Giving ourselves fully to others

Christ gives us his risen life, he rises in us. But we cannot forget the cross. He rises in us, if we become sharers in his Cross and his Death. We should love the Cross, self-sacrifice and mortification. 

We always think of Christian optimism as  something sugary, or like a human optimism that things will "work out well". 

No, my friends, Christian optimism has its deep roots in the awareness of freedom and faith in grace. It is an optimism which makes us be demanding with ourselves. It gets us to make a real effort to respond to God's call.

Not so much despite our wretchedness but in some way through it, through our life as men of flesh and blood and dust, Christ is shown forth: in our effort to be better, to have a love which wants to be pure, to overcome our selfishness, to give ourselves fully to others - to turn our existence into a continuous service.