Doubts of a past master

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Part of The Cabletow

Title: Doubts of a past master
extracted text: Of whose making then will be that warT Of aliens whose selfishness and arrogance encourage them to take advantage of our meekness and fanatism. And the few Filipinos who are used as mouthpiece for the predominance of a certain dogma. Yes; because those men have not made a real evaluation of themselves as individuals so they are being led away from the area of circumpection which enunciates loud and clear the cardinal rule of mutuality in appreciation. False ambition craves for power. Dream of grandeur makes man selfish. Selfishness makes him arrogant. Arrogance makes him proud, By being proud he makes himself a kin to the devil. So lhe poet has rightly wondered: "Why should the spirit of mor tal he proud?” DOUBTS OF A PAST MASTER Delivered by Wor. Bro. Carlos M. Ferrer during the Installation Cere monies of Cabanatuan Lodge No. 53 last February 1,1958 Most Worshipful Grand Master, Most Worshipful Grand Secretary, Worshipful Masters of Cabanatuan Lodge No. 53, Nueva Ecija Lodge No. 73, Memorial Lodge No. 90, Past Masters and Brethren of the three Sister Lodges in this province, ladies and gentlemen: When the Past Master’s Jewel was pinned on my breast by my wife, I have felt and I do believe that I have come to the cross-roads of my life as a Meson. In one way, I am consoled by the tradition and custom in this lodge of excussing a Past Master from attending regular meetings and degree works. It seems that non-attendance in any meeting of the lodge is a privilege. In my six years of masonic life, I have witnessesd that such a practice seemed to be sanctioned altho not so provided by our ritual or permitted by any masonic virtue or principle. Some brethren used to say that a Past Master is a graduate of the Blue Lodge Institution and therefore has some privileges. Following this line of thought, I may say that I will now have a time of rest as many of the others who have preceeded me have been doing. On the other hand, the wise and kind words of our beloved Most Worshipful Grand Master, some two years ago, are still ring ing in my ears. At that time Most Worshipful Brother Orosa said: "Once a mason has ceased to be a Worshipful Master, his work is just beginning." Viewed from the point of view of real masons, that wise counsel seems to suggest that after stepping down from the rostrum of the East of this lodge, my task has just begun. At 28B THE CABLETOW this juncture, it is still my obsession to be equal to the task so stated by our Most Worshipful Grand Master. God willing, I hope not to go astray. As I have stated a while ago, I am now five months past six years in this venerable and ancient institution. Yet that length of time has not been enough to place me beyond the realm of "a doubting Thomas”. Altho it is patent to each and everyone of us that Masonry is a progressive moral science taught by degrees only, yet two schools of thought, in great variation with each other, appear to me irre concilable. One is the prevalent idea that in every lodge, the high est Mason, the officers of the Grand Lodge necessarily excluded, is the Worshipful Master, for, as commonly known by every mason, he is the principal light in the lodge. This school of thought is headed by no less than one who had been a Grand Master in the Philippine jurisdiction. The other school of thought, shared by many who are in the provinces, is that the higher is one’s degree in Masonry, the higher he is in the Masonic world. Permit me to state with all candidness that up to the present I have yet to find a word in the ma sonic books I have read sustaining this latter theory. My Brethren, this is one of the few reasons why I am frank to state that inspite of my limited capabilities as a Past Master, I am still a stranger in the “ins” and "outs” of our Masonic world. Less I am exceeding the bound of propriety, permit me to place a semi-colon on this peroration. As I leave the Oriental Chair of this lodge which is so precious and dear to everyone, permit me to extend to my Brethren of Caba natuan Lodge No. 53 the sincere thanks I can master to extend, for the generous and unsolicited cooperation they extended to me in my one year of leading this lodge to a better place in this world of conflicting ideas. To my co-officers for the last Masonic year, especially to Worshipful Brother Jo^on, the re-elected Secretary and to Past Master Jose N. Carlos who have given me wise counsels and admonitions, they can look forward to the coming days for my cooperation and unselfish support in the best way I can. To those who are not officers who have aided me so much in the degree works, I am also extending my heart-felt thanks, parti cularly to Brothers Pantas V. Macapagal and Napoleon Navarro who, inspite of many obstacles, have helped me magnanimously in the last masonic year. Lest I will be recreant to my duty, I am especially extending also to Brother Rizalino T. Beley my utmost gratitude for the help he has given me during my incumbency as Worshipful 28<» February, 19oS Master. I cannot leave this rostrum without mentioning the vol untary help and full cooperation extended to me by Worshipful Bro ther Ambrosio Grospe, Past Master of this lodge, who has chosen to stand by me in the many trying moments of our past and many degree works. To all of them goes my undying gratitude. Brethren of Cabanatuan Lodge No. 53, to each and everyone of you, I am giving my whole hearted and warm affection, yours is for the asking and mine is to obey and follow. I thank you. COMMENTS: There is no high Mason, higher Mason, highest Ma son. But a Brother may occupy the highest station in the Blue Lodge and he is known as Worshipful Master; in a Chapter of Royal Arch and he is known as High Priest; in a Council of Royal and Select Mas ters and he is known as Illustrious Master; in a Commandery of Knights Templar and he is known as Eminent Commander; in a Lodge of Perfection and he is known as Venerable Master; in a Chapter of Rose Croix and he is known aa Wise Master; in a Coun cil of Kadosh and he is known as Venerable Lt. Commander; in a Consistory and he is known as Master Kadosh. The first four sta tions pertain to the American or York Rite and the last four per tain to the Scottish Rite. The above arrangements are also true in the ruling Bodies (Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Grand Council, Grand Commandery, Supreme Council of the 33rd and LAST Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry) wherein the presiding officers have their official titles of Most Worshipful Grand Master, Most Excellent Grand High Priest, Most Illustrious Grand Master, Right Eminent Grand Commander and Sovereign Grand Commander. It should be borne in mind that in the Scottish Rite, the LAST not HIGHEST degree is the thirty-third, for which rea son the Rite is known as Supreme Council of the 33rd and LAST degree of the Ancient Accepted and Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Also, it should be borne in mind that in other Bodies, lhe degrees are NOT denominated by numbers BUT by names. The highest deg ree in Masonry is the MASTER MASON’S DEGREE, commonly known as Third degree. A Master Mason may be elected Grand Mas ter of the Grand Lodge but a Grand Master may NOT be honored with the 33rd Degree of the Scottish Rite. Similarly too, a Scot tish Rite Mason with the 33rd Degree may not be elected Grand Master. The allegory depicted in the Master Mason's degree should always be remembered in trying to define one’s position on the is sue. From it can be discerned also the instruction that "it 290 THE CABLETOW is taught by degrees only.” After you reach the last stage of the allegory for sure there can be no more. Hench, the MM degree is the highest degree. — Jose E. Ra^ela, P. M. LIBERTY What then is Liberty? In my own conception of it liberty means that each man of us is to enjoy unhindered the full exercise of the normal functions and powers of his nature. This is an entirely different conception than that implied in the no-restraint theory, because man's nature cannot function normally in a void, or in a condition of pure indivi dualism; the functions and powers of a man’s nature, when rightly understood, imply and demand a social life, a community of lives in which each individual finds his true happiness in his right rela tions to other human beings. It will be belter to permit this con ception to define itself through a series of examples and illustrations. One of the most important powers of a man’s nature is his mind. If the man is to be happy, if his nature is to be healthy and unmutilated, he must be permitted to live in a social order where he has absolute right to use that mind unhindered by anything or anybody. The mind is so made that any interference with its nor mal functioning brings distress to the individual and disorder lo human society. Every attempt to dictate to men how they shall use their minds has proved to be disastrous, as history so abundantly proves. One may recall Prince Metternich and the Peace of Vienna in 1815 when the masters of Europe ordained what men should think, speak, and read. That regime did not bring the uniformity of thought and peace of life which the masters expected: it brought quite the contrary, a fermentation of embittered men and women which led finally to the outbursts of 1848. It is a peculiar ageny to have one’s very brain in chains: men must rebel or at last sur render, to sink in the apathy and listlessness of the peasant and the serf. In what does liberty of mind consist? In the right lo use it normally, for the health and the good of all. It does not mean that an individual is free to make use of his mind without restraint, or hindrance of any kind. The man who uses his intellect to perpe trate a fraud should be held in leash; when he exercises it in the manufacture and dissemination of lies it is time that he feel that he is not the only man who lives in the world. When a man is set free to think he is set free, not for intellectual license and anarchy which it at last the absence of thought, but to think according to February, 1958 291
Date: 1958
Rights