Whence do you think that the light of faith, so great and so suddenly, shone through the whole world, if not from the preaching of the name of Jesus? Was it not by the light of this name that God called us ‘into His marvelous light’, to whom thus illuminated, and contemplating the Light by this light, Paul could rightfully say ‘You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord’ ?
This then is the name which the same Apostle was charged to ‘carry to kings, and the nations, and the children of Israel,’ and he bore this name about as a lamp, and illuminated his native land, crying out everywhere, ‘The night hath passed, and the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day.’ And he showed to all the lamp upon the lampstand, in every place proclaiming ‘Jesus. and Him crucified.’ How did this shine forth, and dazzled the eyes of all that looked upon it, when coming forth from Peter’s mouth like a flash of lightning, it strengthened the corporeal feet and soles of the lame man, and spiritually enlightened the eyes of many others? Did he not scatter fire when he said, ‘’In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk!” ? (
From St Bernard of Clairvaux’s 15th sermon on the Song of Songs, the lessons of the second nocturn of the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.)
