The Future is the Present
From the “Just A Mason Blogspot” (link removed as it is no longer working)
Being the quiet, unassuming mason that I am, you will never find me disagreeing with the senior, learned brothers of the Craft. Okay, not often. Okay, maybe more than that.
Like many Masons, I enjoy visiting other Lodges and meeting nice people, seeing good work, and having a beer if I’m in the mood. I was invited to attend a meeting recently and was delighted to see where there had been empty chairs only a couple of years ago there were new Master Masons, enthusiastically looking forward to serving in their offices in the coming term.
During the period for visitors to speak near the end of the meeting, one senior brother bedecked in a shade of dark blue rose and spoke of his delight in being with a room with a number of brethren new to the Craft, and then remarked “You are the future of Freemasonry.”
Well, he was wrong.
They aren’t the future of Freemasonry. They are the present of Freemasonry.
Each of the new Master Masons had assumed the mantle—and, with it, the responsibility—of office. Upon their shoulders rests the organization and running of the Lodge. Not in the future. But right now. They had better be prepared to accept that fact and start digging in the quarry of their Lodge.
Just as in the construction of a building, each Mason has a role in building his Lodge. The Master drafts the plan, with the consent of his brethren. The officers provide labor in carrying it out. The senior brethren lend their experience and expertise in avoiding any obstructions and difficulties that may disrupt the progress of the laborers. All must work together in harmony for the plan to reach fruition and benefit the Lodge.
But more importantly, all must work.
The Master who has never readied himself to run a meeting or a Lodge and doesn’t know how to construct a plan, the officer who accepts responsibilities and then makes excuses as he shirks his duty to his brothers, the senior brethren who criticize or refuse support because the plan isn’t the same as their plan many years ago do our Craft few favors. Nothing will be built and the Lodge—and with it, all the members—will suffer as an end result.
We are all the future of Freemasonry. For if we treat the future of Freemasonry as being today—this very moment—we will assure ourselves a future as the years roll on.
This article came via The Waller Mason Lodge #808 online Newsletter March 2012 Issue