Genesis 24:63

Rebekah, having followed the servant, came to Isaac; for the Church, having followed the prophetic word, came to Christ. Where did she find him? "Walking about," it says, "by the well of the oath." Nowhere is there any withdrawal from the wells, nowhere any ceasing from the waters; Rebekah is found "at the well," and again Rebekah "at the well" finds Isaac; there she beholds her first sight of him, there she "gets down from the camels," there she sees Isaac pointed out to her by the servant. Do you suppose these things alone are recounted about wells? Jacob too came to a well and there found Rachel, there Rachel becomes known to him, "good of eyes and comely of aspect." But Moses also at a well found Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. Are you not yet moved to understand that these things are spoken spiritually? Or do you suppose that it always happens by chance that the Patriarchs come to wells and obtain marriages at the waters? Whoever thinks thus is "the animal man," and "does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God." But let whoever wishes remain in these things, let him remain "animal"; I, following Paul the Apostle, say that these things are "allegorical," and I say that the marriages of the saints are the joining of the soul with the word of God: "for he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." But this joining of the soul with the word, it is certain, cannot come about otherwise than through the instruction of the divine books, which are figuratively called wells. If anyone comes to these and draws waters from them — that is, by meditating on these things receives a deeper sense and understanding — he will find a marriage worthy of God; for his soul is joined with God. She also "gets down from the camels," that is, she departs from the vices, casts off the irrational senses, and is joined to Isaac; for it is fitting that Isaac should pass "from virtue to virtue." He who is the son of virtue, of Sarah, is now joined and united to patience, which is Rebekah. And this is to pass "from virtue to virtue" and "from faith to faith." But let us come also to the Gospels. When the Lord himself had been "wearied from the journey," let us see where he seeks rest. "He came," it says, "to a well, and sat upon it." You see the mysteries everywhere agreeing with one another, you see the concordant forms of the new and old testaments. There men come to the wells and to the waters, that brides may be found; and the Church is joined to Christ in the laver of water. You see how great a heap of mysteries presses upon us; how many things there are that occur to us, which we cannot unfold: at least these things ought to spur you to hear, to gather together, so that, even if we run past some things for the sake of brevity, you, when you read them over again and search, may yourself also examine and find — or at any rate remain in the inquiry of these things — so that the word of God, finding you too, may take you up to the water and join you to itself, that you may become with him "one spirit" in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."

He withdrew himself and cleansed himself from the vices of this world, elevating his soul like Isaac in the field, or (as others have it) walking freely.

(Verses 62 and 63.) And he himself dwelt in the land of the south: and Isaac went forth to meditate in the field towards evening. The land of the south signifies Gerar, to which he had once been led by his father to be sacrificed. But when it says, And he went forth to meditate in the field, which in Greek is called ἀδολεσχῆσαι, in Hebrew it is read: And Isaac went forth to speak in the field, the evening already declining. That signifies, according to what the Lord alone prayed on the mountain, even Isaac, who in the type of the Lord, as a just man going out of his house, offered spiritual victims to God either at the ninth hour or before sunset.

That field contained a figure of the world. Isaac went out into the field, because Christ was to come into the world; Isaac toward the evening of the day, Christ at the end of the world. "He went out," it says, "to meditate." For this reason Isaac went to meditate in the field, because Christ came into the world to fight against the devil, that he might justly conquer him while being unjustly killed by him, so that by dying he might destroy death, and by rising again bring life to all who believe. Moreover, just as Rebekah was corporally joined to Isaac, so the church was spiritually joined to Christ, receiving at present the blood of her spouse as a precious dowry and later to receive the dowry of his kingdom. The blessed apostle Peter clearly proclaims this when he says, "You were redeemed, not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish."