Tomorrow, we shall recall the great life of our national hero. Ironically, we honor his life and memory on the anniversary of his execution, death, and martyrdom. Even while we troop to movie houses to see BONIFACIO, THE FIRST PRESIDENT," we continue to honor Rizal as our national hero. With all his imperfections and human weaknesses, we recall the life of Dr. Jose Rizal on five most important legacies that he left to our nation and people. First, his love and respect for his family. Second, his passion for learning. Third, his advocacy for grassroots community and people development. Fourth, his love for travel. Fifth, his uncompromising love for country. What matters most in remembering them is learning from Rizal's great examples and legacies.
First, Rizal showed an example on how he loved, even adored his mother and how he respected his father and elder brother. He was closer to his nanay than to his tatay but he loved them both. He also exemplified love of family and respect for women by how he valued her sisters and saw to it that they were respected by others. In all his life, even when he was in Europe and anywhere else abroad, he was always connected with his parents and siblings by constant correspondence, even at an era without Internet and cell phones. In Dapitan, his mother lived with him and his sisters took turns in visiting him. When he died, he made sure that he could meet and talk to all of them.
Second, our youth today should emulate Rizal's insatiable thirst for learning and passion for education and advanced development. Because of this, Rizal was not only a doctor and writer but also a sculptor, a painter, a composer, and an architect. He was an agriculturist and a teacher. He was many things to many people. He never got tired writing and reading. He even copied encyclopedias and other documents in Madrid, Spain and in Heidelberg, Germany in his own handwriting. There were no Xerox machines then or computers. But Rizal's thirst for learning could not be quenched by existing books. He wrote his own. His NOLI and FILI still ring with truth today as the contents relate to contemporary socio-economic realities.
Third, Rizal, by his own experience in Dapitan, has shown how a sleepy village could be transformed into a dynamic and developing community, by teaching its young people and by organizing the community leaders into one progressive local organization, pursuing a common goal and a shared purpose. This is one of the leading advocacies of our national hero that has been largely ignored by history writers and biographers. Filipinos, especially local government and community leaders today, have a lot to learn from Rizal, on the need to build the grassroots foundation of our nation. Rizal bore fruit wherever God planted him. In Dapitan, he showed to the locals the tremendous results of a united community.
Fourth, Rizal was a citizen of the world, the greatest Malayan that ever lived. He was a constant traveler. He explored the world and brought home new perspectives and new knowledge which were all needed by the nation and its people. Fifth, there is no greater love of country than the love that Rizal and Bonifacio showed to us. But Rizal's death and martyrdom dramatized how a lonely and daring one man, scorned and battered by the vicissitudes of life, gladly met his death in the name of his country and people. Tomorrow, and every time we visit his monument in Luneta, we should recall these five important legacies that our national hero left us. For them, we should always be grateful to Dr. Jose Rizal. Rizal did not fight a battle but he proved that the pen indeed is mightier than the sword or the pistol.
Honoring our national hero is one thing. What matters most is that we learned from his greatness. And learning we become better. As a nation and as individuals.