Tag: joy

My 23rd Anniversary as a Bishop

Beloved in Christ,

Bp. Ackerman

I can hardly imagine that I was consecrated a bishop – a successor to the Apostles – 23 years ago today. Yesterday at Mass at St. Timothy’s in Fort Worth, I celebrated a Vigil Mass of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and I focused on the incongruities that exist in the celebration of two diverse individuals.

In the midst of the day, I recalled a question asked of me recently, “Why do you and your family seem to be so happy?” It’s true – in our 55 years of dating and our 50 years of marriage, Jo and I rarely argue. I do not ever recall having an argument with our children, and, in spite of the fact that I come from a volatile part of the country – Western Pennsylvania, my family did not engage in conflict – there was enough around us! My parents did not use profanity, and my father claimed that his Swedish heritage resulted in his being “neutral” in a variety of ways.

I think what I learned, and have experienced is that people can choose to be angry, but that, in fact, we do not make people angry. Some people simply choose to make every “slight” in life become an unnecessary component. In the Diocese of Quincy it was said that the Bishop of Quincy reserved his right to be angry when righteous indignation was indicated, but in retrospect, it meant that with all of the truly tragic circumstances of the world in which we live, anger is a waste of energy. Conflict is a luxury that those who are engaged in international tragedy cannot endure. In the funny book, “Who moved my Cheese?” The author points out that for people with an extraordinarily small worldview, minuscule matters are elevated to a level of absurdity. As I have often said, traditional Christians are regularly adept at shooting their own people, or, perhaps more particularly, we all too often have traded in the Foot Washing Ceremony for the Foot Shooting Ceremony.

So…if I do not seem to be angry very often, it is because I have reserved that decisional emotion for something really important – like the persecution of Christians or Heretical Teaching, and a departure from what God has revealed. Far too many people today maximize matters that are truly minimal in importance. Egocentric behavior is all too often more prominent than Christocentric behavior, and the task of the Christian is to present Christ to the broken – not to sing the hymn “How Great I art.”

So…..why do my family and I never engage in arguments and disagreements? It is because we know that being a Christian family is far more important. Jo always told the children to thank God that Daddy was following Jesus and helping others, and our children spent more time in prayer than in conflict. I am blessed. Twenty-three years later I must strain to recall conflict in my Diocese. If I eliminated outside interference from ecclesiastical bodies, and limited egocentric behavior – there is nothing to report.

Those who enjoy the art of anger and conflict are welcome to entertain it, but God is not a God of chaos – He is a God of Order – and His Son has demonstrated His Love – with His arms stretched upon the Cross ready to embrace you and me.

In Christ,
Bp. Keith L. Ackerman, SSC

Dying…life…sickness…joy…death

Dying…life…sickness…joy…death

By Bp. Keith L. Ackerman

Beloved in Christ,

It’s another day.

I awakened early to pray with my first Secretary in the Diocese of Quincy – a beautiful woman named “Lynn Joy” who is dying of brain cancer. She is a remarkable woman, and as I prayed with her over the phone with her husband and children and grandchildren present in the hospital in Peoria, I recalled how helpful she was when Jo was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. I remembered her running up hills with me in the Holy Land, and I remembered her laughing daily in my offices in the Diocese at all of my bad jokes. Just before going to bed, I prayed with my last Secretary in the Diocese of Quincy, Father Harold – a Benedictine Monk – as his father died in Puerto Rico. He flew from Peoria in the Diocese of Quincy just in time to administer the “Last Rites” to his father who died as he held his hand. In between these “beginning of the day” and “end of the day” events I prayed for many others and spoke with many of our people. I spoke with Cn. Donlon as he prepares to be consecrated a Bishop and for Deacon Fred Hotz as he prepares to leave for Kenya to minister to many – representing SOMA (an international ministry) and us – St. Timothy’s. I spoke with happy, angry, confused and sad people – simply trying to get through another day.

I meditated all day on the mystery of life as I celebrated our son Keith’s 46th birthday on this Feast of St. Mark. Obviously I am proud of him, as he embraces those who are often forgotten, and throughout the course of his ministry is like Simon of Cyrene.

As I saw my wife this morning, painfully getting out of bed, due to her constant and unending pain from fibromyalgia, and I watched her painfully type much of the day..another bulletin…another article..another pamphlet….and then off to bed with more pain, I thought of how each one of you walk the Way of the Cross day after day without one complaint. .. without one excuse…without one reason for stopping what you do in serving Jesus. Eleven telephone calls today from parishioners confirmed the fact that each one of us has some type of pain, and each one of us keeps walking.

I am so very proud of you as I walk with each one of you, and as you invite me into your life. I feel so very much the words of the Centurion in Matthew 8:8 – that we use day after day at every Mass, “Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof…..”. In every instance from this morning until this very moment, I have had the privilege on being invited into peoples’ pain and joy – from my own house to your house – to houses in Peoria, Florida, Puerto Rico, and other cities and countries with which I connected today. “Speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.”

Tomorrow is another opportunity…more crosses for our people…but more empty tombs. As the saying goes, “I used to cry because I did not have a new pair of shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” Thank you for washing feet with me. Thank you for seeing the face of Christ in the eyes of the broken.