07/15/2021
A man walks down the street of his hometown and sees the old Masonic lodge closed and falling apart. He had left for the service and said when he returned home he wanted to join the lodge because as a child he was so impressed by the quality of men he met there. He recalled the fish fry’s and barbecues he attended there, the Christmas parties, and other events.
He saw an old lady walking down the street and asks her what happened? He recalled how he would see the members gather for meetings, holding events for the community, and marching in the parade. Such great men, beacons of the town, men of influence but more importantly, just great men.
The old woman stated, “ My husband used to attend lodge there. For decades he would spend countless hours working to prepare for events and meetings, oh how he loved being around his Brothers. He loved being a Freemason and so looked forward to the fellowship, he loved being surrounded by good men, like-minded men who knew they were something bigger than themselves.”
“But what happened? “, asked the man, “Where’d they all go?”
“Well son”, said the old lady, “They died or moved away but it started down this path long before that. The Brothers stopped coming, they stopped working on the lodge, they stopped holding events. When the Brothers stopped attending, the events stopped, the people stopped coming, when the people stopped coming, the fundraisers stopped, when the fundraisers stopped, the Brothers were asked to pitch in to keep their lodge alive. Unfortunately, the Brothers have more important things to do. They would have all kinds of reasons why they couldn’t come to give a few hours of their time.
There used to be dozens but eventually, there were just a few, my husband called them ‘The faithful few’. Sometimes they barely had enough to hold meetings, they couldn’t do Degree work because they didn’t have enough members present, they couldn’t grow because they couldn’t bring in new men. Sadly as those faithful few aged, they just couldn’t do it all anymore. They tried but after the events stopped, so did their relations with the town folk. The people who had enjoyed the events over the years lost interest in helping out. They drained what little money they had left to try and keep it open but it all dried up. After they closed my husband was miserable, it was the one thing he looked forward to each month and now it was gone.”
The man looked on with tears in his eyes, such a great institution that did so much for its community was gone.
Our Lodges are not just buildings of brick and mortar, they are buildings of Brotherly Love. Love is held between Brothers of the order and shown to our communities but they can’t survive on love alone. Like any great organization, it is the members who keep it going. Much like the crops of the field will die off without the rains, our Lodges will die off without its members. We all have other things that go on, that is life, but we must make every effort to set aside the time, as little as four hours a month, to attend meetings, do the work and maintain our temple.
