The Hushers

Thanking God for seven special book of the Old Testament

11/23/2023

Sir 50:22-24 And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them according to his will! May he grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you; May his goodness toward us endure in Israel to deliver us in our days.

Here is a little joke about little kids in church. Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother, Joel, were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough of his antics. She warned him, “You’re not supposed to talk out loud in church.” Joel answered: “Why not? Who is going to stop me?” Angie pointed to the back of church, and said, “See those two men standing by the door? They are hushers.” You know, I wish our hushers would do a better job of hushing people like they do in Angie’s church. Just kidding, I love our ushers!

Today is Thanksgiving Day, and we have so much to be thankful for: our family, our friends, and our freedoms, especially our religious freedom. What a blessing to be able to go to Mass every day, especially Sundays and Holy Days, not out of a sense of obligation but joyfully because we are free to do so. Why is that important?

Well, just like with so many other things in life, if we don’t use it, we lost it. You know, when I was a little kid and living in New Delhi, India, I spoke Hindi fluently. But since I came to the US I never used it again, and so I don’t know a word of it today. And I am so sad about that, what a loss. So, it’s good we celebrate Thanksgiving every year to remember our many blessings, not take them for granted, and lose them because we fail to use them.

But as Roman Catholics we have seven blessings that our Protestant brothers and sisters do not, namely, seven books in the Bible that were removed from the King James Version. Now, I do not say any of this to be critical of other Christians but only to be grateful for what we have and not take our blessings for granted, especially the Sacred Scriptures.

These seven books are all in the Old Testament; so all Christians have the same 27 books in our New Testament. In other words, while Protestant Bible have 39 books in their Old Testament, Catholic Bibles have 46 books. I suppose that if one of those disputed books were read aloud in a Protestant church, the hushers would have to hush them, “Shhh!”

But in the Catholic church we are more like little Joel, and we giggle, sing, and talk out loud discussing these seven disputed books in the Old Testament. So, in an effort not to take our Sacred Scriptures for granted, I want to explain (1) what these seven books are and (2) how they came to be in the Catholic Bibles but not in the Protestant ones.

But gratitude is not just an attitude; it must lead to action. That is, we shouldn’t take these precious books for granted but read, study, and even memorize them. How wonderful, then, our first reading today was from Sirach, one of those disputed books, and that is why our hushers did not tell the lector to “Shhh!” when he read it.

A couple of years ago I was driving around in my car and came up with a mnemonic device to help me remember these seven books. It is a sentence in which the first letter of each word stands for one of those seven books. It goes like this: “The wise Jews slipped banishing 1 and 2 Mac and cheese.” I know that sounds a little silly, but that is why you will remember it.

So, what are those seven special books? “The” stands for “Tobit”, “Wise” is for “Wisdom”, “Jews” means “Judith”, “Banishing” is for “Baruch”, and 1 and 2 Mac and cheese” is for “1 and 2 Maccabees.” Can you remember that sentence now: “The wise Jews slipped banishing 1 and 2 mac and cheese”?

That catchy sentence also gives us a clue to how these seven books came to be in one Old Testament and not in the other. How so? Well, around the year 300-200 B.C. (so before Jesus) the Jews had developed both a Hebrew version and a Greek version of the Old Testament, like we have English and Spanish translations of the Bible today. By the time of Jesus, his disciples, and the early Church, the Greek version is what was commonly used by all Christians.

These Greek versions contained those seven disputed books, while the Hebrew versions did not. Therefore, for 1,500 years all Christians unanimously accepted these Greek version of the Old Testament – with all 46 books of the Old Testament – until Martin Luther decided we needed to start using the Hebrew version instead with only the 39 books. And ever since then hushers in Protestant churches have hushed people when the read from Tobit, Wisdom, Judith, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

Folks, I am sorry to give you a Scripture study class on Thanksgiving Day. I know you just want to get back home and stuff your face with turkey and watch football till you can’t see straight. And that is all good. But today is also the day for counting our blessings, like family, friends, freedom, and yes, football.

But don’t forget to include faith in that long list, and especially our precious Christian family heirloom called the Sacred Scriptures, and also mention the seven special books in the Old Testament. Like with all our other talents, gifts, and blessings: if we don’t use it, we lose it, like back back in the day when I used to speak Hindi fluently.

Praised be Jesus Christ!