WHEN WILL COVID-19 END? By Fr Innocent Joshua Chiawa Igbokwe, OCD

       Some people called me to ask if Coronavirus will ever end. My usual response is, “Yes, it will, certainly.” One pious and curious believer asked, “When?” This is the question I wish to shortly answer. When is the coronavirus coming to an end?
This disease that has humbled the proud, made caricature of dictators, defiled science, and brought the powerful to their knees. When will it come to an end?
         This disease that has emptied places of worship, shutdown airports, locked down cities, closed down schools and markets. When will it come to an end?
This disease that has unveiled the ignorance of the primitive, unsealed the limit of technology, exposed the failures of government, revealed the incompetence of leaders, showed the indiscipline of families and showcased the lawlessness of citizens. Which day and time will it come to an end?
        This disease that has denied alcoholics their bars, workaholics that jobs, sex maniacs their brothels, pedophiles their opportunities, prophets their congregations, miracle-seekers their vigils, pastors their tithes and priests their “faculties”. When will it come to an end?
Certainly, COVID-19 will come to an end as others did. The earliest recorded pandemic was the Plague of Athens (430 B.C) that did havoc in Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt. It appeared to have called two-thirds of the population of Athens. It unexpectedly came to an end. Antonine Plague (165 A.D) was another pandemic. It started with the Huns to the Germans and then to the Romans. It killed a lot, even the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It ended one day. By 250 A.D, the world experienced another pandemic named after the first victim, Cyprian, the Christian Bishop of Carthage, Cyprian Plague. It massacred people in Ethiopia, Rome, Egypt and some other nations. It ended as well. One of the deadliest was Justinian Plague (541 A.D). It destroyed lives in Palestine, Rome and the then known world. It killed about fifty million people; that is  26 percent of the world population. It eventually ended. In 1350, the Black Death, one of the deadliest of the pandemics came on board. It killed one-third of the world population. It entered from Sicily and spread through Europe, killing people in millions. But it also passed away. Time will not permit to talk about The Great Plague of London  in 1665 that led to the death of 20 percent of London’s population nor of the First Cholera Pandemic of 1817 that came from Russia and spread throughout Europe, killing one million people nor  the Russian Flu of 1889 that moved from Russia to the Europe, America and Africa where Three hundred and sixty thousand people died. In 1918, the world experienced another unprecedented pandemic that claimed fifty million people, called Spanish Flu. It spread like wildfire from Europe to United States and parts of Asian. It shut down markets, entertainment industries, places of worship, schools, systems of transportation and crumbled world economy. Surprising, by summer 1919, it disappeared.  If these pandemics ended, COVID- 19 will also end.
COVID- 19 will end. When? It will end when its limit is exhausted. It has been given a limit that it will never pass by the one who gives limit to the seas and oceans that they will not exceed. As the Scripture says, “he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command” (Prov. 8:29 RSV) “Flowing over the mountains, down valleys, to the place you had fixed for them, you made a limit they were not to cross, they were not to return and cover the earth” (Psalm 104:8-9 NJB). Look at this: “Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.” (Jeremiah 5:22 NKJ).
Whatever God permits to happen, has been assigned a limit it cannot pass. By a perpetual decree, COVID-19 cannot pass a certain period. It will stop or will be stopped. When God permitted Satan to tempt and frustrate Job, he assigned him a limit, a fixed boundary he was incapable of crossing (Job 1:12). But the fact is that some people will die. Millions of people will survive. Whether one survives or dies depends on what happens between now and when it is coming to an end.
Let us renew our lives. Make amends. Stay safe at home, pray and get ready for whatever happens. That COVID- 19 will stop is certain. It will stop when it reaches its limit as discussed. Be calm. It will pass away and it must. On that day, the earth will be full of joy. We shall become humbler, more loving, human and godly.

© 2020 Innocent Joshua Chiawa Igbokwe, OCD