By Dennis Gibbs
Special to the Tribune
There is a scene in “The Lion King” when the mystic healer Rafiki takes Simba to meet the spirit of his deceased father, Mufasa, who before his death had been the beloved king of Pride Rock. Simba had been banished by his shame and lost touch with who he truly was.
The spirit of Mufasa says to his son: “You are Simba. Remember who you are.”
Mufasa was telling his son to remember the power that he had been invested with. Scar, who had taken the throne through murderous and deceptive means, was ruling in darkness with intimidation, deceit and violence. Mufasa was saying to his son that, as powerful as Scar was, Simba had the inherent and innate ability and the power to challenge Scar. Mufasa released the power from within Simba to flow with the words “Remember who you are.”
This is a beautiful and powerful parable that speaks to empowerment and dominion. Dominion should never be confused with domination. Domination, like that of Scar, uses power to oppress and diminish the human spirit through fear and intimidation, whereas dominion, like that of Mufasa and Simba, uses power to build people up and empower them to be their most authentic self that aligns with goodness and compassion. At the same time, dominion uses power to break the yoke of oppression that weighs down the most vulnerable and most marginalized among us.
We are living in a time of crisis. In many ways we are being driven by fear and confusion, much of which is not grounded in truth. This is a crisis culture of mixed messaging and Twitter knee-jerk reactions, none of which are very helpful. Add to this the devastating death toll the COVID-19 pandemic is leaving in its wake, and it is fair to say that we have been knocked far off our center. Now more than ever, we need to find a way to take a step back and trust the voice of wisdom that is within each of us. We need to find our center again, both as individuals and as a nation. Now more than ever, we need to remember who we are.
Who are we? This is the question that is the starting block from which we push off and begin to reclaim our center. For people of faith, the answer is that we are fundamentally created in the image of God. This is an image of life-giving spirit in love and compassion, not just for some but for all people. All major faith traditions hold this truth. As many spiritual leaders have repeated, “My religion is love.”
As Christian people of God’s global family, we can look at the teachings of Jesus to help us understand our identity as, like Simba, heirs of the kingdom. The first is the Beatitudes, which describe those who inherit the kingdom of God as those who are poor in spirit, meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. Then later in Matthew’s accounting of the Gospel, Jesus says that we are to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner. It is in the living of this life that we can truly become awakened to who we have always been.
Each of us has tremendous ability and divine power within us to choose what is right — what is good. But the darkness around us seems a lot like Scar — relentless in its death-dealing schemes and claim to false power, and under that kind of tyranny, sometimes we, like Simba forget that we have the power to challenge and bring about change. Jesus reminded us of this power when he once said that not only would we do things that he was doing, but we would do even greater things. Do we believe that?
Claiming or reclaiming the inherent divine power within us is essential if we are to truly be agents of change in this moment in history. We must spend more time with ourselves — our true selves that were created by God for goodness, for justice and for compassion. We would do well to spend time disconnecting from the digital world and the social world around us that are filled with deception, and more time connecting to the deep inner Mufasa voice that speaks the truth of God about not only who we are, but who we need to be in this moment in time. We need to reconnect with the still, small voice within that desires only peace, justice and truth. It is from this space that we can change the world. When we make peace within ourselves, the world will make peace with us.
In the end, Simba was able to go back to Pride Mountain and assume his rightful reign as king. But not because he played the game of lies and deception like Scar. He didn’t demand the love of the people through fear and intimidation as Scar had tried to do. Simba was instead selected by the people for his compassion, vision of truth and courage. All these things were realized within him because he was guided by the direction of his spirit father’s mandate to remember who he was. Each of us has a Simba within us. Each of us should now remember who we are and be guided by that truth.
The writer is the associate for spiritual formation at Church of Our Saviour.
