11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

Hoping to help people who couldn’t hear well, Thomas Edison developed a device he called the megaphone.   Based on an earlier instrument known as the “speaking trumpet,” Edison’s invention amplified the normal human voice so that it could be heard up to two miles away.

In ancient times, pagan worshippers used repetition as a megaphone of sorts for communicating with their gods.   They repeated phrases and divine names over and over, at an ever-increasing volume, in the hope of attracting their attention (1 Kings 18:26-29; Acts 19:34).   But in today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:7 – 15), Jesus tells his disciples not to pray like that.   Why?   Because “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8).

We don’t worship a God who is deaf or indifferent to our sufferings.   We don’t need to win him over to do good things for us.   Our God knows us completely.   Our God is our Father.   He created us, loves us, and knows us inside and out.   So when we express our needs to the Lord in petition or intercession, it’s not to give him new information or to change his mind.   He already knows what we need.   He already wants to bless us, and he already knows how he will do it.

So why pray?   Why bother, if it doesn’t change anything?

Because prayer changes us by putting us in contact with God.   When we turn our hearts toward him and bring him our needs, we recognize that he is God and we are not.   We acknowledge that we can’t fix ourselves—or anyone else.   We can’t solve all our problems; we need God’s power and goodness to help us.   This realization softens our hearts, and we become more open to receive his mercy and grace.

But the effects of our prayer don’t stop with us.   It can even change the course of history!   Through our intercession, Jesus is inviting us to cooperate with him in accomplishing his will in the world.   So by interceding, we are opening up our hearts and our circumstances to our loving Father and yielding to his plans.   And that doesn’t take a megaphone.

“Father, I bring you my needs today.   I trust in your goodness.   Your will be done!”

Sirach 48:1-14
Psalm 97:1-7