Sep 5 – Feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta
Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), honoured in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Skopje for eighteen years, she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.
In 1950, Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that had over 4,500 nuns and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. It also runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children’s and family counselling programmes, as well as orphanages and schools. Members take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and also profess a fourth vow – to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”
Teresa received a number of honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She was canonised on 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day. A controversial figure during her life and after her death, Teresa was admired by many for her charitable work. She was praised and criticized on various counts, such as for her views on abortion and contraception, and was criticized for poor conditions in her houses for the dying. Her authorized biography was written by Navin Chawla and published in 1992, and she has been the subject of films and other books. On 6 September 2017, Teresa and St. Francis Xavier were named co-patrons of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta.
– Wikipedia
1 Cor 3:18-23
Lk 5:1-11
“Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.”
Notice how Jesus came into the life of Simon. He literally intercepted him in the middle of his work. Jesus saw that he had a hard time trying to catch fish, but He told him to pay out his nets for a catch anyway.
This made me reflect on how Jesus intercepted my own career – when I was still at the height of it as a magazine editor. But honestly, it was becoming more challenging as we were met with the demands of digitalisation. We were no longer just working on print deadlines. We had to come up with new ways to meet the challenges and demands of online content, the reality of an influx of influencers and KOLs (key opinion leaders) competing for the same attention, as well as the need to include videos into our content as well. Basically, God knew how the world was starting to change. But instead of asking me to do it a different way, unlike what he asked of Simon, he pulled me out of the murky waters of publishing and into something else called content marketing – something I wasn’t familiar with, but still I was able to do it with what I know of the experience I had and the medium which is writing or creating content. But that was just the beginning of what he wants me to do – which is catching men.
For me, catching men is basically evangelisation. When I switched career, it was part of what he has called me to do. When I met an old friend earlier today, I shared with her what my current job as a polytechnic lecturer really entailed. I told her honestly, the job is more than just teaching a bunch of students, or even passing on whatever knowledge we have. It’s more heart work with mentorship, being present and showing care for the students because from what I’ve seen so far, many come from broken families. I am really thankful for this job that he’s picked for me, though it wasn’t my top choice really. Teaching was never a career I’d pick but somehow, it keeps falling in my path without me realising it – I was first accepted into MOE after graduation, but I rejected it for a writing job. Then years later, I became a catechist despite my fear of standing in front of a class of teenagers who weren’t really interested in bible knowledge, and now as a lecturer when I wanted a change in career.
So how am I catching men now? More like trying to catch reluctant youths who, most of the time, do not believe in God. But what’s enough is for me to be out there to show my love and care for them – whether they appreciate or remember it in the end. I just let God use me and I let him do the rest. I really hope that I can continue to ‘catch men’ wherever I go, whatever I do. I am also ‘catching men’ as I serve in the RCIA ministry – where I think there is more of a chance. We can really be out there catching men just by sharing our faith and our lives.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Cynthia Chew)
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, make us instruments to go out there and be catchers of men. Give us courage, strengthen us with wisdom, patience and fortitude; we are in your hands. May the Holy Spirit be our guide in everything we do. Amen.
Thanksgiving: Thank you Jesus, for being the centre of our lives, for intercepting when we don’t even know we need your help. We will trust that whatever you have sent our way is for our good – even when we can’t see it.
OXYGEN 
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