The greatest privilege of being a Freemason.

 

“We all came here of our own free will and accord, properly prepared, humbly soliciting to be admitted to the mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry”.

And if from the very first moment we began to experience the mysteries, the privileges still were indeterminate. We all knows that there are no shortcuts to mastering the Craft and it takes years of hard work to reveal some of the benefits. However, one of them that supposed to be the greatest of all has already been attributed to us, even though our perception was not able to distinguish it. With our presence to an Open Lodge we had already left the world of the uninitiated people and through Mystagogy we had been transferred to another world, superior and totally different to the one before. The differences between those two worlds can only be distinguished by spirit and mind and only after a long and hard effort.

We had been admitted to Freemasonry as free and good report individuals (according to the opinion of the seniors). But what really means “an individual of good report”? Is it a concept that has only meaning in the world of the uninitiated, since it often absent only there? Where society establishes rules, laws, morals, and traditions, setting out ways of inhering in them, and predicts penalties in case of violation, this concept is delimited by the words "legitimate" and "morality". People are supposed to be specially educated to adhere to the “legitimate” and to obtain moral principles that they will respect. But the human nature is imperfect and the society itself provides a lot of causes for people to violate both state laws and their moral values through their actions and behavior. From the most imperceptible (i.e. when I’m serving wine a few more drops are always going to my glass as I can’t resist to its charm), to the most severe (i.e. some people are violating the state laws for their enrichment, or for other self-convenience). All those acts have a point, to offer a benefit or a profit to the perpetrator. There is always a motivation and usually a diplomatic excuse in case that the individual will be called to explain his actions.

These are some of the “metals” that the Freemason is asked to leave to the world of the uninitiated before he enters the superior world of the Freemasonry. This is, according to my opinion, is the greatest of the privileges that only members of the Craft can enjoy: The total absence of motives and reasons to violate their moral values or to disrespect them. No other institution or social club can provide an environment that pure, with no personal benefits, no money profit and not any kind of work or social advancement, only moral and spiritual progress which can be only established via the respect of the moral values. And this privilege accompanies the Freemason even out of the Lodge by being a beacon that lights his way of living. And it is a duty of every single one of us to let this light illuminate the whole world by becoming our way of life and action. It’s is our duty to make others understand that any achievement on life is valuable only if it is rests on solid foundations, supported by the strength and the quality of moral virtue. In any other case, all kinds of success or achievement will prove worthless and weak, just like a tower founded on sand that would collapse and disintegrate with the first seismic load.

The meaning of “Strength” in Freemasonry

 

“Wisdom to contrive, Strength to support and Beauty to adorn”.

“Strength” is a fundamental concept frequently encountered in the Masonic Rituals. The Masonic meaning of “Strength” describes both two concepts:

• The state of being strong, the physical power or the capacity (in Greek called “antohi” – αντοχή).
• The durability (in Greek called “anthektikotita” – ανθεκτικότητα).

We will attempt to clarify these two concepts by using a simple example of material mechanics.

The first attempt to the mechanical characteristics of the materials and their behavior to mechanical stresses created by loads as tension, compression, bending etc. These stresses cause the deformation of this and according to the size of the load, the failure, but without changing the material’s synthesis.

Durability deals with the capability of components to withstand the loads encountered in service, over a specified period of use without failure, occurring in the form of incipient cracks or unacceptable degradation.

To understand the difference between the two concepts, we will have a look at the example of one of the most common materials in nature, the rock.

The mechanical strength of most rocks is practically unlimited. Physical loads that will exceed the capacity of any rocky ground are extremely rare. Any type of structure, from castles to bridges, from tunnels to dams can be founded with no problem to rocky grounds. It can undertake stresses coming from any natural mechanical load, even that of an arbitrarily large earthquake.

But is the rock really indestructible? Maybe, if we are talking only about mechanical loads. But even such powerful materials have no infinite durability. It disintegrates by the water flow on its surface or

by the changing of the phases of the water into its clefts, and breaks into small pieces that are broken into even smaller ones, becoming sand and dust. The mechanical action of the sea waves combined with the chemical action of the salt destroys slowly but effectively even the hardest rocks. The exposure to microorganisms, bacteria, mosses and lichens destroys also most of the physical materials. (This picture is from where “G” blessed me to live, Ialysos, Rhodes). Therefore the difference between the mechanical strength and the durability becomes clear with this simple example. A physical material with great capacity to all mechanical loads is ultimately not so invulnerable to the action of all those extrinsic factors.

Let’s now see it from the Masonic point of view. The perpetual presence of Freemasonry became possible because the Fraternity had the “Strength” (was strong enough) to overcome obstacles and it has the durability to endure difficulties. From the beginning it has been exposed both to mechanical loads and to corrosive environment. The widespread expansion in every place on earth, the admission of people with different cultures, different beliefs, different educational or economical levels, etc. as well as all the variations, rites and rituals have made the dynamic “mechanical loads”. The Fraternity achieves to overtake the stress made by these loads and to preserve its unitary character because it got the “Strength”  to do that.

But there were also many extrinsic factors that violate the Fraternity. Over the ages, it became the subject of extensive conspiracy theories - totally false and unfounded. It has been slandered by most institutions and currents, and became the scapegoat that incriminated for all the major social unrests. All these have made an extremely corrosive environment for the Fraternity, but it had the “Strength” (enough durability) to overtake all that.

Also, as Freemasonry was growing, many people who were completely unsuitable according to the Masonic ideals have joined into the Fraternity. These people have truly acted like bacteria or other corrosive factors. People wicked, selfish, hypocrites, even crooks, who believed that they could hide the ugliness of their souls under the purity of the Masonic principles have joined Freemasonry. They have made deep injuries to the Fraternity exactly as the bacteria, mosses, lichens and other corrosive factors defacing the physical materials. But the Fraternity has the “Strength” (the durability) to overtake even that, by creating self-protective mechanisms.

We‘ve just seen how Masonic “Strength”, has unified these two concepts to one: “The ability to deal with difficult situations or to maintain a moral or intellectual position.” This unification was a main factor affected to the evolution of Freemasonry over the centuries.