The Cross Shatters Optimism, the Resurrection Shatters Pessimism

What we must learn from the battered, murdered God and His unfathomable conquest of death

Detail from engraving by Phillips Galle after a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (source)

A pessimist is one who always look on the dark side of things and never sees any light, even a faint gleam. He is like the Apostle who said: “To what purpose is this waste? For this [ointment] might have been sold for much and given to the poor” (Mt 26:8). He did not see the beauty of the love behind the costly “waste” of ointment, nor the worthiness of the one on whom it was lavished, for whom no expense of love, effort, or beauty could ever be too much.