Friendly Footnotes

Seeing Scripture as footnotes of faith

11/08/2019

Luke 16:1-8 Jesus said to his disciples, "A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.' The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.' He called in his master's debtors one by one.To the first he said, 'How much do you owe my master?' He replied, 'One hundred measures of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.' Then to another he said, 'And you, how much do you owe?' He replied, 'One hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.' And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light."

As you know, I am helping lead a Bible study on Monday evenings. Before each class, the participants (whom I call “Scripture scholars” so they’ll keep coming back) are required to read the footnotes at the bottom of the page of the chapters we are reading. That sounds easy enough, but not in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. There, the footnotes are almost always longer than the text of Scripture itself. In other words, we spend more time reading the footnotes than the Bible itself. Why?

Well, the Bible is not self-interpreting, or self-evident; its meaning is not obvious. It was written for people and by people and in a language and at a time completely foreign to 21st century Fort Smithians. Basically, the footnotes build a bridge that spans 2,000 years of time, from the culture of 1st century Palestine to 21st century Pine Bluff. If there’s one lesson I hope people learn from my Bible study it is that footnotes are our friends. Don’t fly over the footnotes too fast. You will not understand the wisdom of the Holy Spirit whispered in every word of Sacred Scripture without the help of the friendly footnotes.

Today’s gospel from Luke 16 is a perfect example of how footnotes are our friends. You have heard the parable of the dishonest steward tons of times. And if you’re like me, you probably scratch your heard trying to understand the point of the parable. On the surface it seems the steward has just cheated his master out of his money but cutting what his debtors owe him. The footnotes on Luke 16:1-8, however, explains: “The parable of the dishonest stewards has to be understood in light of the Palestinian custom of agents acting on behalf of their masters and the usurious practice common to such agents.” That is, people charge exorbitant interest on loans.

The footnote continues: “The master commends the dishonest steward who has forgone his own usurious commission on the business transaction by having the debtors write new notes that reflected only the real amount (i.e. minus the steward’s profit).” In other words, imagine a car dealer who sold cars at cost and took no commission for himself, and you get the point of the parable, and why the steward was commended. He was self-sacrificing. Could you feel how the footnote on Luke 16:1-8 felt like a bridge that connected two distant cultures? We can say after reading the footnote: Luke is speaking my lingo!

Now I would like to apply this analogy of footnotes being our friends to the whole Bible. That is, try to see the Sacred Scripture itself as the footnotes of our faith in Jesus Christ. St. Jerome, the patron saint of scripture scholars, famously said in his Introduction to Isaiah, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” In other words, when it comes to knowing and loving Jesus, we also need a bridge to him to reach us and for us to reach him. And that bridge was built by the Holy Spirit and the Church when we read the Bible. The whole Bible is a bridge that spans the vast vacuum of space and time between heaven and earth. The Bible serves as the footnotes of our faith.

If you want to understand the Catholic faith: the seven-fold sacraments, Marian motherhood, papal primacy, the succor of the saints, the reverence of relics, the place of the priesthood, the activity of the angels, the hope of heaven, the horrors of hell, the mystery of the Mass, the comfort of confession, the parade of prophets, the ecstasy of evangelization, the deception of the devil, the mission of the martyrs, the role of religious, the continuity of the liturgical calendar, which all leads us to the loving heart of the Holy Trinity, then read the footnotes of the faith, called the Holy Bible.

Sometimes our Catholic faith can feel like a far-away fairyland unrelated to the reality of daily life in downtown Fort Smith. That’s why we need to read the footnotes of our faith called the Holy Bible. To make it through Bible study, as well as to make it through life, be sure to take time to carefully read the friendly footnotes.

Praised be Jesus Christ!