14 Οκτωβρίου 2010

On Masonic Love...

I had the fortune to participate in the presentation of a Masonic Piece, given by a very dear and learned brother and I hope that I shall be able to publish it, one of these days, in this blog, so that you'll be able to read something much more interesting than my boring comments.

The subject of that speech was that of Love, as it is perceived by the Masonic Ideal. If I may summarize that presentation in one sentence, I would say that its thesis supported that real Love is never targeted at a certain person or society but it is Universal, emanating from the divine spark within, our Soul.

With so many learned and wise Masters who have preceded my humble existence and have spoken on this particular matter, it would be rather futile for me to attempt to add one more stone to the enormous philosophical structure that has been built over the last 2000 years. I am in dire need of both, eloquence and spiritual capacity, to perform such a task, without running the risk of being embarrassed in the process.

However, an engineer (like me) is a very peculiar creature. Without him being a real scientist (I regard myself as a noble grease monkey), he is the one who takes a brilliant scientific theory and puts it to work. This is the only way we (the engineers) know how to be useful to Society. As an old and dear professor used to say, “an engineer must be smart and lazy. Smart, to find the solution of a problem and lazy, to find the easy solution”.

Therefore, what's left for me in this particular philosophical matter, is to define it through simple, sociological observations, since I was always interested in understanding (and explaining) how each thing or system really works. It must be a genetic thing, since I remember myself as a little boy, tearing apart all of my toys and playing with their spare parts.

A long time ago, I had a client who could be characterized as a model of family man. He adored his wife and his children, he was doing everything for them, he had secured an enviable quality of life for them. At the same time he was a very religious man. At that time he was building a very large residence for his family and he also built a whole church at his backyard, inviting on a very frequent basis the local bishop to perform Mass. He was also a philanthropist of sort, donating money for charity. Pretty good and loving man, wouldn't you agree?

At the same time, that same person was one of the biggest loan sharks in Greece, with profits well exceeding $1.5 mil. every month (18 years ago). He had a small army of lawyers, henchmen, police officers, judges and bank managers on his payroll and he had driven to bankruptcy and suicide a lot of our fellow citizens. Later, riding the wave of the stock market “boom” of the late 90's he was transformed into a big-time investor, filling the market with “soap bubbles” and leading even more people to disaster.

I am sure that I do not have to reach a moral conclusion, out of respect for your intelligence my dear and sole reader. My example is so extreme as to state that Adolf Eichmann, the Commandant or Auschwitz, was an excellent and loving family man.

During the opening of the works at the level of Entered Apprentice, the Worshipful Master says: “My brothers, we are not anymore in the uninitiated world. We left the metals in front of the gate of the Temple. Let us ascent our hearts in brotherhood and let our eyes turn to the Light” (free translation of the Ritual from the Greek language, I'm afraid, please excuse my discrepancies).

Is it possible that the targeted love is another metal? Something that defines us socially but not morally? Something that we must leave behind, when we enter the Temple?

From courtrooms to eulogies and to everyday newspaper articles, a “good” fellow citizen is defined by his quality as a family man. How good a husband and a father he was, how much he was adored by his children and wife, how good a son he was to his parents, etc etc etc. Widening that circle, the deceased/defendant/award recipient is noted for his heroism and self-sacrifice for his country, his fellow citizens, his trade union, his Church or his Party.

Would you be, therefore, justified, my dearest and sole reader, to say that I am writing gibberish, by devaluing great heroes of your country's History, such as (if you're American) George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Thomas B. Jefferson, just because their love for their country was a targeted one? Is it possible that a young medical doctor who gives tetanus shots to little children at a remote African village, is more justified to the eyes of God, than Benjamin Franklin, Dwight Eisenhower or (Lord have mercy on us!!) our mother???

What sort of (unheard of) morals are you trying to impose on us, buddy?

However, the extreme examples are useful, to the extent that they can define the frame of our thinking. Beyond our love for our family, our country or our religious doctrine, we, as Masons, must sense, “through our descent to the depth of our conscience and the observation of natural phenomena”, another dimension, much larger and universal, where all God's creatures are included, and through that dimension we must connect with the Divine.

All Doctrines, my dearest reader, are useful as road signs for somebody who trusts third parties to show him the road to the Light and never searches by himself. That's why, my friend, the Masonic path is such a lonely and difficult one.

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