The Year of Mercy officially ended this past November, and as seasonal joys are ebbing away with work's returning looming presence, the question can finally be prompted of what will happen next? The Church saw a huge shift towards the focus of practicing and meditating on what it means to be merciful during the past year, but now that it has overrun its stay, will Catholics still be as dutiful as they were before to this virtue?
The year of Mercy, otherwise known as the Jubilee of Mercy, was installed by Pope Francis on December 8th, 2015. Besides that, last year also marked the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council which had sought out to spread the love of God in the changing modern world. At the first mass of the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis implored everyone to take this year as an opportunity to make the habit of being more merciful towards others. This idea of being more patient and forgiving would be practiced by treating others fairly and justly. Pope Francis doubtlessly saw that the world was being consumed by material temptations, media-influenced prejudices, and selfishness.
Today's society, while more connected than ever, has altered the definition of being welcoming and forgiving. So easily are people swayed by social media outlets and so easily are they finding it to become more detached from the world. The people of today are ruled by two personalities - the one they display in reality, and the one they have on when interacting with others through technology; the very sympathetic comment you see could have been typed by a very apathetic face.
This detachment makes it easier to become more callous and passive in the face of others' plights because when the person returns to reality, he or she recognizes that the trouble they see on that screen won't truly affect their daily routines. Also, the consistency in which media continues to deliver bad news makes today's society more tolerable with sinful acts and tragedies. Someone could be calling out for help or maybe lashing out due to issues back home, and the passerby could just either ignore or retaliate aggressively because according to media, everyone is struggling - "he or she has no right to act out because others have it worse." The media, and this huge shift of attention from the world to ourselves, facilitates the process of forgetting that each individual has his or her own capacity to tolerate with the struggles of life.
Pope Francis concluded the Jubilee of Mercy on November 20th with a mass, saying that it had been successful. He preached to Christians to continue to reject the temptations of "power or glory" and to adapt to a life rich in love instead; just because the Year of Mercy has ended, does not mean we must stop the practice, rather, we must continue to spread the habit in this ever isolating, digitalized world.