Aesop’s Fables Month: The Cat Maiden 🐈👰🏼
Recently, there’s been a commercial running that includes a woman making videos as a “mom-fluencer” even though she has no children. The idea that people so trust what is on the outside to influence them is truly sad because it means we’re living in a shallow society that has a seared collective conscience. We are just as apt to believe a lie as the truth when we become focused on the outward appearance as our primary means of judgment. The following fable deals with the idea of change being only on the surface rather than inside and out.
The Classic Fable Retold: The Cat-Maiden (Perry 50)
A sleek, beautiful cat lived in the home of a young man, and over time, she fell hopelessly, desperately in love with him. She spent her days watching him with adoration, wishing with all her heart that she could walk by his side as a companion rather than a pet.
Hearing her persistent cries, the goddess Venus took pity on the creature. With a flash of magic, she transformed the feline into a stunning, elegant young woman.
The young man was utterly captivated. He saw her grace, her beauty, and her fine gown, and within a short time, they were married.
On their wedding night, as they retired to their bedchamber, Venus decided to test whether the bride’s nature had truly changed along with her shape. She released a tiny, scurrying mouse right onto the floorboards near the bed.
Forgetting her bridal veil, her vows, her fine linen, and her human dignity in an instant, the bride dropped straight down onto all fours on the Persian rug. With wide, wild eyes and bared claws, she scrambled across the room in a fierce feline crouch to corner the mouse.
Disgusted by this utter lack of true change, Venus raised her hand. With a billowing cloud of magical smoke, the human bride vanished—replaced instantly by the original white cat, pouncing triumphantly over the mouse while the bewildered groom stood frozen in the doorway in absolute shock.
Walking in Newness of Life vs. Wearing a Costume
You can change a person’s clothes, put them on a pedestal or in front of a camera, or give them a brand-new title. But a costume change does not change a heart. Just like the cat-maiden, people can put on a brilliant performance for the public square, but when the unexpected “mouse” of life startles them—when pressure hits or temptation creeps in—their true instinct takes over.
We see this in spiritual spaces, too. It is dangerously easy to adopt the vocabulary, the aesthetics, and the surface behaviors of faith without experiencing an actual transformation of the soul. But God is not fooled by a costume change.
Scripture reminds us that true faith is never about slapping a new exterior onto an old nature:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come!”
— 2 Corinthians 5:17 (B.S.B.)
God doesn’t just hand us a bridal veil and hope we can fake our way through life. Instead, He offers a complete heart transplant. As Paul writes when describing our spiritual birth and transformation:
“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.”
— Romans 6:4 (B.S.B.)
And through the prophet Ezekiel, God contrasted surface religion with His ultimate heart-renewal:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
— Ezekiel 36:26 (B.S.B.)
The Real Deal
Today, let’s look past the curated “mom-fluencers,” the social media filters, and the polished performances of this world. Let’s ask the Lord to examine our own hearts.
May we never settle for a superficial costume change or a religious disguise. Instead, let’s embrace the deep, authentic work of the Holy Spirit, daily walking in the true, lasting newness of life!
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