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