Philipstown DGGM visit                                                         December 3, 2009

When is the end?

Worshipful Master, Right Worshipfuls, Very Worshipfuls, Worshipfuls, Brethren All:  I bring you the most heartfelt fraternal greetings of our Grand Master, The Most Worshipful Edward G. Gilbert.  Brother Secretary, I ask that this copy of the Grand Master’s Address, which he gave on St. John’s Day, June 27^th, 2009 in the Daniel D. Tompkins Memorial Chapel, be spread upon the minutes of our present Communication.

It is hard to imagine that it is December already.  It seems like only a month ago that I finally got used to writing “2009” as the correct year on my checks.  But isn’t that always the way? We mean it when we say, as Masons, that time is elusive and beyond our control.  I have heard many theories as to why the passage of time seems to occur so quickly, the best being that a year is a smaller and smaller percentage of your life as one continues to age.

But as Masons, time seems to go even faster.  Our working calendar is technically only ten months long.  Then, add the necessity of the installation of new officers, a yearly budget and business meeting, a District Deputy Grand Master Official visit and a set of degree conferrals and that time goes quickly.  What we are left with is choosing what other work to do within the remaining third of a year or so.  As we all know, it can be quite challenging.

In addition to this time constraint, there is an artificial Masonic calendar that is superimposed upon our schedules.  Since our year begins and ends officially at Grand Lodge session, there are many reports and recommendations that are due either in advance of that early May date, or almost immediately after it, before St. Johns’ weekend in June.  Finally, there is still plenty of paperwork that needs to be filed before the end of December to coincide with the regular financial year.  Frankly speaking, it is amazing that we find any time to fit other work into our schedules.

In this construct, it is not so surprising that I am already hearing speculation about who the next Masters will be in the various Lodges in our district, or who will be the next Grand Lodge officers from our district.  But rather than waste our time in engaging in that exercise, why don’t we try a more productive use, a better application of our other speculative efforts?  Why don’t we actually do something?

I know that this might sound like a crazy idea, but bear with me for a moment.   While it may be early December, our Masonic year still has two thirds of it left.  There is still plenty of time left to accomplish stated goals, set new ones, or reassess some other ones.  I can assure you that there actually is plenty of work to be done in our quarries; just ask me or your Master, and we will be happy to point you in the right direction.  Yet, as I say this, I am struck with the idea that maybe it is not the lack of work that hampers progress.  Maybe you feel like there is just too much of it.

Certainly, the lofty goals of Freemasonry can seem a bit daunting.  But that’s okay.  Making the world a better place and bringing new Brothers to light are not exactly things one can put on their “honey-do” lists, to be accomplished within a weekend.  Our Masonic goals are purposely meant for a grander scale, and as such, need to be put on a larger calendar and within a larger perspective.  Most importantly, we need to be understanding that completion dates outside of our life span are to be expected.

As Masons, we say that Gothic architecture endures as a thing of beauty, unsurpassed in the builders’ art.  So imagine the goal setting and patience that were necessary in the construction of one of the Gothic masterpieces of our world: Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  First conceived in 1160 by Bishop Maurice de Sully, construction actually started 3 years later.  By the time he died in 1196, a mere 36 years later, only the main altar and choir area were completed.  While it only had a temporary western wall and roof at this point, it was still a functioning church.  Even our operative forefathers recognized then that an incomplete church was still a sanctuary just the same.  Had they not, I doubt that the building would have continued to its finish in 1345, almost 200 years later.

Of course that is only a portion of the whole story.  Many large refurbishment and major repair projects are noted with regularity in the 16^th, 17^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries.  I am sure that, as we sit here this evening, someone is working on some way to improve on one of the most glorious structures in the world.

But that dedication is exactly what ensures that this beautiful edifice will endure.   Many projects, most that were beyond the span of one person’s normal life, have been planned and executed that are responsible for the beauty that we see today.  Most of these projects were not to simply add beauty to beauty.  Most were repair jobs necessitated by internal desecrations carried on by the Huguenots, members of the French Revolution or the Paris Commune.  Is there any work more difficult than the work required in repairing our own neglect or vandalism?

Yet this beautiful structure exists today, even as other younger symbols of technological advance and aesthetic beauty have vanished from our midst.  Thankfully, we sometimes learn from our mistakes.  It is no coincidence that the demolition of New York’s Pennsylvania Station directly led to the founding of the Landmarks Preservation Act.  As Masons, we need to heed the lessons of our earlier and operative brothers.  Because our structures are eternal and necessary, and if we do not tend to them, no one else will.

Please take a moment this busy holiday season to build or repair something in your Masonic world.  Perhaps you could use some brushup on your ritual, or your floorwork.  Maybe it’s a good time to reconnect with the widows or shut-ins of your Lodge.  Ask yourself how you can

add to the Masonic beauty around you.  There is no shame in finding more work to do, only in not doing it because there is not enough time.  My Brothers, we have all the time in the world.

Worshipful Master, I thank you for the courtesies extended to myself, our Grand Sword Bearer, and our Brothers in attendance this evening.   My Brothers, as we near the end of our calendar year, a number of special days are upon us.  Our Muslim and Hindu brethren have recently celebrated their respective festivals of light, known respectively as Diwali and Eid al-Adha.  Our Jewish brethren will begin celebrating Hannukah, the festival of lights, next week; and African-American brethren will celebrate Kwanza at the end of the month.  Our Christian brethren are currently celebrating the light of Advent, which culminates in the celebration of Christmas.  So, while it is true that we each of us may honor the light in our lives in different ways; it is equally true that we recognize the universality and common source of that light as coming from our Great Architect of the Universe.  So, masonically, as we recognize and cherish the common message of our great fraternity, let us also honor these many individual accents that are also spoken in so many of our Lodges.  For it is only together, as many united into one, that our light shall truly illuminate the rest of the world.