The Christian's hope always starts from the pessimists awareness of the desperate situation of men and women who "are by nature sinful and unclean." To this extent, Christianity shares the pessimistic outlook on life and the hope which the Christian faith presents men and women must always begin there. This is why the Biblical doctrine of sin is so important. It shows us the true condition of ourselves.

Optimists may have a hard time accepting the Christian faith as the bible presents it because they cannot accept the sinful nature of the human being. How prevalent in our society today is the objection to the Christian faith because speaks too much about sin and hell?

But the distinctive quality of the Christian faith that makes it not just a compromise between optimism and pessimism but that supercedes them both is the claim that men and women are not helplessly trapped in sin. We are not bound by the forces of evil in this world. We are not dependant upon the goodness in ourselves which is in reality not there.

We appeal to Another. Another who is all good and no evil. Another who overcame the evil that rules this world. The essence of the Christian world view is that in our pessimistic despair, we do not turn to ourselves in optimistic self confidence but we abandon ourselves and appeal to the sinless one who overcame death and the grave - Jesus Christ.

As Jesus made His appearance known to those men and women in that room on that first Easter night, He says, "Peace be with you." Suddenly, these men and women who were filled with such despair were filled with a greater joy than either their optimism or pessimism had previously allowed them to hope for. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead presented them with a hope that superceded all previous hope.

The Christian hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His resurrection shows us that we do not have to look to the goodness in us as the basis for hope. Nor must we resign ourselves to despair with no end in sight. In His humanity Christ has united Himself with us forever, irreversibly. In our baptism, we have been united to Him. St. Paul says "having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead…" it is now not the new you or the old you but it is "Christ in you - the hope of glory." (Col. 2:12, 1:27).

The answer to sin is not to just live with it but to repent of it and be forgiven for all of it. There is hope to be had but it is only to be had by the Christian. The optimist has a false hope and the pessimist has no hope. May God grant us His Holy Spirit who gives us holy desires and the faith to believe in the possibility of obtaining those desires because we are united to Christ who has risen from the dead.