A CERTAIN SIGNIFICANCE?

I cannot explain why my path and that of the running priest Bro. Robert Reyes were destined to meet in Hong Kong. I cannot fathom why we conceptualized and discussed this piece of art at the Excelsior Hotel while we were waiting to meet actor Cesar Montano who once played the role of Rizal in a movie about the hero and who is himself an artist. But I know that Hong Kong is a significant place in our country's history when Dr. Jose Rizal practiced his profession here and where the Philippine flag was sewn here too. But I soon realized, to my surprise, that the meaning of the word "excelsior", which incidentally fall under the Latin and Greek phrases, is "Higher, more elevated" and the other meaning is "slender*, *curved wood shavings used especially for packing."

In my own interpretation, the significance of the struggle of the Filipino people during the time of Dr. Jose Rizal is now being recreated in a certain way in another time but with a different reality when the oppressors are not foreign anymore but domestic. The threat of that second world war is gone during these times of peace but many forms of silent wars are threatening the peace enjoyed by the country under a democracy today.

Today a lot of overseas Filipino workers are here abroad working and suffering while their hard-earned dollars they pump into our economy. I have seen them suffer and the whole world sees the tired Filipina domestic helpers lie scattered on sidewalks during their weekend day-offs while the well-heeled pass by. Today they are called heroes while their kids, without hands-on parental care and warmth of the parents touch, are the harbingers of havoc and mayhem in school campuses just because they decided to fight their stupid wars and continue to nurture that evil culture of fraternity violence. These young men are likened to the 300 merciless warriors adding to the agony and passion of Christ.

It is very sad to think that the very few people privileged to have really good education and might someday hold the reigns of our government are allowing themselves to be trained with the culture of violence, deception and thirst for supremacy and power in their make-shift war laboratories and battlefields in our countries campuses.

Equally significant is that the Philippine flag was sewn here in Hong Kong then. But now some elements of this national symbol that were depicted in my painting, The Wrong Sacrifice, which is also produced here in Hong Kong, show a badly tattered representation of the blue area because our own faults as a "free" people has silently infected our peace like cancer.

The solution to our people's existing problems cannot be solved by violent means but by concerned people-turned-servants of God the Father Almighty humbling themselves to Him who is high above there for us to be able to elevate our countrymen to a better status as true believers. And it was the example of a humble carpenter's true and real obedience to His Father's will that we need to emulate.

And this message has to be delivered fast by a running priest to our people's hearts and minds...especially those who are deeply influenced by the Greeks and the Romans of olden times.

May our Almighty God the Father be praised! All glory belongs to Him!