In today’s first reading, Isaiah prophesies that the Lord longs to comfort His people as a mother longs to comfort her infant: “Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts!” (Is 66:11; see also Is 40:1) Will we relax and trust God’s providential care for us? Or will we resist and stiffen, refusing God’s comfort?

Jesus plans to send us out as His workers and missionaries. For us to be effective in the mission field, we must trust completely in our Father’s care. Jesus calls us to be “lambs in the midst of wolves” (Lk 10:3). Consider that God the Father sent His Son Jesus to earth as an infant Lamb in the midst of wolves. Jesus totally trusted Mary and Joseph to care for Him, even though wolves such as King Herod sought to put Him to death (Mt 2:16-18).

Jesus wants us to be missionaries who trust the Father as infants trust their parents. He sends us out without “walking staff or traveling bag” so we cannot trust in our own provisions, but only in what the Father provides (Lk 10:4). He tells us not to move from house to house and to eat whatever is set before us (Lk 10:7). This is so we won’t seek comfort in lodging and food; instead we imitate children who eat what their parents put on the table. Thus we can focus not on our own needs, but on comforting God’s people as He has comforted us (see 2 Cor 1:3-7). Relax and trust God as an infant trusts its mother.

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