The Gospel According to Beauty and the Beast

by Mary Scifres

  Those who give up too quickly endure life’s trials and tribulations without discovering the blessings that are available on the other side. We miss opportunities for transformation if we close our minds to new possibilities or insist on sticking with the familiar paths of our past. Had Beast not ventured out of the castle and into the forest to save Belle’s life, he would have likely remained a beast for all time, nursing his anger and his regrets alone in the West Wing of his enchanted castle. He might never have discovered the power of sacrificing for the sake of another. He might never have learned the beauty of learning to love.

  Had Belle returned home, she and her father would have likely continued in the very provincial life that felt like imprisonment to the open-minded, imaginative Belle. Beast would have either died in the forest or fallen into even deeper despair, trapped in his beastly form indefinitely. Must we always wait for the wolves of this world to chase us into vulnerability and new ways of seeing? In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that he has come to offer not only life, but abundant life.[11] We are created for expansive love and abundant life, not for loneliness and despair. We are created for relationship and for creativity, not for isolation and limitation. Often in life, we wait for the disastrous moments before opening ourselves to the transformation that expansive love provides. Journeying through the forests of trials and tribulations can help us embrace new beginnings and life-giving change. But journeying courageously on the path of self-giving love can help effect the same transformation. In Beauty and the Beast, both journeys were necessary for these two stubborn souls to peak over their self-protective walls, open themselves to new perspectives and perceptions, and build a bridge of friendship, compassion, and understanding. Both journeys were necessary for these two stubborn souls to find life-changing love and transformations.

  Transformation’s Ebb and Flow

  In the gospels, we see this same transformative power of love bring healing and hope to individuals and communities that were touched by Jesus. But we also see that the transformative power of love ebbs and flows. With two wolves struggling within us, we are both beauty and beast, and our journeys of transformation are seldom in a straight line. For every two steps forward Jesus’ disciples take, another step backward seems to follow. Living into his role as the rock upon which Jesus will build his church, Peter displays faithful courage by stepping out of a boat onto the water when Jesus calls to him. Then realizing people don’t walk on water, Peter begins sinking into a stormy sea and has to beg Jesus for assistance.[12] The disciples go to cities and towns to heal and teach, preach and proclaim God’s love, returning with joyous stories of powerful transformation flowing through their acts of faithful love. Then they try to chase little children away from their busy master and want to send a hungry crowd out to the wilderness after a long day of fellowship and learning. Two steps toward transformation are quickly followed by a step or two back.

  There is a part of us that wants to keep moving forward, but there is an equally strong impulse to return to the predictable—even when the predictable traps us in a beastly form and sorrowful situation. Yes, even though love can and does change the world for the better, the transformative power of love ebbs and flows. We must remain open to change and growth if love’s power is to flow freely within us and through us. When Belle and Beast return from their dangerous journey in the forest, we see this ebb and flow in their budding relationship. Both begin to change, opening to one another and creating new possibilities as they do so.

  Hope Overcomes Fear

  As we saw above, hope is a crucial gift for Beast and the castle servants who suffer at the hands of a terrible spell. Hope is also a crucial gift to the fledgling Christian community, which suffers at the hands of religious and political authorities, even family, friends, and neighbors. But hope is a gift that can be terrifying to embrace. While it may be better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, can the same be said of hope? When hope is dashed, it can be devastating. Jesus’ disciples see their friend and master crucified at the hands of those who then seek to destroy the followers of Jesus. If Jesus’ disciples allow themselves to hope for a better day, are they only opening themselves to additional suffering? This is the same fear that holds Beast back as he and Belle form an uneasy friendship. With the petals of the enchanted rose beginning to fall, Beast has grown resigned to his doom—he will remain a beast for all time. In many ways, this resignation has put Beast on the other side of suffering. He can go no lower and simply has nothing more to fear. Is he willing to be drawn back, like Lazarus from the tomb, knowing that he will have to go through this suffering once more if Belle is not the one who will break the spell?

  Like the beast of our story, the disciples spend weeks locked away from the world after Jesus’ death, terrified and afraid to move forward. It takes a miracle 50 days later to break the power of their fear and fill them with hope once more. On that mystical day of Pentecost, Jesus’ followers are filled with the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and find their confidence to embark on new journeys toward life-giving transformation.[13] But until that moment, they seem unclear about their path and unable to move.

  Fear not only clouds our perceptions, it poisons the well of hope residing within. Like the disciples after Pentecost, as Beast tastes the sweetness of Belle’s irrepressible optimism and hopeful spirit, the fear poisoning his hope slowly fades and joyful anticipation begins to emerge. We watch the gradual transformation with our own hope. Beast steps forward in hope, then retreats into his self-protective fear and then takes another step of faith by offering kindness, hospitality, and friendship to this enchanting young woman. Although Belle’s journey toward kindness, hospitality, and friendship with Beast is smoother, she still puzzles over his past behavior and is somewhat alarmed over her emerging feelings. Even so, she happily engages with this new friend and his castle full of funny-looking servants. Already, Belle sees new possibilities emerging. She shows Beast how to feed the birds and pet her horse; she figures out a way they can both dine properly given his physical limitations; and she even begins sharing her joy of reading with him.

  As the servants watch this transformation unfold, they are not only filled with hope, they are filled with awe, as they see this petite young woman courageously challenges the powerful beast. Even without a physical transformation, Belle grows before our very eyes. She grows braver and stronger. Her worldview expands as she engages these enchanted creatures and explores the magical castle. Her heart opens ever more widely as she explores friendship and kindness with her captor, inviting him to open his heart and his worldview in return.

  Like Jesus before her, Belle nurtures transformation both within herself and others. With her welcoming openness and her loving acceptance, Belle’s open-minded perspective allows her to perceive people differently, even when they are candlesticks and clocks. Her curious outlook and creative perceptions lead her to inquire about the castle community’s strange dilemma and wonder about possible solutions. Late in the story, when Belle describes Beast to her father and the villagers, she paints a picture of a kind-hearted friend rather than a frightening monster. In nourishing hope and transformation, Belle’s hope grows, beginning her own process of transformation in perspective and perception.

  One Transformation Leads to Another

  More often than not, the one whose life is transformed is only one part of the story. This is true in the gospel stories of Jesus, in the fairytale stories of literature, and in the life stories we know from our own experience. One person’s transformation opens a path for the transformation of others. We are all interconnected in the great web of life, and each strand we touch and heal affects every other strand in ways great and small. Any and all who perceive the transformation of another, or are touched by another’s transformed life, cannot help but be changed.

  In the gospels, particularly in the healing and acceptance stories, the transformation of one person is observed and discussed by others.
Observers are always affected by what they see—sometimes they are filled with awe and wonder, sometimes with fear and confusion, and often with anger and debate. Some witness these transformations and decide to follow Jesus; some engage more fully in Jesus’ teachings with questions, dialogue, and debate; some express their faith in awe and wonder at these transformative moments; still others decide such power is inherently demonic and seek to destroy Jesus’ reputation. So it is with the characters of Beauty and the Beast. In interacting with and observing both Belle and Beast, people are affected by what they see. Mrs. Potts and Lumiere rejoice; Chip admires; Cogsworth worries; Maurice protects; the villagers fear; and Gaston attacks. Whatever our responses might be, transformation continues to reach down to communities through the ages, as people re-tell these stories, read these stories, listen to these stories, and study these stories. Such is the ripple effect of genuine transformation and the power of stories testifying to them—whether the stories are about healing the sick, raising the dead, welcoming the lost, eating with sinners, or simply inviting outcasts to rejoin society.

  Friendship Contains Its Own Magic

  Similarly, the communities around Belle and Beast are influenced by their burgeoning friendship. As the servants watch this surprising relationship grow, they help Beast discover ways of expressing his affection for Belle. They talk amongst themselves, wondering if Beast is capable of truly loving another and pondering whether Belle is the long-desired hope to break the spell. They dream of their own transformed lives, even as they consider Beast’s potential for transformation. They remember their past with melancholy and even regret when they recall a selfish boy-prince who needed guidance. But even in this sorrowful remembrance, they dare to hope again, dreaming of a future where they are transformed back to human form.

  And so, as the friendship between Belle and Beast grows, smiles and laughter throughout the castle become more frequent. Belle’s inquisitive nature helps Beast explore new worlds, even within his own castle. She courageously invites him to laugh and play, dance and dine, and explore the books from his enormous library. Beast opens new worlds to Belle as well. By giving her his library and more books than she could have ever imagined, Beast offers Belle’s curious mind a gift beyond price. And in the 2017 film, Beast escorts her on a magical journey to understand her early life in Paris and the origins of her father’s melancholy. Beast’s growing friendship and affection for Belle not only softens him, it provides him the courage to break down his fortress of self-protection and to invite her into his emotional world.

  Who We Put First Changes Everything

  At the end of a romantic evening of dinner and dancing, when he asks Belle if she is happy with her life in the castle, Beast is open and honest, as all true friends are. As he nervously awaits Belle’s response, the animators and costume designers gift us with a beautiful Beast—a Beast who is not only handsome in his dinner attire, but in his sparkling eyes and gentle countenance. When Belle expresses her yearning to see her father, Beast shares his magical mirror, which he has kept hidden until now. Beast is prepared to offer Belle this precious object, his only window to the outside world, because he now wants what is best for Belle, not merely for himself.

  Belle is the one lacking clear vision in this moment; for while she can see how much her endangered father needs her, she fails to perceive that Beast needs her every bit as much, if not more. Here, Beast is further along the journey toward transformation than Belle. She is drawn back to the familiar—to the role of a loving daughter who is responsible for the nurture and care of her father. In that familiar role, she barely glances at Beast when he encourages her to leave the castle to care for her father. Already, we can see her mind racing back through the forest to her father’s side. The familiar is pulling her away. The old patterns are calling her back to the past. By automatically putting her father first, Belle fails to see that an expansive transformation is available to her—a transformation that would allow her to embrace both her father and her new companion in one expanded community of friendship and love. Returning to the familiar pattern diverts her from moving forward to new possibilities. Focusing exclusively on the familiar clouds her perception to such an extent that she does not even notice the deep sorrow in Beast’s face as she races from the castle.

  This is the moment that allows Beast to grow and expand. Putting Belle first, Beast has no choice but to set her free to follow her dreams and desires. Belle can no longer be his prisoner—for the love of a prisoner is limited by the imprisonment itself. In releasing Belle to return to her father, Beast releases Belle to freely and fully love whomever she chooses, never anticipating that she will use her freedom to return to him one day, much less before the rose loses its last petal.

  Seeing with New Eyes

  Even the servants are puzzled by this strange and potentially catastrophic turn of events. Not only are they grieving their dashed hopes for Beast and themselves, they are puzzled why his love is not enough to break the spell. But this is a spell that requires the transformation of not just one, but two, and ultimately, many. Surely, Beast has earned Belle’s love by now. He has loved sacrificially, given selflessly, and opened his heart to compassion and kindness—all things the young prince had failed to do. But with her new-found freedom, until Belle can learn to expand her perspective and perception in order to see with the eyes of love, she cannot achieve the transformation necessary to help Beast break the spell. She has yet to see Beast as the handsome prince he has become and truly is.

  Fortunately, Gaston helps Belle’s growth here. For Gaston is a man who is outwardly handsome, but inwardly a beast. Confronting him back in the village helps shift Belle’s vision of her strange-looking friend in the castle. It takes the ugliness of Gaston’s verbal attack on Beast for Belle to see the deeper truth about where genuine beauty resides. When Gaston sees Beast in the enchanted mirror and accuses him of being a monster, the fog clears from Belle’s perception and she sees clearly that Beast is gentle and loving. In that moment, Gaston, the handsome village hero, is revealed to be the true monster in this story. Just as Belle sees this truth with clarity and conviction, Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou, comes to the same realization and begins his own journey toward transformation.

  As with any good story, each moment of revelation and resolution leads to greater conflict. In the moment that Belle realizes the true beauty of Beast, she and her father get locked away by Gaston while the villagers attack the castle. After Belle and Maurice escape their imprisonment, Belle races to the castle, arriving just in time to cry out for Beast’s salvation. With hope rising anew and something to live for, Beast rises to fight Gaston and bests the invader only to be fatally attacked from behind. As Beast lies dying, Belle is inconsolable, unaware of the power that lies within her.

  In this moment of vulnerability and deepest sorrow, the last vestiges of Belle’s fortress of self-protection crumble. Lost in her grief and sorrow, Belle confesses that not only does she not want Beast to leave her, but she actually loves him. This is not the story of a frog-prince who has been trying to convince her to kiss him all along. This is the story of an enchantment that Belle had no way of fully understanding. As she declares her love for Beast, she is declaring love for someone completely other than herself. She has finally seen beyond the façade of surface appearance to the soul within. She has finally truly seen the one who has befriended her, cared for her, and fascinated her. She perceives the genuine beauty within. Regardless of outer appearances, they are a perfect match for each other. Regardless of their differences, Belle finally recognizes the affinity of their love and the depths of their relationship—a depth that extends well beyond princely stereotypes and earthly beauty.

  The Magic of True Love Is Not Found in a Kiss

  In this moment of true love, no kiss is needed. The deep yearning of her heart is magic enough. Stars begin to fall signaling that magic is afoot. Resurrection is at hand—a resurrection coupled with a transformation so complete th
at the dead beast arises as a handsome prince. Belle has saved Beast, just as Beast first saved her. Together, as they have been all along, they will now transform one another for a lifetime.

  Belle is as much of a savior as Beast, and Beast is no less of a savior than Belle. There is no single rescue in this story of transformation. Together, they save each other. They save each other through their mutual love, openness, and willingness to grow and transform, even as they perceive the possibility of growth and transformation in each other. Together, their transformative love reaches out beyond themselves to their communities, and we get to watch their love transform those who are touched by their story, even we who are watching the story unfold on the screen before our eyes.