The Reed of God and The Cocktail Party

"Our Lord said to His Apostles: 'It is expedient for you that I go away.'

It is the same for us. We know Him only by continually learning Him anew; we get away from false gods only by continually seeking Him; we hold Him only by losing Him.

He goes away that we may seek Him. The sense of loss, the awareness of insufficiency, makes us long for Him as He is. It makes us willing to go out from ourselves and find Him where He is."

--Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

Here, Houselander is referring to Mary losing little Jesus on the way home from Jerusalem. She explores the way in which Christ's absence works against our tendency to erect idols in the place of Christ.

(Incidentally, this reminds me a lot of the advice of the doctor to Edward and Lavinia in The Cocktail Party: "We must also remember / That at every meeting we are meeting a stranger." I know, I know: not all of life comes back to The Cocktail Party.)