Summum bonum
Have you ever heard of summum bonum? In essence from what I have researched, it is Latin for “the highest good”. It’s a phrase used to describe the ultimate or highest goal or virtue that serves as the primary purpose of human existence. It is the “north star”, which is what most of us are searching for!
I learned about this phrase by reading Paulo Coelho’s newest book, The Supreme Gift – Love is the Greatest Thing in the World. It is a short read, under 100 pages but has some powerful wisdom in it. According to him, the highest good is simple, yet very profound: love.
He starts by sharing the story of a man born in the mid-1800s named Henry Drummond, who once gave a beautiful homily about a letter written by St. Paul to the Corinthians. You don’t have to be Christian to get its powerful messages. It reaches beyond any religion and speaks to something universal in all of us. Most of us have heard pieces of that letter at one point or another in our lives. It contains some of the most well-known words ever written about love:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things… So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
My biggest takeaway from Paulo Cuehlo’s book is this: love contains everything. Loves ingredients are many: patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness, and sincerity. But when we truly hold love in our hearts, those other qualities naturally come along with it. They live inside love.
At least that’s how it feels to me. Does that make sense?
Another realization is that loving well is not something that just magically happens. It’s something we have to practice. In the same way we build muscle, learn a language, or slowly become better at playing an instrument, we also learn, day by day, how to love.Which I think is our greatest purpose here: to learn how to love.
Paulo Coelho also suggests that we might try to see the entire world as a kind of education in love. Instead of arguing with our circumstances or feeling resentful about the challenges in our lives, he invites us to see them differently.
He even says we shouldn’t spend our time complaining about the challenging people we sometimes have to live or work with. According to him, those very things may simply be life’s way of giving us practice…”love practice”.
He also reminds us that no matter how long we are on this planet and how hard we work or pray, temptation and struggle don’t disappear. They remain, but it is not failure,it is just our souls being put to work.
When I think about it that way, it’s both humbling and even a little comforting. Because if life really is a great classroom for learning love, then every single moment whether it’s easy or hard, is giving us another chance to practice.
“Be assured, you are growing more beautiful with each minute that passes – and although it may not seem like it, difficulties and temptations are God’s tools for helping you grow in love.” – Paulo Coehlo
Love and gratitude,