Once upon a time, there was a mediocre lion king. He was mediocre in everything; he was not very wise, but he was not ignorant either; he was not very strong, but he was not very weak either; he was not a great ruler, but he was not very bad either; he was not very loved, but he was not hated either; he was not very hardworking, but he was not very lazy either. In short, he did what he had to do, but no more and not in the best way, always the bare minimum in everything to avoid losing power, but never what was necessary to be a great king.
But, for this lion king, that was not the problem. The main problem he saw was his image. When he went to his lake to bathe and saw his reflection, he did not like what he saw, and that made him sad. He thought that to change that image, he needed to exercise, and that required a lot of effort, which he was not willing to do.
One day, a parrot saw that his face became sad when he saw his reflection in the lake and asked him why he was sad. The lion replied, “Because I don’t like my image reflected in the lake.” Then the parrot said to him, “The problem isn’t your image, but the jungle around you. You have to make the animals transform this jungle into the best jungle, and then you will be the best king because you will rule the best jungle, and thus your image will change.”
So, the lion king gathered all the animals of the jungle and announced the news: we must transform the jungle into the best jungle. He put all the animals to work, and little by little, the jungle improved until it became the best jungle. The king, who was very happy to see the jungle progressing and thinking that he was the best king, had forgotten to bathe. But once he was satisfied with the transformation, he realized it had been a long time since he had gone to his lake to bathe, so he decided to go. When he arrived at the lake, he realized that everything around him was more beautiful, but he himself had not changed at all; his image was still the same.
The teaching of this fable is that appearances do not change our inner self. The lion king expected his image (which represents our inner self) to magically change because the jungle (which represents our external image) had changed, but that did not happen, because external achievements do not change who each person truly is.
The king focused on changing superficial things that altered his external image: “the best king because he ruled the best jungle;” and he did not concern himself with changing the important things that make him a better lion. What matters is not appearances, but who we truly are. A person’s true value comes not from what others think of him, but from what he really is.
Hence, it is important that we focus on changing our hearts, transforming it for Christ, and not so much on external appearances, or on having everyone think we are a great person or a saint. No matter how much everyone thinks I am a great person, if in my heart there are things contrary to charity, then my heart does not belong to Christ, and therefore, it is not true.
