Epiphany shows Christ as the only path to salvation, says Cdl Burke
Today, in a particular way, let us pray for unwavering faith in Our Lord, God and man, Who alone is our salvation, and in His Mystical Body, the Church.
ROME (PerMariam) — On the great feast of the Epiphany the Church honors the Christ Child and calls to mind the visit of the Three Kings, who came to honor the God-Man and thus to bear witness to the Incarnation.
The wonderful mystery of Christ’s Incarnation is not only at the heart of Christmas but at the heart of the Catholic Faith. That God should become Man and die for our sins is something which often seems beyond difficult to comprehend – both for pious souls in awe at God’s majestic gift of Himself and for those opposed to the truths of religion. Indeed it has been the object of many attacks by enemies of the Faith, since the earliest days of the Church.
Celebrating a Pontifical Mass in Rome for the feast {photos at the bottom of this article}, Raymond Cardinal Burke noted this aspect during his homily, drawing from the Scriptural account of the Wise Men visiting Christ (Matt 2). The American prelate stated:
The account of the Evangelist directs our attention to the mystery of the two natures – human and divine – in the one Divine Person of Our Lord Who is both God the Son and Son of Mary. It is the truth of the Redemptive Incarnation which has been under attack by heretics from the first years of the life of the Church.
It continues to be under attack today by those who would render the Faith an ideology and the Church a merely human institution. Today, in a particular way, let us pray for unwavering faith in Our Lord, God and man, Who alone is our salvation, and in His Mystical Body, the Church.
The truth of Christ being the only path of salvation has indeed been met with no little confusion in recent months, particularly in light of comments made by Pope Francis in Singapore when he attested that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.” {Click on image below for video}
Whilst not mentioning Francis’ remarks, Cdl. Burke’s comments nevertheless appeared to come as at least an indirect response to the Pope’s words which caused an international furor and wide-reaching scandal.
Indeed, the Epiphany is the perfect time to dwell on the true importance of Christ as the path of salvation. It is only through Him, through His Cross and through His Church that salvation is found. Such has been the constant teaching of the Catholic Church and remains so, unable to be changed by the passage of time.
Pope Pius IX condemned the following two errors in his famous Syllabus of Error (1864):
16: Men can find the way of eternal salvation and attain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion whatever.
17: At the very least, there must be good hope for the eternal salvation of all those who do not dwell in any way in the true Church of Christ.
Summarizing the constant teaching of the Church from the earliest days, Pope Pius XI wrote in 1928 that “it follows that there can be no true religion other than that which is founded on the revealed word of God: which revelation, begun from the beginning and continued under the Old Law, Christ Jesus Himself under the New Law perfected.” {Mortalium Animos}
Commenting on Christ’s divinity, Cdl. Burke highlighted key passages from Christ’s early life to show how each revealed His “divine identity, together with His vocation and mission as Redeemer.”
Not only at His Nativity and in the adoration of the Magi, but at His Baptism in the Jordan and at the wedding of Cana: “Our Lord has made Himself manifest to each of us through Faith and Baptism. He is alive in us for the salvation of our immortal souls and the salvation of the world.”
Cdl. Burke continued:
“Celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the reality of God the Son Incarnate in our midst, in our souls, so that we may be always one with Him and may bring Him to all whom we meet for the sake of their eternal salvation. We pray in a particular way today, through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God and of the Three Wise Men for the conversion of countless souls, of those who do not yet know Our Lord and of those who have known Our Lord but have abandoned Him and His way of salvation.
We bless ourselves and our homes with Epiphany Water and we mark our homes with the chalk blessed on this feast, manifesting ourselves to the world as true sons and daughters of God in God the Son Incarnate.
He also highlighted the beautiful link between the silence of the Nativity and the mystery of the Mass. In the stable Christ was present in a manger for the shepherds and Magi to adore; on the altar Christ is present not only in the throne of the tabernacle but offers Himself to those coming to the altar rails under the consecrated species of the Host.
The cardinal commented:
Like the Three Wise Men, we have been led by Christ the Light to the altar of His Sacrifice upon which He makes sacramentally present the gift of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity as the Heavenly Bread to sustain us on our life pilgrimage to our eternal home with Him. As Christ manifests Himself to us here as the Bread of Life – His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – so may we faithfully, generously, and purely manifest Him alive in us for the salvation of all men!
Though the formal Octave of the Epiphany is no longer in place in the liturgical calendar, that does not prevent Catholics from dwelling on the great mysteries of the feast, and praying that all in the Church and the world have an “unwavering faith in Our Lord, God and man, Who alone is our salvation, and in His Mystical Body, the Church,” a hope outlined by Cdl. Burke.
Images from Cdl. Burke’s Epiphany Mass 2025.
