The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER XXXI 149
"Most honorable sir" Great affairs are great affairs even by the side of the small and the small are always
small even by the side of the great. So History says, but since History hits the nail on the head only once in a
hundred times, being a thing made by men, and men make mistakes--errarle es hominum, [89] as Cicero
said--he who opens his mouth makes mistakes, as they say in my country then the result is that there are
profound truths which History does not record. These truths, most honorable sir, the divine Spirit spoke with
that supreme wisdom which human intelligence has not comprehended since the times of Seneca and
Aristotle, those wise priests of antiquity, even to our sinful days, and these truths are that not always are small
affairs small, but that they are great, not by the side of the little things, but by the side of the grandest of the
earth and of the heavens and of the air and of the clouds and of the waters and of space and of life and of
death!"
"Amen!" exclaimed the leader of the Tertiaries, crossing himself.
With this figure of rhetoric, which he had learned from a famous preacher in Manila, Padre Damaso wished to
startle his audience, and in fact his holy ghost was so fascinated with such great truths that it was necessary to
kick him to remind him of his business.
"Patent to your eyes--" prompted the holy ghost below.
"Patent to your eyes is the conclusive and impressive proof of this eternal philosophical truth! Patent is that
sun of virtue, and I say sun and not moon, for there is no great merit in the fact that the moon shines during
the night,--in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king; by night may shine a light, a tiny star,--so the
greatest merit is to be able to shine even in the middle of the day, as the sun does; so shines our brother Diego
even in the midst of the greatest saints! Here you have patent to your eyes, in your impious disbelief, the
masterpiece of the Highest for the confusion of the great of the earth, yes, my brethren, patent, patent to all,
PATENT!"
A man rose pale and trembling and hid himself in a confessional. He was a liquor dealer who had been dozing
and dreaming that the carbineers were demanding the patent, or license, that he did not have. It may safely be
affirmed that he did not come out from his hiding-place while the sermon lasted.
"Humble and lowly saint, thy wooden cross" (the one that the image held was of silver), "thy modest gown,
honors the great Francis whose sons and imitators we are. We propagate thy holy race in the whole world, in
the remote places, in the cities, in the towns, without distinction between black and white" (the alcalde held
his breath), "suffering hardships and martyrdoms, thy holy race of faith and religion militant" ("Ah!" breathed
the alcalde) "which holds the world in balance and prevents it from falling into the depths of perdition."
His hearers, including even Capitan Tiago, yawned little by little. Maria Clara was not listening to the sermon,
for she knew that Ibarra was near and was thinking about him while she fanned herself and gazed at an
evangelical bull that had all the outlines of a small carabao.
"All should know by heart the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints and then I should not have to preach
to you, O sinners! You should know such important and necessary things as the Lord's Prayer, although many
of you have forgotten it, living now as do the Protestants or heretics, who, like the Chinese, respect not the
ministers of God. But the worse for you, O ye accursed, moving as you are toward damnation!"
"Abá, Pale Lamaso, what!" [90] muttered Carlos, the Chinese, looking angrily at the preacher, who continued
to extemporize, emitting a series of apostrophes and imprecations.
"You will die in final unrepentance, O race of heretics! God punishes you even on this earth with jails and
prisons! Women should flee from you, the rulers should hang all of you so that the seed of Satan be not
multiplied in the vineyard of the Lord! Jesus Christ said: 'If you have an evil member that leads you to sin, cut