DYNAMIC NOTES 0F ADULTHOOD—FELLOWSHIP AND LONELINESS

93 When a person arrives at adult age, he ordinarily becomes more capable of having fellowship with others and of establishing mutual relationships with them.

This capacity and the need for fellowship come into play within the framework of family duties and within the relationships of social life; and ail these things serve at times to promote this fellowship and at times to hinder it.

As a matter of fact, people, especially in contemporary society, often experience too much Loneliness.

Catechesis ought to show that God, who is love, is really the author of the community of faith, which is the Church, and at the same time it should enkindle a desire for entering into fellowship with every man. It reminds married couples that their intimate union is, in virtue of the sacrament of matrimony, a sign of the mystery of unity and fruitful love between Christ and the Church, and that it shares in that mystery (cf. Eph. 5, 32).

Within the frame of small groups of the faithful, catechesis will help adults to live Christian charity to the full. Indeed, this charity, as the sign of a certain common experience, makes them be of assistance to one another in the faith.