The limit imposed on evil: The Divine Mercy in John Paul II

Abstract

John Paul II has witnessed one of the most dramatic periods in the history of humanity. He experienced in the first person —even as a victim— the gigantic power that evil can acquire in the world and whose most serious consequence has been the death of millions of human lives. World wars, fratricidal wars, totalitarianisms, abortions, abuses, euthanasia, physical and moral torture, terrorist attacks, etc. As he said, it has not been a reduced edition evil, but an evil that has been used by the state structures to carry out his disastrous work, an evil raised to the system. However, the mystery iniquitatis that represents that abundance of evil has not managed to destroy the good in the same world, nor has it prevented its diffusion or its growth. Moreover, the Pope proclaimed with the force of his life and his faith that, although evil seems invincible, it never will be because it has a limit that breaks its power and is called mercy. Although in a historical moment it seems to have concentrated the greatest human evil, in the end, evil enters into total crisis, diluting itself in an infinite wave of good that overcomes it and is called divine mercy.