In "Beauty and the Beast," it is only when the Beast discovers that Beauty really loves him in all his ugliness that he himself becomes beautiful.
In the experience of Saint Paul,
it is only when we discover that God really loves us in all our
unloveliness that we ourselves start to become godlike.
Paul's word for this gradual transformation of a sow's ear into a silk
purse is sanctification, and he sees it as the second stage in the process of salvation.
Being sanctified is a long and
painful stage because with part of themselves sinners prefer their sin,
just as with part of himself the Beast prefers his glistening snout and
curved tusks. Many drop out with the job hardly more than begun, and
among those who stay with it there are few if any who don't drag their
feet most of the way.
But little by little — less by
taking pains than by taking it easy — the forgiven person starts to
become a forgiving person, the healed person to become a healing person,
the loved person to become a loving person. God does most of it. The
end of the process, Paul says, is eternal life.
- Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words
