By Christy Ann Navarra
“To look beyond the glory is the hardest part, for a hero’s strength is measured by his heart.”
All men know what price liberty demands from its champions. The pages of history have shown countless names of men and women and even children suffering, working and dying for liberty that every school child now repeats with great respect and admiration. Noblest and grandest of all is Rizal, the genius, the patriot, the martyr!
Rizal to me is an ideal. He stands for unselfish patriotism. He is dead, this man all men know died many years ago in that place called Luneta that fateful day on December 30, 1896. He died from the bullets of tyranny and injustice. He died martyr to a great cause, the cause of liberty.
He worked, suffered and died that his people may see the truth. His voice called to his countrymen to action. It was a voice that tried to awaken them to their own defects, to their rights, to their needs. It was a voice that pointed forth the ills of Spanish rule.
When he was alive, whether in his own country or abroad, he never stopped asking for reforms in the government. Rizal stood for service. He went abroad and suffered hunger and sickness to become a doctor. He wanted to make the sick strong and happy. He wanted to help drive out epidemics that killed many of his people. He wanted the blind to see because he understood the pain of blindness from the experience of his own beloved and courageous mother. He treated the poor for free. He even spent his own money to buy them medicine they needed. He was indeed a doctor in the real sense of the word.
It was not alone as a doctor that Rizal served. He was also a farmer. He used his knowledge of agriculture, of surveying, of engineering to improve a community. Dapitan, his place of exile received the benefits of his time, efforts and his love for service. He educated the youth of the town so that they night continue his work of improvement after he was gone.
Rizal stood for undying courage. Though his relatives and friends warned him many times of the dangers around him because of his works and teachings, he continued writing about his country and people. Time and again he had a feeling that his life would be short, if he returned to his own country.
But knowing that he could best serve his people here, he preferred to stay and work. This made his enemies hate him more and wanted his death. Time and again he had chances to escape when he was being arrested. But his courage made him stick to his duty to the end.
Rizal is dead, but only in the sense that his body is no longer with us. His thoughts, his deeds, his ideals are alive, so alive he have taught men to love the country and defend her at any cost.
More than an ideal, Rizal was an example of what true Filipino citizen should be. Industrious, honorable, honest, fearless, patriotic, and a person who loved, supported, and defended his or her country and its interests with devotion.
Rizal is gone, but in the hearts of all Filipinos he is alive. Such a martyred hero, Jose Rizal is forever enshrined in our hearts. He will always be known to all the world as a martyr to a just cause! /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
“To look beyond the glory is the hardest part, for a hero’s strength is measured by his heart.”
All men know what price liberty demands from its champions. The pages of history have shown countless names of men and women and even children suffering, working and dying for liberty that every school child now repeats with great respect and admiration. Noblest and grandest of all is Rizal, the genius, the patriot, the martyr!
Rizal to me is an ideal. He stands for unselfish patriotism. He is dead, this man all men know died many years ago in that place called Luneta that fateful day on December 30, 1896. He died from the bullets of tyranny and injustice. He died martyr to a great cause, the cause of liberty.
He worked, suffered and died that his people may see the truth. His voice called to his countrymen to action. It was a voice that tried to awaken them to their own defects, to their rights, to their needs. It was a voice that pointed forth the ills of Spanish rule.
When he was alive, whether in his own country or abroad, he never stopped asking for reforms in the government. Rizal stood for service. He went abroad and suffered hunger and sickness to become a doctor. He wanted to make the sick strong and happy. He wanted to help drive out epidemics that killed many of his people. He wanted the blind to see because he understood the pain of blindness from the experience of his own beloved and courageous mother. He treated the poor for free. He even spent his own money to buy them medicine they needed. He was indeed a doctor in the real sense of the word.
It was not alone as a doctor that Rizal served. He was also a farmer. He used his knowledge of agriculture, of surveying, of engineering to improve a community. Dapitan, his place of exile received the benefits of his time, efforts and his love for service. He educated the youth of the town so that they night continue his work of improvement after he was gone.
Rizal stood for undying courage. Though his relatives and friends warned him many times of the dangers around him because of his works and teachings, he continued writing about his country and people. Time and again he had a feeling that his life would be short, if he returned to his own country.
But knowing that he could best serve his people here, he preferred to stay and work. This made his enemies hate him more and wanted his death. Time and again he had chances to escape when he was being arrested. But his courage made him stick to his duty to the end.
Rizal is dead, but only in the sense that his body is no longer with us. His thoughts, his deeds, his ideals are alive, so alive he have taught men to love the country and defend her at any cost.
More than an ideal, Rizal was an example of what true Filipino citizen should be. Industrious, honorable, honest, fearless, patriotic, and a person who loved, supported, and defended his or her country and its interests with devotion.
Rizal is gone, but in the hearts of all Filipinos he is alive. Such a martyred hero, Jose Rizal is forever enshrined in our hearts. He will always be known to all the world as a martyr to a just cause! /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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