“Our world is a material world. We are constantly presented with technological advances and improvements and sentiments such as: “He who has the most toys wins!” We must learn how to hold on to material things lightly with our fingertips, rather than grasp them firmly with our fists, if we are to avoid being mastered by them. We are stewards of the world, not owners.” (Fr. Joseph Irvin)
“Reverence for material things is in itself a healthy and natural movement of the heart and mind. “How magnified are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is filled with Thy creation” (Ps 103:26). Trouble begins when we “exchange of the truth of God for the lie” (Rom 1:25). Men start to believe that creation holds supreme value and deserves our highest reverence and devotion. Here we find the source of idolatry, that dead-end into which the devil constantly invites us. We see precisely what is wrong with the secular culture around us: a supreme devotion to and worship of material things to the exclusion of all else.” (Dynamis 6/12/2019)
“We’ve all gone through times when material things or exciting events have become more important to us than God...It’s easy to forget that earthly things—no matter how attractive they appear—are worthless and temporary substitutes for God’s love. We create our own idols and set up our own places to worship them. But every idol, no matter how shiny or attractive at the beginning, will inevitably tarnish and fade away over time.” (NIV Men's Devotional Bible)
“Classical Christianity is the true materialism, revealing a dignity of the created order that never enters the sentiments of the modern mind. Our modern sin and failure is not found in loving material things too much – rather, we love them too little and in the wrong manner. We love our ideas about things and how we feel about things. Nothing is therefore loved for itself, but only for the sentiments that arise from its misuse.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.” (C. S. Lewis)