The Seed And Stony Ground

Aliud vero cecidit super petrosa: ubi non habuit terram multam, et statim exortum est: quoniam non habebat altitudinem terrae: et quando exortus est sol, exaestuavit: et eo quòd non habebat radicem, exaruit Secunda diversitas seminis fructum non facientis. Sunt autem petrosa corda dura,quae nec timore,ad poenitentiam conuertuntur:nec amore, molliuntur: nec pluvia doctriae, interius humectantur. De quibus dicitur, Cor durum male habebit in novissimo. Cor eius indurabitur quasi lapis: et strigetur quasi malleaporis incus. Quanto enim plus verberibus atteritur, tanto plus per obdurationem ſtringitur ad malum. Sicut incus quæ ftringitur ictibus malleorum. Haec igitur est terra petrosa ubi non habuit terram multam. Ex litera ista videtur quod petrosa terra dicatur, cuius fundus eſt petra solida; et parvam et tenuem desuper habet terrae corticem. Et talis ad literam terra male fructificat, quia calor qui pro tempore est ex radio solis, in petra confortatur , et incenfiuus, et combuftivus efficitur: et comburit illud modicum terrae, quod est desuper et incinerat: ita quod amarum ad modum salis efficitur: et ideo infructuosum. Terram fructiferam in salsuginem a malitia inhabitantium in ea. Adhuc autem algor hyemis etiam confortatur in lapide: et terram paucam prius incineratam et amaricatam calore, convertit in frigiditatem mortificatiuam, et hoc iterum mortificat radices plantarum: ita quod talis terra efficitur sterilis. Ante faciem frigoris eius, quis sustinebit? Hoc est igitur quod dicit: Ubi non habuit, semen proiectum, terram multam, hoc est, profundam, quae defendi posset à qualitatibus lapidis incensiuis, et congelatiuis. Hoc autem est cor, quod quasi nihil habet humanae et terrenae compassionis, et contemperationis ad virtutem: sed sua ignita libidine ad turpia incenditur: et algore ab omni charitate , timore mundano, et humano congelatur. Incensa igni et suffossa ab increpatione vultus tui peribunt. Incensa quidem, igne libidinis:et soffossa, timoris algore quia omnis timor frigidus est. Ad literam. Et ideo pallor occupat timentes. Sequitur et statim paucula et parvula radice exortum est ad modicum viroris apparentis coram hominibus. Habentes quidem speciem pietatis: virtutem autem penitus abnegantes, et quoniam non habebat altitudinem terrae, hoc est, profunditatem in qua dulcedo laetaminis incombusta, et non congelata, iuxta radicem conferuaretur et ideo quando exortas est sol tribulationis in persecutione , vel laboribus paenitentiae exaestuavit combustiones aestu extrahente ad exterius virtutem seminis. Iacob.1 . Exortus est sol cum ardore et exsiccauit faenum, et flos eius decidit: et decor vultus eius deperiit, eo quod non habebat radicem, profunde fixam, quae dulcedinem succi fibi continue imbibitam herbae exorta subministraret, exaruit, et ariditate illa periit, combustum et exsiccatum ab omni humore pietatis. Arefactum est faenum et cecidit flos: quia et spiritus Domini exsufflavit in eo. Sanctus Albertus Magnus, Commentarium In Evangelium Divi Marci, Caput IV Source: Here p40

But some seed fell on stony ground where there was not much earth, and instantly they shot up, but they gained no height over the earth, for when the sun had risen, it scorched them and because they had no root they withered. 1 The second type of seed yields no fruit. The stony soil are hard hearts which are neither turned to penitence by fear nor softened by love, nor are they watered within by the rains of teaching. Concerning which it is said in the third chapter of Ecclesiasticus, 'A hard heart shall have evil in the end.' In the forty fourth chapter of Job, 'His heart shall be hardened like a stone and be made as firm as the anvil of a blacksmith.' 2 For the more it is stuck with blows so the more it is made firm in its obstinacy to do evil, like an anvil which is strengthened by the blows of hammers. This, then, is the stony earth where there is not much earth. And according to the letter it seems that what is called stony earth which is solid below and has a little thin film of earth upon it. And according to the letter the earth is poor of fruit because the heat which comes from the rays of the sun is further strengthened by the stones, and made may fierce and fiery, and it burns that which lacks much earth, which is above and scorched, so that it is made like bitter salt, and therefore it does not yield fruit. In the hundred and sixth Psalm, 'A fruitful land made barren because of the wickedness of the inhabitants in it.' 3 Then the cold of winter is also intensified by the stones and the earth that had been a little before scorched and made bitter with heat is then filled with a mortal coldness and this again kills the roots of the plants, and thus such earth is sterile. In the hundred and forty seventh Psalm, 'Before the face of his cold, who shall stand?' 4 This, then, is what he says, that the seed is thrown where there is not much earth, which when it has depth is able to protect from the searing or frozen stones. And this is the heart which has no human and worldly compassion and is contemptuous of virtue, but by the fire of its own lust it blazes up for vile things, and it is frozen out of all charity, being chilled with the fear of the world and men. 'Things set on fire and dug down shall perish at the rebuke of your face.' 5 Things on fire, which is the fire of lust, and dug down with the chill of fear, because all fear is a sort of freezing, and therefore those who fear acquire a pallor. It follows that the seeds immediately shot up with little and slender roots and before men they appeared to have some vigor. In the third chapter of the second letter to Timothy, 'Having a certain appearance of holiness.' 6 For losing all strength because there is no depth of earth, that is, deepness in which there is a sweetness of joy that cannot be touched by heat or cold, which supports the root, therefore when the sun of tribulation has arisen in persecution, or in the toils of penitence, the scorching of heat draws out all the strength of the seed. In the first chapter of the letter of James, 'For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the its flower fell and its beauty perished.' 7 Because it had no deeply fixed root, from which sweet sap rose from below to continually water itself, it was scorched and it perished because of aridity, being burnt and dried up of all the moisture of piety. In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, 'The grass is burnt up and the flower fallen, because the spirit of the Lord has blown upon it.' 8 Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Mark, Chapter 4 1 Mk 4.5-6 2 Sirach 3.27 , Job 41.15 3 Ps 106.34 4 Ps 147.17 5 Ps 79.17 6 2 Tim 3.5 7 James 1.11 8 Isaiah 40.7