"The Apocalypse of COVID-19"

by Rev. Dr. Rich McCarty

"Do you think that this is the end of the world?" As a Christian minister I have been asked this question on a number of occasions, and now more recently about COVID-19. Sure enough, a quick media search finds certain preachers proclaiming that this pandemic is a sign of the End Times. But you live long enough and you can reliably anticipate when the "end-timers" will show up in a crisis to make their scary predictions. (None of them have ever come true.) So my short and public answer to the end-times question is: "No! COVID-19 is not the harbinger of some supernatural end of the world." I remind people in my faith tradition that Christ himself said that he did not know the day or the hour of the end. It's a bit odd, then, for a follower of Christ to claim more esoteric knowledge than their Messiah possessed. That said, I do have another answer to the question. Namely, "it may not be the end of the world, but COVID-19 is an apocalypse." Let me explain. The word apocalypse means "to reveal"-and so anything that reveals deep truth and ultimate reality is an apocalyptic event. Seen this way, COVID-19 is an apocalypse-not of God, but of natural causes-and it is revealing so much. This apocalypse has revealed the strengths of human community in our caring for one another. But it is also revealing deep deficiencies in our economic systems and our access to adequate healthcare. But there is hope. When apocalyptic events pass-and they do-we have the chance to create a better world. That will be up to us-all of us, together.

The Rev. Dr. Richard W. McCarty (Ph.D.) is ordained in the United Church of Christ and serves as the senior pastor at Community United Church-an Open and Affirming Christian congregation in Erie, PA (1011 West 38th Street).