The new adaptation of Lilo & Stitch (2025) is not intended to be—at least for us—an object of technical or cinematographic analysis. What we seek here is a spiritual reading, a look inspired by Saint Augustine capable of discovering, even in a seemingly light film, the deepest dynamics of the human heart: the wound, the desire for good, the transforming power of love.
Stitch: from a creation destined for chaos to a heart that learns to love
Stitch is born as an experiment created for evil: indestructible, programmed for destruction, designed without vulnerabilities or possibility of compassion. His creator desires the unthinkable: a being that cannot love.
But something happens that Saint Augustine would formulate in other words: love always finds a crack to enter through.
Stitch’s transformation does not happen through technical reconfiguration, or through threats, or through force. It happens through something stronger than all that: an experience of real, concrete, and everyday love.
Stitch was not “made” to love, but he discovers that he can do it because someone loved him first. In this sense, the character becomes a small parable of grace: what seemed impossible becomes possible when the heart is touched by good.
We are not like Stitch—we have not been created for evil, but for love—but we do share with him the experience of the wound. Sometimes we carry within us a weight that hardens us, wounds that make us distrustful, areas of shadow where we believe that good cannot enter. And yet, that is where grace usually works with greater tenderness: where there was rupture, care appears; where there was fear, closeness is born; where there was loneliness, a path opens towards the other.
Lilo: the wound that seeks to be loved
Lilo is one of Disney’s most profound characters. She has the wound of loss, of abandonment, of the feeling of not being loved enough. Her greatest desire is simple and at the same time immense: “I want an angel to take care of me.” She asks for it with the sincerity of someone who still retains hope, even though her heart is bruised.
And what arrives is not an angel, but the strange experiment 626. The encounter seems absurd… but it turns out to be providential. Lilo welcomes Stitch when no one else would. She teaches him good, shows him tenderness, and also shares her wound with him. Augustine would say that something profoundly human happens here: the shared wound can become a place where true love is born.
Neither of them is “complete”, neither is perfect. And yet, in that imperfect space they find something akin to salvation: a home where they can learn to love and be loved.
“You’re not bad… you just sometimes do bad things”
One of the most powerful phrases in the film appears when Lilo, with the lucidity that only the simple possess, says to Stitch:
“You’re not bad… you just sometimes do bad things.”
Saint Paul expresses a similar intuition in Romans 7:19: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing.”
Saint Augustine will comment on this passage as someone who recognizes a fundamental truth of the human being: the person is not bad by nature; he is a being created for good who, in his wound, can be wrong.
This distinction is crucial. We are not the evil we do: we are the goodness to which we are called. And when someone looks at us from that truth—as Lilo looks at Stitch—a new path begins.
The family: imperfect school of love
Another precious lesson from the film appears when Lilo affirms:
“Families aren’t perfect… they make mistakes.”
For Saint Augustine, there is no community without tensions or frailties. But that is precisely where its beauty lies:
the family—biological, adoptive, community—is the place where we learn the essential, not because it is perfect, but because in it we discover that real love knows how to live with errors, limits, and wounds.
Lilo’s ohana is not ideal; it is real. And in its imperfection, it is fruitful. There Stitch finds what he had never been “programmed” for: a home.
An imperfect film, but with light
Probably this live-action adaptation does not surpass the simple and profound emotionality of the original animated version. Perhaps the previous one was cleaner, less overloaded, more direct. But even so, we can let cinema become a small sacrament of life, a mirror where we can discover paths towards the Good.
Saint Augustine would agree: in everything true, good, and beautiful—even if imperfect—resonates the voice of God that calls to our heart. And perhaps that is the greatest gift of Lilo & Stitch: to remind us that no one is destined for evil, that every wound can become an opportunity, and that love, when it becomes concrete, transforms even what seemed unrecoverable.
Film Forum
- Dynamic: Ohana that transforms
- Questions for reflection
Objective:
To help participants identify in themselves—and in the film—the Augustinian dynamic of the wounded heart that seeks the Good and is transformed by the love received.
Duration:
35–50 minutes
Materials:
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Sheets with phrases from the film and phrases from Saint Augustine (I'll leave them below).
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Markers or pens.
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1 candle or LED light per group (optional, for closing).
Group size:
4–6 people
1. Start: “A wound, a light” (5 min)
Each person shares in 10–15 seconds:
If you were a character in the film, who would you be today: Stitch, Lilo, Nani, or Jumba? And why?
(It is not necessary to go into depth; an initial intuition is enough.)
2. First dynamic: “Stitch inside” (10–12 min)
Each group receives these three phrases on cards:
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“You're not bad… you just sometimes do bad things.” – Lilo
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“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” – Saint Augustine
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“A family is small, and sometimes it breaks. But it's still your family.” – Lilo
Group task:
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Choose one phrase.
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What does Stitch discover about himself in the light of this phrase?
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What do we discover about our search for the Good?
Answer these two questions together:
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Hidden objective:
That the group connects film ↔ human experience ↔ Augustinian intuition.
3. Second dynamic: “Ohana that cares” (10–12 min)
Each group is given a sheet with this instruction:
“Think of a real experience where someone—family, friend, community—acted like Lilo: cared, accompanied, believed in you, even when you were hurt.”
The group must:
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Share briefly (only those who want to).
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Build together a phrase that answers the question:
What makes a community heal and not destroy?
The phrase should be short (max. 10 words). Examples from other groups:
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“A community heals when it listens without judging.”
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“We heal when we are important to someone.”
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“Love educates when it is patient.”
Hidden objective:
Name what makes grace real in everyday life.
4. Sharing: “The family I choose and that chooses me” (5–8 min)
Each group reads their phrase and explains in 20–30 seconds the meaning they gave it.
You can write the phrases on a panel to visualize a “map of healing community.”
5. Closing: “A candle for the wound” (5 min)
(Adaptable according to the pastoral context.)
The coordinator asks for silence for a few seconds and proposes this reflection:
“Like Stitch, we all carry within us wounds that disturb us, and like Lilo, we need to feel cared for. We are not perfect, but we seek the Good. May our community be ohana: a place where love transforms what seemed impossible.”
If you use LED candles, each group can light one and say their final phrase aloud.
If not, a brief prayer or reflection is enough.
Printable phrases for the dynamic
(You can copy them on cards or slides)
Phrases from the film
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“You're not bad… you just sometimes do bad things.”
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“A family is small, and sometimes it breaks.”
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“An angel to take care of me… that's what I want.”
Phrases from Saint Augustine
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“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
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“Love, and do what you will.”
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“What am I to myself without you, Lord?”
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“The wound that is shown, heals.”
Questions for Augustinian film forum on Lilo & Stitch (2025)
1. About the search for the Good
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At what moments in the film do you perceive that Stitch begins to seek something different from chaos and destruction?
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Saint Augustine says that “everyone seeks the good, even when they are wrong”. How is this seen in Stitch?
2. About the wound and the transformation
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Stitch has been created “for evil,” but he is transformed by love. What experiences of ours could be compared to that transformation?
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What wounds do you recognize in Lilo? What wounds do you recognize in Stitch? How do they illuminate each other?
3. About love and grace
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What people in your life have done with you what Lilo does with Stitch: love you even when you were difficult to love?
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What does the phrase “You're not bad, you just sometimes do bad things” tell you from a Christian perspective?
4. About the family
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Lilo says: “Families aren't perfect… they make mistakes.”
— Do we have overly idealized expectations about the family?
— What does it mean to learn to love within an imperfect family?
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How do you understand ohana from the perspective of the Christian community?
5. About education in love
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Stitch, theoretically incapable of loving, learns to love because he is loved.
— What does this suggest to you about affective, spiritual, and moral education in real life?
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In your experience, do you learn to love more by instructions or by example?
6. About identity and evil
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What is the difference between being “bad” and doing bad things?
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Have you lived moments in which someone helped you see your true identity beyond your mistakes?
7. About God in the story
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Do you think that Stich's arrival in Lilo's life is a coincidence or a metaphor for how God acts through the unexpected?
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Lilo asks for an “angel to take care of her.” How do you see the presence of God in the answers that do not arrive as we imagine them?
8. About conversion
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What elements of Stitch's process could be seen as a “conversion”?
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What learning does his passage from destructive creature to caring creature leave you with?
9. To delve deeper (advanced level)
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What relationship do you find between Stitch's transformation and the Augustinian doctrine of grace that heals the wound of sin?
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If you had to explain to a friend what it means to “seek the good” using this film, how would you do it?
