WHAT CAME YE HERE TO DO?

by Eric Kuchner | Senior Grand Warden

All around me were cleanly pressed shirts and tightly wound neckerchiefs glowing in the warming early spring sun… you could feel the anticipation as everyone began to stand and the familiar ritual filled the air. Dozens of newly initiated Boy Scouts proudly beaming as they recite the Scout Law from memory.

As my own memories of this ritual filled my mind - the words effortlessly began to touch my lips—unforgettably internalized many decades ago and now passed on to our son. “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent”…

The first step has been taken down the path of internalizing these life-long values— memorizing the ritual, the norms, the mores, and the taboos…in the hopes that eventually every one of these new Scouts will turn memorization into internalization into the practice of these values throughout their lives, and eventually to reflective wisdom to be passed onto others and to help make a better civil society.

What came ye here to do? As the echoes of our own opening ritual fill our ears, time and time again we are reminded that we chose to take our Masonic journey, to place our trust in our Craft. We chose to subdue our passions and improve ourselves. We are men, often of disparate backgrounds and experiecnces who may have otherwise never crossed paths, who volunteer to take obligations and agree to shared values and codes of conduct in order to weave ourselves together into a sacred band of Brethren who together form a quiver of arrows to help improve ourselves and the world around us.

Masonry is internalized and practiced continuously. This chosen path becomes part of our DNA – who we are, how we look at the world, solve problems, and interact with the ecosystem of our lives. Our Lodges are where we gain renourishment and where we come together to build our sacred living temple standing on the foundation of these shared values, obligations, and outlooks. I reflect on my own initiation into the light every single time I arrive in Lodge. The physical, emotional and intellectual safe space Freemasonry creates offers the opportunity to strive to be our finest.

Our bonds require the nectar of masonic education, the proper use of the level, plumb, square, and compasses, and the continuous purposeful choice of each and every one of us to endeavor to keep learning and striving to improve ourselves and the application of our Masonic values and tools.

We have all chosen to create our living safe space, built upon the internalization of masonic values embodied in our ritual, code, and landmarks combined with the energy from our ethos of giving of ourselves.

Without it, we are no longer a sacred Brotherhood with the collective ability to help transform ourselves, families, communities, and the world—we are but merely a casual gathering of men enjoying each other’s banter for a brief time.

I challenge you to memorize a new piece of ritual or perhaps an excerpt from our Landmarks —something that piques your uniquely human quality of reflective curiosity—to begin the journey of internalizing its values, applying it, and then sharing it with others. I challenge all of us to choose to learn and become better Masons each and every day. 