What come we here to do? We must remember that we are Masons.
The call of distress isn't regarded as a distasteful thing to Masons, but rather as an opportunity.

8 - True Hallmark Of A Mason

Dear Tom:

ES, I know what you mean. When I read your letter this morning I could picture it in my mind's eye--the air of annoyance when Brother Stockton called attention to the sad plight of the widow of one of our Brethren at the stated communication last week.

I've seen just what you saw on more than one occasion, Tom, and it has disturbed me just as it disturbed you.

The Brethren didn't say it in so many words, I'm sure, but the message got through just the same: "Why does she have to run to us with her problems--we who have to pay for repairs to our heating system and maybe install new plumbing also?"

Too bad dear old Dr. Bennett isn't still with us. He would have arisen quietly and addressed the Worshipful Master, then paused the right number of seconds before asking his searching question in that kindly manner of his: "Brethren, what come we here to do?"

Then, after that had had time to penetrate, the old doctor would have said, "We must remember that we are Freemasons. The call of distress isn't regarded as a distasteful thing to Freemasons, but rather as an opportunity!"

You ask me what you shall do next year if the Brethren "drag their feet" when faced with a case of need.

Well, for one thing, you can start at the very outset to indoctrinate the Brethren with the spirit of Freemasonry. Every time the Lodge meets-remind them what Freemasonry is all about (but don't let them know you are "educating" them!) It's only because they haven't been set on fire with that spirit of Freemasonry that they are absorbed with new heating and plumbing while turning a deaf ear to everything our Craft is and stands for.

Start giving them little nuggets just before you close Lodge. Low key, of course. Gentle and brotherly and understanding. Start out with a discussion of an all-important paragraph in one of the old manuscripts of about 1686:

. . . that every Mason receve and cherish strange Fellowes when they come over the countrie and set them to worke if they will worke as the manner is (that is to say) if the Mason have any mould Stone in his place he shall give him a mould stone and sett him on worke and if he have none the Mason shall refresh him with money unto the next lodge.

That brief paragraph from an old, old manuscript is the first indication that Freemasons were beginning to take care of their own. What it means was that the lodge, or workshop, had become also a hostel and labor bureau; a center where the traveling operative mason might be sure of work for a week or two if available. Or, if no employment could be had, he would be assured of brotherly concern and help in going to the next lodge, where his chances might be better.

But while you are lifting the Brethren to the clouds with the noble spirit of Freemasonry, try also to understand the Brother who "drags his feet" on the subject of Masonic charity, at least to the extent of finding out why he is cool.

This will shock you, perhaps, but you are mature enough that you can stand a shock now and then. I am of the opinion that when Freemasons "drag their feet" in response to appeals for Masonic charity, Masons and Masons alone are to blame for it.

In the first place, the obligation of a Freemason is to help, aid, and assist. That is all. Just to help, aid, and assist--which means what it says and no more. It means, for example, that a Freemason or his dependent in need is expected to draw upon all available resources, and that his Fraternity can be depended upon as one of those resources.

Therefore, when we obligate a new Freemason to "help, aid and assist" and then tell him that the Masonic Fraternity picks up the entire tab and relieves all other available resources of their responsibility, we have a puzzled and disturbed new member on our hands. He probably will never question it, but I daresay he is intelligent enough to notice the discrepancy.

In the second place, Masonic writers and orators have spread their wings for lo, these many years, trying to tell us that Freemasonry is responsible for improving the lot of all mankind. It sounds good until you pause to do a little mental arithmetic on just how much the annual dues of Acacia Lodge would have to be if the Masonic Fraternity were to underwrite the living expenses of the entire human race!

And so, my lad, when you are Master of Acacia Lodge next year, I believe you'll make greater progress if you try to impress on the minds of our Brethren that the traditional obligation of a Freemason, reaching far back into the Seventeenth Century, is to help, aid, and assist. Period. In other words, to help take care of our own. That makes sense. Freemasons can understand that, and, in most cases, will react to it with enthusiasm.

Our own Jurisdiction has its Masonic Home. It is altogether natural, then, that whenever charity or "taking care of our own" is mentioned, one thinks only of the Masonic Home, and stops there. But we must not be critical of our Brethren for being near-sighted, for their failure to see opportunities beyond and in addition to the Masonic Home. They have been "educated" to think Masonic Home and nothing else. (I'll have more to say on that subject in another letter.)

Just now, however, let's turn our attention to the Masonic Home. Suppose you have an application for membership in the Home while you are Master. What do you do?

You process it, of course. First, I hope you'll satisfy yourself that the applicant is eligible. It isn't at all praiseworthy to submit an application for one you know is not eligible, depending on someone up the line to break the unpleasant news for you.

You fill out the forms--and there's a vast amount of filling out to be done, believe me.

You arrange for a physical examination with a local physician.

You do your best to verify all information given in the application that pertains to real estate, personal property, and other assets.

You check on any transfer of assets that may have occurred in recent years or months.

You look into pre-paid funeral and burial arrangements.

In the meantime, you see to it that the Masonic Home Committee introduces the resolution whereby Acacia Lodge becomes the applicant's sponsor.

Then you sign the application, see that the seal is affixed, and send it in. The Masonic Home Admissions Counsellor comes to pay a visit. He calls on you and the members of the Home Committee. Asks for additional information. Checks this. Verifies that.

Eventually you get the good news that Aunt Stella, widow of a Past Master no one in t h e Lodge remembers, has been accepted for residence in the Masonic Home. A date for admission is set.

• You, as Worshipful Master, will take her to the Home, I hope. At least one of the Wardens will accompany you, I hope. And perhaps the chairman or one member of the Masonic Home Committee, I hope. [*]

• It will not be the easiest or most pleasant task of your term of office to uproot Aunt Stella from the familiar surroundings of a lifetime and take her to a new place where she knows no one and where nothing looks or seems familiar.

• Then don't "dump" her at the Masonic Home, whatever you do, I beg of you. Put yourself in the place of Aunt Stella. How would you like to be cut off from friends and the old familiar haunts of home to suffer the agonies of readjustment among strangers while awaiting the arrival of the funeral director?

• Remember, the obligation of Acacia Lodge hasn't ended when Aunt Stella becomes a resident of the Masonic Home. It is just beginning. And it continues as long as she remains there.

• Keep always in mind that the basic responsibility of the Masonic Home is to provide those things which minister to the physical wants of an individual: food, housing, clothing, medical care.

True, sincere efforts are made to create a homelike atmosphere, to give the member something to do in the way of occupational and recreational therapy, to help satisfy spiritual needs.

But these cannot take the place of the real-for-sure home and family and friends, and they never will.

Something else is necessary if Aunt Stella is to be an individual and not a serial number, living her sunset years in that kind of dignity we boast about providing for those who are not as fortunate as we.

That something else is simply a sense of belonging, of being remembered, and needed. And it can be provided only by friends and relatives, and by those bound by the mystic tie of Freemasonry in the old home town.

• What does that mean? It means visits. Letters. Greeting cards. Gifts. Not just on Christmas; not just on her birthday; not just the first week Aunt Stella is in the Home, but the second and the third and the fourth. It means every month of every year she lives. It means from now on, Tom; that's what it means.

The day when you take Aunt Stella to t h e Masonic Home may be the most cruel experience of her life. Or it can be a day when new doors are opened, leading to happier times, wider friendships, satisfying experiences in human association.

How well she makes the adjustment depends to a great extent on Aunt Stella.

But even more, it depends on the consideration, the thoughtfulness and lovingkindness of the Worshipful Master, Wardens and Brethren of the Lodge her husband served as Worshipful Master years ago--your Lodge and mine.

--Your Old Mentor

* The balance of the letter to Tom is adapted from an article entitled, "So You Got Her in the Home," published in the April 1972 issue of The Indiana Freemason.