masonry and the perfect ashlar
by Bro. Darrell Hook
There are several discussion groups today and the debate rages
on how best to “fix”
Masonry. Comments on this topic range from the guarding of the
West gate to the loss of
the old grump in the front row who constantly complains about
how they “did it in his
day”. The ideas to fix the problem all range across a broad
spectrum as well, such as
higher dues, more active festive boards, European concept lodges
that stress formality
and respect through a more restrictive dress code and a tougher
progression through the
degrees whereby the Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft must
pass tests and prove
proficient in more then the ritual before they are allowed to
advance. While reviewing all
of these ideas and suggestions I am reminded of a few lines in
our monitor from a charge
delivered to the Entered Apprentice.
“The Rough Ashlar is a stone as taken from the quarry in its rude and natural
state; the
Perfect Ashlar is the stone made ready by the hands of the
workmen to be adjusted by the
tools of the Fellow Craft.”
“By the Rough Ashlar we are reminded of our rude and imperfect state by nature;
by the
Perfect Ashlar, that state of perfection which we hope to arrive
by a virtuous education,
our own endeavors and the blessings of God.”
Masonry today touts, among other things, the charity that is done by both the
Lodges
and by the Appendant Bodies such as the Shrine. However,
guarding the West gate, to
higher dues will not fix Masonry from inside, the problem is
much easier to identify but
yet a lot more difficult to correct. Masonry stresses that it
“takes good men and makes
them better”, however that does not occur now. A lot of men join
to truly work on the
concept of making themselves better, but find that little of
this happens today. Instead
after they attend their respective degree work, there is little
moral or ethical instruction in
the Lodge, the work and study of bettering ones self is often
left to the individual on their
own. This is where we as Masons are failing. Making a good man
better does not consist
of donating to charities or even taking needy kids on shopping
sprees. These actions
would occur on their own without any interaction from the Lodge
if we as Masons truly
did our jobs to and for ourselves. The way we do it right now,
we are saying that we are
trying to create the Perfect Ashlar from the inside out. Man
truly is like a rough rock, it is
only through the positive reinforcement of mans attempt to
better himself can we even
begin to move towards the Perfect Ashlar. This is done by
chipping the rough corners off
the stones, or in this case, chipping away at our many
imperfections, ever realizing that
this is an unending journey. However, the journey itself is the
ultimate teacher. Our
current process acts as if once a man is raised to the Sublime
Degree of a Master Mason
he is assumed to be a Perfect Ashlar. This is obviously
incorrect, once a man is raised; his
journey toward that level of perfection has only just begun. You
don’t start that journey
with higher dues or more active festive boards; it begins with
the promotion of study
within the Lodge and during Lodge of our ritual and how we can
make it relate to today’s
environment. It is only by beginning the process of fixing
Masonry one brother at a time
can we hope to make it a true fraternal order dedicated to the
betterment of society today.
Fancy festive boards, concept lodges, higher dues may fix superficial items, and
some of
these need to be corrected, but only by placing an emphasis on
the moral and ethical
teachings of Masonry and what it all means can we hope to make
both our wonderful
fraternity better and improve society as a whole.
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