The identity of a franc mason

At the beginning of the First Degree Ritual, the Worshipful Master asks the First Warden: Are you a mason?, who replies: "All my brothers recognize me as such Worshipful Master".

In front of this answer, appears the question of what does it mean to be recognize as a mason. Being a fact that the touching are -by definition- those that allow brothers to know each other under light or darkness, any person who get to know this symbols, could be identify as a brother. In this sense, the question made by the Worshipful Master has to do with the way of living, feeling and acting.

The Entered Apprenticed Manual wrote by Aldo Lavagnini says: "Walk and go towards the light, search the truth and establish under its domain, the Reign of Virtue, be free from the shadows that dim and avoid the manifestation of the Inner Light that must shine always clarifying and destroying the darkness, is in a few words, the noble work of every honest mason...", saying also that "... the light that lies inside ourselves will naturally reveal and surround us in life, in our thoughts, words and actions"

Regarding the above-mentioned ideas, the question becomes a transcendental issue, because being recognize by our peers as a mason, implies that our perception of how the inner and outer world is, the thoughts that this visions provoque and the consequent exteriorization through what we say or do, is the most honest and certain way, to be identify as a mason, beyond our beliefs or knowledge.

It is possible to see the rectitude and virtue, through the mouth of words and actions. This is, our fruits, that has to be as good as the tree where it came from, because it is not possible to pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles, like Jesus spoke according to Saint Matthew 7:15-20

Our condition of an initiate is best describe through the own Biblical text, when it says that for: "... their fruit you will recognize them"

February 25, 2003

Q:.H:. Miguel de Pomar