"I have been told of your faith and your affection toward all the believers, so I always give thanks to GOD, remembering you in my prayers.
May the GOD of CHRIST JESUS our LORD, the FATHER of glory, reveal HIMSELF to you, and give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know HIM.
May HE enlighten your inner vision, that you may appreciate the things we hope for, since we were called by GOD.
May you know how great is the inheritance, the glory, GOD sets apart for HIS saints;..." - Ephesians 1:15-18
(I have been told of your faith and your affection. Paul delights in the faith of the Ephesians but, above all, he prays they may have hope that must be the source of their dynamism. He describes the stages of hope this way: to know the FATHER; to appreciate the inheritance set apart for HIS saints; to understand the power of GOD to bring us to the realization of these hopes.
It is this hope that cracked open the immobility of ancient societies. Paul lived in a world where hope was considered an illness. Any project to transform humanity was taken as an illusion, and so the hopes of a nascent science were quickly smothered. Believers, on the contrary, lived the experience of a resurrection. In Christian countries appeared the certainty of a common destiny of humanity [the word "humanity" was non-existent at the time]. People were beginning to be seen as persons in a truer way and it was this that set history in motion, never to return. How astonishing to see in our world so many Christians who believe, but who have very little hope: are they not the ones who carry the hope of the world?)
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