Freemasonry has always been a labor of love.
We volunteer our time, our resources, and our hearts, not for personal gain, but to support, educate, and lift one another up. We come together on the level, as equals, to share in true fellowship with Brothers who have each walked the same path of ritual, obligation, and self-improvement.
We roll up our sleeves. We help where help is needed. We do the work because it is right, not because it is easy. That’s what binds us, not titles or honors, but shared labor, shared experience, and shared purpose.
Freemasonry does not exist to elevate the individual, it exists to elevate the Fraternity.
And so we must be careful.
We must not weaken our Craft by lowering our standards for the sake of numbers, money, or popularity. Bringing in men who do not belong, who do not wish to labor, learn, or grow, does not strengthen us. It weakens the very thing that makes us unique.
We should never change our rituals to accommodate the faint of heart. We should remember the obligations we took, the charges we were given, and the journey we each undertook to become Master Masons.
Shortcutting that process, making it easier, faster, or less demanding, does not help a man. It robs him of the experience that shapes him.
Freemasonry does not need to chase the world. It needs to stand firm in who it is.
Because without fellowship, ritual suffers.
And without great ritual, there can be no true fellowship.
Be rooted in tradition. Be protective of the Craft. Not for ego’s sake, but for the preservation of meaning, purpose, and experience.
Guard the West Gate, my Brothers. Teach, lead, and preserve, not for ourselves, but for the Craft we love.
This is no mere club of men. It is a journey of becoming. And the farther a man travels its path, the more the path unfolds before him.
Originally written April 6, 2019
c 2024 Chu The Cud
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Chu The Cud 