The Greatest Gift
“A person is loved because a person is loved. Love needs no reasons” – Paulo Coelho
Although the translated edition only recently appeared here, Paulo Coelho’s “The Supreme Gift” is his (quite) older work, published in 1991 (“The Alchemist,” for example, came out three years earlier).
This work is, in a way, Coelho’s interpretation of events involving Henry Drummond, a 19th-century missionary and evangelist, and his most famous work (in free translation) “The Greatest Thing in the World.”
The story takes us to 19th-century England, when a group of men and women from different parts of England gathered one evening to listen to the most famous preacher of that time. However, this preacher, who dealt with converting people in various countries, now felt empty and had no inspiration to deliver some great and sublime speech.
He gave his place to a young and unknown missionary, Henry Drummond (which didn’t exactly please people who came from afar to hear the famous missionary).
Drummond borrowed a Bible and read a passage from the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.
Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.
Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
And then he closed the Bible and began speaking to the gathered people, who now started listening to him carefully.
Because the theme of this young missionary’s sermon was… Love!
And so through the young missionary’s sermon in the work “The Supreme Gift” we’ll discover what Love is, but not only in the religious sense of love toward God / through God, but also in general.
The central theme is how the young preacher explains to listeners each of the nine ingredients of Love.
Love contains nine ingredients:
Patience: “Love suffers long”;
Kindness: “is kind”;
Generosity: “love does not envy”;
Humility: “love does not parade itself, is not puffed up”;
Courtesy: “does not behave rudely”;
Unselfishness: “does not seek its own”;
Good temper: “is not provoked”;
Guilelessness: “thinks no evil”;
Sincerity: “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth”.
Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Humility. Courtesy. Unselfishness. Good temper. Guilelessness. Sincerity. That is what makes up the Greatest Gift, what is found in the soul of a person who wants to be present in the world and close to God.
These two large quotes would in a way summarize my review of the book as well.
Simply, “The Supreme Gift” reminds me of Coelho’s (newer) book “The Archer” (except here there are no beautiful drawings, which is a bit of a shame). The booklet doesn’t have many pages (under 90 pages), chapters average one to two pages and it really reads very quickly (though the recommendation is to read slowly, because the preacher’s thoughts are really beautiful and somehow, I’d say, have a “meditative” effect on the reader).
“The Supreme Gift” can also be a nice little gift (if you get “Laguna’s” hardcover edition… though I think now all of Coelho’s works come with hard covers at “Laguna”).
Like “The Archer,” this is a decent little book that would be a shame not to read because, in the end, it speaks about something most beautiful and sublime.
About Love. 😊
“Matthew gives us a classic description of the Last Judgment. The Son of Man sits on the throne and separates, like a shepherd, the sheep from the goats.
At that moment the main question for a person will not be: ‘How did I live?’
It will be, on the contrary: ‘How did I love?'”
And you, dear reader, do you also see Love as the greatest gift? 😊
Author’s website
Book price: Laguna | Vulkan | Delfi
