A familiar expression, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” 
means that noisy, pesky people usually are heard, and get what they want. Thankfully, as Jesus explained in today’s gospel, we don’t need to be a “squeaky wheel” with God. When we pray, we don’t need to pester God to get his attention; we don’t need to jump and shout or, to borrow Jesus’ phrase, “babble on and on like the pagans,” to get God to hear us. The truth is, God is already listening. He knows what we need even before we ask, because he knows us and loves us better than we know and love ourselves.
Nevertheless, we are to ask God for what we need, simply and honestly, for four reasons:
• First, so that we can learn to depend on God, and not on ourselves;
• Second; so we can acknowledge that all good things come from God, and give him thanks and praise in return;
• Third, so we can share with God, in a relationship of mutual love, those people and situations that are important to us;
• And fourth, because our prayer- really and truly- does change things.
We might say that God loves to hear our voice! We don’t have to raise it or cry out, because we already have his undivided attention. For us, God is “all ears.”
Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/031511.shtml
Photo Credit: L.Bo via Creative Commons