So many of our national heroes had a special devotion to her! Our first, and greatest, Jose Rizal. He was a boarder in the old Ateneo in Intramuros, for seven years. And during that time he was the Prefect of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
Today there is a great deal of discussion about the two hearts – the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Rizal, as a young student, carved a statue of the Sacred Heart with a pen knife, and gave it to his favorite teacher, Father Sanchez. He had a devotion to the Heart of Jesus, and to the Heart of Mary, long before this became popular in the Philippines, and throughout the world.
And Rizal said a beautiful thing to Josephine Bracken, on the day he married her in that little cell in Fort Santiago. It was only hours before he died. He said: "My people are poor. For centuries our only real possessions have been the land, the sea, the sun and the rain. But, having nothing, we discovered that our real treasure was. . . . each other!"
That means: "Our real treasure is love". And that is the heart of the Gospel. God is Love. And that is what the hearts of Jesus and Mary stand for: love. Rizal had his finger on the very pulse of our people. Our intimate, personal, private values are the values of God.
This brought him peace of soul. On his way down to the Luneta, to be executed, flanked by two Jesuit priests, he looked at the ancient towers of the old Ateneo and said; "I spent many happy years there."
Standing on the roof of the Ateneo, as Rizal marched down to his death, was father Joaquin Vilallonga. He said, much later, when he was 94 years old, "I had a very bright boy in my class. But he never graduated from college. He dropped out of school to join the revolution."
This was Gregorio del Pilar, Aguinaldo’s best friend. The Filipinos really won that war against the Spaniards, but before anyone could say: "And the winner is. . . . ." the Americans took over the revolution. Aguinaldo lost more men against the Americans than he did against the Spaniards. At Malolos 250 Filipino men went down. Aguinaldo was withdrawing to the north, with the Americans in pursuit.
When they reached a narrow mountain pass in Nueva Vizcaya, Aguinaldo said to del Pilar: "Take 60 men, and hold this pass for as long as you can!" Del Pilar said: "Yes, sir". He took 60 men, built two trenches, and held up the whole American Army for a full day.
There was an American reporter at the base of the mountain, named McCutcheon. He wrote it up for the New York Herald: "We could see them there, lying in the rocks, slowly, calmly, loading and firing on the men below. They were outnumbered ten to one, but there was never a sign that any one of them meant to withdraw. Even with the Americans 100 feet away, when they were surrounded on three sides, there was no panic, no sign that even one wanted to pull out. It was an exhibition of cool, quiet nerve that was new to us Americans."
All 60 men went down. Gregorio del Pilar was the last to fall. And when he died, his rosary was in his hand. Major March, commanding the first battalion of Americans, stood over the body and said: "Bury him here with full military honors. And put a cross over his grave, with this inscription: General Gregorio del Pilar, Killed at the Battle of Tirad Pass, December 3, 1899, An Officer and a Gentleman."
This was courage that the world seldom sees. But, in the hearts of all those 60 men, it was built on the confidence that they were going home to God, and to His mother, who looked upon them as her special children.
In our own day, Ninoy Aquino, when he was in solitary, said the rosary all day long, just to keep sane. On some days he said 50 rosaries. And when he was coming down in the plane to the Manila Airport, he was saying the rosary. When the guards picked him up, he was holding the rosary in his hand. When he was shot in the back of the head, and fell to the terrace, the rosary was in his lifeless hand. When they gave the body to Cory, that rosary was around his neck.
Mary was a source of strength to our heroes, but she is loved all over our land. In the mountains of the north, at Manaoag and Piat.
In the heart of Luzon: Nuestro Señora de Guia in Ermita, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati. Our Lady of the Rosary and Victory in Quezon City. Our Lady of Good Counsel and Happy Voyage in Antipolo. Our Lady of Peñafrancia in the rivers of the Bicol Region. The Mother of the Santo Niño in Cebu and in Tacloban. Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zamboanga La Bella. And all over the country as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, because she is the patron saint of this nation.
Father Patrick Peyton, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, before he was ordained, was terminal with tuberculosis. The doctors had given him up. He promised the Virgin Mary that, if he recovered, he would consecrate his life to her, promoting the family rosary. And, there in his hospital bed, he felt that he was cured.
The doctors would not believe him, and would not allow another X-Ray. So he slipped out of the hospital, avoided all the nurses, had an X-Ray taken in another hospital, and his lungs were perfectly clear! So he spent the rest of his life, touring the world, begging people to pray the rosary.
When he came to the Philippines, he realized that the devotion to Mary, in the hearts of the Filipinos, was the deepest and strongest that he had seen anywhere on the face of the earth. He was happy here. Because the Filipino love of the Virgin Mary was exactly like his own. This was his favorite country!
John Paul II was touched in exactly the same way. His first meeting with Filipino men and women was in Baclaran church, on a Wednesday evening, during their novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. He was then only a Cardinal, on his way to Australia, saying Mass during the three-hour stay of his plane in the Manila Airport.
He was breathless at the great number of people in that over-crowded church, their enthusiasm, their reverence, the intensity of their prayer. This feeling stayed with him through all the years. At his last departure, in 1995, he said: "The Pope is well in the Philippines! I want to return! I want to return! I do not know how, but I will return!" I would guess that he has returned, in the sense that he is living in the hearts of all of us. And we met him through the Virgin Mary.
This nation has been touched by the hand of God. When Christ Our Lord looked down from the cross and said: "Woman, behold thy son", he was thinking of Saint John. But he was also thinking of us, the special children of his mother. We were born to her, in pain, at the foot of the cross, on Calvary.
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