Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Physicist
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Harmony & Peace by Ill. Bro. Art Brion, 33° IGH
[Speech of Ill. Bro. Arturo D Brion, 33° IGH, Supreme Court Justice, Semi-Annual Session, [Philippine Scottish Rite] Supreme Council, September 12, 2009.]
1. Let me start with a word of thanks to our Sovereign Grand Commander and the Supreme Council for granting me the honor to be your Guest Speaker in our Semi-Annual Session. This invitation is a distinct honor for me and for [my lodge -] Manila Bodies.
2. Our theme for today is - "Scottish Rite Masonry: A Bridge to Peace and Harmony," a topic that addresses core masonic values. While we are in a masonic gathering, I will not speak to you about the topic strictly as a Mason as to do so would be to engage in Masonic Education - an endeavor more appropriate in our formal proceedings. Let me speak to you about this theme on the basis of both my personal experiences and perceptions as a Mason.
3. Due perhaps to my own personal experiences, the first thought that came to mind when I focused on our topic was not peace but the absence of peace. As you must all be aware, war - in one form or another - is one of the constants in our contemporary world. And I am not speaking only of Iraq and Afghanistan. War has been there from my earliest recollection of my government service.
Barely a month after I entered government service in 1982, then Minister Blas Ople ordered me to go to Lebanon to manage the evacuation of our OFWs whom we then called contract workers. My first thought when I saw Israeli armor and came within hearing distance of the shooting was - how lucky we are in the Philippines as we do not have to undergo this experience.
4. Of course, I was wrong. I did not simply appreciate then that we had our own war, and that the fighting between the government and the communist insurgents and those in the South between the government and the MNLF were no less a war than what I saw in Lebanon. But it was not until later that this dawned on me when I became privy to more detailed reports of the kind of fighting that was taking place. It came as no surprise to me therefore when, in my own international meetings while I was Secretary of Labor, the fact that there is fighting in parts of our country was not truly appreciated.
I refer to an incident when I pleaded before an international office the fact that the situation in the Philippines is not as normal as the situation in Geneva, and that we should not be judged on the basis of the peaceful and sterile situation in Geneva because there is effectively an undeclared war in our country - in fact, we had and still have the longest lasting communist rebellion today and a very serious on-going hostile conflict in some areas of Mindanao involving our Muslim countrymen.
5. I bring up all these to ask the question - why do we have these conflicts when we are not lacking in initiatives for peace and, in fact, everybody - our government, the communists, the MNLF, and the MILF - professes to love peace?
6. It came to me, while considering this question, that masonry has a unique answer that is derived from the lessons we have learned as early as our entered apprentice level. The Masonic answer entered my mind when I asked myself - as I considered the term "peace and harmony" - why these concepts are always paired and why "peace" always comes ahead of "harmony."
7. My answer, derived from no specific masonic lesson, but rather from the thrust of all that I have learned from masonry, is that we are placing the cart before the horse when we use the term "peace and harmony;" for, peace is the end result and should come last, while harmony should come first because it is the means to the end that is "peace."
To put it more succinctly, we cannot really have any true peace if there is no harmony, and we need not even aim for and think of peace as a desired condition if only we have harmony, because peace will inevitably follow once there is harmony.
8. To be sure, this is not an earthshaking thought, but I became convinced of this as I harked back to my most basic masonic lessons; everything I learned in Masonry somehow relates to harmony - from the lessons we derived from the square, the compass, the plumb, the level, the triangle, and the circle, all of which in the mathematical and architectural realms result in the harmony of lines, figures and structures; in the realm of Masonry, contemplation of these tools results in our harmony with our Supreme Being, with nature, and with mankind.
9. At the level of man, harmony, of course, does not only signify the relationship of man with his fellowmen. At its most basic, harmony refers to the self and must exist from within before it exists anywhere else; no manifestation outside of self can be made unless the self itself is capable of the manifestation. In blunter terms, one cannot give what one does not have. The internally disharmonious man cannot have harmony and peace with his fellowmen if his own thoughts are in turmoil and at war with one another.
10. I recently spoke to a friend of long standing who unfortunately was diagnosed with cancer, not the most virulent type of leukemia but a cancer nevertheless. You all know what cancer essentially is - a condition when the body turns against itself as wayward cancer cells turn against and seek to defeat the normal body cells. My friend told me that his cancer is now stable, which I understood to mean that the cancer cells were already under check, and I asked him what kind of medication he was taking. He calmly answered me - "none at the moment as I have stopped all medications."
He said that he is more into meditation and into calming his own body through his thoughts, and now only regularly sees a psychiatrist rather than an oncologist. I was rather incredulous at first when I heard this, although I thought that psychology and meditation are no less effective as medication if the sick thinks this is the medication that can address the illness.
It was then that I heard from him the word "harmony" as a means of addressing his illness. He said that he is trying hard at establishing harmony within himself so that his condition of normal health shall prevail over the wayward cells causing all his distress. He said that his problem is as spiritual as it is physical, and gave me reading materials on how our own very thoughts can create and cure illnesses because the physical always reacts to thoughts from the spiritual.
It was through these readings that I began to pay attention to and seriously consider internal harmony as a condition that must necessarily precede any other harmony that we want to establish outside of ourselves.
11. In masonry, it seems to me that internal harmony is basic as we commit ourselves to meet on the level of equality, live by the plumb-line of virtue, and to act always on the square. I have heard, time and again, the admonition to curb our passions - an advice that is more into controlling the self rather than addressing our relations with others.
We use our Masonic tools to create that structure, even if only by allegory, that will lead us to God through the perfection of ourselves. From ourselves, perfected through Masonic virtues, harmony in relationships with our brethren within the Craft and with others, is just one achievable step away.
In other words, because we control ourselves, harmony with others is facilitated; harmony with others in turn directly translates to peace in our relationships because conflicts are prevented. We thus fulfill the duty of a Mason with respect to peace that the Morals and Dogma define as follows:
"The duty of a Mason is to endeavor to make man think better of his neighbor; to quiet instead of aggravate difficulties; to bring together those who are severed or estranged; to keep friends from becoming foes, and to persuade foes to become friends."
12. Any relationship, however, cannot but have at least two dimensions. The first is how we relate to others which we as Masons address through our duties to our brethren, to the Lodge and to the Craft; the other is how our fellowmen - whether a brother Mason or not - relate to us.
The latter dimension of the relationship - whether we like it or not - to a large extent depends on the expectations of others from us. Unfortunately, for some reason or another, we do not always take these expectations into account even if they
are fully known to us.
13. I have found from my own personal experiences - both in my private and public dealings - that expectations from brethren are easy to define because we meet each other on the level of our sworn obligations. To paraphrase these obligations at their simplest - we swear not to cheat or wrong a brother mason and will always help a brother mason in distress for as long as we can do so without prejudice to ourselves.
Because we take these obligations to heart, these obligations at the same time embody the responses that our brother masons expect from us - a proportionality inherent in Masonic teachings that utilize our Masonic tools to ensure that our actions are kept within due bounds.
14. Generally, brethren in distress make known their distress to us; some even specify how we can help, a step that helps a lot in defining what we can really do. To the credit of this Fraternity, people do really go all out to help. In turn, brethren in distress as a rule know what they can expect from us; in my case, I can say that brethren are very sensitive to and respect my limitations and the rules that bind me as a public servant, and do not demand more than quick action and a level playing field in acting on the causes of their distress. Thus, because of these expectations, breaks in our relationships very seldom occur; the limits of what we can do to help are given and accepted, while the expectations from our assistance are all properly and proportionally defined. In short, harmony reigns.
15. How I wish I can see this kind of expectations from others so that our own relationships with them will not break under the stresses of unanswered or denied requests, or of culturally-induced unreasonably high expectations of what we can do. I say culturally-induced because it seems to me that the high expectations come from our culture that dictates norms of "utang na loob" and of "pakikisama" that are way above what our own duties and responsibilities to ourselves, to our laws and to our country would allow.
16. How I wish people would know that in this Fraternity, we have more than "utang na loob" and "pakikisama" in our relationships with each other. Even strangers who recognize each other as brother masons become close at first meeting because of the commonalities and the obligations we all recognize we owe one another; yet we do not demand nor do we expect responses or favors beyond what our brethren can give.
17. I verbalize these wishes, my friends, because our kind of obligation and the reasonable expectations we have from one another as Masons, can be the model of the relationship that can foster overall harmony in our society and establish the peace we fondly speak about. Replicated many times over inside and outside our Fraternity, the harmony we strive to create within ourselves and the smooth inter-personal relationships it fosters, cannot but lead to significant tranquility, whether the relationship be individual, in groups, or even in politics where people can be most demanding. This can be true, too, even at the levelof countries where due recognition of one another´s obligations and self-interests as nations, can lead to understanding and lasting cooperative solutions.
18. I seize this rare opportunity to express these wishes before this gathering of Masons, because we have here a distinct area of life where Masonry and its tenets, demonstrated through our examples, can immeasurably make a difference. To my mind, this is a unique bridge that we as Masons can offer to our society so that there can be greater harmony among us and more lasting resulting peace.
19. A Chinese Proverb - drawn from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul - encapsulates the circle of harmony and peace that I wish we Masons can demonstrate and exemplify. The proverb runs:
1. Let me start with a word of thanks to our Sovereign Grand Commander and the Supreme Council for granting me the honor to be your Guest Speaker in our Semi-Annual Session. This invitation is a distinct honor for me and for [my lodge -] Manila Bodies.
2. Our theme for today is - "Scottish Rite Masonry: A Bridge to Peace and Harmony," a topic that addresses core masonic values. While we are in a masonic gathering, I will not speak to you about the topic strictly as a Mason as to do so would be to engage in Masonic Education - an endeavor more appropriate in our formal proceedings. Let me speak to you about this theme on the basis of both my personal experiences and perceptions as a Mason.
3. Due perhaps to my own personal experiences, the first thought that came to mind when I focused on our topic was not peace but the absence of peace. As you must all be aware, war - in one form or another - is one of the constants in our contemporary world. And I am not speaking only of Iraq and Afghanistan. War has been there from my earliest recollection of my government service.
Barely a month after I entered government service in 1982, then Minister Blas Ople ordered me to go to Lebanon to manage the evacuation of our OFWs whom we then called contract workers. My first thought when I saw Israeli armor and came within hearing distance of the shooting was - how lucky we are in the Philippines as we do not have to undergo this experience.
4. Of course, I was wrong. I did not simply appreciate then that we had our own war, and that the fighting between the government and the communist insurgents and those in the South between the government and the MNLF were no less a war than what I saw in Lebanon. But it was not until later that this dawned on me when I became privy to more detailed reports of the kind of fighting that was taking place. It came as no surprise to me therefore when, in my own international meetings while I was Secretary of Labor, the fact that there is fighting in parts of our country was not truly appreciated.
I refer to an incident when I pleaded before an international office the fact that the situation in the Philippines is not as normal as the situation in Geneva, and that we should not be judged on the basis of the peaceful and sterile situation in Geneva because there is effectively an undeclared war in our country - in fact, we had and still have the longest lasting communist rebellion today and a very serious on-going hostile conflict in some areas of Mindanao involving our Muslim countrymen.
5. I bring up all these to ask the question - why do we have these conflicts when we are not lacking in initiatives for peace and, in fact, everybody - our government, the communists, the MNLF, and the MILF - professes to love peace?
6. It came to me, while considering this question, that masonry has a unique answer that is derived from the lessons we have learned as early as our entered apprentice level. The Masonic answer entered my mind when I asked myself - as I considered the term "peace and harmony" - why these concepts are always paired and why "peace" always comes ahead of "harmony."
7. My answer, derived from no specific masonic lesson, but rather from the thrust of all that I have learned from masonry, is that we are placing the cart before the horse when we use the term "peace and harmony;" for, peace is the end result and should come last, while harmony should come first because it is the means to the end that is "peace."
To put it more succinctly, we cannot really have any true peace if there is no harmony, and we need not even aim for and think of peace as a desired condition if only we have harmony, because peace will inevitably follow once there is harmony.
8. To be sure, this is not an earthshaking thought, but I became convinced of this as I harked back to my most basic masonic lessons; everything I learned in Masonry somehow relates to harmony - from the lessons we derived from the square, the compass, the plumb, the level, the triangle, and the circle, all of which in the mathematical and architectural realms result in the harmony of lines, figures and structures; in the realm of Masonry, contemplation of these tools results in our harmony with our Supreme Being, with nature, and with mankind.
9. At the level of man, harmony, of course, does not only signify the relationship of man with his fellowmen. At its most basic, harmony refers to the self and must exist from within before it exists anywhere else; no manifestation outside of self can be made unless the self itself is capable of the manifestation. In blunter terms, one cannot give what one does not have. The internally disharmonious man cannot have harmony and peace with his fellowmen if his own thoughts are in turmoil and at war with one another.
10. I recently spoke to a friend of long standing who unfortunately was diagnosed with cancer, not the most virulent type of leukemia but a cancer nevertheless. You all know what cancer essentially is - a condition when the body turns against itself as wayward cancer cells turn against and seek to defeat the normal body cells. My friend told me that his cancer is now stable, which I understood to mean that the cancer cells were already under check, and I asked him what kind of medication he was taking. He calmly answered me - "none at the moment as I have stopped all medications."
He said that he is more into meditation and into calming his own body through his thoughts, and now only regularly sees a psychiatrist rather than an oncologist. I was rather incredulous at first when I heard this, although I thought that psychology and meditation are no less effective as medication if the sick thinks this is the medication that can address the illness.
It was then that I heard from him the word "harmony" as a means of addressing his illness. He said that he is trying hard at establishing harmony within himself so that his condition of normal health shall prevail over the wayward cells causing all his distress. He said that his problem is as spiritual as it is physical, and gave me reading materials on how our own very thoughts can create and cure illnesses because the physical always reacts to thoughts from the spiritual.
It was through these readings that I began to pay attention to and seriously consider internal harmony as a condition that must necessarily precede any other harmony that we want to establish outside of ourselves.
11. In masonry, it seems to me that internal harmony is basic as we commit ourselves to meet on the level of equality, live by the plumb-line of virtue, and to act always on the square. I have heard, time and again, the admonition to curb our passions - an advice that is more into controlling the self rather than addressing our relations with others.
We use our Masonic tools to create that structure, even if only by allegory, that will lead us to God through the perfection of ourselves. From ourselves, perfected through Masonic virtues, harmony in relationships with our brethren within the Craft and with others, is just one achievable step away.
In other words, because we control ourselves, harmony with others is facilitated; harmony with others in turn directly translates to peace in our relationships because conflicts are prevented. We thus fulfill the duty of a Mason with respect to peace that the Morals and Dogma define as follows:
"The duty of a Mason is to endeavor to make man think better of his neighbor; to quiet instead of aggravate difficulties; to bring together those who are severed or estranged; to keep friends from becoming foes, and to persuade foes to become friends."
12. Any relationship, however, cannot but have at least two dimensions. The first is how we relate to others which we as Masons address through our duties to our brethren, to the Lodge and to the Craft; the other is how our fellowmen - whether a brother Mason or not - relate to us.
The latter dimension of the relationship - whether we like it or not - to a large extent depends on the expectations of others from us. Unfortunately, for some reason or another, we do not always take these expectations into account even if they
are fully known to us.
13. I have found from my own personal experiences - both in my private and public dealings - that expectations from brethren are easy to define because we meet each other on the level of our sworn obligations. To paraphrase these obligations at their simplest - we swear not to cheat or wrong a brother mason and will always help a brother mason in distress for as long as we can do so without prejudice to ourselves.
Because we take these obligations to heart, these obligations at the same time embody the responses that our brother masons expect from us - a proportionality inherent in Masonic teachings that utilize our Masonic tools to ensure that our actions are kept within due bounds.
14. Generally, brethren in distress make known their distress to us; some even specify how we can help, a step that helps a lot in defining what we can really do. To the credit of this Fraternity, people do really go all out to help. In turn, brethren in distress as a rule know what they can expect from us; in my case, I can say that brethren are very sensitive to and respect my limitations and the rules that bind me as a public servant, and do not demand more than quick action and a level playing field in acting on the causes of their distress. Thus, because of these expectations, breaks in our relationships very seldom occur; the limits of what we can do to help are given and accepted, while the expectations from our assistance are all properly and proportionally defined. In short, harmony reigns.
15. How I wish I can see this kind of expectations from others so that our own relationships with them will not break under the stresses of unanswered or denied requests, or of culturally-induced unreasonably high expectations of what we can do. I say culturally-induced because it seems to me that the high expectations come from our culture that dictates norms of "utang na loob" and of "pakikisama" that are way above what our own duties and responsibilities to ourselves, to our laws and to our country would allow.
16. How I wish people would know that in this Fraternity, we have more than "utang na loob" and "pakikisama" in our relationships with each other. Even strangers who recognize each other as brother masons become close at first meeting because of the commonalities and the obligations we all recognize we owe one another; yet we do not demand nor do we expect responses or favors beyond what our brethren can give.
17. I verbalize these wishes, my friends, because our kind of obligation and the reasonable expectations we have from one another as Masons, can be the model of the relationship that can foster overall harmony in our society and establish the peace we fondly speak about. Replicated many times over inside and outside our Fraternity, the harmony we strive to create within ourselves and the smooth inter-personal relationships it fosters, cannot but lead to significant tranquility, whether the relationship be individual, in groups, or even in politics where people can be most demanding. This can be true, too, even at the levelof countries where due recognition of one another´s obligations and self-interests as nations, can lead to understanding and lasting cooperative solutions.
18. I seize this rare opportunity to express these wishes before this gathering of Masons, because we have here a distinct area of life where Masonry and its tenets, demonstrated through our examples, can immeasurably make a difference. To my mind, this is a unique bridge that we as Masons can offer to our society so that there can be greater harmony among us and more lasting resulting peace.
19. A Chinese Proverb - drawn from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul - encapsulates the circle of harmony and peace that I wish we Masons can demonstrate and exemplify. The proverb runs:
If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
Maraming salamat po.
I give you all the sign of peace.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Brotherly Love
From: Freemason in Africa Facebook Page
"Brotherly love?" commented the Old Past Master. "Oh, yes, the lodge is full of it.
It is curious the way it manifests itself, sometimes, but when you dig down deep enough into men's hearts, you find a lot of it." "A lot of them never show it, then," said the Very New Mason. "Oh, no, certainly not! Men don't go around demonstrating their affection like a lot of girls, you know," answered the Old Past Master.
"But you don't have to see a demonstration to know the feeling is there. The trouble with so many young Masons is their misunderstanding of the term 'brotherly love,' though high heaven knows the words are sufficiently easy to understand."
"'Brotherly, ' now, means 'like a brother.' I know a lot of brothers hate each other, but they don't act like brothers. There have been cowardly soldiers, and forsworn ministers, and corrupt judges, but when you say a man is 'like a soldier,' you mean 'brave and true'; when you say he is 'good as a minister' you mean one who 'truly does his honest best.' When you say 'upright as a judge' you mean 'as straight as the best of judges.' And when I say 'brotherly' means 'like a brother,' I mean like a brother who is acting as a good brother likes to act."
"As for 'love' there are more definitions than there are words in my mouth (which are several). But in connection with the 'brotherly' the word means that true affection which first considers the good of the person loved."
"Masonry teaches brotherly love. Many of its scholars are a long way from 100 per cent perfect in their lessons. But a lot could get an 'E' on their report card if the Lodge gave out evidence of scholastic standing!
"For instance, there was B'Jones. That is not his name, but it will serve. B'Jones undertook to do a piece of work for a hospital. It took him a year. At the end of the year his business was in shreds and tatters. He had one of those businesses that needs a man's personal attention." "His attention had gone to his hospital, which, by the way, was built and flourishes, to the everlasting credit of his city. It ought to be called the B'Jones hospital, but it isn't."
"A lot of his brethren in his lodge got to know about B'Jones. They called a meeting, called it the B'Jones meeting, issued stock in the B'Jones association, bought the stock, started B'Jones off all over again, and let him pay them back as he could. All this, without B'Jones ever asking for help.
Brotherly love, my son, in the best meaning of the word."
"There was poor old Smith. Smith, during his lifetime, came to the lodge every night. He wasn't very bright, that Smith. He could't learn the work and had no presence. Couldn't make a speech to save his life, so he never was called on at banquets. He never did anything audible, but he was always on committees and he always passed around refreshments and he attended every funeral, and he was always down ahead of the meeting to see if the room was clean, and if it wasn't, he'd sweep it out."
"He gave the best he had in service. Well, Smith died. Men do, you know; and awful lot have, already. At the funeral, we found out Smith left an invalid wife and two half grown children and no assets. It's the lodge's business to take care of such, and we did it.
But three men in the lodge with more money than ability to keep it to themselves, subscribed enough cash to put the boy through a good business school and the girl through a normal school, so they could earn their own living. Charity? Nonsense! The lodge attended to the 'relief.' The three attended to brotherly love. They just remembered what old Smith was and how he gave, and so they turned to and gave. Actually, Smith did most of the loving. The three just acted in reflex to Smith's loving heart, that so cared for his brethren and his Lodge he was always engaged in brotherly work."
"Do you know Brown? Brown runs a garage. Also, Brown ran a temperature until the doctors took him off to the hospital to cut out his something-or -other. Well, the garage was about to cash in. Garages don't run themselves, and there wasn't any one we could hire to run it. So six brothers of this lodge spent two hours a day each at the place, looking after it. We didn't do a very good job, I'm afraid: Brown says we are the worst garage keepers in the world, but we saved the shop from being wrecked and looted, and Brown thinks Masonry means something.
One reason we did it was because of brotherly love in spirit of the fact that sitting around a cold garage selling gasoline is about the uneasiest apology for loafing I know!" "I could talk all night about it. But what's the use? Those to whom 'brotherly love' is just words won't listen to what I say and those who know what they really mean don't need to hear it."
"Well, I am glad I heard it!" answered the Very New Mason. "Then," went the Old Past Master, "get it firmly fixed in your mind, young man, more than one man has gone into a lodge and curled his lip when he learned that he was supposed to be a brotherly lover, and turned around and wept when he found that he was being loved like a brother by men he didn't know cared what became of him."
"Masonry works miracles all the time, and the commonest of them and the one she works oftenest is teaching hard-hearted citizens to be soft-hearted Masons; teaching men the real meaning of the words 'brotherly' and 'love' until they, too, become teachers."
"Brotherly love?" commented the Old Past Master. "Oh, yes, the lodge is full of it.
It is curious the way it manifests itself, sometimes, but when you dig down deep enough into men's hearts, you find a lot of it." "A lot of them never show it, then," said the Very New Mason. "Oh, no, certainly not! Men don't go around demonstrating their affection like a lot of girls, you know," answered the Old Past Master.
"But you don't have to see a demonstration to know the feeling is there. The trouble with so many young Masons is their misunderstanding of the term 'brotherly love,' though high heaven knows the words are sufficiently easy to understand."
"'Brotherly, ' now, means 'like a brother.' I know a lot of brothers hate each other, but they don't act like brothers. There have been cowardly soldiers, and forsworn ministers, and corrupt judges, but when you say a man is 'like a soldier,' you mean 'brave and true'; when you say he is 'good as a minister' you mean one who 'truly does his honest best.' When you say 'upright as a judge' you mean 'as straight as the best of judges.' And when I say 'brotherly' means 'like a brother,' I mean like a brother who is acting as a good brother likes to act."
"As for 'love' there are more definitions than there are words in my mouth (which are several). But in connection with the 'brotherly' the word means that true affection which first considers the good of the person loved."
"Masonry teaches brotherly love. Many of its scholars are a long way from 100 per cent perfect in their lessons. But a lot could get an 'E' on their report card if the Lodge gave out evidence of scholastic standing!
"For instance, there was B'Jones. That is not his name, but it will serve. B'Jones undertook to do a piece of work for a hospital. It took him a year. At the end of the year his business was in shreds and tatters. He had one of those businesses that needs a man's personal attention." "His attention had gone to his hospital, which, by the way, was built and flourishes, to the everlasting credit of his city. It ought to be called the B'Jones hospital, but it isn't."
"A lot of his brethren in his lodge got to know about B'Jones. They called a meeting, called it the B'Jones meeting, issued stock in the B'Jones association, bought the stock, started B'Jones off all over again, and let him pay them back as he could. All this, without B'Jones ever asking for help.
Brotherly love, my son, in the best meaning of the word."
"There was poor old Smith. Smith, during his lifetime, came to the lodge every night. He wasn't very bright, that Smith. He could't learn the work and had no presence. Couldn't make a speech to save his life, so he never was called on at banquets. He never did anything audible, but he was always on committees and he always passed around refreshments and he attended every funeral, and he was always down ahead of the meeting to see if the room was clean, and if it wasn't, he'd sweep it out."
"He gave the best he had in service. Well, Smith died. Men do, you know; and awful lot have, already. At the funeral, we found out Smith left an invalid wife and two half grown children and no assets. It's the lodge's business to take care of such, and we did it.
But three men in the lodge with more money than ability to keep it to themselves, subscribed enough cash to put the boy through a good business school and the girl through a normal school, so they could earn their own living. Charity? Nonsense! The lodge attended to the 'relief.' The three attended to brotherly love. They just remembered what old Smith was and how he gave, and so they turned to and gave. Actually, Smith did most of the loving. The three just acted in reflex to Smith's loving heart, that so cared for his brethren and his Lodge he was always engaged in brotherly work."
"Do you know Brown? Brown runs a garage. Also, Brown ran a temperature until the doctors took him off to the hospital to cut out his something-or -other. Well, the garage was about to cash in. Garages don't run themselves, and there wasn't any one we could hire to run it. So six brothers of this lodge spent two hours a day each at the place, looking after it. We didn't do a very good job, I'm afraid: Brown says we are the worst garage keepers in the world, but we saved the shop from being wrecked and looted, and Brown thinks Masonry means something.
One reason we did it was because of brotherly love in spirit of the fact that sitting around a cold garage selling gasoline is about the uneasiest apology for loafing I know!" "I could talk all night about it. But what's the use? Those to whom 'brotherly love' is just words won't listen to what I say and those who know what they really mean don't need to hear it."
"Well, I am glad I heard it!" answered the Very New Mason. "Then," went the Old Past Master, "get it firmly fixed in your mind, young man, more than one man has gone into a lodge and curled his lip when he learned that he was supposed to be a brotherly lover, and turned around and wept when he found that he was being loved like a brother by men he didn't know cared what became of him."
"Masonry works miracles all the time, and the commonest of them and the one she works oftenest is teaching hard-hearted citizens to be soft-hearted Masons; teaching men the real meaning of the words 'brotherly' and 'love' until they, too, become teachers."
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