I was navigating a website on the internet when my computer suddenly locked. Within seconds, a voice alarm informed me that my personal information had been accessed and that any attempt to close the site would result in my losing all the information that was stored on the device. To eliminate the threat, all I had to do was call the number on the screen and they would resolve the problem. In response, I did what I usually do when I’m not sure what’s happening: I “SOSed” my husband, who immediately came to my rescue.
A call to the Geek Squad, whose service we subscribe to, immediately confirmed that the message was a scam, and in no time, they had cleaned my computer of the threat. All this was done remotely, which meant we never had a face-to-face encounter with the person who fixed the problem. From the sound of children in the background, it appeared that the technician had been working from his home.
As I thought about the incident a few days later, it occurred to me that like rogue phishing expeditions on the internet, bad actors abound in real life. They appear in multiple ways, but mostly they are disguised as something good, enticing the senses through self-gratification that is short-lived.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an alarm that accompanied temptations, warning us of impending dangers that come our way during the course of our life? The fact is: we have such a safety device built in and it’s called a conscience. But like any annoying alarm, our first instinct may be to silence it, especially when it tells us something we’d rather not hear.
One of my favorite passages is from Ezekiel, who prophesizing in the name of the Lord said, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26). Scripture assures us that when the alarm of our conscience alerts us to impending danger, we have the equivalent of the Geek Squad at our disposal, and it’s called prayer.
Like the technician, God is unseen, yet he directs us remotely by softening our heart to his Word and teachings. This makes turning to Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the advice of someone who is more knowledgeable makes sense, for just as we look to experts in technology to assist us when our computer is threatened, so we have the Holy Spirit and experts in moral theology who can rescue us from evil.
In teaching his disciples to pray, Jesus included in the Our Father a plea to be delivered from evil. Having experienced temptations himself, he knew that we needed supernatural help.
With help so close at hand, there’s no reason to remain hostage to Satan’s phishing expeditions. We are not computers; we are flesh and blood human beings, and to be human is to have a heart that can be informed either by the Holy Spirit or by Satan. The choice is ours.
When we succumb to temptation, we open ourselves to all types of deceptions because one lie leads to another and another and another until the heart of flesh that God gave us returns to stone. When that happens, it becomes all but impossible for the light of Christ to penetrate. Then we become like computers that are locked and unable to function until we surrender our will to the mercy of God and allow him to guide us.
Like computer technicians who work remotely from home, the Holy Spirit continues to guide and enlighten us in ways we may not see or even understand. All we have to do is ask for help.
The fortunate part is that we already have a lifelong subscription that we received at baptism. All we have to do is call upon God and ask for wisdom, trusting that he knows far better than us what is in our best interest. Jesus reassured us that not a hair on our head goes unnoticed by the Father who loves us and wants nothing more than for us to be happy with him for all eternity. He promised that he will wipe “every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain” (Rv 21:4).
There will be no more phishing expeditions to have to deal with, a plan worth subscribing to in this life so that we may be happy for all eternity.