In our Entered Apprentice lecture, we learn about “Brotherly Love, Relief,
and Truth”. The Fellow Craft teaches about “an Attentive Ear, an Instructive Tongue, and a Faithful Breast”. Our Master Mason Degree instructs us that the “most excellent tenets of our Institution contained within the point of the compasses, which are Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love”.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that our Masonic work begins and ends with Brotherly Love. Our third section EA lecture describes Brotherly Love as: “By the exercise of Brotherly Love, we are taught to regard the whole human species as one family; the high and low, the rich and poor, who, as created by one Almighty Parent and inhabitants of the same planet are to aid, support, and protect each other. On this principle Freemasonry unites men of every country, sect, and opinion and conciliates true friendship among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.”
Brotherly Love is the key to the success of our fraternity. It is the answer to creating a harmonious Lodge, and without it our Lodges fall apart. A lack of Brotherly Love is the main reason for the failure of a Masonic Lodge.
What is a Masonic Lodge? In its essence a Lodge is a group of like-minded men, who enjoy being with each other, and through Masonic ritual and association with other men, work every day to improve ourselves. How can this be accomplished without Brotherly Love? If I do not like the men in my Lodge, why would I attend?
So many times, we lose good men because of hurt feelings and a failure to fit in. We hear Brothers talk about cliques in a Lodge, and how they never felt like part of the Lodge. We have more than 200 Lodges in Mississippi, many are just a few miles apart. Have you ever wondered why a particular town has two or three Lodges when none of them are able to get more than five or six to a meeting? I would guess that years ago, most likely before any of these men were even born, there was a dispute over something. Something that really didn’t matter, and I would speculate that no one even remembers. But, what it boils down to is a lack of Brotherly Love.
Freemasonry brings together a wide variety of men, as the above statement states, “the high and low, the rich and poor”. We all believe in God, helping our neighbors, and improving ourselves. In our State we have a very diverse group of Masons. We have working class men and business men, 18 year olds and 100 year olds, “Mountain Men” and “Confederates”, bikers and lawyers. We even have Doctors who are also bikers. What ties us all together? Brotherly Love.
“May Brotherly Love prevail, and every moral and social virtue cement us!”
Jason Jefcoat, GM
Grand Lodge of Mississippi
