The hypocrite stood there staring at the image in the mirror. This cannot be me, he mused. I’ve spent years working on myself, building myself, adjusting myself, aligning myself, calibrating myself, “religionizing” myself .
I spent years making myself look better. I have been accepted as a pious man. I have climbed the pole of morality and plucked the flag of values from it. I am influential. This cannot be me. This face, staring back at me, is not mine, the hypocrite concluded. Then the hypocrite turned his back to the mirror. Took some deep breaths and slowly turned around to see if the image would change. It was the same image that stared right back at him when he looked in the mirror. The face staring at him was that of a hypocrite; but the hypocrite could not accept that he is indeed the hypocrite. He has a good reason for everything he did! And he does not like hypocrites.
The hypocrite despised the man he saw in the mirror. The face in the mirror is that of a thief, a liar and a sycophant. That face cannot be his. Yes, he tells lies here and there, yes he has stolen things that belong to no one in particular because these are pubic funds, yes he has acted sycophantic before, but he has a justification for all that! The face in the mirror just does not belong to him. He reworked his face to look educated; massaged his face to look religious, painted his face to appear rich, studied his face to appear educated. Yet, the face staring back at him is morally decrepit, arrogant, of poor virtue and educated but without knowledge. That cannot be his face! The problem is the mirror, the hypocrite concluded. Tomorrow I will go and buy another mirror and then my true self will be reflected!
The hypocrite bought a bigger and more expensive mirror. He waited until when the sun was at its apogee and placed the full-length mirror in the sun. The hypocrite washed his eyes with holy water and moral salt to make sure his eyes aren’t playing tricks on him. He closed his eyes after washing them and chose to only open them before the new mirror. He approached the mirror and deliberately, he opened his eyes and again, to his utter dismay and disgust, it was the same image from yesterday. This mirror must be lying too! This is not my face, he deadpanned. The world tells me I am better than the face staring back at me in the mirror. The others are the hypocrites. It cannot be me. The problem is not me; it must the mirror. I will have to buy another mirror!
