https://abbe-pivert.com/sermon-la-genese-30-les-puits-isaac-et-la-fraternite-saint-pie-x/AI translation
Commentary of Origen
We find the patriarchs constantly in the process of digging wells.
Scripture reports, indeed, that Isaac, when "the Lord had blessed him and enriched him with wealth," undertook a great work: "He began to dig wells, those wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug and which the Philistins had stopped up and filled with earth." Now, "he first camped near the Well of Vision," and it was illuminated by the Well of Vision that he undertook to clear the other wells. These were not, in the first place, new wells, but those which his father Abraham had already dug.
When he had dug the first well, "the Philistines envied him." But he did not allow himself to be intimidated by their jealousy, nor did he bend before their envy: "He dug again the wells which the servants of Abraham his father had dug, and which the Philistines had obstructed after the death of Abraham his father. And he gave them the same names that his father had given them." Thus did he dig the wells that his father had dug and which the Philistines, out of malice, had filled with earth. He also dug new ones in the valley of Gerar; not he himself, however, but his servants: "And he found there a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac, saying that the water was theirs. And he named the well: Injustice, for they had acted unjustly toward him."
But Isaac departed, escaping their wickedness. "And he dug another well over which there was again a quarrel. And he named it: Enmity. And he departed. And he dug yet another well over which there was no quarrel. He named it Abundance, for now, he said, God has made room for us and made us to grow in the land."
Rightly does the holy Apostle, considering the depth of the mysteries, say somewhere: "And who then can penetrate them?" In the same way—or rather quite differently, since we are so far below him!—perceiving also such depth in the mysteries of the wells, we say: "And who then can penetrate them?" Indeed, who could worthily explain the secrets of these wells so deep, or those of the acts reported concerning them? Let us, therefore, invoke the Father of the Living Word, that He may deign to put His word in our mouth, so that for your thirst we may offer a little living water drawn from these wells so abundant and so numerous.
The Spiritual Interpretation of the Wells
There are, then, the wells that the servants of Abraham dug, but the Philistines filled them with earth. It is these that Isaac first undertakes to clear. The Philistines hate the waters and love the earth. Isaac loves the waters; he seeks the wells, clears the old ones, and opens new ones.
Contemplate our Isaac, He "who offered Himself as a victim for us": He comes to the valley of Gerar, whose name signifies "wall" or "barrier"; He comes to "break down the wall of separation, the enmity, in His flesh"; He comes to remove the barrier, that is to say, the sin that puts a separation between us and God, that barrier which rises between us and the celestial virtues; thereby, "of the two peoples He makes but one," and the lost sheep, behold, "upon His shoulders" He brings it back to the mountains and restores it to the "ninety-nine others who were not lost."
Our Savior, this Isaac, once in this valley of Gerar, wishes above all to dig the wells that the servants of His Father had dug; in other words, He wishes to renew the wells of the Law and the Prophets, obstructed by the Philistines.
But who are those who fill the wells with earth? Those, without a doubt, who give the Law a terrestrial and carnal sense and forbid a spiritual and mystical sense, so that they neither drink from it themselves nor allow others to do so. Listen to what Isaac, our Savior Jesus Christ, says in the Gospel: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who wished to enter." Here they are, then, those who fill with earth "the wells dug by the servants of Abraham"; they teach the Law carnally and they soil the waters of the Holy Spirit. They possess wells not to draw water, but to throw earth into them. These are the wells Isaac undertakes to dig. Let us now see how He goes about it.
The New Testament Wells
The servants of Isaac are the Apostles of our Lord. "One Sabbath day as they passed through the harvests, they plucked ears of grain and, rubbing them in their hands, ate them." Upon this, the reflection of those who had obstructed the wells of His Father: "Behold, your disciples do what is not permitted on the Sabbath day." But He, trying to free their bogged-down minds, said to them: "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and his companions; how he entered the house of the high priest Abiathar and ate, he and his servants, the showbread which it was not permitted to eat except for the priests alone?" And He added: "If you understood this word: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the innocent." But they, to this, what do they reply? They attack His servants and say: "This man is not sent from God, since he does not observe the Sabbath." Such, then, is the way in which Isaac re-dug the wells "which the servants of His Father had dug."
Moses was a servant of His Father, he who had dug the well of the Law; David, Solomon, the prophets, and others were servants of His Father, they who had written the books of the Old Testament, those books which the entirely terrestrial and gross interpretation of the Jews submerged.
Also, when (our) Isaac wished to restore their purity and show that everything "the Law and the Prophets" had said "was said of Himself," our Philistines sought a quarrel with Him. But He departs. He cannot remain with those who, instead of water in their wells, want earth. He says to them: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate."
Then Isaac, or rather His servants, dig new wells. Servants of Isaac: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; servants: Peter, James, and Jude; servant: the Apostle Paul; all, well-diggers of the New Testament. But against them rise "those who have a taste only for terrestrial things," those who allow neither the discovery of the new nor the purification of the old. They attack the evangelical wells; they are the adversaries of the apostolic wells. And because they attack everything and take offense at everything, it is for them that it is said: "Since you judge yourselves unworthy of the grace of God, henceforth we shall go to the Gentiles."
The Abundance of the Trinity
After this, Isaac dug a third well, "and he named this place: Abundance, saying: Now, the Lord has made room for us and made us to grow in the land."
Truly, Isaac has been made room, and His name has grown over all the earth when He filled us with the knowledge of the Trinity. For formerly "God was known only in Judea and it was in Israel only that His great name was invoked," whereas now "their sound goes out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world."
The servants of Isaac have spread over the whole surface of the earth; they have dug wells, they have shown "living water" to all, "baptizing all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," for "to the Lord belongs the earth and all that it contains."
Now, whoever among us is a minister of the word of God, digs a well and seeks "living water" with which he comforts his listeners. If then I set myself, I also, to explain the words of the ancients, if I seek a spiritual sense there, if I try to remove "the veil of the Law" and to show that the Scripture has "an allegorical sense," for my part I am digging wells. But immediately the friends of the "letter" raise calumnies against me, attack me, plot without ceasing oppositions and persecutions, saying that there can be truth only on the earth.
For us, since we are servants of Isaac, let us love the wells of living water and the springs. Let us distance ourselves from these meddlers and these liars and leave them to the earth they love. Let us never cease to dig wells of living water. And in our explanations of the old as of the new, let us make ourselves like that Scribe of the Gospel of whom the Lord said "that he brings out of his treasure things new and things old."
The Image of God Within
If, among those who listen to me discourse, there is one versed in profane letters, perhaps he thinks: "You borrow from us what you say and that is the science of our profession. This eloquence with which you dissertation and teach is ours." He seeks a quarrel with me, like a Philistine who would say: "It is on my land that you have dug your well," imagining he can rightfully claim what is his own domain.
To this, I will answer that all earth contains waters, but a Philistine who "has a taste only for terrestrial things" does not know how, in all earth, to discover water; he does not know how in every soul to discover reason (rationabilem sensum) and the image of God; he does not know that there can be in all faith, piety, and religious sense. What use is instruction to you if you do not know how to use it, and speech, if you do not know how to speak?
This is precisely the work of the servants of Isaac: in all earth, they dig wells of living water, that is to say, to every soul they speak "the word of God" and they gather the fruit.
Do you wish to see now the great wells that a single one of the servants of Isaac dug in a foreign land? Look at Paul who, "from Jerusalem and the neighboring countries as far as Illyricuм, has carried everywhere the Gospel of God." At each of these wells, he suffered the persecutions of the Philistines. Listen to him: "What troubles at Iconium, at Lystra," and "at Ephesus"! How many times was he beaten and stoned? "How many times did he fight against beasts?" But he persevered until he reached "the fullness," that is to say, until he had established Churches over the whole surface of the earth.
Thus, the wells dug by Abraham—that is to say, the writings of the Old Testament—were filled with earth by the Philistines, whether they were bad teachers, Scribes and Pharisees, or the opposing powers: their openings were blocked, so that they could not give drink to the descendants of Abraham. Yes, this people cannot drink from the Scriptures, and "thirst for the word of God" torments them, until the coming of Isaac who clears the wells where His servants shall drink.
Let us then be full of gratitude for Christ, the son of Abraham—of whom it is said: "Genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham"—who came and cleared the wells for us. He cleared them for those who said: "Was not our heart burning within us when He opened the Scriptures to us?" Thus did He open these wells and "He named them as His father Abraham had named them," for He did not change their names.
One may be surprised that Moses still kept for us his name of Moses, and each prophet his own. It is because Christ, without changing their names, changed the manner of understanding them. He operated this change to turn us henceforth away from "Jєωιѕн fables" and "endless genealogies," for it is said: "they turn their ears away from the truth and open them to fables."
Thus did He open the wells: He taught us that God is not to be sought in a determined place, and taught us that "a sacrifice is offered to His name in every place on earth." It is now indeed "the time when the true worshipers worship the Father," no longer in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim, "but in spirit and in truth." It is not then in a place nor on the earth that God dwells, but in the heart. You seek then where God is found? God is found in a pure heart. It is there indeed that He will make His dwelling, according to what He said through the prophet: "I will dwell and I will walk in the midst of them, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, says the Lord."
Notice well that each of our souls contains, in a way, a well of living water; there is in it a certain celestial sense, an image of God buried; it is this well that the Philistines, that is to say, the opposing powers, have obstructed with earth. With what earth? Carnal behaviors (carnalibus sensibus), terrestrial thoughts, and that is why "we have borne the image of the terrestrial man." It was when we bore this image of the terrestrial man that the Philistines obstructed our wells with earth. But now that our Isaac has come, let us welcome His coming and dig our wells; let us cast out the earth from them, purify them of all filth, of every muddy and terrestrial thought: we shall find in them living water, that water of which the Lord says: "He who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his breast." And notice the liberality of the Lord; they are wells that the Philistines filled and meager trickles of water that they disputed with us; in their place, there are restored to us springs and rivers.
The Artisan and the Painting
If you, who listen to me today, faithfully gather what you hear, Isaac works also in you and purifies your hearts of terrestrial behaviors. Knowing that such deep mysteries are hidden in the divine Scriptures, you progress in discernment, you progress in spiritual behaviors. You will become teachers in your turn, and from you will emanate "rivers of living water." For He is there, the Word of God, and His current operation is to push aside the earth from the soul of each of you, to make your spring gush forth. This spring is in you and does not come from without, like "the kingdom of God which is within you."
It was not outside, but in her own home, that the woman who had lost her drachma found it again: "She had lit her lamp, she had swept her house" of the filth and dirt that a long and lazy negligence had accuмulated there; and it was there that she found her drachma. As for you, if you light your lamp, if you use the illumination of the Holy Spirit, "if you see the light in His light," you will find the drachma in you. For it is in you that the image of the celestial King is found.
When God made man, in the beginning, "He made him in His image and likeness"; and He did not print this image on the outside, but inside him. It could not be seen in you as long as your house was dirty, full of filth and rubble. This spring of perfection was in you, but it could not gush forth, since the Philistines had filled it with earth and made you "resemble the terrestrial man." Thus you bore, formerly, the image of the terrestrial man; but after what you have just heard, freed by the Word of God from this great mass of earth that oppressed you, make "the image of the celestial man" shine in you now.
It is this image of which the Father said to the Son: "Let us make man in our image and likeness."
The artisan of this image is the Son of God. An artisan of such value that His image can indeed be obscured by negligence, but not destroyed by malice. The image of God remains always in you, even when you superimpose upon it, of yourself, that of the "terrestrial man."
The painting of the latter—you are the painter of it. Has luxury tarnished you? It is a first terrestrial color with which you have covered yourself. Does avarice burn you? It is another color you have mixed there. Does anger carry you away? It is a third color you add. And pride brings another, and impiety another. Thus you are the painter, by all sorts of faults which, joined together, are as it were the various colors of this "image of the terrestrial man" that God did not put in you. Therefore we must pray to Him who says through the prophets: "Behold, I destroy your iniquities like a vapor and your sins like smoke." When He has destroyed in you all these ugly colors drawn from the blackness of malice, then it is the beautiful image created by God that will shine in you. Thus you see how the divine Scriptures propose representations and figures that inform the soul on the knowledge and purification of self.
The Letter of the Spirit
Do you wish to see yet another description of this image? Well, there is the note that God writes and there is the one we write ourselves. Listen to the Apostle: "Destroying the bond that was written against us in the decrees and was contrary to us, He made it disappear by nailing it to the cross." This bond of which he speaks was a "receipt" of our sins. For each of us is a debtor of his faults and writes the note (of recognition) of his sin. At the judgment of God, which Daniel represents as seated, there are, he says, "open books," to contain, doubtless, the sins of men. It is we who have written them against us with our faults. And this finds an illustration in the Gospel, when it is told of the steward of iniquity that he says to each debtor: "Take your bond, sit down and write: eighty," and so on. It is indeed to each, is it not, that it is said: "Take your bond." From which it emerges that our bond is a bond of sin; whereas the bond of justice is written by God. In this sense the Apostle says: "You are my letter written, not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tables of flesh, on your hearts." You have then in you the bond of God and the bond of the Holy Spirit. But if you sin, you sign against yourself the written act of sin. Notice that when you came to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your writing was crucified and was erased in the water of baptism. Do not write again what has been erased, do not restore what has been suppressed: keep in you only the bond of God, preserve in you only the writing of the Holy Spirit.
But let us return to Isaac and dig with him wells of living water. The Philistines may stir up oppositions and quarrels, let us nonetheless persevere with Isaac in digging wells, until it is said to us: "Drink water from your wells and from your springs." Let us dig to the point that the waters of the well overflow onto "our public squares," let us dig to the point of arriving at a knowledge of the Scriptures sufficient not only for ourselves, but to teach others and instruct them; let us dig so that men may drink, let us dig so that the flocks may also drink. Listen, wise ones; listen, simple ones: "The teacher of the Church is a debtor to the learned as well as to the ignorant"; he must give drink to men and he must give drink to the flocks, for the Prophet said: "Lord, you will save men and beasts." For this, may the Lord Jesus Himself, our Savior, deign to illuminate us and purify our hearts, "to Him to whom belong glory and power through the ages of ages. Amen."
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