SKIRMISHER

The whole world is still reeling over Dan Brown’s controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code. Despite “strong evidence” that the King of Kings made it with “The Sacred Feminine,” that subject matter is still unclear.

That is what Brown’s novel is all about. He wrote perhaps modern literature’s greatest thriller/detective story ever, weaving all the rudiments of a heart-stopper of a story to those of historical facts, or hearsay (depending on whose side you’re on). But it all boils down to Mary Magdalene, the hidden heroine of the said novel.

The book caused quite a stir since it made a significant impact on the most sensitive topic of all: religion and Christianity. Critics who have read the book believed that it would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. It didn’t; the Vatican didn’t even lift a holy finger, except for its local arm, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). When the novel arrived on Philippine shores, they placed everything under speculation. However, the local media ate it all up, riding on the waves of the international hype the novel already had ever since it went off the press in 2003. However, when the book inspired a movie, which starred Tom Hanks at perhaps his very worst and boring performance, the CBCP thought that enough’s enough. The novel was, of course, read by a discerning public — if they know how to read a novel, they know how to perceive differences. But have an anti-Christian film shown to a wider audience that does not read, and therefore, does not think, what would happen? The majority of your average Taglish speaking Filipinos who easily believe what they see, read, or hear is perhaps the final straw that prompted the CBCP to take action. In one way or another, the movie was condemned but not banned.

Naturally, CBCP was only trying to protect its flock. Picture this: suppose you have some dude dressed up as a neat-looking, ready-for-the-day’s-business salesman. And then you place this dude in a conversation with a twenty-something Juan de la Cruz from some nameless slum along a dead estero in the Metro. And then the salesman dude, with the usual flair and confidence of your Electrolux man who has knocked on your door and rang on your bell (and tapped on your window, too!), campaigned something like this to the slum dude who smelled of sun-dried sweat and libág:

“Did you know that Secretary of Justice Raúl González used to suck cock back in his college days? That his just feigning to be a tough enforcer of justice for the Arroyo regime, but the truth is he’s a tough closet queen who’s mighty jealous of Kris Aquino, who in turn still sucks various celebrity dicks from time to time?”

The dumb-eyed squatter dude, with his rust-colored hair and fake NBA jersey from a street stall somewhere in Baclaran, will answer, “Sir, I’m very aware of cocks and sucking and all that feel-good stuff, and that Kris’s cleavage which she proudly displays on national TV everyday is damn good enough for titfucks, but I don’t have any idea who this siRaúlo guy is.”

“Oh. He’s a government official. He works for Arroyo to ensure that, well, justice prevails all over the islands.”

“Uh-huh.”

Unsatisfied, the salesman dude then readies his “rebuttal” skills for more conviction. “What I mean to say is, his job is to protect his lady boss’s interests, and to protect her image by speaking to the media to publicly condemn the President’s distractors. Like what he did to Cory several months ago when Cory called for Arroyo’s resignation. That’s what a Secretary of Justice is all about. Y’understand, chap?”

“Aaah, OK. I see. How does he look like?”

“Patience, boy. You’ll see him soon. Them government guys are planning to have this ballroom foot stomp again called Chacha, right?”

“Right.”

“OK. You won’t miss him. He’s this guy in a coat and tie with slit eyes, trying to look stern when in fact he’s imagining hard how large the hop-a-long-dongs are of those male reporters who are interviewing him. Expect him to verbosely defend every move or decision President Arroyo makes ‘coz that’s part of the job description his lofty position requires from him. But what I’m trying to prove is, he’s gay. And that explains why he’s overprotective of Ms. Arroyo. They greet each other in secret as “¡amiga!”

The skwating could hardly believe what he had just heard. “Really?”

“Really.”

Now there. You have an instant believer. It doesn’t matter if the salesman was telling the truth or not. But just by his appearance and using his business-like approach on the hapless stinkin’ hip-hopper, he already had a convert.

Now, a movie has this same impact towards the masa. The Filipino masses virtually believe everything they see on TV, and believe everything they read — if they do read anything at all besides Tagalog romance pocketbooks and smut.

Therefore, should CBCP just keep it’s cool when it knows that it is its duty to keep its flock spiritually intact?

***

Several years ago, the Catholic Philippine Hierarchy faced the same ordeal. But during that time, it wasn’t against a foreign writer. It was up against one of our own: José Rizal.

Whereas CBCP, through Movie and Television Classification Board chief Marissa Laguardia, faced Dan Brown (or the movie from the loins of his mind), the Catholic Philippine Hierarchy challenged Rizal. Not Rizal per se, but his works, particularly his anti-clerical novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. There was already a bill that was drafted by the great nationalist Claro M. Recto, called the Senate Bill No.438 of 1956. This bill pushed for Rizal’s novels to be an obligatory reading for college brats. Rizal’s writings contradict the Church’s Code of Canon Law. Thus, several sectors affiliated with the Church, including private Catholic schools, cried foul. They protested the said bill.

The Catholic hierarchy prepared a statement, pointing out one by one the reasons why they are against the Recto bill. Although they acknowledged Rizal’s heroism as well as his status as the national hero, they still find it objectionable to faith some parts of his novels (the notorious Capítulo 6: Capitán Tiago, for instance).

In the end, however, the Recto bill prevailed. That is the reason why we now have Rizal’s Life and Works in college (in the University of the Philippines, its code is PI 100).

This happened during the late 1950s. Rizal had been dead for more than half a century, but he was still making his presence felt. What more during his time? Man, that Pepe Rizal must have been a celebrity! But he was not the type of celebrity one would have wanted to be. Especially today: it’s much better to be a kakosang Franzen of Pinoy Big Brother shame than to do something noble and worthwhile such as writing (aw shucks, is it a crime to flatter oneself once in a while?).

Now going back to our bedtime story. Brown’s novel was published less than five years ago, but the wound it inflicted on Christians and Catholic Apologetics, most especially on Opus Dei, is as fresh as a tilapià in the market, leaping for dear hopeless life. The book was a global pandemic. In so short a time, it’s now hailed as one of history’s bestsellers, selling more than 60 million copies as of last month. And to think that it was only published three years ago! It was translated into several languages (I have yet to see one, though, in my native Tagalog). But the tremendous impact, not to mention the controversy, it unleashed internationally was very much the same nationally when Rizal’s Noli was published in 1887. Whereas Brown attacked the Church, Rizal concentrated on the friars. Both of them were under fire.

But I noticed that there is one striking — and creepy — similarity between the two books: Mary Magdalene.

***

Remember that the theme for The Da Vinci Code was inspired by Freemasonry. Most of the info was obtained from “new age books” such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln) and The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ (Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince). These books argue that what we know about Jesus Christ, the fountainhead of Christiandom, are all false. The focal point of it all is that Jesus and Mary Magdalene (”The Holy Grail”), were actually married, and that they had a child. And since seven out of ten bookworms have read the Da Vinci Code, there’s no need to further expound on this. What may strike the reader, particularly the Xerex Xaviera-exposed Filipino reader, is that the Holy Blood, Holy Grail was published only in 1982. But during the 1880s, Rizal, who was already a Mason, made mention in his novel of a Biblical scene wherein Mary Magdalene participated…

If you have been attentive during your Rizal course in school (actually back then, I wasn’t), you might remember that the Noli is actually Latin, not Spanish, for “Don’t Touch Me.” This was taken from the Gospel of St. John, 20:17, where Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Don’t touch me! I have not yet gone to the father.” Many scholars claim that Rizal related this to a social cancer, “un cáncer de un carácter tan maligno que el menor contacto le irrita y despierta en él agudísimo dolores” (a cancer of a breed so malignant that the least contact exacerbates it and stirs in it the sharpest of pains) in his dedication A Mi Patria (To My Motherland).

This verse from the Holy Bible is a scene on Jesus’ resurrection. What the heck has this got to do with some social cancer? Yes, Rizal may have taken this from the Bible. But emphasizing on Mary Magdalene’s attempt to touch the risen Lord towards this social cancer that disturbed Rizal still, to me, doesn’t hold water.

If Mary Magdalene was able to touch Jesus, would the latter scream in pain? Wouldn’t he be able to ascend towards the heavens if he was touched? Would Mary Magdalene turn into table salt? For us mortals, there are myriads of possibilities, but it’s beyond me. What I could not understand is the connection between this Philippine social cancer and Mary Magdalene touching Jesus Christ out of extreme joy of having seen the latter alive three days after he was executed.

What I’m trying to point out here is that the idea of Mary Magdalene’s “marriage” to Jesus was already common knowledge in Freemasonry. It would not surprise me if Rizal did have an idea about this supposed marriage. And I do believe he did. According to Grail aficionados, this “(un)holy” union is a tightly guarded secret. Until Holy Blood, Holy Grail came along.

***

Freemasons also claim that there are Masonically-related entries in the Bible, especially since they consider Jesus as a Mason! This is according to a result of an “exhaustive research” made by Freemasons Christopher Knight and Dr. Robert Lomas. They published it in book form: The Hiram Key. They claim that Jesus and the Qumran Community (authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) had some strong connections with Freemasonry and the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of The Temple of Solomon (Pauperes Commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici) — commonly known as the mysterious Knights Templar. Take this verse from Mark 14:51-52 as an example:

“And a certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. And they laid hold on him. But he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked.”

Up to now, this scene from Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane makes no sense at all. I still have to find a Bible scholar who can decipher the meaning of this verse. Only Knight and Lomas assert that this verse is in relation to a letter of Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian philosopher, which he wrote to a certain Theodore. In this letter, he made mention of a youth who went to see Jesus, “wearing a linen cloth over [his] naked [body]. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.”

This is all too intriguing, yes. It could even be related to the Gospel of Judas which was recently released to the media by the National Geographic, for all we know (especially since Judas wrote that Jesus revealed to him “the mystery of the kingdom of God”). But the focus here is that even in the Bible, Masons lay claim to Masonic mysteries. They consider an outsider, or a non-Mason, to be “in the dark” or “profane” especially since they wouldn’t be able to comprehend the mysteries of the Craft. In one Masonic book, Albert Pike, a famous American Freemason during Rizal’s time, wrote:

“All the mysteries should be kept concealed, guarded by faithful silence, lest it should be inconsiderately divulged to the ears of the Profane. He sins against God who divulges to the unworthy the Mysteries confided to him. The danger is not merely in violating the truth, but in telling the truth.”

In the Noli, Rizal made mention of such “mysteries” when he described the unspoken love going on between Crisóstomo Ibarra and María Clara in Capítulo 7: Idilio En Una Azotea (Idyll In An Azotea):

Si tu que me lees has amado, lo comprenderás, y si no, es inútil que te lo diga: los profanos no comprenden estos misterios. (If you who read this have loved, you will understand; if not, it is useless for me to tell you; the profane cannot comprehend these mysteries.)

Arguably, this is Masonic dialogue.

***

Rizal was not alone among our pantheon of heroes who was knowledgeable about this supposed Jesus-Magdalene union (all of those who joined Freemasonry could have well known about it). One of them is our very first president, Emilio Aguinaldo (1898-1901) of Cavite el Viejo, now known as Kawit, Cavite province.

Aguinaldo was sworn in as capitán general on the morning of 1 January 1895. By nighttime on the same date, he joined Logia Pilar in Imus, Cavite. Toward the latter part of March, shortly after his 26th birthday, he joined the revolutionary/extremist group Katipunan, a bastard child of Freemasonry. He was initiated into the Katipunan by Andrés Bonifacio himself in Binondo, Manila. And the symbolic name Aguinaldo used?

Magdalo, in honor of Cavite el Viejo’s patron saint, Mary Magdalene!

It should be noted that there is an enmity going on between the Church and Freemasonry (Magisterium vs Illuminati) for hundreds of years now. It is virtually unthinkable for Masons in upper degrees to allow incoming Masons to use Catholic symbolism, not unless they want to mock the Church, which could be the case with Aguinaldo’s Magdalo. But it isn’t. Freemasons, as disclosed to a wider audience by Brown’s novel, don’t consider Mary Magdalene a Catholic saint; she is their Sacred Feminine. Furthermore the Katipunan hated everything that is Catholic. Otherwise, KKK would not have murdered five innocent and defenseless priests in cold blood under Bonifacio’s helm. It would not have burned churches. It would not have issued death threats to members of the clergy, such as what it did to Fr. Mariano Gil of Tondo, Manila.

***

The great Filipino painter, Juan Luna, was also a Mason. And according to Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Vice Chairman Winston García, some of his paintings contain Masonic symbolism.

Back in 2003, García, who was then chairman of GSIS, got involved in a controversy when his group purchased Luna’s “Parisian Life” from an auction in Hong Kong for a whopping HK$6,674,100 or about P46 million. But they defended the extravagant purchase, saying that it’s not an expenditure but an investment. Anyway, the painting is a part of our national culture. Whether our government spends a couple of million bucks or not has no bearing at all; the starving beggars on our littered streets will continue to increase.

The 44-inch by 39-inch Luna painting depicts a woman in a café. Seated to the left, in a huddle, are Luna, Rizal, and Aristón Bautista, admiring an unidentified Frenchwoman, seated in a somewhat provocative way (as if enticing the propagandistas to “Come n’ get me boys! I’m hardcore, so I’ll take all o’you at the same time!”). García said that when this lady in the painting is placed in front of the mirror, you’ll be able to see the shape of the Philippine Archipelago!

Many scholars believe that this lady’s a prostitute; going to bordellos are a favorite pastime of Filipinos in Europe back then (Rizal himself indulged in it). But the lady in Luna’s painting is dressed up in courtly manners. Isn’t Mary Magdalene portrayed as a prostitute, and that Freemasons claim that she isn’t? They say it’s just a smear campaign by the Church so as to hide her “true identity.” As a Mason, Luna must have thought of the same thing.

Indeed, so many things are yet to be researched and discovered. And wouldn’t it be exciting to have a Filipino about these historical controversies written a la Dan Brown? Afterwards, it will have its silverscreen version. It might help revive the local film industry which has been wallowing in deep shit for a couple of years now.

Sheesh. Talk about desperation here.

Stumble it!