Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, \u201cThe First Thanksgiving\u201d (ca. 1912-1915)
Wikimedia Commons public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I published this column in the Deseret News<\/em> for Thanksgiving 2013:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins.\u00a0 Please be patient.\u00a0 There is method in my madness.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The origin of the word \u201creligion\u201d is obscure, and has been much debated.\u00a0 But all suggestions for it seem to agree that remembrance, an awareness of dependence and obligation, is at the core of what it means to be religious.\u00a0\u00a0 The ancient Roman politician and writer Cicero derived the word from \u201clegere,\u201d \u201cto read,\u201d believing that it meant \u201cto go over\u201d something again in the sense of \u201cre-reading,\u201d \u201cre-thinking\u201d or considering it very carefully.\u00a0 Other writers, ancient and modern, connect it with the word \u201creligare,\u201d \u201cto bind fast,\u201d from which we also receive our modern verb \u201cto rely.\u201d\u00a0 They emphasize the bond between humans and the divine.\u00a0 Still others suggest a distant relationship to the archaic English verb \u201cto reck\u201d or \u201cto reckon,\u201d meaning \u201cto pay attention to,\u201d or that it stems from the Latin adjective \u201creligiens,\u201d \u201ccareful\u201d or \u201cmindful,\u201d which is the opposite of \u201cnegligens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most if not all religions are saturated with exhortations to remember, and with practices designed to help us to do so.\u00a0 The liturgical year of many Jews and Christians, for example, is a profound teaching device centered on events (e.g., Passover, Easter, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, Hannukah, and Christ\u2019s Nativity) that are charged with deep meaning for believers.\u00a0 The Qur\u2019an continually encourages readers to \u201cremember,\u201d and not to be \u201cneglectful\u201d or \u201cheedless\u201d of the mighty acts of God, and it condemns those who fail to reflect on the lessons of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the Mormon context, the most obvious example of memorializing is the weekly sacrament.\u00a0 Those who partake are to do so \u201cin remembrance\u201d of Christ\u2019s suffering on their behalf, and to \u201calways remember him.\u201d\u00a0 But examples abound.\u00a0 The ordinances of the temple remind us, for instance, that the creation of the world was purposeful, and that we can only enter into his presence again through the wounds he suffered in his atoning sacrifice. The scriptures were essential, Alma taught his son Helaman, because they \u201cenlarged the memory of this people\u201d (Alma 37:8); had they not been preserved, explained King Benjamin (in Mosiah 1:3-5), the Nephites would have fallen into \u201cignorance\u201d and \u201cdwindled in unbelief.\u201d\u00a0 Hence the vital importance, even today, of repeatedly immersing ourselves in the scriptures, which continually admonish us to \u201cremember.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even such modern programs as Pioneer Day celebrations throughout the Church and reenactments of the handcart treks in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, as well as in Wyoming, allow us to \u201cremember,\u201d and to make ourselves one with our spiritual progenitors (whether or not we are biological kin).\u00a0 Just as the nineteenth century pioneers saw themselves as a modern Israel led by an American Moses, we are to identify with them, and, thus, with the ancient people of the Exodus.\u00a0 Latter-day Saints are to relive the experience, in their own way, of former-day Saints.\u00a0 \u201cI did liken all scriptures unto us,\u201d Nephi explains, \u201cthat it might be for our profit and learning\u201d (1 Nephi 19:23)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abraham Lincoln\u2019s proclamation of a national \u201cday of Thanksgiving and Praise,\u201d issued 150 years ago on October 3, 1863, was a summons to explicitly religious reflection on the many blessings that the American people had received even amidst the sadness, death, and destruction of the still ongoing Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0 While it says precisely nothing about turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie, it calls upon the nation to remember \u201cour beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens\u201d and, in \u201chumble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,\u201d to seek his caring help for all those who were suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
On this Thanksgiving Day, accordingly, it is worthwhile to recall that the English verb \u201cto thank\u201d derives from the same root as the verb \u201cto think.\u201d\u00a0 (Compare the equivalent German words \u201cdanken\u201d and \u201cdenken.\u201d)\u00a0 With all the busyness and the rush of the day, we should still try to find time to reflect.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving isn\u2019t about eating.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t even, really, about spending time with family and friends, important as those are.\u00a0 It is, or should be, about thinking, about contemplation.\u00a0 From its very origin, it was about considering the debt that we owe to God and to the others who laid the foundation of the blessings and prosperity that we enjoy, about reflecting, repenting, and seeking to extend those blessings to others.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Bountiful, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I published this column in the Deseret News for Thanksgiving 2013: \u00a0 It\u2019s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins.\u00a0 Please be patient.\u00a0 There is method in my madness. \u00a0 The origin of the word \u201creligion\u201d is obscure, and has been much debated.\u00a0 But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6723,6726,6729,6714,6717,6711,6720],"class_list":["post-80250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-danken","tag-denken","tag-gratitude","tag-reflection","tag-thank","tag-thanksgiving","tag-think"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>