"Love Your Neighbor as Yourself"… But Do We? | A reflection on faith, shame, and the mirror we cannot escape.

Those who trigger us are mirrors of our wounds. Facing them becomes the doorway to self-compassion, and only then does “Love your neighbor as yourself” reveal its true meaning.

For the past year, I’ve been struck by how much division we’re seeing in the world. People are turning on one another, and, curiously, some of the harshest words and actions are coming from those who claim to be people of faith. It leaves me baffled and wondering: what faith is being lived out when hate takes the lead?

Before I walked away from organized religion to embrace my own spiritual sovereignty, I recall a passage from my former Catholic upbringing: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).

Back then, I heard it as a rule to obey, a commandment recited from the pulpit. But with time and reflection, I see now how much more it holds. The verse doesn’t just say “love your neighbor.” It says “as yourself.” It assumes that self-love exists, that compassion is cultivated inwardly first. Without that, the entire structure collapses.

And yet, every time I heard this passage in church, it was shared as a message of love. But what struck me, even then, was how rarely it seemed to land. I saw the words being recited, the ceremony performed, yet the practice of loving ourselves and one another was often missing. Instead, so much of what I witnessed was rooted in shame and guilt. When the gospel of Jesus is used to manipulate rather than integrate, people are left unable to embody the very love they proclaim. And without self-love, the command to love our neighbor remains only words.

A performative sham, empty of transformation. A ritual repeated to look faithful, but without the inward work that makes it real. It is love spoken aloud for appearance’s sake, while the heart beneath still carries judgment and self-rejection. And when love is only performed but never lived, it becomes just another mask, covering wounds instead of healing them.

Here is my insight on this paradox: a heart full of self-loathing cannot extend authentic, unconditional love. What pours out instead is judgment masquerading as righteousness, condemnation dressed as holiness. When people lash out in the name of God, it is not God’s voice echoing through them, but the sound of their own unhealed wounds.

A heart at war with itself cannot bring peace to anyone else.

And the most extraordinary thing I have come to see is that we are all mirrors. What we project outward reveals what we carry inside. Compassion within reflects compassion without; hatred within reflects hatred without.

And when I look at the current collective climate, I see a hall of mirrors filled with fear, shame, and bitterness loudly bouncing endlessly back and forth.

I also see a split. A growing number of people are leaning into healing, sovereignty, and love, turning inward, asking the harder questions, and daring to break old patterns. Yet many more are still caught in cycles of shame, fear, and hate, repeating the same inherited scripts of control and judgment. If I had to put it in human terms, perhaps a quarter are choosing the path of reflection and compassion, while the majority remain tangled in pain. But numbers don’t tell the whole story, because the energy of healing, even in a smaller percentage, carries exponential weight. One heart choosing love radiates far beyond itself; and if you take into consideration the new findings in quantum entanglement, the picture becomes even more powerful.

Quantum entanglement is a discovery from modern physics that shows how two particles can become connected in such a way that the state of one instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart they are. Scientists have confirmed this again and again; what happens to one particle has an immediate influence on its twin, even across vast distances. Mystics and spiritual teachers have long intuited this truth: we are all connected, not just across space, but across time. When we heal, we do not heal in isolation. Our healing reverberates into our past, softening the pain of what has been, and extends into our future, creating new possibilities that did not exist before. Each awakening, each act of compassion, tips the balance a little more toward freedom.

If reading these words stirs something in you, discomfort, defensiveness, even anger, pause before you turn away. Rather than judging me, blaming me, or running from the unease, I invite you to go inward. Sit bravely with what rises up. It may be shame, anger, grief, or resistance, but those feelings are not enemies. They are messengers. To sit with them is not easy. It takes courage. But it is also the kindest thing you could ever do for yourself.

The absolution we are searching for is not found in kneeling behind a pew or repeating the words someone else tells us to say. It is not found in empty rituals or in bending to control. The forgiveness, the release, the freedom, it lives inside of us. It rises when we finally turn toward our own shame, meet it with compassion, and let it unravel in the light of truth. That is where sovereignty begins. That is where love takes root.

So perhaps the real question is not: what does your denomination demand of others? But rather: what is the mirror of your own life reflecting right now? Is it fear, bitterness, and control? Or is it love, compassion, and the courage to heal?

Because love, true unconditional love, does not condemn. It does not shame. It does not coerce. It begins quietly, tenderly, with the way we treat ourselves. And from there, it moves outward like ripples on water, touching everyone around us.

And so I leave you with the words I often return to, my mantra, my reminder, my mirror:

"If my voice, my energy, my presence triggers you, it is because I am meant to.

Not to harm, not to provoke, but to illuminate something within you that is asking to be seen.

Discomfort is a messenger, not a mistake. Instead of turning away, dig within, explore the root of your unease.

What is it revealing?

What part of you have you silenced, abandoned, or hidden away?

I am not here to be palatable for your comfort; I am here to exist fully.

Whether you reject the reflection or embrace it is up to you, but the mirror has already been placed before you."

💫 The beauty of it all is this: the mirror does not come to condemn you, but to free you. What you dare to face becomes the very doorway to your wholeness.

Author’s Note

I was raised Catholic in Mexico, where faith was woven into every part of life. For many years I tried to fit into the mold of organized religion, but it never felt like home to my soul. I eventually walked away, not from spirit, but from the walls and rules that tried to contain it.

Today, I follow a path of spiritual sovereignty. I draw wisdom from scripture, astrology, numerology, and the quiet guidance of my own inner knowing. My writing and music are born from the same place: a desire to illuminate the hidden wounds we carry, and to remind us that healing, compassion, and love begin within.

This essay is not meant to shame or divide, but to invite reflection. If my words stir something in you, I hope they become a doorway inward, toward the freedom and wholeness that has always been yours.

The mirror of my soul bows to the mirror of yours; in that reflection, we are one.

☥