“And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;”
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy — the rocky-ground people's initial response is positive: they receive the word with joy (meta charas, with great gladness). The reception with joy is not fake — it is genuine but shallow. The joy without root is the parable's diagnosis of a particular failure mode: emotional responsiveness to the word without the deep engagement that produces sustained commitment. The at once receive it mirrors the at once removal of the path-seed: both are immediate, but one is immediately rejected and one is immediately, joyfully but shallowly received.
Church Fathers on Mark 4:16
Although the Lord appears in the transactions mentioned above to neglect His mother, nevertheless He honours her; since on her account He goes forth about the borders of the sea.
For if we look into the Gospel of Matthew, it appears that this same teaching of the Lord at the sea, was delivered on the same day as the former. For after the conclusion of the first sermon, Matthew immediately subjoins, saying, 'The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea-side.'
But He began to teach at the sea, that the place of His teaching might point out the bitter feelings and instability of His hearers.
Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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