NewsRecord Weekly Publication

Soldier’s Pen

By BGen. Alexander Cabales (Ret.)

Noli Me Tangere

Photo Credits :
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noli_me_tangere

                Today, on Easter Sunday, we pause for a while and recall a scene in Jesus’ resurrection in what we know of today as the first Easter Sunday.  In the morning of that day, Mary Magdalene visited the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was buried two days earlier.  As she tried to touch the newly risen Jesus, he said unto her: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”.  “Touch me not”, was an English translation of a phrase taken from the Holy Bible specifically Verse 17, Chapter 20 of the Gospel of John of the King James Version. The original phrase in Latin was “Noli Me Tangere”. 

                Deriving inspiration from the Holy Scriptures, our National Hero, Dr Jose Rizal in 1891, used “Noli Me Tangere” as the title of his literary masterpiece, a novel which depicted the deplorable social conditions of our country in the last century of Spanish rule.  In this novel, Rizal dared to talk about the real and painful conditions of our country, the social cancer perpetrated by the friars and the Spanish administrators on the poor Filipino Indios.   Rizal spoke of truths that no Indio dare to talk about in public.  He wrote of ideas that can cause anyone to cringe even with just the mere thought of them.  In his explosive novel, Rizal dramatized the abuses of the friars and the Spanish rulers of our country.  He unraveled the veil that hid the evils, the ugliness and the injustices pervading throughout the islands.

Photo Credits : http://cimages.swap.com

                The “Noli Me Tangere” eventually opened the eyes of the Filipino people and planted the seeds of Liberalism and Filipino nationalism.  A new beginning dawned on this fragmented group of more than 7,000 islands which many just refer to as Islas Filipinas.  The Indios became united and began to dream of becoming a free people.  On June 12, 1898, less than two (2) years after Rizal was executed in December 1896, the Philippines became the first independent country in South East Asia.   

                In dedicating the “Noli” to his Fatherland, Rizal wrote, “I will do with thee what the ancients did with their sick, exposing them at the steps of the temple so that everyone who came to invoke the Divinity might offer them a remedy”.

                The title, Noli Me Tangere, as chosen by Rizal for his first novel was symbolic.  Like Jesus, Rizal did the unthinkable.  Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice by dying on the cross so that the whole of humanity can be redeemed from their sins.  Rizal, on his part, knew that he was going to die if he exposes the evils of the friars and the Spanish tyrants.  Jesus warned Mary Magdalene not to touch him until he has ascended to the Father in heaven or when the Lord has finally accepted his supreme sacrifice and therefore his mission on Earth is done. 

When Rizal dared to finally to publish his book, it was already the culmination of his own self sacrifice where there was no turning back.  He was warned many times in the past, even by his own dear mother, that the Spaniards will “cut off his head” if he continues to dream of a better Philippines.  Rizal’s family, friends and associates were unjustly persecuted as a result of his writings and activities which became more evident with his active role in the Propaganda Movement in Spain starting in 1882.  This became more intense as he wrote more essays, articles and other literary works that touched on the conditions of our country at that time.

By aptly titling his epic work as such, he was subtlety admonishing his friends, relatives and the other Filipinos of the Reform Movement that they may not be ready to immediately and openly embrace the dangerous ideas that he was espousing; and be willing to accept the consequences thereof.   Presumably, Rizal must have thought that in order for his sublime sacrifice to be fulfilled, there was the necessity for the whole Filipino nation to understand and accept the reality of their deplorable condition (misery or sins!) in order to work together towards the realization of the dreams that this awareness may evoke.  Otherwise, Rizal’s sacrifice would have been in vain, his ideas ignored and never to be touched or talked about forever.  “Noli Me Tangere” it would have remained.