The prophet Jeremiah prophesizes the coming birth of a new king. We celebrate this birth in the promise of Christmas. Jesus’ birth means God comes to be with us in the flesh. But Fr. Rolheiser writes that God doesn’t send a superhero to rid the earth of evil by forcefully destroying all that’s bad. God sends a helpless baby lying in the straw, needing to be picked up, nursed, and nurtured. That’s God’s wisdom, the power of a baby. Babies don’t shoot bad guys, like Sylvester Stallone or James Bond, at the end of the movie; they change hearts by offering a gentler presence. So, Christmas doesn’t rid the world of evil. For the Christian, just as for everyone else, there will still be sickness, senseless hurt, broken dreams, and cold, lonely seasons when love is far away. Christmas doesn’t promise heaven on earth. Instead, it promises us, here on earth, something else: God’s presence in our lives. And it’s that presence, not the power of a superhero to blow away all that’s bad, that redeems us. When we sense that God is with us, we can give up selfishness, bitterness, and jealousy because we are no longer alone in them. Everything can be born if it can be shared. We no longer walk alone in our pain. When we are not alone, then pain and happiness are not mutually exclusive, and the agonies and hurts of life do not exclude deep meaning and deep joy. Avery Dulles once said, “The incarnation does not provide us with a ladder by which to escape the ambiguities of life and scale the heights of heaven. Rather, it enables us to burrow deep into the heart of planet earth and find it shimmering with divinity.”