What Came We Here to Do?

By Most Worshipful Jack Levitt

In Masonry, we have a great jewel. Its wisdom is a radiant discovery in the hearts and minds of men! It produces an important product: the greatest product of all is better men!

But, its immense benefit to the future could be lost if we don't exemplify our Masonic style of life in ways for all to see, admire and desire to emulate. Masonry will rise or fall on the actions of individual Masons. No Mason is exempt from this responsibility. It is not sufficient to say that I am a Mason.
It is not sufficient to wear the jewelry. It is not even sufficient to be an officer. What is required of every Mason is his dedication and devoted application to high moral principles.

The Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza said that men believe they sufficiently understand a thing when the mystic of it is gone. Unhappily, many Masons believe they understand Freemasonry and its mission when the mysteries have been unfolded and the superficial secrets have been revealed.

Far too many members consider it primarily a social organization with moral overlays. Not enough realize that the mission of Freemasonry is the enlightenment of the individual and that it presents its moral and ethical principles in order to influence each individual to commence a search for what human beings have always desired: perfection through self-improvement. The answer to the question "What came you here to do? coupled with part of our ritual that states that Freemasonry is to make men wiser and better and consequently happier, gives a strong suggestion to the same end. Additionally, it is a world-wide civilizing organization dedicated to improving society, and to foster the continual effort and struggle of the spiritual against the material and sensual.

Whatever one's belief of the mission, it is only by living the truths of Freemasonry that its quintessential purpose will be accomplished. By regulating one's conduct so that it is in harmony with the divine laws, and by always doing what one honestly believes is right.

Heed the words of Polonius giving advice to his son as he departs from Denmark on his return to France in Shakespeare's Hamlet "This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou cans't not then be false to any man."

Does this not state almost the whole Masonic ethos? Does it not make our brother Count Tolstoi's observation in his "War and Peace," that "inner purification is essential" clearly a statement of Masonic discipline?

Today, an immense field or arena of action lies open for~ Civil and religious liberty and human brotherhood to relight - inviting Masonic character to play a leading part in the world's affairs. The world changes. The patterns of society shift and rearrange. The society we live in today moves faster than ever before, from the old to the new, from a foundation of industry, to the production and distribution of information. But the true need of this society, is the strength found in the moral base of Masonic principles and a Mason's faith in God that inspires and that neither time nor adversity can diminish.

Donald G. Ingalls, Past Grand Master of California, once compared the two seas in the Holy Lands. That comparison is meaningful to this need of society. One of those seas is fresh and filled with fish. Its banks are green and trees spread their branches over it and plunge their thirsty roots into its waters. The River Jordan fills this sea with sparkling water from the hills. Men build houses near it, and birds their nests, and life is, happier on its shores. But, the River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here, there is neither, fish, nor trees, nor song of birds, nor children's laughter. The air hangs, heavy above its water and neither man, nor fowl, nor beast will drink of it.

What makes this difference in these two seas fed by the same river? The Sea of Galilee passes on that which it receives. For every drop of water that flows in, a drop of water flows out. The other sea has no outlet, it keeps what it gets. It stagnates and is called the Dead. The comparison illustrates~ that to give is to live and our gift to give, this special gift called Freemasonry, is a way of life, and a willingness of the heart. We must act to pass on to our neighbors, our friends and nation these precious gifts of right living. which our Craft has so generously bestowed on us.

Because we never invite. anyone to come to our altars and physical activities and our mental attitudes and influence in the community must inform God-believing men of the mission of our Order.

It is up to each of us to energize ourselves and to exemplify the faith of Freemasonry, so that others might look to us for example and inspiration, and thus spread Freemasonry's plea for universal friendship and its concern for human progress.

In this age of moral decline, individualism, material interests, speculation, overreaching and emphasis on self, the Masonry of today cannot be inaction, or misdirection. Each of us should exercise Masonic discipline, demonstrating the teachings of our Fraternity in daily life, in business and social dealings, in religion and in politics.

Rene Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician, once lamented that God gave man immediate~ full use of all his emotions: fear, hatred, jealousy, the bodily desires, all the pushing's and pulling's, and yet left man to slowly develop reason. Most of us never develop reason enough to bring our passions fully into obedience with the will of God; enough even to become masters over ourselves: God has given man the power of choice, but men cannot always be perfect and at times will err in choice. Freemasonry recognizes this and also recognizes that man needs a balance point. It, therefore, attempts to have man establish control, knowing that if thinking is controlled, so are the emotions, and hence the teaching of the point within a circle.

Too many Masons allow their passions to cloud their thinking and act with the negligence of indifference due to the seduction of luxury and irregularities that stain the soul and distemper the body. Too many disregard their obligations, those mystic ties, that not only bind us to our fellows by unbreakable bonds, but that bind us also to the principles of Freemasonry, by an invisible chord of honor that should be in the heart and not merely of the tongue.

It is human to want to qualify. our obligations, both of Freemasonry and life. But Freemasonry teaches us that there can be no qualifications, no evasion, reservation or equivocation at all. Like the questions asked during a wedding ceremony of taking the other to be a wedded spouse allow only a "yes" or "no", not a "maybe" or an "in so far as possible."

We must accept our obligations and seek to fulfill them. At the heart of obligation is responsibility, and men do not much like to accept responsibilities. From the beginning of man's experience in this world, he has been trying to get rid of responsibilities. Start at the beginning with Adam and Eve. Adam was hiding and God asked him the reason for it, and if he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. You remember what he said: "The woman thou gavest me, she tempted me and I did eat." And ever since then men have been blaming God, or fate, or someone else, or anything else except themselves for their acts and situations. Shakespeare had his own observation to this in his Julius Caesar, where he had Cassius say "The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings."

Not all of us can be learned or famous, but, each of us can be pure of heart: Whatever talents we are, or are not, blessed with, we can be living examples of Masonic character and integrity, and help build a world in which all men everywhere, will have a chance to find fulfillment of life, a world where no more will man's laws be ignored, promises be broken, or the rights of man violated.

Let us above all live in a manner befitting the dignity and worth of the Soul, remembering, as Emerson said, "What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

I leave you with a thought to consider, not only during this Grand Lodge session, but henceforth and always it is to remember the observations of the poet who said:

Out of all I hear and see, day by day I'm building me; I alone have the right to choose what to reject and what to use; Nobody's workmanship but mine can keep the structure true and fine: Strong or feeble, false or true. l build myself by how I think and what I do.

Finally, may God guide us to continue the Mystic Quest and thereby find peace and rest.

Past Grand Master Jack Levitt of the Grand Lodge of California delivered this keynote address at the 135th Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Montana.

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