“For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”
For they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened — the diagnostic explanation of the disciples' inadequate amazement is among the most sobering in Mark. The feeding of the five thousand should have taught them who Jesus is; the lesson was not learned. The hard hearts (pепwrwmenē kardia) echo the language used for Pharaoh (Exodus 4–14) and for the religious opponents of Jesus (Mark 3:5). It is jarring to have the hardness-of-heart language applied to the disciples. The disciples are not enemies of Jesus, but their incomprehension is structural — they are not yet able to hold the category that would make the sea-walking and the feeding into a coherent revelation.
Church Fathers on Mark 6:52
But it is with reason that we wonder how Mark says, that after the miracle of the loaves the disciples crossed the sea of Bethsaida, when Luke relates that the miracle was done in the parts of Bethsaida [Luke 9:10], unless we understand that Luke means by the desert which is Bethsaida not the country immediately around the town, but the desert places belonging to it. But when Mark says that they should 'go before unto Bethsaida,' the town itself is meant.
But when He had dismissed the crowd, He goes up to pray, for prayer requires rest and silence.
But how could they understand this, except from His going a different way, wishing to pass them as strangers; for they were so far from recognizing Him, as to take Him for a spirit.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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