The Importance of Forgiveness

Drawing lessons about Easter from Encanto

by Alexandra Palmer

Suitable for Key Stage 3

Aims

To use the film Encanto to consider the importance of forgiveness.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (The Importance of Forgiveness) and the means to display them.
• Have available the following clips from the film Encanto and the means to show them during the assembly:
  
  - ‘Encanto teaser trailer’, available at: https://youtu.be/togmdDHG3Pw (1.30 minutes long)
  - ‘Mirabel’s fight with Abuela’, available at: https://youtu.be/MVlahzuWsDw (the clip is 3.02 minutes long, but you can stop it at 1.58 minutes)
  - ‘Abuela finds Mirabel’, available at: https://youtu.be/Gdew0-5YvQ0 (1.25 minutes long)
  - ‘Abuela figures out that Mirabel is the magical gift’, available at: https://youtu.be/vAVLRO_Q_NM (1.55 minutes long)

Assembly

1. Show Slide 1.
   
   Ask the students, ‘Who has watched the film Encanto?’
   
   Either summarize the story or ask the students who have watched the film to explain it.
   
   Encanto is an animated film about a magical family called the Madrigals. They live in a magical house called the Casita, which is hidden in the mountains of Colombia. When each family member turns five, they are given a magical power that they use to help the villagers. However, one of them, Mirabel, did not receive a magical power when it was her turn.
   
   
2. Explain that you are going to show a trailer for the film.
   
   Show the video ‘Encanto teaser trailer’ (1.30 minutes long).
   
   
   
   
3. Show Slides 2 to 5.
   
   Go through the slides, which focus on four of the characters and their gifts. On each slide, click to reveal that character’s gift.
   
   - Mirabel’s elder sister, Luisa, has the gift of superhuman strength.
   - Mirabel’s cousin, Camilo, can shapeshift, changing his appearance.
   - Isabela, Mirabel’s eldest sister, has the gift of making flowers grow from nothing.
   - Antonio, Mirabel’s youngest cousin, can talk to and understand animals.
   
   
4. Show Slide 6.
   
   Explain that generally, Mirabel and Abuela don’t get on very well. One day, they have an argument that causes the Casita to crack and break around them.
   
   Show the video ‘Mirabel’s fight with Abuela’ (the clip is 3.02 minutes long, but you can stop it at 1.58 minutes).
   
   
   
   
5. Abuela is angry because she blames Mirabel for the cracks that are forming in the Casita, for Bruno’s disappearance and for Luisa’s loss of strength.
   
   
6. Explain that Mirabel comes to realize several things.
   
   - She will never be good enough for Abuela because she doesn’t have a gift.
   - Luisa, Isabela and the others will never satisfy Abuela, or themselves either.
   - Abuela saw the worst, not the best, in Bruno.
   
   
7. In the film, the miracle seems to be ending. Abuela blames Mirabel for this, because she doesn’t have a gift. Meanwhile, Mirabel blames Abuela because she feels that Abuela doesn’t care about her.
   
   Ask the students, ‘Who is in the wrong? Mirabel, Abuela or both of them?’
   
   Pause to allow time for thought or discussion.
   
   Explain that both women are very angry, and neither of them have said kind words to one another.
   
   
8. Show Slide 7.
   
   Ask the students, ‘What should Mirabel and Abuela do?’
   
   Pause to allow time for thought or discussion.
   
   Suggest that both characters need to say sorry to one another, sit down and listen to one another without interrupting, and forgive one another for the mean things that they have said.
   
   Show Slide 8.
   
   Explain that, in fact, both characters do go on to forgive one another.
   
   Show the video ‘Abuela finds Mirabel’ (1.25 minutes long).
   
   
   
   
9. Tell the students that, after this clip, Mirabel comes to understand why Abuela is angry: her husband was killed when her children were very young, and she missed out on the life that she thought she would have.
   
   
10. Show the video ‘Abuela figures out that Mirabel is the magical gift’ (1.55 minutes long).
    
    
    
    Explain that Mirabel realizes that Abuela has suffered a lot of loss and sadness, which is why they were given the miracle. Mirabel also realizes that they can fix the problem together.
    
    Abuela, in turn, realizes that Mirabel has a gift after all: the gift of helping out and solving problems.

Time for reflection

Explain that a lesson from Abuela and Mirabel’s relationship is to listen to one another, say sorry, forgive and move forward. That means that we shouldn’t hold anything against the person who has hurt us.

In the Bible, we see that Jesus, more than any other person, taught us how to forgive others.

Show Slide 9.

Explain that just before Jesus died on the cross, he forgave the people who had placed him there, including the Roman soldiers and the Jewish priests. His forgiveness would also have included Judas, who had betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver.

Jesus showed us that forgiveness is not a feeling, but a decision that we make.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for films, and how they entertain and teach us lessons.
Thank you that we can learn from our mistakes and arguments.
Thank you for the times when we’ve said sorry and we’ve been forgiven.
When we fall out with others, please help us to forgive, move forward and build stronger friendships.
Amen.

Song/music

‘All of you’ from the film Encanto, available at: https://youtu.be/hrMxx8EV4JU (4.32 minutes long)