(For the audio version of this blog, please visit https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Mass-Blog-for-the-18th-Sunday-in-Ordinary-Time-2026-2.mp3)
There’s something gratuitously beautiful about how God feeds us. Gratuitous is also how science describes nature’s indescribable beauty. The colors and patterns in a butterfly’s wings serve no practical purpose other than to fill us with awe. Scientists are quick to explain the math behind why we’re here, but they have trouble interpreting God’s poetry. Our own existence suggests an extravagant Creator who so loved us that he gave Himself to ensure the beauty of that sacrifice would continue to evolve out of its ugliness.
We are called to feed on and share God’s gratuitous beauty heedfully, as Isaiah suggests in our first reading (Isaiah 55:1-3). Heedfully is an archaic word, but in this context, it’s a beautiful reminder of our timeless appetite for the extravagant deliciousness of God’s truth.
“Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.”
Paul tells the Romans and us that the ugliest things in our human nature—anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, and war’s weapons—can’t separate us from the gratuitous beauty of God’s love as served by Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:35, 37-39)
Matthew’s gospel proves it as we experience the eternal empathy he feels for the vast crowds willing to travel long distances on foot to consume God’s truth (Matthew 14:13-21). Christ’s parables are gratuitously beautiful manifestations of that truth. Throughout his earthly ministry, the digestible and delicious morality plays he fashioned from our daily lives kept those masses coming back to keep their spirits nourished with a reality so bountiful they couldn’t help but go home with leftover fragments to feed others in their own lives. Such is the spiritual food Jesus empowered his disciples to share with the entire world.
That makes all of us continuous manifestations of the supernatural beauty God created out of the all-too-natural ugliness of Christ’s death.
–Tom Andel
The contrast between gratuitous beauty and human ugliness reminds us that God’s love is not merely functional or necessary, but abundant, extravagant, and freely given—a gift revealed in creation, Christ’s sacrifice, and the nourishment offered through faith. The use of “heedfully” is especially striking because it transforms Isaiah’s invitation into a call for more than passive belief: we are asked to listen attentively, receive deeply, and respond intentionally to God’s generosity. The miracle of the loaves and fishes reveals a broader spiritual reality: Jesus does not simply provide enough; he provides an overflowing abundance meant to be shared. Ultimately, the message is that God continually brings beauty, hope, and life out of suffering and brokenness, and we are invited to participate in that ongoing transformation.
George, there’s nothing more gratuitously beautiful than the love of family–which comes with abundant supplies of both pain and pleasure. As believers say, it’s all good.
Scripture gives many illustrations of being fed by God’s word, and how sumptuous it is. We need to be fed to survive as humans, but Christ takes the meaning of being fed by or “on Him” to a extraordinary level.
Being fed by Christ himself in the Eucharist is the essential nourishment for all of us.
In John ch 6 He spells this out clearly and unmistakably.
“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Again, Thomas, this food is the perfect example of the unequalled beauty of God’s gift to us. It’s His very self. Later in John 15, he tells his disciples they are also called to devote their lives to feeding others–while remaining on his vine as the source of nutrition. “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. … This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In that way, we are all called to be ministers of God’s living word.
Thanks Tom! Beautiful blog!
Science and art. So many times in our world it’s one vs the other. How blessed our we that God is the master of both!
In a world full of false scarcity, God offers us an all you can eat abundance of what is most precious. We just have to grab a plate and dig in! And hopefully help our brothers and sisters fill their plates as well.
Ps sorry, it’s almost dinner time
The only health food that’s always delicious.