In my last blog entry on Stephen’s Law of Un-Masonic Analogies I received a comment, , that really struck me.
My tagline: “It’s not about me changing them; it’s about me changing me.” defines for me the overall effect of Freemasonry on my life. The title “To Shed a Tear of Sympathy for the Failings of a Brother” defines to me, what brotherly love is all about. Thanks to Br. Allan Roll, I now have an excellent one-line description of what brotherly love should be.
There is a tendency in Freemasonry that limits how we should define brotherly love. In using the word limit, I do not mean that we do not extend the love and concern due our brothers, far from it; my experience has been that on the whole, we extend brotherly love in all cases, at least we think we do...
My concern is when we misunderstand what brotherly love is, what it calls for, and the nature in which it is intended. Many of our detractors claim that we: will cover the crimes of our brothers, that as law enforcement agents, we would turn a blind eye, and that as justices, we would allow a brother to “skate” through without proper penalties as part of our obligation or code.
Now, we know this is not true. FOR THE MOST PART. The fact is, many of us have escaped a ticket because the officer turns out to be a one of us. Conversely, we have been harassed by officers who are not, men who are opposed to Freemasonry, so I say; on the whole, it all evens out. At least I hope so.
I have never heard of a brother winning on a court case because he and the judge were both Masons; however that does not mean it can’t or doesn’t happen. Conversely, I have heard of a judge rescuing himself from a case upon recognizing a brother as the prosecutor, defense attorney or defendant.
My issue today is with the excess of brotherly love, often misplaced. Take a moment and think about that… an excess of misplaced brotherly love. What can that do to us?
99.99% of those in our fraternity are good, honorable, upright men, upon whom we can place our unquestioning faith. However, understanding that, we all know or have heard about the one in a thousand who somehow sneak past, or walk through an open or unguarded west gate despite our best efforts.
The brother of whom I speak, will lie, cheat, steal. One whose ethics, are at best, questionable. The man, the Brother upon whom we can place no trust. Yet, he is still a Mason, and a Brother.
The “Good” Mason focuses on that part of our obligation which tells us not to cheat, wrong, defraud nor injure a brother in his person or good name… even if he like the one above goes through life doing those very things to our fellows, using his position as a Mason for self enrichment, power grabs, or running some kind of shady business that sails close to the line of ethics. We shy away from getting into the judgment business, and rightfully so, and, in the name of brotherly love we, turn a blind eye to his less than honorable antics.
We may make excuses for him, we may cover his Masonic crimes by the simple expedience of not calling him out on them, but isn’t it part of our obligation to whisper good counsel in a brothers ear, in a most friendly manner, to seek, try, to bring about a reformation? If, the “Good” Mason’s, the majority, turn our back to that obligation to him, and instead, ignore it, becoming guilty ourselves of not doing our duty… and by extension, not trying to correct his way’s, do we not ourselves, become complicit in these very actions, and even guilty of them?
By doing nothing, we are guilty on two levels. First is not keeping our obligation to the brother, or to the fraternity. By countenancing these errors, we injure the fraternity. Second, and just as bad, if we, as “Good” men, do nothing to stop a wrong when we can, we become guilty by extension of that wrong by becoming a co-conspirator.
There is also an additional pitfall we must all avoid; becoming self righteous. While it is our duty to our brothers to correct them when they err, it is also our duty to show compassion, temperance and prudent justice. This does not mean denouncing the brother, but it does mean acting charitably, lovingly toward him in all your actions to show him the better path.
Ah, the sweet obligation of charity. In this case, it is charitable to assume the situation is not what it appears, and to whisper good counsel in a brother’s ear, privately, quietly, friendly. Not to be accusatory, but to seek to aid and assist if there is a problem or a misunderstanding.
As a fraternity, as brothers, it is our duty to correct our peers, but we should also examine ourselves. We should always perform a sanity check and weigh our own hearts before approaching a brother so that when we do approach, we are not auctorial.. We must feel love for our brothers, and live as Hillel recommended:
“Do not to another that which you would find hateful yourself in a similar circumstance. This is the whole of the law. The rest is commentary.”To be a true Mason, brother, you must shed a tear of sympathy for the failings of a brother, and keep your obligation to show him sympathy, and council.
Thanks to Marcus Hawley for editing and proofing my entry.
