Renato Constantino’s Veneration Without Understanding answers whether or

not Rizal deserves to be our national hero by understanding his nature

historically. From Rizal’s reformist ideologies, racial aspirations, definition of
liberty to his battle towards Filipinos’ freedom, the paper provides an in-depth
analysis on how we could learn from Rizal's limitations and use it for our
development. Also, Constantino tends to challenge his readers or millenials to
be critical in attributing our history and the works of people behind it.

When I’ve heard the word “Rizal,” we always think of the person who died in
our country to have freedom, the exceptional human being, the Filipino Christ,
or the great of the greatest that most of us aspire to be. There is, however,
more to Rizal than what we already know about him. We fail to recognize that
just like us, Rizal was a human. He made mistakes and he had his own
weaknesses.

Some readers would argue that Constantino was trying to give Bonifacio a
spotlight. But I do not think he was. He was simply trying to elaborate how
shallow our knowledge about Rizal is and how this ignorance can be used to
relate to challenges we are now going through – colonial mentality, attaining
national identity, and yearning for independence. To say the least, Constantino
was merely saying that social demands change overtime and so, we do not need
to fully rely on Rizal’s national goals alone. We should learn from the
weaknesses of great men and women of our history just like how we looked up
to their strengths.

Everyone deserves the highest honour because everyone is capable of

doing whatever we think is the best. The main question is not really
whether or not Rizal deserves to be a national hero but rather “Is it
necessary to have one National Hero?” Andres Bonifacio had his own
setbacks, as well as Gabriela Silang, Heneral Antonio Luna, Apolinario
Mabini, and all the great men and great women in our history. Each of
them plays an important role in our history and yes, these heroes did
what were needed for the betterment of our country. They did whatever
they thought will be the good for all people during their time and they
succeeded in their own way. They did it with courage when no one else
could.

I have nothing against Dr. Jose P. Rizal personally, though. He is the

greatest man of his time. But veneration without understanding is a
pure display of idiocy. Veneration without understanding is pure
idolatry, pure illusions. The more we understand something, the more
substantial our claims. If we are to support Rizal’s proclamation as a
national hero, we support him not because we heard and we read he is a
great Filipino who have done a lot of sacrifices for his country—trust me,
there are a lot of unsung heroes who have done exactly the concept of
sacrifice for one’s country. We support Rizal as our national hero
because we proved justifiably and understood thoroughly his
proclamation as our very own national hero.

Heroes become heroes not because they lead a revolution, but because they
accomplish tasks And gamers achievement and qualities that others would strive
to be. These achievement do not necessarily have to be in tge revolutionary
scene. Even though Rizal is of the ilustrado class, he isolated himself from his
country in order to get ideas as well as to formulate reforms for the betterment
of his people as well as his society.