THE Jewish Passover takes place on the 14th day of Nisan on the Jewish calendar. But it is the principle of thanksgiving that is the essence of the Jewish Passover, which Christians adopted in all observances of the Lord’s Supper. And it is from the Judeo-Christian tradition that Jamaica observes its national day of thanksgiving on the Sunday before National Heroes’ Day in October of each year.

The traditional Jewish Passover takes the form of a meal, where every food item represents some step on the journey from slavery in Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The traditional observance of the Passover is the use of history to rivet into the minds of the Jewish people, especially Jewish youth, that they must give thanks to the lord for liberating them. Also, they should never forget the important points of Jewish history.

The Jews also used the Psalms to give thanks to God in song ‘with the lyre and the harp’. Psalm 95 is very instructive here: “Oh, that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts as at Meribah as on that day in Massah, where you tested me though you had seen my works.” (verses 8 – 9) It was at Meribah in the wilderness where the Jews felt the first pangs of hunger and grumbled that they were better off in slavery in Egypt. And Massah was the first place where manna fell from heaven.

This should sound very familiar to us in Jamaica, where many times people grumble that Jamaica was better off during colonialism. The historical fact is that Jamaicans were not better off during colonialism, but are collectively better off today. Young Jamaicans should try to find out why political independence was sought in the first place. With all of the many faults of the politicians on all sides, there has been the development of our people who have been empowered through education and better living conditions.

Just as with the Jewish people, Jamaicans need to learn what life was like in the past and what life is today. It is only when we know what used to be that we can give thanks. And the development of our Jamaican people has not only been done by politicians. The Morant Bay Rebellion took place 73 years before 1938, which was before either of our two major political parties came into being. The Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, of which we celebrate 150 years this month, was the start of our road to empowerment. For this, we need to give thanks.

We in Jamaica should give thanks for National Hero Paul Bogle who led the Morant Bay Rebellion. The Jews in Israel remember National Hero George William Gordon, the son of a Jew, who innocently lost his life for the cause. In 1989, an Israeli Jew working in Jamaica asked me about the Morant Bay Rebellion as he had learnt about it in school in Israel.

God works in mysterious ways. The daughter of the custos of St Thomas, who was killed in the Morant Bay Rebellion, went to live on her inherited land at Whitehall in St Andrew. Eventually she converted to the Roman Catholic Church and donated part of her land for the building of the original St Thomas Aquinas Church. In the 1960s a new church was built on the property and named St Richard’s Church.

We Roman Catholics should give thanks for St Richards Church, which came about due to the Morant Bay Rebellion led by Baptist Deacon Paul Bogle. And we should also give thanks that the first Jamaican Roman Catholic candidate for canonisation (sainthood), the late father Leslie Russell (1909-57) attended the Baptist-owned Calabar High School.

The first housing scheme in Jamaica, located in Homestead, Bamboo, St Ann, was built by the Roman Catholic Church, not by politicians. We need to give thanks that most Jamaicans no longer live in wattle-and-daub huts. We need to remember that Jamaica Welfare was founded by Norman Manley before he went into politics. It was Jamaica Welfare that started self-help housing as well as community development of the rural areas. Jamaica Welfare also saw to the development of producer and service co-operatives in Jamaica. For these we need to give thanks.

In October we observe Credit Union Day on the third Thursday of the month. Indeed, the entire month is observed as credit union month by some credit unions. This was not established by politicians but by the Young Men’s Sodality of the Holy Trinity (Roman Catholic) Cathedral. The credit unions have empowered millions of Jamaicans over the last 70-odd years, despite our several complaints, especially mine. Again, we need to give thanks here.

Jesus Christ, being born a Jew, used the culture of his people to institute his body and blood at the Passover meal. The word Eucharist comes from two Greek words that mean thanksgiving. Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave thanks. He also gave thanks before passing around the cup of wine. All of this was in the tradition of the Jews who gave thanks at their Passover meal in each year.

It is understandable that since the earliest Christians were Jews, the Book of Psalms, in which the central theme is thanksgiving, would be the first prayer book of the Church. But as many could not read and write until the last century, a chain of beads called a rosary was developed by monks in the 12th century to represent the 150 Psalms. In the Roman Catholic Church, October is celebrated as the month of the rosary.

The Psalms was from the beginning a central element of the rosary, which would evolve to a compendium of the four gospels. The five joyful, five sorrowful, five glorious, and five luminous mysteries of Jesus Christ is centred on the recitation of decades of the ‘Hail Mary’ prayer, the first part of which is two verses from the first chapter of St Luke. The second part was developed by the Church. The rosary, which has taken 800 years, so far, to evolve, is really about giving thanks for all that Jesus Christ did and is still doing for us. In a real way, the theme of the rosary is ‘Thanksgiving’.

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