The All-Surpassing Love of Christ

“Prefer the love of Christ above all that is in the world.” — St. Anthony of the Desert, after 20 years in silence and combat

When St. Anthony emerged from twenty years of solitude in the desert—years marked by intense spiritual warfare, silence, and hidden union with God—he did not come out boasting of his visions or of the demons he had conquered. He came out speaking one thing only: the surpassing love of Jesus Christ.

His words were simple, but they came from the depths of fire:

“Prefer the love of Christ above all that is in the world.”

Not simply obey Christ. Not merely worship or follow. But prefer Him. Love Him more. Choose Him above every created thing.

These words are not small. They are the fruit of twenty years of purifying silence. Twenty years of letting the illusions of the world fall away. Twenty years of learning, not through study, but through communion, that Christ’s love is everything.

Nothing Sweeter

The Carthusian monks, writing in their hidden cells across the centuries, echo this same truth with trembling clarity:

“It is quite certain that nothing in Heaven and on earth is better, more perfect, more desirable, sweeter and more amiable than the very faithful love of Jesus Christ.”

This is not poetry. This is revelation.

Christ’s love is not one among many great things—it is the greatest, the most desirable, the most perfect. It surpasses even the purest natural love. The Carthusian devotions continue with daring tenderness:

“If all the love of all mothers for an only son were gathered together, it would not bear any comparison to the love of our God for us.”

This is how Christ loves. Not figuratively. Literally. With a love more faithful, more burning, more intimate than the deepest human love we can imagine. A love that gives, and gives, and gives again—without calculation, without hesitation, without regret.

The Love That Loved First

And if we wonder how we are to love in return, St. John tells us plainly:

“We love because He first loved us.”

—1 John 4:19

We do not initiate love. We respond to it.

Even the faintest movement of our heart toward God is already grace. Already His love within us, awakening us, drawing us, making space for itself.

God is not waiting to love us until we improve. He is not watching from afar. His love came first—before our thoughts, before our repentance, before our longing. His love is the origin of all things. And it is still the origin of every holy desire in our soul.

An Immense and Incomprehensible Love

This is why the Carthusian devotion speaks of divine love in language that almost breaks under its own weight:

“This love is so great, so immense, that it is incomprehensible, and in fact infinite. To bring the fire of divine love into your soul more and more…”

This is not a feeling. This is reality. Christ’s love for us is infinite because He is infinite. To speak of His love is to speak of God Himself.

His love is not merely strong. It is limitless. Not merely tender. It is divine. And it is given—freely, completely, constantly—to you.

The Summit of All Things

There are many goods in this world. Beauty, friendship, truth, creation, peace, strength, joy. But all of them are only echoes of something higher. All of them come from one Source. All of them find their fulfillment in the love of Jesus Christ.

To love Him above all is not to lose anything—it is to gain everything. To prefer Christ is to finally choose what is most real. What is most trustworthy. What is most beautiful. What will never pass away.

This is what St. Anthony learned after twenty years in the desert. This is what the Carthusians sang in silence. This is what the Apostle John knew as he lay his head upon the breast of Christ:

The love of Jesus is the fire at the center of all things.

It is the treasure in the field.

The pearl of great price.

The hidden manna.

The divine exchange.

Prefer His love above all. Let it burn in you. Let it consume the lesser loves. Let it draw you into Himself.

There is nothing sweeter in heaven or on earth.

And there never will be.