The Supreme Gift - A Review

Title: The Supreme Gift: Love Is The Greatest Thing in the World

By: Paulo Coelho - 1991

English Translation: Margaret Jull Costa

HarperCollins Publishers

Page Count: 80

This is a freely adapted sermon from the text of Henry Drummond. While it is based on a religious sermon and text, the message of the book can be read by anyone from any religious background. The intended audience seems to be for those within the religious group as the topic and theme are based on the bible.

The sermon is trying to answer a question that every generation has asked, “What is the meaning of life?” and this sermon is answering, “Love.”

I found that a strength in this book is that it is a quick read that gets the point across. There is no assumptions in knowledge that would stop a non-Christian from understanding. Since this is not a traditional book in terms of length or purpose, I feel unable to provide a weakness to the book.

Favourite quote (pg. 12):

And, as we all know, there is also a kind of Chrity in which Love plays no part. It’s so easy to toss a coin to a poor man in the street; in fact it’s usually easier to do that than not.

It frees us from the guilty feelings aroused by the cruel spectacle of poverty.

What a relief, and purchased with just one coin! It’s cheap for us and solves the beggar’s problem.

However, if we really loved that poor man, we would do far more for him.

Or perhaps less. We would not toss him a coin and, who knows, our guilty feelings might arouse real Love in us.

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I read The Supreme Gift shortly after I started doing some major reflection about community and how I wanted to approach life. I had begun working on my community series when I stumbled upon this book. I was drawn to the book because at the time, I was in the process of moving in with Damien. Moving in with a partner can be a big change and lead to many disagreements and tension. We had been having quite a few conversations about our relationship and what love means to us, and a few days before I stumbled across this book, I had even referenced the Bible quote that this sermon was based on. It felt like the universe was listening to me because I went book shopping with Adil, and there was a book about what love means and how it related to that very same Bible passage.

I read the book as soon as I bought it, sitting at a table in the bookstore and taking notes about what I found interesting and what I wanted to reflect on more. I found out that while the book was freely adapted from a religious sermon, there was a clear message being said. The question being asked throughout generations of people and generations of life, what is our purpose? What is the most important thing in our lives and what should we prioritize? And the answer, obviously, is love.

I found it very interesting because everything being listed within the book as Love, I could replace with “Kindness, Empathy, and Grace” and have the same meaning in how I act. I think Henry Drummond was onto something with the succinct, “Love”. What really stood out to me within this sermon was not that love is the way to have purpose and meaning, I already knew that, but that it is so clearly stated that love is not easy. It is a sacrifice, and it is work.

Perhaps this book didn’t completely change me, but the message was clear and it validated my approach to life.