Don’t Block the Light by Letting Loose on the Internet – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; February 8, 2026

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

Before we let the light of our good deeds shine before others, we must remove the darkness of our bad deeds: Remove from your midst … false accusation and malicious speech.

The problem of evil speech calls for special attention in our time because of the way that speech has been extended by electronic means, extended in its power for good, but often it seems even more extended in its destructive capacity.

It is perhaps paradoxical that electronic speech, by text or social media, has become notorious for its often vicious quality. In immediate face-to-face interaction, the very immediacy of the situation, the charged emotions, the need to make a quick response, make it very easy to speak without thinking it through; often the words escape the mouth, prompted by the emotion, before the mind has a chance to judge clearly whether they were good, right, and fitting. Right speech, face-to-face, calls for both quick wit and control of judgment, lest the quick wits get carried away. The ability to cut off the word before it escapes the lips is critical.

In that light, it should be easier to control electronic speech. Even with “speech to text” software there is a separation between saying the words and hitting the “send” button. That pause should be used to think it over, “Do I really want to say this? Should I really say this?” Apparently, that opportunity for reflection is little used. Evidence of that is the lack of proofreading in text messages and on-line comments.

While a written letter is more formal than an email and an email is more formal that a text message, sloppiness should not be a part of any human communication and, if we have the opportunity to reflect, to pause, to slow down our speech, we should do so, as an act both of prudence and charity. In that regard, we should be more careful in electronic speech, precisely because we are able to do so. Proofreading for grammar and spelling can help us pay better attention to what we are saying – and help us avoid embarrassing mistakes proposed by “auto-correct”. Traditional means of communication, whether face-to-face or written, should serve as the standard for electronic communication and electronic communication should ultimately serve face-to-face relationships.

Alas, a different psychology seems to come into play: the sense of anonymity with those we do not know and the distance from those we do know. So, the electronic media, rather than being characterized by care and consideration, are often characterized by “letting it all out”, often in the most vicious ways imaginable.

There is, perhaps, a deep-rooted cultural force, that predates the electronic media, that underlies that move to “let it all out.” It is embodied in the idea of “authenticity” as “honesty”; authenticity here means being honest about what I feel. Behind that lies the notion that “what I feel” is the “real me”.

Well, it is important to be honest about recognizing our feelings, honest to ourselves, and honest in the presence of God. That does not mean that we need always to be sharing what we feel. Further, while we should be honest in recognizing what we feel, we should also learn how to put our feelings in their proper place. Our emotions and feeling do not define who we are, except in the measure that we choose to let those emotions and feelings rule our lives – not a good idea.

It is a bit odd, but as adults we get strange ideas in our heads that, if we considered the reality in the lives of children, we would readily see how absurd they really are.

So let us think of two boys, Johnny and Jimmy. They are brothers. Johnny hits Jimmy and Mommy tells Johnny that he has to tell Jimmy that he is sorry. Of course, Johnny does not feel sorry at all, but he is afraid to displease his Mom. We can readily picture the scene as Johnny says to Jimmy, “I’m sorry,” while his face shows that he is only saying the words under constraint. At least he acknowledges his Mom’s authority.

Now, imagine if rather than saying, “I’m sorry”, Johnny told Mommy, “No. I don’t feel sorry so I won’t say I’m sorry. It would not be honest or authentic of me.”

On the other hand, we could also consider the progress we expect Johnny to make over time – it is called “growing up” – from saying he’s sorry only because he is told to do so, to saying he’s sorry because he recognizes on his own account that he should do so, to actually feeling he’s sorry and saying it. That all involves his eventually choosing to embrace the training he has been given by his parents.

Well, once we are adults, we need to continue training ourselves, governing our own emotions, learning to control our speech and our actions according to the circumstances, guided by the law of charity and justice, not being carried away by our feelings. In that sense, the “real me” is who I have chosen to be. If I choose to be governed by my emotions, then my emotions become the “real me”; if I choose to govern my emotions under God’s law, my character becomes defined by my obedience to God.

St. Therese of Lisieux found that there was an older nun in the convent who irritated her to no end. Far from give way to that irritation, in order to please Jesus, she chose to go out of her way to be kind to that nun, even though she did not feel like it. She succeeded so well that after her death of tuberculosis at age 24, that nun spoke of St. Therese as having been her best friend.

Now, it seems that I have been taking a detour from the words of the Gospel, Let your light shine before men. I suggested that first we needed to remove the impediment of evil speech. Yet, the detour has revealed something that bears directly on this matter of letting our light shine; the detour helps clarify what might seem to be a contradiction in the words of Jesus.

On Ash Wednesday, in ten days, we will hear other words of Jesus from the same Sermon on the Mount that we have heard from today: Take care not to perform your righteous deeds in order that people may see them. (Mt 6:1) That is a mere 32 verses after the Gospel passage we have heard today. So which is it, Let your light shine before men or take care not to perform your righteous deeds that people might see them?

If we pay close attention, the difference is in the intention with which we work: for the glory of God, or to win praise from others?

Then, once we grasp that the difference of intention is key, if we are honest and know ourselves, we might realize how easy it is for the secret hankering for approval and praise to sneak into our intentions.

So, there is a simple test that I can apply: if no one knew, would I still do the good deed? If so, then, I can let my light shine before men, for the glory of God.

That question in turn sheds light on this whole matter of “authenticity” and the “real me”. The real me is what I am willing to think, do, and say, even if no one knows, except the One who knows all things and from whom nothing is hidden.

That in turn sheds light on bad behavior on the internet. If a person is willing to “let loose” on the internet because of a sense of anonymity or distance, he is revealing, alas, who he really is; he is revealing that he not only doesn’t care what others think, he doesn’t even care what God thinks. The more he lets loose, the more he becomes that “loose cannon” that he has chosen to be.

All this leads us back to good deeds. What really constitutes a “good deed”?

There is an ancient saying, “Bonum ex integra causa; malum ex quocumque defectu.” “The good arises from a complete cause; evil results from any old failure.”

A truly good deed needs to be complete: the deed itself needs to be good; it must be done in the right circumstances, by the right person, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place, and for the right reason; the intention must also be good. That is just one good deed, but good deeds finally should arise from a whole character, involving coherence of thoughts, words, and deeds.

Our online behavior easily introduces a lack of coherence in a life, such that a person acts one way online and another way in person. Professionalism can also produce a lack of coherence, as the person acts one way “on the job” and another way “off duty”.

Now we can perhaps understand better that quote from St. Therese that I made reference to last Sunday: “All our justice is blemished in Your eyes.” (Oblation to Merciful Love) We can also think of our common confession at the beginning of Mass: “I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do.”

Now let’s not exaggerate the matter either. Consider the good deed like an apple. There is the perfect apple, in size, in color, in texture and taste, and without blemish. That is the pure good deed. There is an apple that is bruised slightly; it can still be eaten. There is an apple that is a bit old and dried out; it can still be eaten. There is an apple that is partly worm eaten; it is not very appealing, but the bad part can be cut out, and the remainder can be eaten. Those are good deeds that have been more or less marred by egoism and venial sin.

Then there is the apple that altogether worm eaten, or is rotten through and through, or that has been poisoned, despite its beautiful appearance. Those are otherwise good deeds that have been destroyed by mortal sin.

“All our justice is blemished in Your eyes.” If, by our own efforts we seek to please God and let our light shine, the best we will attain are those blemished apples. Only by God’s grace, his sanctifying grace transforming the interior of our soul and the actual assistance of the Holy Spirit, obtained through prayer, giving us light and strength, can we do good in a way that pleases God and gives him glory before men.

St. Louis Marie de Montfort suggests that we entrust all that we do to the hands of the Immaculate Virgin, who was wholly pleasing to God and who knows best what pleases him. She will take our blemished apples, trim them, arrange them, and present them to her Son in a way that she knows will be pleasing.