At our 157th Annual Installation of Officers, the Master offered these remarks on of one of Masonry’s principle symbols.
The LEVEL
It is an honor to again serve as Master of Los Angeles Lodge No. 42. This will be our 157th year—one of the oldest institutions in Los Angeles—and our longevity is a testament to the providence of the business in which we are engaged.
Freemasonry has enjoyed a renaissance of public attention in recent years. Books and movies have reintroduced the fraternity to popular culture.
We regard this with some apprehension—fact and fiction indiscriminately mingle in popular entertainment. Fascinations with secrets and buried treasure distract from the true aims of our Fraternity; but if the attention brings good friends to our doors, then the work of dispelling myth is worthwhile.
What is Freemasonry? One of its beauties is the variety of ways to answer this, each of them equally useful. Our Craft employs symbols, as tangible analogies, to make our concepts easier to understand and explain.
Tonight we want to share one answer to the question, “What is Freemasonry?” with a few observations of the LEVEL, a symbol you see above our Senior Warden in the west of the Lodge.
Each of us has heard the expression, the “lowest common denominator”. We associate this with our basest instincts—a place where we all occasionally meet, but are embarrassed to see one another.
Think of Freemasonry as the great balance to this; a “highest common denominator”, of which the LEVEL is a symbol.
On the north wall you see three principles fundamental to our Fraternity. The first is Brotherly Love, and it is perhaps our most important concept, because it is the highest common denominator, the LEVEL of our Fraternity.
A portion of our ceremonies explains that, “Freemasonry unites men of every country, sect and opinion, and causes true friendships to exist among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.”
In our universities, we learn with them who share our academic interests.
In our professions, we labor beside them who share the routine of our trades.
In our places of worship, we congregate with them who share our religious convictions.
In our civic activities, we organize with them who share our partisan views.
What unites us in these endeavors, by their nature also divides us—they are founded on complexities so particular that they preclude universal understanding and agreement.
The principles of Freemasonry are a solution for these complexities which divide us. We are reminded that our first duty is to one another as fellow human beings; that we are all, ultimately, one family—and as such should support one another. How improved would the state of mankind be if all would adopt this simple creed?
We are all one family. We meet upon the LEVEL. This is the foundation on which we build a society with liberty and justice for all. That, and not a pile of gold, is the true Masonic Treasure. It isn’t buried underground; but is within each of us. The map by which to find it is in our noblest ideas of ourselves.
WESLEY G. PITTS, Master
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