Epilogue to the
Master Mason Degree
Grand Lodge of Indiana
My Brother-
There is one more thing that I wish to mention before we close
this Lodge and we all return to our normal lives in the mundane world:
You have now experienced the three degrees of Masonry. You
have been presented with much in the way of symbolism and allegory. Hopefully,
those symbols and stories have, or will come to have, a profound meaning for
you.
When you go into the world now, in your new character as a
Master Mason, you are sure to be confronted with people who will attempt to put
meaning to those symbols and allegories for you, or attempt to tell you
exactly what Freemasonry teaches by those symbols. They will say that you have
joined a religion, or that you have replace one form of "salvation" with
another, or that you are worshipping a "false god."
What you need to understand about Freemasonry is that the
meaning of what you have seen and heard in this Lodge room is largely what
you make of it. No single man speaks for Freemasonry, except you, to
yourself. There is no sin in symbols -- only, possibly, in the meanings that we,
by our own conscious choice, ascribe to them.
We gave you a Bible this evening, but we did not give you a
religion. As you recall from the presentation, you were admonished to search
within the pages of that sacred book for yourself; and earlier this
evening, you were bidden to pray for yourself -- and no particular form
or name was required for your prayer. Freemasonry does indeed have a teaching:
it teaches each man to look within his heart, with clarity and subdued passion,
to determine what is right and true.
There is an ancient riddle which asks: "Who is the Master who
makes the grass green?" The answer, my Brother, is you, yourself. YOU are
the Master who, by his own perception and understanding, "makes the grass
green." YOU are the Master over the meaning of your own experience. YOU are
entrusted with the power and responsibility to interpret all that you see
and hear. And as long as you remain faithful to your trust, then NO man may ever
take that power or responsibility away from you!
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