SPIRITUALITY: THE MASONIC PARADOX

Nothing tempers a man more than experience.  I'm wondering why there is so much concern to 'rehabiliate' men who simply lack ability.  That discussion isn't new and where has it taken us? Nowhere! The lamentation plagues the Craft and corrosively undermines the philosophy of masonry.  We intitiate a fellow without knowing him. Proof of his nature and intellect surfaces onlhy after we have welcomed him into lodge, on a hope he won't disappoint. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes years but always the truth comes out.  To only initiate worthy men would require a change of thinking that is beyond the Order. We would be openly selective. Today we act with desparation, recruitment based on a pulse.  One senior of a degree-mill lodge explained this was a steady source of revenue- it kept annual fees low.  I hope one day I learn to overcome the sense of repulsion I felt toward him.  I'm imperfect too and not there yet.

We need to be so much more candid, honest and accepting than we have been because it is toxic to masonry to determine some members are inadequate.  Not at all. They are what they are. They get what they get. They give what they feel is in their best interest and there is no more.  Move on. Your obligation pointed to a path of enlightenment. That is what you took from initiation, that is your intelligence; your personality; your talents and ambitions.  But how does a good mason justify this sense of hubris?  For a time, the Romans made it an offence to laud your position over another. And to suggest it should and can be corrected? Isn't that a bit wreckless? 

Nothing distinguises superficial masons more than dissonance between his words and his behaviour. Does he act as his words? or does he even understand what he says?  Where has the spirit of masonry gone?  Perhaps it's hiding with the music.