Freemasonry teaches us many lessons about life, with a heavy emphasis on how short it is and how important it is we look forward to the evergreen Acacia that beckons us to the next world. The entire world shutting down to try to protect human life and health has certainly brought these basic Masonic concepts to the front of our awareness. As a result however many of our Masonic family are surely struggling with loss of income, perhaps even complete loss of livelihood, and the boredom and challenges of being sequestered at home with the family. Luckily I have not heard of anyone in our immediate Masonic family that has been stricken with the disease. Meanwhile we are bombarded daily with the unrelenting fear of the food supply chain failing, businesses closing for good, and the world’s countries printing money to save their populations while ruining future generation’s standard of living as the world slowly pays back what it is spending right now.
Keep your eyes on the prize of your own life. A life well spent with a focus on health and love. Instead of alcohol before dinner tonight, try doing some pushups. Can you do one? Can you do one on your knees (there is nothing
wrong with that at all)? How about a sit-up or two? A daily 30 minute walk around the neighborhood is cathartic as well as good for the heart. A daily walk shows the constant changes in the environment. Irises are in full bloom right now, with some of them starting to pass. The Western Redbud has passed it’s glorious spring color but grapes are starting to grow, and flowers are proliferating in yards. Doves are nesting, and woodpeckers are cutting perfect circles in dead trees for the same purpose.
Keep in mind our Masonic Values. It is rare to find a community wherein a man can express his opinion even if counter to every single other person’s opinion, have the vote on the issue go the way of the preponderance of opinion, and the lone outsider experience no repercussion for his dissenting opinion and for his part harbors no negative thoughts of the opinion of the others. Love and respect continues unabated, all towards the goal of maintaining civility in the world. That’s how we Masons roll. “By your actions they will know you”. Our Masonic values are predicated on a few basic concepts: Faith, Hope, and Charity. We hold Faith in our heart that the Supreme Architect, the Great Architect of the Universe, that which lies at the root of observation itself, is our redemption. Not a savior. Not a reformer. Not a judge. A redeemer. Like winning the lottery and “redeeming” the prize, or more accurately after spending a human life in the pain of the world the GAOTU redeems us to the next world, or really our prior world, or most correctly, our current world but viewed from outside the confines of the human identity.
As Masons we have Faith that our future existence when our earthly work is finished will be one absorbed into the greater work that occurs in the larger reality of life that is beyond that of the earthly plane of existence. We have Faith that the Supreme Ruler loves us as himself, for indeed we learn from Perennial Philosophy that all that exists is the One Thing. The earthly worldly mind believes itself to be separate and unique, thinking for itself, independent of other sentient creatures, but we delude ourselves as if a stream of water were to say “I am the streamer that streams the stream”. It would be wrong of course, for it is all just water, and similarly we are all just life, life of the eternal Master of the Universe, that unchanging, undying, constant aspect that illuminates all we experience.
As Freemasons, Free Thinkers, Free Men, we carry Hope in our hearts. Hope for the betterment of mankind. Hope that mankind will learn to support each other, to love one another as one’s self. To protect each other from disease, war, and loss, rather than promulgate it. We hope that mankind will learn to stop and let someone back out of their parking spot instead of zooming
around them with a blaring horn because we didn’t want to wait for them (but most likely they didn’t even see you there...people make assumptions of intention that are usually inaccurate). We have hope that people will have patience and support each other. We hope for love to be the overriding concern of humanity and not stealing from a different country, not killing the planet’s soil and wildlife and air. As Freemasons we collectively demonstrate daily to the world that our Hope should be the world’s hope.
Charity rises to the top of our work in the world as Freemasons. Not just the Masonic Relief kind of charity. Not just supporting our Masonic Homes so our members and our widows are assured of comfortable, safe final years (which I am a big supporter of and encourage you all to support). Charity can be behind the motivation of our daily actions. To help other people feel good about themselves. Not to make ourselves feel good at the expense of others, but rather to find an internal good feeling by making others feel good about themselves. When people excel in a responsibility because of our support in that task, give them all the credit. Take none for yourself. If we all went about our days trying to make other people feel good about themselves, then we will also be getting plenty of that same positive attention directed to ourselves. If the world were to have Charity for all mankind, and for all the planet, we would immediately change the world into a different place, and humanity would have different goals.
This is the Great Work we as Freemasons do. By adhering to and by remembering in our hearts to have Faith, Hope, and Charity we can collectively change the world. It’s the 100 monkey theory or Lynn McTaggart’s Intention Experiment. “By your works they will know you”, and the world will be changed.
