I can still remember being nine years old, sitting in my grandparents’ basement, watching the movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, completely enthralled for all three hours and forty minutes of run time. The scene of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf was so dramatic to me. I remember thinking how silly it was to worship an animal made up of bracelets when God had just given them freedom.

While reflecting on the Exodus story this Lent and now Easter, I’ve been struck by how the idols of today are not as obvious as a golden calf. As followers of Christ, it is tempting to think that we are so far removed from our ancestors who forgot their freedom in the desert. We can acknowledge the temptation to idolize the things of the world that lead us down the path of destruction—pride, money, power, and all the other clearly marked sins. However, our pride can lead us to believe that we are not in danger of fashioning our own idols.

The enemy will try to get in through any door we crack, and we can often miss the fact that we can elevate the gifts God has given us—things that are beautiful and good—far beyond their rightful places. Gifts like family, a good Church community, serving in ministry, or a faithful Catholic school are all meant to glorify God, but the beauty of these things can become so glittery and appealing that we can start to mold them into something of a higher status. We start to shape them into things that we want to satisfy us and our desires.

We are free to love good things when we recognize that they are simply gifts from God, and not the point in and of themselves. The invitation to enjoy these things as they bring glory to God is one that may seem obvious, but the Lord asks us to be vigilant in naming our attachments, and to consider whether we are depending on those things more than Him.

As we continue to celebrate all that Christ has done in the Easter season, let us encourage each other to walk in the full freedom of the life God has for us. Let’s run to Him with open hands, dropping our own golden calves along the way.