The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
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CHAPTER XXX 145<br />
CHAPTER XXX<br />
In the Church<br />
From end to end the huge barn that men dedicate as a home to the Creator of all existing things was filled with<br />
people. Pushing, crowding, and crushing one another, the few who were leaving and the many who were<br />
entering filled the air with exclamations of distress. Even from afar an arm would be stretched out to dip the<br />
fingers in the holy water, but at the critical moment the surging crowd would force the hand away. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
would be heard a complaint, a trampled woman would upbraid some one, but the pushing would continue.<br />
Some old people might succeed in dipping their fingers in the water, now the color of slime, where the<br />
population of a whole town, with transients besides, had washed. With it they would anoint themselves<br />
devoutly, although with difficulty, on the neck, on the crown of the head, on the forehead, on the chin, on the<br />
chest, and on the abdomen, in the assurance that thus they were sanctifying those parts and that they would<br />
suffer neither stiff neck, headache, consumption, nor indigestion. <strong>The</strong> young people, whether they were not so<br />
ailing or did not believe in that holy prophylactic, hardly more than moistened the tip of a finger--and this<br />
only in order that the devout might have no cause to talk--and pretended to make the sign of the cross on their<br />
foreheads, of course without touching them. "It may be blessed and everything you may wish," some young<br />
woman doubtless thought, "but it has such a color!"<br />
It was difficult to breathe in the heat amid the smells of the human animal, but the preacher was worth all<br />
these inconveniences, as the sermon was costing the town two hundred and fifty pesos. Old Tasio had said:<br />
"Two hundred and fifty pesos for a sermon! One man on one occasion! Only a third of what comedians cost,<br />
who will work for three nights! Surely you must be very rich!"<br />
"What has that to do with the drama?" testily inquired the nervous leader of the Tertiary Brethren. "With the<br />
drama souls go to hell but with the sermon to heaven! If he had asked a thousand, we would have paid him<br />
and should still owe him gratitude."<br />
"After all, you're right," replied the Sage, "for the sermon is more amusing to me at least than the drama."<br />
"But I am not amused even <strong>by</strong> the drama!" yelled the other furiously.<br />
"I believe it, since you understand one about as well as you do the other!" And the impious old man moved<br />
away without paying any attention to the insults and the direful prophecies that the irritated leader offered<br />
concerning his future existence.<br />
While they were waiting for the alcalde, the people sweated and yawned, agitating the air with fans, hats, and<br />
handkerchiefs. Children shouted and cried, which kept the sacristans busy putting them out of the sacred<br />
edifice. Such action brought to the dull and conscientious leader of the Brotherhood of the Holy Rosary this<br />
thought: "'Suffer little children to come unto me,' said Our Savior, it is true, but here must be understood,<br />
children who do not cry."<br />
An old woman in a guingón habit, Sister Puté, chid her granddaughter, a child of six years, who was kneeling<br />
at her side, "O lost one, give heed, for you're going to hear a sermon like that of Good Friday!" Here the old<br />
lady gave her a pinch to awaken the piety of the child, who made a grimace, stuck out her nose, and wrinkled<br />
up her eyebrows.<br />
Some men squatted on their heels and dozed beside the confessional. One old man nodding caused our old<br />
woman to believe that he was mumbling prayers, so, running her fingers rapidly over the beads of her<br />
rosary--as that was the most reverent way of respecting the designs of Heaven--little <strong>by</strong> little she set herself to<br />
imitating hint.