Reames Chapter #28, Royal Arch Masons of Oregon

by Jeff Day (February, 2008)

I travel 70 miles from home to attend York Rite each month. I usually carpool with other Companions from Roseburg, and we typically make use of this time to add two more hours of Masonic discussion to our day.

Yesterday, I went with Dave Sherman, the immediate Past Master of Laurel Lodge #13, who was one of our candidates at the Fall Festival in Cottage Grove last September, and on our way home we had a conversation that inspired this article.

The conversation centered around the opening and closing Prayers, and the Obligations and the Charges of the various Masonic degrees.

How many Brethren in a Lodge meeting today genuinely offer the opening prayer to Deity as their own when they say "So mote it be!"? Have you thought about what the words of that prayer mean? We are asking God to assist the Lodge to reflect the order and beauty that exists before His throne. Do we mean it? I hope we do, and I KNOW that our brethren in the 1700s and 1800s did. You can tell it by the fruit of their labors. What a level of Holiness is entailed by this reflection, and how humbling it is to realize that each of us are no where close to achieving such perfection. But, when the strength and wisdom of men fail, there is an inexhaustible supply yielded to us from above through the power of prayer. Our ancient Brethren believed this.

We hear a lot about keeping our obligations, and I have heard the current and past Grand Masters in Oregon emphasize this point on numerous occasions. It truly is essential, but the Obligation is the minimum requirement. Once we have taken those solemn obligations we really simply must live up to them. That is what makes us Masons. There should be no discernment between a brother who "really" lives up to his obligation and one who doesn't, for we all simply must live up to them, if we wish to remain Masons. No, what makes an individual Mason truly exemplary isn't his obedience to his Obligation, but rather, living up to the Charges given in the various degrees. And, as York Rite Masons, we have an even higher standard of excellence to pursue.

Open up your Ritual for Blue Lodge right now and read the first three. They aren't long, and they're written out in plain language. Page 39, page 67, and page 114.

The additional charges which we have received as Royal Arch Masons are found on pages 32, 56, 81, and 129 of our ritual. And for those of us who are also Cryptic Masons, the Select Master Degree concludes with a most important charge as well.

To live perfectly by the standards expressed in these charges would probably take a lifetime, and yet some of the things they admonish us to do are very simple.

To act according to these charges is the best way to impress upon today's young men and Masons that we are serious about Freemasonry. That we believe in it, and what it stands for. Any failure to live up to these charges, in the eyes of the youngest Entered Apprentice Mason must seem to be the gravest form of hypocrisy. For how can we admonish him towards such exemplary behavior, and then at the refreshment table show ourselves to be otherwise?

Just as the charges in the Symbolic Degrees admonish us to carry the same standard of behavior outside of the Lodge into the world, so should we as York Rite Masons carry our behavior outside of our meetings and into our Blue Lodge meetings. It is through our unswerving Masonic and moral conduct, and our true reverence towards God, that we will win the hearts of new Master Masons, that we will shine forth and stand out as dispensers of true Masonic Light and Knowledge, and by which we will eventually earn the privilege of welcoming them into membership of the York Rite.

When interest has been piqued, and a York Rite petition has been received, I suggest that in our investigation of the candidates, we should place a strong emphasis on the adherence they have shown to the charges of Blue Lodge Masonry. If Masonry takes Good men and makes them Better, the Royal Arch should take those Better men, and make them the Best.