SOMEONE observed that Filipinos seem to have a morbid fixation on the deaths of the country’s heroes, and pointed to government-sanctioned holidays to remember those days our heroes died. Shouldn’t we celebrate their birth anniversaries – their coming into this world – instead?
Today is the 157th birth anniversary of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Coming from a wealthy family, he could have lived a comfortable life. He could have been a prosperous optometrist. He could have been a successful writer. But no. He took the road less traveled – speaking against injustice, against the cruelty of the colonizers. And he wrote, with dripping venom, about the rapacious scandals of the friars that, to him, was the highest form of cruelty inflicted upon human beings.
When no one dared to speak and write, when no one stood up for what was right and just for the Filipinos, he did. This was – and is – Rizal’s greatness. It wasn’t his genius or his intellectual prowess but his courage and conviction that the Filipino should not be under the yoke of colonialism and slavery.
Rizal’s greatness lies in his pursuit of his dream – to free the Filipinos. In Spain, he became a leader of intellectuals who flirted with danger, but unmindful of it. They pursued the dangerous path for the sake of freedom for Filipinos.
While we commemorate Rizal’s martyrdom every December 30, it should not come as strange if we also celebrate his birth and the full life he lived and sacrificed with courage for our country. May his life be a lesson for all of us. Such a life must be an example to all. Rizal was not afraid to stand for what he believed in and — knowing that the prize was that his blood must flow — he did not falter.
