he even wanted our people to be like ants, as in Proverbs 6:6-9: “Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom; for though she has no chief, no commander or ruler, she procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest; how long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep?” And, we might add: ants don’t move like columns of soldiers in straight lines as in magnetic atoms; rather, individual ants move in an un-rhythmic sometimes zigzag-like or seemingly chaotic pattern but in one general direction as a group. Isn’t this a good description of democracy?
These excerpts from Rizal’s works give us some answers as to what kind of rising and living, and how. In essence, I submit, these constitute what he sowed and planted on December 30, 1896.
But as the Prophet Ezekiel would ask: “True, it is planted, but will it prosper? Will it not rather wither, when touched by the east wind, in the bed where it grew? (Ezekiel 17:10).
Especially, when such east wind would consist of the triple concupiscence that many Catholics may have forgotten or never learned about? - “The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 377)
Still, there is always hope. For “for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”. (1 John 4:4) And we are, after all, recipients of abundant grace. As Dr. Rizal wrote to Fr. Pastells: “I, too, pray now and then, but really when I do so, it never occurred to me to ask for anything. I believe I have everything and as all that happens to me is His will, I am contented and resigned.” (Letter to Fr. Pastells, Dapitan, 1 Sept 1892, Epistolario Rizalino, IV No. 566, p. 39) This seems to affirm Saint Paul’s teaching in 2 Cor 9:8 that “…God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.”
The parable of the sower, with Rizal as the sower – in imitation of Christ - brings us to the conclusion of this short piece. “"Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."” (Mark 4:3-9) xxx “The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." (Mark 4:14-20).
Fellow Filipinos: In regard to what Dr. Rizal has sown, we have the power to determine whether our hearts/minds/souls become the path, the rocky ground, the patch of thorns, or the rich soil. The choice and the responsibility are ours.
It is never too late for us to nurture the tree of Inang Bayan, watered by the blood of Dr. Rizal 114 years ago, as well as by those of our other heroes, and make it grow more and yield the fruits of moral and material prosperity, human dignity, self-respect and respect by others.
================
* Edwin D. Bael is a Knight Commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal. He was Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles, California (2000-2002) and is now the Managing Principal of Bael Consulting, LLC based in Phoenix, Arizona.
