A few days ago, my daughter Krystal asked me if I have Renato Constantino’s controversial “Veneration Without Understanding” and Gregorio Zaide’s ubiquitous “José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, and National Hero”. She needed them for a school assignment under the subject “Rizal’s Life and Works”, a consequence of the late Senator Claro M. Recto’s Republic Act No. 1425*, otherwise known as the Rizal Law. This plea for assistance reminded me of an essay of hers when she was still in Grade 10, or three years ago. She was assigned by her religion teacher to write an essay comparing the friars of El Filibusterismo to the friars of today. My daughter, unfortunately, is a non-writer and doesn’t share the same passion that I have for our country’s history. So she asked me for help. But since I’m busy with other matters, I just gave her relevant reading materials for reference (while chiding her on the side that it’s her assignment, not mine). And as a guide, I cautioned her that it is not just to compare fictional characters to real people.
On the day that she was to pass her essay, I asked for it so that I could review it, but she left immediately. She didn’t want me to read it out of shame, haha.
But she forgot to delete her work from our laptop. So here it is, haha. She wowed me upon reading it. I decided to share it on my Facebook account; I originally published it here. I am posting her essay again via this blog, again without her knowledge, haha.
Through the years, I have been lecturing my children about the important components of a true Filipino. So even though they are not as passionate as I am towards the study (and reevaluation) of Filipino History, I am still happy that they still carry on with them the spirit of our authentic national identity. That, I believe, is victory enough.
THE FRIARS OF RIZAL’S EL FILIBUSTERISMO
Jewel Krystal Rose Alas10 – Prophet Jeremiah
RELIGION
It is already well-known that the friars in the Philippines during Spanish times were cruel and tyrannical. This image of a bad Spanish friar is best portrayed in the novels of national hero José Rizal, particularly in his El Filibusterismo. But is this image of bad Spanish friars in Rizal’s El Filibusterismo factual?
During the foundation of our country, the friars are the ones who gave us blessings, particularly when it comes to urbanization. They taught us our mannerisms, how to speak, talk, and eat. The friars were the ones who gave us food that we still eat up to this very day. They also taught us how to be cultured and be morally urbanized (gracious manners). In other words, they were the ones who created the Filipino as they were capable of spreading the Christian faith in our country. Aside from religious activities they did for the natives as teachers of the Faith, they were also farmers, architects, writers, scientists, doctors, etc. The friars also had authority in the administration of the colony.
The friars of Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo who were depicted to show negative traits are only fictional characters. But why would Rizal imagine the friars back then as cruel? It is because he was a Freemason at the time that he was still working on the novels. Freemasons are anti-Catholics which explains why Rizal wrote negatively about the friars. Fortunately, before he was executed, he reconverted to Catholicism.
Unlike those friars in his novels, we all know how they are being respected the right way today. We see them every Sunday inside the church as they teach us the Word of God. But the fictional friars of El Filibusterismo are very much different compared to the friars today. But let’s say that we really have to compare them, we could find some similarities, but not everything. For example, some friars or priests today sometimes handle the Holy Mass in a wrong manner. We know about that priest who rode a hoverboard while singing a gospel song. Others I heard have seduced young teens and other horrible deeds. But these are isolated cases and are condemned, of course, by the Catholic Church. And let us remember this: our country will not be what it is today, a bastion of Christianity, without the friars who taught us the Catholic FAITH.
EL FILIPINISMO 