Gorilla Hell

I’m sure you have seen the story and video of the little boy falling into the gorilla enclosure…and all the ensuing nonsense that gives positive proof that America has lost its soul and its respect for human life.

The incident continues to stay on my mind, though. I watched the video that some spectator took of the event, with the gorilla dragging the child through the water in the moat. I watched the video after reading the outcome of the whole event, so I knew that the gorilla had been shot, and that the little boy had not been seriously injured. But even though I knew that, the video was terrifying to me, really. If I had been the mother, I might even have done something stupid like jump in after him. I just cannot imagine having to see that. (Okay, maybe I'm a little oversensitive. I felt similarly when my daughter was being bucked off a horse at age 4 or so, when I thought she was going to be trampled to death. Actually, it was a definite possibility, so maybe I’m not overreacting!)

Anyway,  as I was doing some sewing, I was watching a Church Militant video; this one was of a conference Michael Voris gave at the last Retreat at Sea a couple of months ago. This talk was about how we can't sit back and let people say stupid things about Our Lord and not correct them and try to tell them the truth, etc. He talked about love of souls, and realizing that people are on the path to hell, and that we need to do something to save them. And as I listened, his words brought to mind the image of the little boy in the gorilla enclosure, being dragged through the water by a 450-lb gorilla, screaming a blood-curdling scream. I thought about the terror that little boy must have felt (or, at least, that I imagine I would have felt); and I thought about how, as adults, we would be able to see that we’d made a big mistake, but now it was irreversible. What terror would we experience at that moment of God’s judgment, if the judgment was being sent to hell?

So, I'm holding onto that image to motivate me not to lose sight of people's souls. That little boy could be my daughter, losing her faith, falling away from the Church, ending up on the wrong side of the guard rail and falling into the moat to be dragged around by the gorilla - only worse. That little boy could be her fiancé falling into the pit of hell; he'll certainly know the reality of God at that point, and I want very badly for him to come to that knowledge before he falls into the gorilla pit. That little boy could be any one of my husband’s grown sons or their wives, or my own son; it could be our grandchildren or our nieces and nephew and their children. It could be a lot of people – family, friends, strangers; it doesn’t matter who, it just matters for the love of souls.

If I can keep that image alive in my mind and heart, maybe I can pray more fervently for the salvation of souls, and maybe I'll be better able to hear the Holy Spirit as he provides me with the right words to talk to people about their souls and the reality of hell.  It’s a very “earthly” image, I know, but in a way, that is helpful to me. It instilled terror in me, because it is something I could see and hear and experience at least vicariously through the internet. And the more I can feel that terror when I think about souls plunging into hell, the better.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.