The other evening after a Festive Board, a newish Master Mason (raised within the last year) called me over and asked if I knew so-and-so. The two of them work together.
“He’s a true friend and brother,” I blurted out. And then I stopped and thought about it for a moment. I thought about why I had said it.
The brother is not one for honours. He’s never been Master of a Lodge; he’s never had any aspirations to be one. He probably spent at least six years as a Steward (and more as an “unofficial” Steward) preparing food for each Lodge meeting. And I don’t mean sandwiches or a few cookies. I’m pretty sure he never asked the Lodge for a cent to reimburse him. He was sincerely happy to be of service to his brothers because they meant so much to him.
His Lodge was, unfortunately, victimised by a couple of internal rows over the course of several years. Through it all, he never took sides, never said a bad word about anyone in the Lodge. If only all Masons could say the same thing. Instead, he would express what a wonderful fraternity we had and how much joy it had given to him. And not by parroting ritual; he would explain in his own words what Freemasonry meant to him.
Isn’t this the kind of man a Mason should be? How many of us can really say that we’re thought of as “a true friend and brother”?
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