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 VI 44<br />
there in heaven. Furthermore, to the Virgin of Antipolo he ascribed greater power and efficiency than to all<br />
the other Virgins combined, whether they carried silver canes, naked or richly clothed images of the Christ<br />
Child, scapularies, rosaries, or girdles. Perhaps this reverence was owing to the fact that she was a very strict<br />
Lady, watchful of her name, and, according to the senior sacristan of Antipolo, an enemy of photography.<br />
When she was angered she turned black as ebony, while the other Virgins were softer of heart and more<br />
indulgent. It is a well-known fact that some minds love an absolute monarch rather than a constitutional one,<br />
as witness Louis XIV and Louis XVI, Philip II and Amadeo I. This fact perhaps explains why infidel Chinese<br />
and even Spaniards may be seen kneeling in the famous sanctuary; what is not explained is why the priests<br />
run away with the money of the terrible Image, go to America, and get married there.<br />
In the sala of Capitan Tiago's house, that door, hidden <strong>by</strong> a silk curtain leads to a small chapel or oratory such<br />
as must be lacking in no Filipino home. <strong>The</strong>re were placed his household gods--and we say "gods" because he<br />
was inclined to polytheism rather than to monotheism, which he had never come to understand. <strong>The</strong>re could<br />
be seen images of the Holy Family with busts and extremities of ivory, glass eyes, long eyelashes, and curly<br />
blond hair--masterpieces of Santa Cruz sculpture. Paintings in oil <strong>by</strong> artists of Paco and Ermita [33]<br />
represented martyrdoms of saints and miracles of the Virgin; St. Lucy gazing at the sky and carrying in a plate<br />
an extra pair of eyes with lashes and eyebrows, such as are seen painted in the triangle of the Trinity or on<br />
Egyptian tombs; St. Pascual Bailon; St. Anthony of Padua in a guingón habit looking with tears upon a Christ<br />
Child dressed as a Captain-General with the three-cornered hat, sword, and boots, as in the children's ball at<br />
Madrid that character is represented--which signified for Capitan Tiago that while God might include in His<br />
omnipotence the power of a Captain-General of the Philippines, the Franciscans would nevertheless play with<br />
Him as with a doll. <strong>The</strong>re, might also be seen a St. Anthony the Abbot with a hog <strong>by</strong> his side, a hog that for<br />
the worthy Capitan was as miraculous as the saint himself, for which reason he never dared to refer to it as the<br />
hog, but as the creature of holy St. Anthony; a St. Francis of Assisi in a coffee-colored robe and with seven<br />
wings, placed over a St. Vincent who had only two but in compensation carried a trumpet; a St. Peter the<br />
Martyr with his head split open <strong>by</strong> the talibon of an evil-doer and held fast <strong>by</strong> a kneeling infidel, side <strong>by</strong> side<br />
with another St. Peter cutting off the ear of a Moro, Malchus [34] no doubt, who was gnawing his lips and<br />
writhing with pain, while a fighting-cock on a doric column crowed and flapped his wings--from all of which<br />
Capitan Tiago deduced that in order to be a saint it was just as well to smite as to be smitten.<br />
Who could enumerate that army of images and recount the virtues and perfections that were treasured there! A<br />
whole chapter would hardly suffice. Yet we must not pass over in silence a beautiful St. Michael of painted<br />
and gilded wood almost four feet high. <strong>The</strong> Archangel is biting his lower lip and with flashing eyes, frowning<br />
forehead, and rosy cheeks is grasping a Greek shield and brandishing in his right hand a Sulu kris, ready, as<br />
would appear from his attitude and expression, to smite a worshiper or any one else who might approach,<br />
rather than the horned and tailed devil that had his teeth set in his girlish leg.<br />
Capitan Tiago never went near this image from fear of a miracle. Had not other images, even those more<br />
rudely carved ones that issue from the carpenter shops of Paete, [35] many times come to life for the<br />
confusion and punishment of incredulous sinners? It is a well-known fact that a certain image of Christ in<br />
Spain, when invoked as a witness of promises of love, had assented with a movement of the head in the<br />
presence of the judge, and that another such image had reached out its right arm to embrace St. Lutgarda. And<br />
furthermore, had he not himself read a booklet recently published about a mimic sermon preached <strong>by</strong> an<br />
image of St. Dominic in Soriano? True, the saint had not said a single word, but from his movements it was<br />
inferred, at any rate the author of the booklet inferred, that he was announcing the end of the world. [36] Was<br />
it not reported, too, that the Virgin of Luta in the town of Lipa had one cheek swollen larger than the other and<br />
that there was mud on the borders of her gown? Does not this prove mathematically that the holy images also<br />
walk about without holding up their skirts and that they even suffer from the toothache, perhaps for our sake?<br />
Had he not seen with his own eyes, during the regular Good-Friday sermon, all the images of Christ move and<br />
bow their heads thrice in unison, there<strong>by</strong> calling forth wails and cries from the women and other sensitive<br />
souls destined for Heaven? More? We ourselves have seen the preacher show to the congregation at the<br />
moment of the descent from the cross a handkerchief stained with blood, and were ourselves on the point of