THE CLAIM
A Brother Asks: I’ve
heard it said that every man in the lodge
room is a fellow craft and an apprentice.
I want to agree with this since our obligations to both of these remain
with us after we ascend to the next degree.
While I am a Master Mason, I am still an Entered Apprentice and Fellow
Craft. What are your thoughts?
Coach: Do you
want to re-examine that notion?
Brother: Sure!
Coach: Actually,
you are no longer either an Entered Apprentice or a Fellow Craft, if you
have rightfully earned the title. Care to hear the logic?
Brother: Absolutely! But first, an example.
Coach: Great! I love examples!
Brother: Good. You can always work a job that you are
over qualified for. If there is no master work, is a master able to do the job
of a fellow craft or an Apprentice? My short answer is, “yes.” In my humble
opinion, it is better to be a Master with a low paying job, than a master whose
family is starving because he has no work.
Also in my opinion, a master who does the work of an Entered
Apprentice or a Fellow Craft is reminded of what it is to be a Master, what it
took to get to where he is. Call it righteous labor.
This goes for life, not just Masonry. I will get out and
help unload my truck sometimes, a job "beneath" me. It reminds me to
be respectful and patient with the unloaders as sometimes their job is very
difficult. It does me good.
THE REFRAME
Coach: Thanks for
the examples. There’s the problem with
them though. Each is reframing and redirecting the whole question. You are no longer talking about titles earned
in your examples. You are merely talking about the work to be done. Doing the
work that is below your skill and expertise level does not make you the work
that you do. It merely means that you can render the work without relying upon
greater skill and experience.
Brother: In
Masonry, I am going back to the Entered Apprentice degree and studying once I
am more comfortable, I will re-examine the Fellow Craft degree and then the Master
Mason degree. I now have more tools (thanks to you) so I have to go back to the
quarry and be a laborer for a while. While I carry the title of Master, I am
going to do the work of an Apprentice for a while to become a better Master.
Coach: And there
in lay the difference. Although you wear the title, you know that you still
need to do the Work to earn it in a different way, by actually doing the Work
that the Degrees point us toward.
Recognizing this is the first step toward the Masonic Mastery
that the Degrees point us toward.
As you might have already come to realize, there's a HUGE
difference between Freemasonic Mastery requirements and Masonic Mastery requirements.
The former requires that you KNOW and repeat back three script. The later
require you BE those scripts in every way.
Something to consider when you come across those wearing the
Master’s title who hold to the claim that they, and all others wearing the title,
are also apprentices and fellow crafts as well:
Just as students normally progress from
freshman to sophomore, then from sophomore to junior, then from junior to
senior, and finally from senior to graduate to never ever retain nor wear the
previous titles and rightfully so, so too do members of the Craft normally
progress from Entered Apprentice to Apprentice, Apprentice to Fellow, and
finally from Fellow to Master, when they
do the actual Work that cultivates each.
To imply or insist in any way that a
previous title still applies once a higher title has been earned is likened to
calling a graduate a school boy. It simply doesn't apply in the minds and
hearts of anyone who has actually done the Work to earn the latest title. It
also insults those who know better.
I earned the title "Master", as have countless others. To imply or
claim that anyone is something less is to belittle those who have done the Work
because you claim through your label that the person is still something that he
has honestly and rightfully moved past.
And he shall object and for good
reason.
A Master sees through the eyes of a Master. A Master hears with the ears of a
Master. A Master works with the hands of a Master. A Master learns from the vantage point of
experience and skill. A Master has Wisdom, Strength and Beauty backing his
Words and his Deeds, such that all or present and all are in agreement when he
puts it forth. His engagements in life are Masterful. Learning and teaching are
a Master's intent and he does so Masterfully.
Masters are no longer what they have passed through. They are the outcome of
the sum total of what they have passed through.
When you call them otherwise, that
label you make effort to put upon them says more about your views and
attitudes than what they actually are.
Brother: Understood. It makes for a great lecture, for I have learned that I am all three and I am sure I'm not the only one who believes this.
Coach: Does that mean that you are still a freshman in high school?
Brother: Negative.
Coach: Then, if you are no longer a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, because you have graduated, the same applies to apprentice and fellow craft, because, if you earned the title, you have graduated to Master and are no longer the previous because you have moved beyond them.
Brother: That makes perfect sense. But what if you run into someone who can't rationally see this?
Coach: Then I suggest you put something more heartfelt in front of them.
Brother: Like?
Coach: Ask them, "What man do you know who honestly believes that he's both a man and a boy just because he once went through boyhood?" Follow this with, "The entire point of Apprenticeship is maturing the Candidate so they can be embrace the demands of manhood. A member who claims to be both a Master and Apprentice Mason he has yet to embrace this."
Brother: Yikes!
For Further Light:
