Genesis 26:19

(Verse 19) And the servants of Isaac dug in the valley of Gerar and found there a well of living water. And for this valley, a stream was written; for never is a well of living water found in the valley.

For Abraham dug wells and Isaac too—that is, the mighty patriarchs—and Jacob also, as we find in the Gospel, as if they were fountains of the human race, and specifically fountains of faith and devotion. For what is a well of living water but a depth of profound instruction? On this account Hagar saw the angel by a well and Jacob found his wife Rachel by a well; Moses too earned the first rewards of his future marriage beside a well. Therefore Isaac undertook to open wells out of a depth of vision and in good order, so that the water of his well might first wash and strengthen the reasoning faculty of the soul and its eye, to make its sight clearer.

We find that the exercises of the Patriarchs concerning wells are always the customary ones. For behold, Scripture relates that Isaac, after "the Lord blessed him and he was made exceedingly great," undertook a great work. And he began, it says, to dig wells, "the wells which his father Abraham's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with earth." First, then, "he dwelt by the well of vision," and, illumined by the well of vision, he set about opening other wells—and not first new wells, but those that his father Abraham had dug. And when he had dug the first well, "the Philistines," it says, "envied him." Yet he was not frightened by their envy nor did he yield to their spite, but "again," it says, "he dug the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug, and which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of his father Abraham; and he gave them names according to the names his father had given them." He dug, then, those wells which his father had dug and which through the malice of the Philistines had been filled with earth. He dug also others, new ones, "in the valley of Gerar"—not indeed he himself, but his servants—"and he found there," it says, "a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac, saying that the water was theirs; and he called the name of the well 'iniquity.' For they had dealt iniquitously with him." But Isaac withdraws from their malice and "dug again another well, and over this one nonetheless," it says, "they wrangled, and he called its name 'enmity.' And he departed from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; and he called its name 'breadth,' saying: because now God has enlarged us and increased us upon the earth." Well does the holy Apostle, considering in a certain place the greatness of the mysteries, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" In like manner—rather, in far unlike manner, by as much as we are far inferior to him—we too, seeing so great a depth in the mysteries of the wells, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" For who could worthily be able to unfold either the sacraments of such great wells or the things that are reported as having been done over the wells, unless we call upon the Father of the living Word, and he himself deign to give a word in our…