“To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care.”
Every Master Mason is charged with that great duty. Obviously it means the reputation of the Fraternity before the non-Masonic world. That reputation is one of the greatest assets of Freemasonry; indeed, only by our reputation do we live and grow, since Masons are forbidden to proselyte. No real Mason ever asks a profane to join the Order; the man must seek the Light; not the Light seeking the man.
The reputation of Masonry in the world is that of an Order in which men bind themselves to secrecy; practice charity and brotherhood; do good without self advertising; choose wisely among our petitioners; work a gentle influence upon themselves and their fellows towards right conduct, clean thinking and fine citizenship. Freemasonry has certain contacts with the public; for instance, her Masonic Homes are public in the sense that they stand as monuments to Masonic Charity for all the world to see. The world at large observes us in funeral processions, burying our dead with reverence, honor and ceremonies strange to profane eyes. It watches our Grand Lodges lay the corner stones of public buildings, pouring the ancient sacrifices of corn, wine and oil; dedicating and consecrating (if it is a church) the building to its uses. It sees us occasionally attend Divine services in a body. It can obtain beautiful books about Freemasonry, from which it can learn of the fundamental principles which underlie the Order.
But “the secrets of Freemasonry are safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts.”
Some Masons consider certain matters as “secrets” which are not so, in fact, even though they are not the subject of common talk or vain boast. It is no “secret” that Freemasonry teaches and inculcates, in so far as her power lies, those principles of law, order, morals, citizenship, fear and love of God which make for the highest type of manhood.
The non-secret teachings of the three degrees are briefly as follows:
In the Entered Apprentice Degree the initiate is taught the necessity of a belief in God; of charity towards all mankind, and especially a brother Mason; of secrecy; of the meaning of brotherly love; the reasons for relief; the greatness of truth; the advantages of temperance; the value of fortitude; the part played in Masonic life by prudence and the equality of strict justice. He is charged to inculcate the three great duties; to be reverent before God, to pray to Him for help, to venerate Him as the source of all that is good. He is exhorted to practice the Golden Rule and to avoid excesses of all kinds. He is admonished to be quiet and peaceable, not to countenance disloyalty and rebellion, to be true and just to government and country and to be cheerful under its laws. He is charged to come often to lodge but not to neglect his business, not to argue about Freemasonry with the ignorant but to learn Masonry from Masons, and once again, to be secret. Finally he is urged to present only such candidates as he is sure will agree to all that he has agreed to.
In the Fellowcraft Degree he argues that he will be secret regarding that which must be kept secret; that he will obey the by-laws of his own lodge; and the laws, rules, regulations and edicts of his Grand Lodge; to answer proper summons; is again reminded of his duty as a Mason in charity and relief. He agrees that a good Mason is an honest and upright man. He is taught the importance of the seventh day and the advantages of learning in general are placed before him, with especial reference to the science of geometry. Emphasis is again placed upon a reverent attitude before Deity. Then he is charged with the need for balanced judgment; is exhorted to study the seven liberal arts and is shown that geometry is not only a mathematical and Masonic science, but also a moral one. Regular behavior is impressed upon him, as well as “the practice of all commendable virtues.”
In the Master Mason Degree all that has gone before is again emphasized, and many additional duties and responsibilities are laid upon the initiate. Science, secrecy, fidelity to trust, courage, resignation and sacrifice are taught in the great drama. His obligations are extended; his brotherly relations with his fellows are more clearly and strictly defined. Her is taught the need for willing service; that prayer is not only for the petitioner; that he must be worthy of confidence; that his strength is not only for himself but for his falling brother; that wisdom in not only for the possessor but should be shared; that a brother has the right to know of approaching disaster.
He is charged to set a good example; to guard others, as well as himself from a breach of fidelity; he must preserve the ancient Landmarks and he must not countenance any changes in our established customs. Secrecy is again emphasized; the dignity of the character of a Master Mason is to be upheld; the faith and confidence of his fellows is put before him as the reward for fidelity and faith. Reducing these great teachings to the least possible number of words and avoiding duplications produces the following list of those matters which a Mason is taught, and to which he promises, either actually or by implication, complete agreement. On these rest the reputation of the Fraternity.
Belief in God, Charity, Secrecy, Brotherly Love Relief Truth, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Reverence, Prayer, Veneration, Golden Rule, Peaceableness, Good Citizenship, Obedience to Masonic Authority, Honesty, Observance of the Sabbath, Education, Judgment, Fidelity to Trust, Courage, Resignation, Self Sacrifice, Service to Others, Trustworthiness to Confidence, Sharing Strength and Wisdom, Setting a Good Example, Preservation of the Ancient Landmarks, Faith, and Dignity.
If “every” Freemason lived up to “all” these teachings, what an Utopia the world would be!
But what is remarkable is not how many Masons fail, but how many succeed! That they do succeed is evidenced by the reputation of the Fraternity in Non-Masonic circles. Were Masons as a class false to their teachings, lax in their conduct, forsworn as to their obligations; Freemasonry would not posses the fair reputation she has:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with every mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
If the Man of Galilee was content to reduce “all the law” to fifty-three words, surely Freemasonry might formulate an equally short statement of her aims and purposes. But while “all the law” may be put into a few words, many thousand words of New Testament are needed to explain the teachings of Christianity.
Men learn by repetition. They absorb that which is told to them, and retold, and told once more. Freemasonry but follows the ancient manner of teaching when she iterates and reiterates the duties of a Mason towards his God, his neighbor and himself. But because Freemasonry teaches by repetition, her detailed reiteration makes possible many ways in which a Mason may offend. If he does not actively break a rule, he may fail as a Mason merely by a negative attitude. To fail to do good is not necessarily to do evil, but neither is a failure to work mischief necessarily a doing of good works! It is expected of men that they will fail, otherwise they are not men, but Gods! If no man ever failed, Freemasonry would be unnecessary. When a building is completed, the workmen depart. When the House Not Made With Hands is perfectly erected, the Craft is no more use.
It is one thing to fail in any Masonic duty; it is another to fail so publicly that the reputation of the Fraternity is hurt - that reputation of which we are taught that its preservation is of vital importance. Occasionally, more’s the pity, it is necessary for a Masonic organization to take practical steps in regard to some brother who has failed to live up to the Masonic teachings. Masons are only men who have solemnly agreed to do certain things; sometimes they are foresworn. Sometimes our committees do not do their work aright and we are given cracked stones to work upon. Sometimes a good man changes as he grows older, and even the sweet and gentle influence of the Craft cannot hold him in the straight and narrow way.
The lodge in which someone holds membership may well be advised to do little rather than much. There are times when something must be done; when the reputation of which we think so much is hurt by failure to do. Then we have all the misery and pain of a Masonic trial; the sad washing of dirty linen in the lodge; the grief of seeing our good and great Order dragged to some extent into public notice; when ever a Mason receives the worst Masonic penalty - expulsion, or Masonic death - the world at large usually hears of it. Few are the Masons who have no friends! Hence a Masonic trial is very apt to create tense feelings in a lodge, if not worse, and the harmony which is “the strength and support of all well regulated institutions” is made into a discord.
However, it cannot always be helped! - “But in a great many cases it can be helped!”
It is human to want to “get even.” Our brother wrongs us; it is only natural to wish him taken before the bar of lodge opinion, and, perhaps, punish him for his infraction of his obligation. Brethren often see no further than the immediate present; the immediate wrong doing; the immediate lodge trial and its results. A word of wise caution may make him look further. No man, unless suffering wrong of the most grievous character, but may be caused to stop and think by reminding him of the many obligations and duties he assumed when he, too, became a Mason. Let all such be asked, gently, kindly, considerately but pointedly - “will this action you propose benefit you as much as it will injure the lodge and the Fraternity? Will the results, inevitably to some extent public, do more harm to that reputation which we cherish than they will good to you? Is it not possible that our erring brother may be brought to make amends by less drastic means than the sad lodge trial?
Let no brother retort “but it should not become public!” Agreed, a lodge trial should never be a public matter. But while we hold our own Mystic Tie, and the cord of secrecy is tight about our lips, we do not hold relations and friends in the same manner. John Smith is tried and suspended, perhaps expelled. He no longer goes to lodge. People want to know why. In self defense he says what he can - but what can he say? Inevitably the result of the trial becomes public. Then we suffer.
At times it is necessary to stand pain to get rid of a cancer. But the best surgeon does not use a knife until all other means fail. That lodge, that Master and those brethren who seek to compose differences, win the erring back to the path their feet should never have left, do a real service to their lodge, to their offended brother, to their erring brother and to the Fraternity whose reputation “should be our constant care.”
To whisper good counsel in the ear of an erring brother is sound Masonic teaching. To prevent tarnishing the reputation of the Fraternity we must not only endeavor to live up to the high level of our teachings, but strive to help our brethren do likewise. The best way, the brotherly way, the way of Freemasonry is by kindly caution, the friendly word of admonition, the hand stretched out to assist and save the worthy falling brother.
Only when these fail - and never then until after thinking first of the Order, next of the lodge and last of self - should we go to the court of last resort, prefer charges, have a trial and do ourselves the injury which comes always from the knife of publicity in the body of our Ancient Craft.
Freemasonry - so we truly believe - is one of God’s bright tools for shaping of the rough ashlars which we are.
“LET US STRIVE TO KEEP IT BRIGHT!”
From: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VIII April, 1930 No.4 [Author unknown]
Showing posts with label Masonic Harmony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masonic Harmony. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2013
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Masonic Harmony by MW Reynato S. Puno, PGM
*Keynote Address, delivered at the 92nd Annual Communication (of the MW Grand Lodge of the Philippines), April 24, 2008, Bacolod City.
"I have been requested by MW Jaime Gonzales to talk about harmony.
I can well understand the rationale of his request, for human history irrefutably demonstrates that one of the greatest human tragedies has been our continuous failure to overcome disharmony. I stress our nonstop failure, for disharmony has victimized pre-historic humans when their intelligence was no higher than that of the apes during the Stone Age until today, when human super-intelligence is about to enable us to clone ourselves.
I emphasize tragedy, because disharmony has resulted in the greatest loss of human lives, greater than the loss we have suffered from the most devastating earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes, tsunamis and epidemics in the world.
It is not my intent to overwhelm you with a niagara of information. Let me just cite the number of people who violently died in various wars in the last century as a result of human disharmony. The famous British historian Hobsbrawn in his best-selling book entitled Age of Extremes wrote:
x x x
Local, regional or global, the wars of the 20th century were to be on an altogether vaster scale than anything previously experienced. Among 74 international wars between 1816 and 1964, xxx the four occurred in the two world wars, the Japanese war against China in 1937-39 and the Korean war. They killed upwards of 1 million persons in battle.
In 1993, Brezinski, estimated the number of people who died in the last century as 187 million. It is no wonder that when asked about his thoughts on the 20th century, William Golding, writer and Nobel laureate, said: "I cannot help thinking that this has been the most violent century in human history."
The end of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia fueled the hope that we had stepped into a new and higher threshold of harmony, where peace would finally cease to elude us. That universal dream, however, was dashed to pieces by a new war that greeted the millennium, the war on terrorism. Tomes and tomes of literature have been written about the frightening direction that this war on terrorism would take, but I like to believe that the observations of Prof. Samuel Huntington from Harvard University and author of the classic book End of Civilization are most enlightening:
x x x
In the wake of the Cold War, the increasing intensity of this historical antagonism has been widely recognized by members of both communities. In 1991, for instance, Barry Buzan saw many reasons why a societal cold war was emerging "between the West and Islam, in which Europe would be on the frontline."
This development is partly to do with secular versus religious values, partly to do with the historical rivalry between Christendom and Islam, partly to do with resentments over Western domination of the post-colonial political structuring of the Middle East, and partly to do with the bitterness and humiliation of the invidious comparison between the accomplishments of Islamic and Western civilizations in the last two centuries.
xxx
Similar observations came from the Islamic community. There are unmistakable signs, argued a leading Egyptian journalist, Mohammed Sid Ahmed, x x x "of a growing clash between the Judeo-Christian Western ethic and the Islamic revival movement which is now stretching from the Atlantic in the west to China in the east." Another prominent Indian Muslim also predicted that the West’s "next confrontation is definitely going to come from the Muslim world. It is in the sweep of the Islamic nations from the Maghreb to Pakistan that the struggle for a new world order will begin."
The exclamation point is that violence and death due to lack of harmony will continue to hound humankind in this millennium.
To be sure, the best and the brightest among men have exhausted their cerebrums to address this problem of lack of harmony. The monument to this effort is the organization of the United Nations, composed of sovereign nations all over the world. Given the fact, however, that these nations will not surrender their respective sovereignties, the United Nations (UN) from its inception was hobbled in its goal of achieving a lasting international peace.
The member countries of the UN were too diverse; their political agendas were hopelessly irreconcilable; their finances were too meager; their correct decisions could be vetoed by the big powers -- all these and more prevented the UN from establishing harmony among nations in the world.
The UN experience teaches us two lessons: first, harmony is peace but it is peace, that means more than the lack of war; and second, harmony, cannot be expected from states that are no more than artificial persons. Unlike natural persons, artificial persons are without souls; hence, they are bereft of ethics, and they do not exist to satisfy the divine design of serving out of selflessness.
The inconvenient question is whether masonic harmony is the panacea to this problem of disunity, a problem that has torn humans asunder since time immemorial. I have no reservations in making the submission that masonic harmony holds the key to the human problem of disunity. I start with the proposition that to plumb the dizzying depth and breadth of the problem of disunity, we must know its causes.
Theologians theorize that the cause is our decision to control our own destiny, to be the captains of our own fate. Some economic pundits peddle the idea that disunity is caused by the pursuit of profit, for which greed is the driving force. Some political scientists opine that disunity is caused by the overriding agenda of states to rule the world regardless of consequence.
As one of the ancient depositories of human knowledge, masonry has its own postulates on why lack of harmony has always hounded us in our journey to the East. Bereft of its esoterics, our 3rd Degree informs us of the three principal evils that mangle human harmony. We are all familiar with the life and legend of Hiram Abiff, the widow’s son. Masonic scholars describe him as an inspired master, the most skillful worker who ever lived. His abilities were not confined to just construction, but extended to all kinds of work -- whether on gold, silver, brass or iron; whether on linen, tapestry or embroidery. The inerrant Good Book tells us he was personally chosen by King Solomon to build the Lord’s temple. Day in and day out, he supervised about 200,000 artisans and laborers without any discordance or confusion.
In short, Hiram Abiff was the perfect practitioner of harmony. But we all know the tragedy that struck this symbol of harmony, this icon of unity. The three evils attacked and killed him and caused confusion in the temple. The 3 J’s representing different kinds of evil represent the three principal causes that destroy the harmony of men.
The first cause is the virus of ignorance. Ignorance, especially organized ignorance, has divided men by keeping them in the dungeons of darkness. Galileo who ushered the scientific revolution, is a notorious victim of the reign of ignorance. During his career, he invented the hydrostatic balance, the first practical thermometer, the geometric and military compass and the astronomical telescope. He was the first person to see the mountains on the moon, to discover the rings of Saturn, to know that the sun revolved, and that the earth and the planets revolved around the sun. For proclaiming the truth of nature, he was charged with heresy, tried by the Inquisition and, needless to say, convicted by the dumb.
The second cause of man’s lack of harmony is love of the material and doubt of the spiritual. Truly, it is self-evident that the battle between the denizens of the world of spirit and the world of matter, the war between the God of Grace and the God of Gold has ripped human harmony apart.
The life of Jesus Christ tells us of this raging battle of life. He taught about the Kingdom of God, but those who suffered from a severe deficit of spiritual enlightenment crucified Him on the Cross. Yet, no other person has changed history as much as Jesus of Nazareth did. He wrote no poetry, but Milton, Dante and the world’s finest poets were inspired by Him. He composed no music, but Handel, Beethoven, Bach and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection when composing hymns and symphonies to His praise. He painted no pictures, but Raphael, Michelangelo and Da Vinci were inspired to greatness in painting His life and ministry.
Today, those who are slaves ofthe God of Gold rule the world; this is the worst variety of atheism the world has ever known.
The third cause of the lack of human harmony is prejudice. The word "prejudice" comes from the Latin prae, meaning "before"; and judicium, meaning judgment. It is a prejudgment often driven by passion, hatred, lust, and the like.
Perhaps the most disruptive kind of prejudice, is racial prejudice especially that provoked by the color of skin. Millions have been dehumanized because of this prejudice, in which one’s value as a human being depends on the fairness of one’s skin, the shape of one’s eyes and the elevation of one’s nose.
We remember those who have fought against this prejudice that disturbs human harmony. One of them is Nelson Mandela, who dismantled apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid called for the separate and unequal treatment of the white and the black races. Mandela led the long and difficult fight against apartheid. He was in and out of prison for 27 years. Life imprisonment was meted out to him; but the South African whites knew that while they could chain the body of Mandela, they could not capture his soul. When his life sentence was read to him, he replied, and I quote:
"During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
They locked in Mandela, but they could not lock out his message.
Time is precious, and nobody has the privilege to delay it by the sorcery of semantics. Let me just conclude by underscoring in neon that harmony is not a masonic teaching that is yet in its fetal stage. It has long been the life of masonry, and every mason should continuously give it the breath of life. Now and not later, it is our bounden duty to demonstrate to the world the validity of our concept of harmony. The cacophony of circumstances calls us to prove once again that masonry is still a powerful difference, and we can do that only if we let our talk and walk coincide with each other.
We cannot bleach reality. Everywhere we cast our sight, our eyeballs are grabbed by ugly influences that threaten the threads of harmony among our people. We behold the thickening fog of ignorance that hides from the people the unacceptable inequities of life. Our masonic duty to spread harmony calls for us to dissolve the mist that blurs the difference between truth and falsehood. Masons unequivocably stand for truth, and we should never seek truce with falsehoods. Indeed, we should not be satisfied with half-truths, for half-truths are complete lies in disguise.
We also behold the merciless march of materialism, the seemingly unending rule of the God of Gold and the rejection of the God of Love. Our masonic duty to spread harmony calls for us to help shape a society where the reign of greed cannot endure; where the number of hands with begging bowls should be less; where the clenched fists of protests should be lesser, because humans should be dictated more by their values than by their valuables.
We also behold the prejudices that drive so much dissension into the various strata of our society -- especially the prejudices fueled by religious bigotry and the prejudices fanned by racial superiority.
Our duty as masons to spread harmony is to demolish these strongholds of prejudice, for if there is a vice that blinds, it is the scales of prejudice that cover the eyes of the prejudiced. Our duty to spread harmony is one we cannot avoid. It is a duty we have to discharge not onlybecause it is right, but more because it is righteous. And when we rise to fight for righteousness, we should not be daunted by the fear that sometimes we may lack the strength of number; we should not tremble even if we are alone; we should not worry if our voice momentarily sounds as the voice from the wilderness.
Let us not forget even for a moment that masons fight for the sovereignty of eternal virtues, and that their eternal validity cannot be surrendered to any earthly power -- not to the scepter of kings, not to the strength of the elite, neither to the muscle of the majority. For, what is right and what is wrong can never be resolved by autocracy or by mobocracy. And like Hiram Abiff, masons must not allow death to terrorize them, for the finish line of the battle between good and evil is set in another kingdom -- the Kingdom of God, where victory will belong to the Lamb and not to the Lions.
Good day to all."
"I have been requested by MW Jaime Gonzales to talk about harmony.
I can well understand the rationale of his request, for human history irrefutably demonstrates that one of the greatest human tragedies has been our continuous failure to overcome disharmony. I stress our nonstop failure, for disharmony has victimized pre-historic humans when their intelligence was no higher than that of the apes during the Stone Age until today, when human super-intelligence is about to enable us to clone ourselves.
I emphasize tragedy, because disharmony has resulted in the greatest loss of human lives, greater than the loss we have suffered from the most devastating earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes, tsunamis and epidemics in the world.
It is not my intent to overwhelm you with a niagara of information. Let me just cite the number of people who violently died in various wars in the last century as a result of human disharmony. The famous British historian Hobsbrawn in his best-selling book entitled Age of Extremes wrote:
x x x
Local, regional or global, the wars of the 20th century were to be on an altogether vaster scale than anything previously experienced. Among 74 international wars between 1816 and 1964, xxx the four occurred in the two world wars, the Japanese war against China in 1937-39 and the Korean war. They killed upwards of 1 million persons in battle.
In 1993, Brezinski, estimated the number of people who died in the last century as 187 million. It is no wonder that when asked about his thoughts on the 20th century, William Golding, writer and Nobel laureate, said: "I cannot help thinking that this has been the most violent century in human history."
The end of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia fueled the hope that we had stepped into a new and higher threshold of harmony, where peace would finally cease to elude us. That universal dream, however, was dashed to pieces by a new war that greeted the millennium, the war on terrorism. Tomes and tomes of literature have been written about the frightening direction that this war on terrorism would take, but I like to believe that the observations of Prof. Samuel Huntington from Harvard University and author of the classic book End of Civilization are most enlightening:
x x x
In the wake of the Cold War, the increasing intensity of this historical antagonism has been widely recognized by members of both communities. In 1991, for instance, Barry Buzan saw many reasons why a societal cold war was emerging "between the West and Islam, in which Europe would be on the frontline."
This development is partly to do with secular versus religious values, partly to do with the historical rivalry between Christendom and Islam, partly to do with resentments over Western domination of the post-colonial political structuring of the Middle East, and partly to do with the bitterness and humiliation of the invidious comparison between the accomplishments of Islamic and Western civilizations in the last two centuries.
xxx
Similar observations came from the Islamic community. There are unmistakable signs, argued a leading Egyptian journalist, Mohammed Sid Ahmed, x x x "of a growing clash between the Judeo-Christian Western ethic and the Islamic revival movement which is now stretching from the Atlantic in the west to China in the east." Another prominent Indian Muslim also predicted that the West’s "next confrontation is definitely going to come from the Muslim world. It is in the sweep of the Islamic nations from the Maghreb to Pakistan that the struggle for a new world order will begin."
The exclamation point is that violence and death due to lack of harmony will continue to hound humankind in this millennium.
To be sure, the best and the brightest among men have exhausted their cerebrums to address this problem of lack of harmony. The monument to this effort is the organization of the United Nations, composed of sovereign nations all over the world. Given the fact, however, that these nations will not surrender their respective sovereignties, the United Nations (UN) from its inception was hobbled in its goal of achieving a lasting international peace.
The member countries of the UN were too diverse; their political agendas were hopelessly irreconcilable; their finances were too meager; their correct decisions could be vetoed by the big powers -- all these and more prevented the UN from establishing harmony among nations in the world.
The UN experience teaches us two lessons: first, harmony is peace but it is peace, that means more than the lack of war; and second, harmony, cannot be expected from states that are no more than artificial persons. Unlike natural persons, artificial persons are without souls; hence, they are bereft of ethics, and they do not exist to satisfy the divine design of serving out of selflessness.
The inconvenient question is whether masonic harmony is the panacea to this problem of disunity, a problem that has torn humans asunder since time immemorial. I have no reservations in making the submission that masonic harmony holds the key to the human problem of disunity. I start with the proposition that to plumb the dizzying depth and breadth of the problem of disunity, we must know its causes.
Theologians theorize that the cause is our decision to control our own destiny, to be the captains of our own fate. Some economic pundits peddle the idea that disunity is caused by the pursuit of profit, for which greed is the driving force. Some political scientists opine that disunity is caused by the overriding agenda of states to rule the world regardless of consequence.
As one of the ancient depositories of human knowledge, masonry has its own postulates on why lack of harmony has always hounded us in our journey to the East. Bereft of its esoterics, our 3rd Degree informs us of the three principal evils that mangle human harmony. We are all familiar with the life and legend of Hiram Abiff, the widow’s son. Masonic scholars describe him as an inspired master, the most skillful worker who ever lived. His abilities were not confined to just construction, but extended to all kinds of work -- whether on gold, silver, brass or iron; whether on linen, tapestry or embroidery. The inerrant Good Book tells us he was personally chosen by King Solomon to build the Lord’s temple. Day in and day out, he supervised about 200,000 artisans and laborers without any discordance or confusion.
In short, Hiram Abiff was the perfect practitioner of harmony. But we all know the tragedy that struck this symbol of harmony, this icon of unity. The three evils attacked and killed him and caused confusion in the temple. The 3 J’s representing different kinds of evil represent the three principal causes that destroy the harmony of men.
The first cause is the virus of ignorance. Ignorance, especially organized ignorance, has divided men by keeping them in the dungeons of darkness. Galileo who ushered the scientific revolution, is a notorious victim of the reign of ignorance. During his career, he invented the hydrostatic balance, the first practical thermometer, the geometric and military compass and the astronomical telescope. He was the first person to see the mountains on the moon, to discover the rings of Saturn, to know that the sun revolved, and that the earth and the planets revolved around the sun. For proclaiming the truth of nature, he was charged with heresy, tried by the Inquisition and, needless to say, convicted by the dumb.
The second cause of man’s lack of harmony is love of the material and doubt of the spiritual. Truly, it is self-evident that the battle between the denizens of the world of spirit and the world of matter, the war between the God of Grace and the God of Gold has ripped human harmony apart.
The life of Jesus Christ tells us of this raging battle of life. He taught about the Kingdom of God, but those who suffered from a severe deficit of spiritual enlightenment crucified Him on the Cross. Yet, no other person has changed history as much as Jesus of Nazareth did. He wrote no poetry, but Milton, Dante and the world’s finest poets were inspired by Him. He composed no music, but Handel, Beethoven, Bach and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection when composing hymns and symphonies to His praise. He painted no pictures, but Raphael, Michelangelo and Da Vinci were inspired to greatness in painting His life and ministry.
Today, those who are slaves ofthe God of Gold rule the world; this is the worst variety of atheism the world has ever known.
The third cause of the lack of human harmony is prejudice. The word "prejudice" comes from the Latin prae, meaning "before"; and judicium, meaning judgment. It is a prejudgment often driven by passion, hatred, lust, and the like.
Perhaps the most disruptive kind of prejudice, is racial prejudice especially that provoked by the color of skin. Millions have been dehumanized because of this prejudice, in which one’s value as a human being depends on the fairness of one’s skin, the shape of one’s eyes and the elevation of one’s nose.
We remember those who have fought against this prejudice that disturbs human harmony. One of them is Nelson Mandela, who dismantled apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid called for the separate and unequal treatment of the white and the black races. Mandela led the long and difficult fight against apartheid. He was in and out of prison for 27 years. Life imprisonment was meted out to him; but the South African whites knew that while they could chain the body of Mandela, they could not capture his soul. When his life sentence was read to him, he replied, and I quote:
"During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
They locked in Mandela, but they could not lock out his message.
Time is precious, and nobody has the privilege to delay it by the sorcery of semantics. Let me just conclude by underscoring in neon that harmony is not a masonic teaching that is yet in its fetal stage. It has long been the life of masonry, and every mason should continuously give it the breath of life. Now and not later, it is our bounden duty to demonstrate to the world the validity of our concept of harmony. The cacophony of circumstances calls us to prove once again that masonry is still a powerful difference, and we can do that only if we let our talk and walk coincide with each other.
We cannot bleach reality. Everywhere we cast our sight, our eyeballs are grabbed by ugly influences that threaten the threads of harmony among our people. We behold the thickening fog of ignorance that hides from the people the unacceptable inequities of life. Our masonic duty to spread harmony calls for us to dissolve the mist that blurs the difference between truth and falsehood. Masons unequivocably stand for truth, and we should never seek truce with falsehoods. Indeed, we should not be satisfied with half-truths, for half-truths are complete lies in disguise.
We also behold the merciless march of materialism, the seemingly unending rule of the God of Gold and the rejection of the God of Love. Our masonic duty to spread harmony calls for us to help shape a society where the reign of greed cannot endure; where the number of hands with begging bowls should be less; where the clenched fists of protests should be lesser, because humans should be dictated more by their values than by their valuables.
We also behold the prejudices that drive so much dissension into the various strata of our society -- especially the prejudices fueled by religious bigotry and the prejudices fanned by racial superiority.
Our duty as masons to spread harmony is to demolish these strongholds of prejudice, for if there is a vice that blinds, it is the scales of prejudice that cover the eyes of the prejudiced. Our duty to spread harmony is one we cannot avoid. It is a duty we have to discharge not onlybecause it is right, but more because it is righteous. And when we rise to fight for righteousness, we should not be daunted by the fear that sometimes we may lack the strength of number; we should not tremble even if we are alone; we should not worry if our voice momentarily sounds as the voice from the wilderness.
Let us not forget even for a moment that masons fight for the sovereignty of eternal virtues, and that their eternal validity cannot be surrendered to any earthly power -- not to the scepter of kings, not to the strength of the elite, neither to the muscle of the majority. For, what is right and what is wrong can never be resolved by autocracy or by mobocracy. And like Hiram Abiff, masons must not allow death to terrorize them, for the finish line of the battle between good and evil is set in another kingdom -- the Kingdom of God, where victory will belong to the Lamb and not to the Lions.
Good day to all."
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