This year, Pope Francis declared that 2016 should be a "Year of Mercy. In the next 365, Catholics are called upon to reflect on the mercy God has shown them, and convey that same mercy to others. Catholics have lived by this in the past year more so than ever. At my Catholic College, this idea has been implanted into our curriculum and service trips for the school year. However, Catholics are the only ones that have been following this line of thought all year. Sadly, humanity, as a whole, is no longer a merciful body.

Being merciful is defined as "compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm". How can we forgive rapists when they are getting out of prison in three months? How can we show compassion when we see Trump and Hillary (metaphorically) killing each other to become president. How can we show kindness as Wells Fargo is getting sued for fraud and 9/11 victims are possibly going to be able to sue Saudi Arabia? It's impossible to say we are merciful when our actions speak louder than out words.

At this current moment, humanity does not care about mercy. We want justice, a correct president, and bad things to happens to those who commit the worst of crimes. What we want does not define mercy. At the end of the day, humanity just shows that we are no different than any other species. We might have a culture, however what good is it when we just want to destroy each other? We went from jailing the monsters to becoming the monsters. We claim we are doing good, however we fail to show mercy to those who need it most. I myself am not Catholic, however I think that they have the right idea this year. So for the rest of the year I am (attempting to) show mercy to those who need it most. How about you? What will you do?