Team Herald
MARGAO: The feast of Epiphany was celebrated with great pomp and reverence at Chandor on Saturday with Rector of Rachol Seminary Fr Aleixo Menezes being the main celebrant who exhorted the faithful to emulate the humility of Mother Mary and the three wise men towards the infant Jesus Christ.
Three youngsters from the village Merb Antao from Amblimoll Guirdolim, Jason Fernandes from Culsabhat Cavorim and Neshwin Gomes from Guirdolim dressed up as the three wise men and came on a horseback from Our Lady of Piety chapel at the Monte to the Church for the feast mass accompanied by a brass band.
Fr Aleixo in his 23 minute sermon pointed out three instances where the wise men and Mary showed humility and faith in Jesus Christ and also recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s quote stating that Christians do not follow Christ.
Pointing out that there are too many practicing Catholics and very few living Catholics, he urged everybody to live a Christian life every moment and not only in the church.
An impressive fair is set up around the Chandor Church to celebrate the feast and the same will last till January 14. While earlier the fair would last for nearly a month, Parish Priest Fr Simao Rodrigues took the Chandor Cavorim and Guirdolim panchayat into confidence and worked out the time table for the fair so that it ends on January 14. As the Bible portrays it, the Epiphany is a feast of openness, God’s revelation of Jesus to the whole world.
The feast of the Epiphany was also celebrated in Cansaulim and Verem in the North, with great reverence and devotion.
In 67 AD, the early Christians commemorated three important events in the life of Jesus – Epiphany, baptism of Jesus and the first miracle at the wedding in Cana.
