Don’t! It’s a trap! A Moral Lesson from a Commercial

Here’s a little commercial that requires very little decoding. A woman enters an office and, spying a very nice pen, has thoughts of petty theft. Just as she is about to depart, stolen pen in hand, a voice from above says, “Don’t! It’s a trap!” She looks up to see a co-worker swinging in a net that has swooped him up.

And so, too, for us. When temptation comes our way we often hear that voice “from above” saying, “Don’t! It’s a trap!” But the voice we hear is not that of some fellow sinner—it is the voice of God.

For Scripture says,

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).

And the Catechism says,

Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment … For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God … His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) # 1776).

Yes, there is that small, still voice of God, who, in the midst of our temptations, reminds us that the sinful pleasures that the world, the flesh, and the devil propose are ultimately traps and lies. And whatever good we may imagine in them (through vain reasoning) is ultimately a deception.

Don’t! It is a trap.