Our 2016 Christmas Message

Today in Masonic History we present our 2016 Christmas message.

On this special day we take the opportunity to talk about Freemasonry and it's role in the world.

The first year we started Today in Masonic History,we had a 2014 Christmas message where we talked about Freemasonry and it's role in the World. In 2015, we did a regular post and with everything going on in the World we felt it was important to go back to a similar Christmas message like we had in 2014.

If you are reading this site you know that Freemasonry is not a religion. Blue lodge masonry around the world for the most part does not require a specific religious belief, only that you believe in a Supreme Being. There are exceptions like the Swedish Rite which only allows Christians into it's blue lodges and Knights Templar, which is part of York Rite system. Regardless of what Freemasonry you belong to, at it's core is tolerance. In fact Christ himself taught tolerance, the expression, "turn the other cheek" comes from his teachings. Although that has been misinterpreted by some to mean that you should not stand up for yourself. It actually doesn't, the lesson Christ was trying to teach was that you can stand your ground without having to resort to the violence that others may inflict upon you. During the time of Christ, someone would use their left hand to strike someone they considered a lesser. By Christ saying "turn the other cheek" it is a challenge to the other person to deal with you as an equal.

Which brings us to today. We live today in a world that is filled with violence, hatred and anger. Two of those, hatred and anger, are emotional states that through history, possibly as some sort of evolutionary defense mechanism, has made us switch off the part of us that would normally not take up arms or be violent to another human being. In that state we become susceptible, it becomes easier to forget what Christ was trying to teach us and what Freemasonry teaches us "to learn to subdue our passions."

Most of us hear that phrase "to learn to subdue our passions," at meetings and degrees and we forget what it means what Freemasonry is trying to remind us to do. We hear the word passion and forget that it doesn't just mean something positive. A passion can be something negative, something that is dark, something that can make us inflict harm on another. Generally this is done because of an actual or perceived affront to our beliefs.

When we learn to subdue our passions it does not mean that we simply let go of that anger or that hate, it means that we take it out of our decision making process. We set it aside and remember that others may be motivated in ways that we do not understand, that not everyone from a group of people, even when they share traits, are the same. It is so easy to give into hate and anger especially when we feel frustrated or helpless. That is when we have to stop and think and set the emotion aside and realize that our passions need to be subdued and we need to "turn the other cheek" to consider our actions and to urge those we are in conflict with to consider their actions as well.

I hope everyone who reads this has a Merry Christmas and celebrates the idea of peace on Earth and goodwill toward ALL man kind.