Sisa's Silence: Nihilism and the Failure of Philippine Catholic Eschatology in the Face of Diliman (Darkness)

This paper examines the figure of Sisa from José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere as a philosophical limit-case for theodicy and eschatological consolation. It argues that Sisa's madness represents not psychological breakdown but existential nihilation—the destruction of the self when the relational matrix (kapwa) that constitutes Filipino personhood is violently severed. The paper introduces diliman (profound darkness) as a Filipino philosophical category for this condition, distinguishing it from Western nihilism.Applying a hermeneutic of suspicion to colonial Catholic eschatology, it argues that consolation-theodicy is structurally compromised when deployed by the agents of harm and presupposes a rational subject no longer present in cases of radical suffering. Engaging Levinas, Marion, Weil, and liberation philosophy, the paper concludes that the most adequate response is not explanation but witness: a non-appropriating attention that refuses to close the question Sisa's silence poses.