The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER XXXIV 167
the gleaming knife, when they considered the youth's strength and the condition of his mind. All seemed to be
paralyzed.
"You, here! You have been silent, now it is my turn! I have tried to avoid this, but God brings me to it--let
God be the judge!" The youth was breathing laboriously, but with a hand of iron he held down the Franciscan,
who was struggling vainly to free himself.
"My heart beats tranquilly, my hand is sure," he began, looking around him. "First, is there one among you,
one who has not loved his father, who was born in such shame and humiliation that he hates his memory? You
see? You understand this silence? Priest of a God of peace, with your mouth full of sanctity and religion and
your heart full of evil, you cannot know what a father is, or you might have thought of your own! In all this
crowd which you despise there is not one like you! You are condemned!"
The persons surrounding him, thinking that he was about to commit murder, made a movement.
"Away!" he cried again in a threatening voice. "What, do you fear that I shall stain my hands with impure
blood? Have I not told you that my heart beats tranquilly? Away from us! Listen, priests and judges, you who
think yourselves other men and attribute to yourselves other rights: my father was an honorable man,--ask
these people here, who venerate his memory. My father was a good citizen and he sacrificed himself for me
and for the good of his country. His house was open and his table was set for the stranger and the outcast who
came to him in distress! He was a Christian who always did good and who never oppressed the unprotected or
afflicted those in trouble. To this man here he opened his doors, he made him sit at his table and called him
his friend. And how has this man repaid him? He calumniated him, persecuted him, raised up against him all
the ignorant by availing himself of the sanctity of his position; he outraged his tomb, dishonored his memory,
and persecuted him even in the sleep of death! Not satisfied with this, he persecutes the son now! I have fled
from him, I have avoided his presence. You this morning heard him profane the pulpit, pointing me out to
popular fanaticism, and I held my peace! Now he comes here to seek a quarrel with me. To your surprise, I
have suffered in silence, but he again insults the most sacred memory that there is for a son. You who are
here, priests and judges, have you seen your aged father wear himself out working for you, separating himself
from you for your welfare, have you seen him die of sorrow in a prison sighing for your embrace, seeking
some one to comfort him, alone, sick, when you were in a foreign land? Have you afterwards heard his name
dishonored, have you found his tomb empty when you went to pray beside it? No? You are silent, you
condemn him!"
He raised his hand, but with the swiftness of light a girlish form put itself between them and delicate fingers
restrained the avenging arm. It was Maria Clara. Ibarra stared at her with a look that seemed to reflect
madness. Slowly his clenched fingers relaxed, letting fall the body of the Franciscan and the knife. Covering
his face, he fled through the crowd.