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Religion Has Given Us The Way To Live, Masonry A Way Of Life
by
VWBro. Godofredo O. Peteza, Jr., PSGL
I
first heard about Masonry two and twoscore years ago. I was then
seven I years old and had just completed my studies of the alphabet
and prayers from "Cartilla", a primer on the Catholic
faith. My tutor then was my own mother, who once told me that
her brother (and therefore my uncle) was a Mason.
Curious, I asked, "What
is a Mason, Mama?"
But whatever Mama told me
about what a Mason was, I was not about to make heads and tails
of it.
Years passed...
I enrolled at the Ateneo
de Naga High School, where I graduated on April 1, 1950. ( I would
have finished high school in l944-45 had it not been for World
War II. In any case, it was a blessing in disguise; for, in my
own small way, I was able to serve our country in the "guerrilla"
movement. )
So, after the war, I enrolled
at the Ateneo. Our religion teacher, Rev. Lorenzo Ma. Guerrero,
S.J., recurrently stressed this message in Luke 12, 21: "Seek
ye first the Kingdom of God and His Justice, and all these things
shall be added unto you."
One day, while ambling through
the corridor of the main building I suddenly noticed that the
portraits of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, our foremost national hero, and
St. Francis Xavier of the Society of Jesus, hung alongside each
other on the wall. While I was gazing at the portraits, Fr. Guerrero
passed through the corridor. Hence, I accosted him.
"Good morning, Father,"
I greeted. "May I ask you a few questions?"
He replied, "Yes, son,
is there anything in which I can help you?"
Pointing to the portraits
on the wall, I asked, "Why is it, Father, that the portraits
hung beside each other?"
"Well," Fr. Guerrero
answered, "Dr. Jose P. Rizal, who studied at the Ateneo Municipal
de Manila, came to be our country's foremost national hero and
therefore a pride of the Order founded by St. Francis Xavier."
"But, Father,"
I interposed, "I read somewhere that Dr. Rizal was a Mason!"
"So what!" retorted
the Jesuit priest. "Masonry is not a religion!" he said
with finality.
That was the first time I
heard that Masonry is not a religion, and the person who told
me was our religion teacher, whom we idolized and who was a member
of the Society of Jesus, reputed to be the most liberal religious
order in the country!
At another time one of my
classmates, Virgilio C. Mendoza, without mincing his words, told
me he was a son of a Mason.
Bewildered, I asked, "Why,
then, did you enroll in Ateneo?"
Spontaneously he replied,
"No less than His Excellency Pedro D. Santos, D.D., Bishop
of Caceres, informed my father that there was nothing wrong joining
the Masonic fraternity. The bishop told my father that Masonry
is a fraternity, not a religion.."
In
time I, too, became a member of the Masonic fraternity. I have
also involved my family in Masonic affairs, so that my own sons
also sought membership in Masonry. Like me, they have faithfully
practiced their Catholic faith, observing St. Luke's precept:
"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Justice, and all
these things shall be added unto you." Like me, they have
found out that a good Mason is made even more faithful to the
tenets of his faith by his membership in the Lodge. My sons and
I have found out that our Catholic religion has given us the way
to live and that Masonry is a way of life. We agree with a Grand
Master of Masons in Pennsylvania who once said: "Freemasonry
is having a faith to live by. Freemasonry is being a self to live
with. Freemasonry is having worthy causes to live for. Freemasonry
is a never-ending pursuit of excellence." ***
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Reprinted
from "The Cable Tow", Vol. 74, No. 2
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