1st Principals E-Message
28/Feb/09
I think every companion who decides to sit in the chair of Z has at one time or another
asked himself: “how can I best serve my chapter and RAM during my year?”
What can I possibly offer these wise experienced companions to help them become
better men?
The answer to my question came directly from the companions themselves.
Companion Adam Thompson recently provided an education piece in Doric lodge from
the committee on Masonic Education: entitled From Darkness towards light: and I
quote:
“Every man seeks answers to the fundamental questions of his existence: What am I,
why am I here? Where am I going? Our Masonic art guides and directs each man to
know himself by providing a carefully constructed course in self?improvement, self?
examination, self?discovery, self?analysis, self?realization along with an understanding of
his relationship with the Creator.
“The Mason properly instructed and guided learns the secret that the soul has it’s
setting from beyond the world of sense and time, that our life on this earth is not a
futile quest in which we are engaged but that life has meaning and purpose.
“If the mason seeks diligently he will get more out of it than he puts in – Not materially
but spiritually and mentally.”
These words remind me of a story I once heard:
It is the story of a beggar, sitting on a box, asking passersby to give him some money for
food. Then one day a man comes along and says, "I have nothing to give you…, but
what's in that box you're sitting on?" The beggar says, "As you can plainly see It’s just
an old box. I found it years ago, and have been sitting on it ever since."
"Have you ever looked inside?" asks the man. 'No, I haven't." answered the beggar.
"Take a look!" said man.
Upon opening the box the beggar finds that it had been filled with enough gold for the
rest of his life.
Companions we can sometimes be like a beggar sitting on a box, we tend to look
outward of our chapter for Masonic knowledge in the hope that we may be given
wisdom and light. We spend our days privately reading books on the subject of
masonry, or browsing the internet in the hope that those “passersby” may give us some
small token of that Masonic light.
I think we begin to believe that we need someone or something outside of Chapter?to
change us, fix us, and transform us, when in reality the power to change ourselves has
always been here within the chapter residing in the ritual itself.
We need only act as the man suggested, to stop sitting on the box begging and get up
and take a look at what’s inside. There we will surely find a treasure that lies closer to
each of us than any of the riches in the beggar's box.
It is by becoming fully conscious of the moral lessons that are contained in the ritual
that we learn how to open our own box.
Our Grand Superintendent R. Ex. Companion Andrew Graham once said in a letter he
wrote me that:
“It is the third part of the fundamental principals of ancient freemasonry: brotherly love,
relief and Truth that makes us more than a service club”
If the fundamental principal of Truth is what defines our craft as unique then that is
where we shall begin to open the box of this Chapter.
Therefore during every convocation we will work to together to study parts of the
lectures of the Ritual in search of those moral lessons and truths that will enrich each
one of us as RAMs.
I believe we should be working together in our researches rather than as individuals left
to fend on our own devices. If we as RAMs regularly attend chapter, study the ritual
together, discuss and share the knowledge that we each have. Our varied opinions and
knowledge will enrich each our perspectives and will move us closer to that point within
the circle from which we cannot err.
What is this fundamental principal of TRUTH to which I am alluding?
Truth is that light that was restored to you during your initiation as an EA, from the
darkness of ignorance, you were brought into that light of wisdom and truth that you
yourself said was the predominant will of your heart.
The Greek word for wisdom is Sophia and it was from the Ancient Greeks search for
wisdom and truth that we have the term “philosophy” which is derived from the
original Greek word philosophia, consisting of the root phileo, “to love,” and
sophia, “wisdom. “The love of wisdom” or Philosophy
We could surmise that all masons whose predominate will of their heart is light,
are lovers of wisdom and are in fact philosophers and spiritual seekers
The very nature of Chapter and RAM lends itself to assisting those philosophers in their
private quest for self?awareness. We need only give more priority, to the study and
practice of the deeper meanings of the ritual in order to gain light that we seek.
To the cynics who would discount this as not so, or would be quick to dismiss this as
wishful Masonic mysticism I would offer the following from the lecture of the RA
Degree:
“And my companions if in all these ceremonies, you have seen only a series of
unmeaning rites, if the spirit of truth has not applied to your hearts the morals of these
ceremonies, then indeed, we have laboured in vain, and you have spent your strength
for naught”
Companions remember also that just because you cannot see something does not
mean it does not exist. It may be that perhaps at this time you do not posses all the
proper tools necessary to see it.
Look at the things that bring you joy: a beautiful sunset, an inspiring piece of music, a
laughing child. Nobody taught you to love those things, because the appreciation you
feel is inborn. It's part of your true light and at the deepest level your truth and light are
waiting to be discovered and understood.
Remember the words of an ancient Master Craftsman: “Seek first the kingdom of heaven
and all else will be given unto you.”(Matthew 6:33) “for, behold, the kingdom of heaven
is within you.” Luke 17:20?21
Companions Let us re?dedicate ourselves to our Chapter, let our labours be not in vain
and this year begin the process of opening this Chapter’s Masonic box so that we may.
“Let our light shine into the darkness before men, that they may see our good work.”
