It strikes me that this passage, written by the Camaldolese monk Aelred Squire, expresses a beautiful truth.
A good deal of frustration in human relationships results from a failure to recognize that there is an inescapable element of solitude in every human life, which not even marriage or the most intimate of friendships can evade. That is, indeed, something which each person must respect in themselves and in others as the most precious thing of all about them. It is something that cannot be given away, for in its ultimate depths there must be an aspect of every human soul which is virginal towards God.
Most of the more terrible kinds of human unhappiness arise from a refusal to recognize this fact or the desire to evade it. It is the real root of each person’s individual dignity, however, and the true source from which his greatest joy will flow, when the love of this unique love becomes fruitful at the level of his being which is accessible only to God.
If more of us reflected on what Squire articulates, how much sounder would the modern marriage landscape – and the whole spectrum of human relationships – be today?
