MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #247

I. The Parable of the Seed.
Continued:

And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: "Behold the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he soweth some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate them up. And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth: and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away. And others fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them. And others fell upon good ground: and they brought forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matt. 13:3-9)

THE FIRST CLASS of those in whom there is wanting a good will to receive God's word with faith. They hear it indeed, but they will not open their hearts to it, because the devil and his human agents have succeeded by scorn, prejudice and false explanations in so setting them against everything supernatural, that they utterly refuse to believe. Take, for instance, the Pharisees in our Lord's time, and also the so-called "enlightened" men of the present day.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)