Consequently, Merry Christmas!

I wrote this a year ago in another blogsite, but I find its appeal strong to me as I review my essays, so I’m re-presenting it here.

The debate rages on to this day, more than 100 years after his martyrdom on 30 December 1896, as to whether Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines, did in fact renounce his Roman Catholicism and become a Protestant in effect, without being baptized? That’s a big question; this time, I just want to talk about Rizal’s Christmas in relation to Rizal’s Christ, when Rizal was merely drifting from Catholicism to Protestantism.

In his time, did Jose Rizal, emerging non-Catholic, celebrate Christmas? I thought he didn’t, until I checked the correspondence. I found two references to Christmas Day, and the two reveal much of Rizal’s idea of Christmas and of Christ. Rizal’s Christmas is as colorful as his life, except that his Christmas does not revolve around Christ as God. That takes color off my Christmas.

Full essay

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under creative photography, creative thinking, creative writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.