Christmas each year celebrates the foundational Christian truth of the Incarnation. God becomes man.
The Son of God become one of us - an equal to us in our humanity - a partner with us in our suffering. In the Incarnation, the Son of God doffed his invincible armor of divinity and donned our frail uniform of flesh and blood. He disarmed. He disarmed in order to arm the warriors he recruited with a powerful weapon to do battle against evil. To forge this powerful weapon, Jesus's flesh and blood needed to burn in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10). In the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10), Jesus forged his gentle answer to the brutal evil that we did to him. He forgave us (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Matthew 26:28). Love in the form of forgiveness is the powerful weapon that Jesus forged in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10). Jesus equipped his army with this powerful weapon. Moreover, Jesus led by example. Jesus did not recommend this powerful weapon to his warriors from the safety of the sidelines as a priest lobs a homily at us from the safety of an ambo. He joined us in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the war against evil. Jesus demonstrated that forgiveness works by using it himself on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.
Moreover, Jesus promised his warriors victory. JESUS PROMISED VICTORY TO HIS WARRIORS WHO STORM THE GATES OF HELL (Matthew 16:18). When we storm the gates of hell, the gates of hell will not withstand our attack. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. The gates will be breached. Our love will penetrate the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18), enter our enemies' hearts of stone, depetrify them and transform them into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) (Luke 17:20-21). Success is guaranteed (Matthew 16:18).