Opinion index

MAN AND THE SACRED

ADDRESS BY GRAND MASTER VIRGILIO GAITO

Ladies and Gentlemen, Sisters and Brothers,

Ivan Goub, a Croat priest and sensitive contemporary poet, recently wrote:

Leave the path at the setting of the sun
and put on those worn out black sandals !
Prick up your ears to every word spoken
and pay attention : perhaps it is God who speaks !
Open yourself to the sun that rises
and put your hands together at midday,
The bells ring from work
even God now has the desire to speak.
(translation from Ocii - The Eyes, ed. Naprije, Zagreb, 1995)

This man, whose soul that has been torn by the atrocities of the civil war in ex-Yugoslavia - a war fomented by violent racial and religious hatred - urges us not to close ourselves up in our own egoism or in our own fear, but to listen to the word of God. An exhortation which, as initiates, we fully share.

In the Masonic Lodges in fact, the ritual works cannot commence until after the Sacred Book, the Bible, opened at the Gospel according to John, is placed on the altar. The first verse reads: «From the very beginning the Word was with God» - the Word intended as the source of life, a wind from God, creator of all things, and also as the power of God from which all things were created and to which all things return.

According to Latin etymology, verbum essentially means word and this is something more than mere wind, because it is divided into one or more syllables that make up the word and that define its meaning in different languages, until it becomes the primogenial and most immediate means of communication among men.

However, if we analyse the first three letters ver, this word can also contain the meaning of primavera (spring), the season that represents the rebirth of nature after the winter hibernation - the progressive regression from the darkness to the triumph of light until the threshold of summer.

And so here we have the connection, the deep affinity between several words that call to mind the concept of creation as the sublime moment of divine presence that reveals itself through the light which reassuringly brightens everything as it presides over the marvellous evolution of life.

All esoteric societies - and first and foremost Freemasonry - base their rituals on the symbol of light as knowledge, truth, growth and therefore spiritual enhancement, the fundamental requirement for material growth: which not by chance comes from the purifying fire, - the richest in meaning of the four primeval elements, which gives off light and heat.

From a careful observation of Nature - immutable in its laws, which sometimes may seem cruel, but nonetheless admirable because it corresponds to a divine governing plan of the universe - Man has taken all its teachings, according to the level of civilisation reached. It has lead him from an ecstatic and almost Messianic wait of events that were simply accepted in that they were considered the will of a fearful and unknowable Supreme Being, towards the search for the reasons that lay behind certain events and the way to recreate them.

The answers from the world of science, the result of in-depth studies and experiments and occasionally of genial intuition or fortuitous events, have greatly helped us to draw closer to the knowledge of our essence, of our origins and of our final destination. However the answers to certain vital questions still remain a mystery. On the one hand we do not have the answer to when, where, and why the Word, that the Bible asserts existed in the beginning, was created and materialised, and on the other hand, there is the question of the time remaining to us on this planet, which for the moment is the only inhabited one in space.

The esoteric schools such as Freemasonry have attempted to solve these crucial enigmas through esotericism which, by means of an adogmatic study, a gradual and systematic study of symbols and allegories guided by expert Masters, that leads the initiate, believer in a Supreme Being, along a long and difficult road to search within himself, to purify himself and prepare him to understand the great mysteries that will conduct him to the unfathomable but consolatory divine plan.

Religions, especially monotheist ones, are also committed to the elevation of Man towards the sacred. However they do not allow other teachings apart from those handed down to them, which for the most part were done orally, by one of the Great Spirits, illuminated by divine inspiration, which in world history, stand out as outstanding figures: Buddha, Confucius, Christ and Mohammed.

Today's society seems pervaded with widespread materialism, by a thirst for wealth, success, and economic-political rule at any cost and by any means with the abolition of any moral qualm in a perverse phenomenon of increasing numbers of negative examples, aided by a system of communication which if faster and more penetrating by the hour in what has been defined and accepted as the global village.

And yet, even among the less receptive social classes of the world, a sense of saturation has been felt, of dissatisfaction towards what had up to now been considered the achievements of progress, but in reality turned out to be awkward attempts by Man, auto-proclaimed king of the universe, to bend the strict laws of nature to his own insatiable desire for power.

And, precisely when technological progress is making it increasing possible for Man to land on other planets in order to discover other forms of life that originated from the same divine wind that created us, one senses an anguishing sense of solitude and precariousness that stimulates a continual search for the origins and final destination of man.

Therefore we question ourselves even more in depth as to why we are here and on the basis of what mysterious plan: the need for a certainty that demonstrates the truth of the promises of a faith, not only favours the rediscovery of religions, that have always affirmed themselves as the road to salvation marked out by God, but also an increase in the number of sects, gurus, wizards and literature which is often of dubious seriousness if not completely dangerous.

At the end of the first Millennium, the terror of the end of the world pervaded an uneducated and superstitious mankind that was influenced by the ineluctability of a divine punishment for all the sins committed. God was seen as an implacable and unapproachable judge.

Today, on the threshold of the third Millennium, a more mature Mankind - enlightened by the evolution of thought and the conquests of science that reveal the incommensurable intelligence of the Supreme Being in the creation of a universe and of that marvellous microcosm that is man - turns to God fascinated, in an attempt to catch the message of light and love.

In particular, Masons throughout the world have always been committed to this search for the sacred and they cannot but rejoice following the present reawakening of spirituality, given that the final objective of the Lodge's work is the betterment of Mankind through the moral, spiritual and material elevation of the individual.

And if we take a look at our nation, we are very pleased to note, that one hundred and twenty seven years from a fateful date, the 20th September 1870 - dear to all Italians as the moment of the unification of our country, an event that for more than a century set the Catholics against the laymen - represents not so much the fall of temporal power but the beneficial restitution of the Church of Rome to its always more valued mission of peace among men.

On the other hand, two unyielding patriots, recognised as Fathers of our Nation and venerated still today in many parts of the world as advocates of the creed of freedom and the dignity of Man, would not have been able to conceive or carry out so many memorable deeds if they had not believed in God or the Truth.

Our Grand Master Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose 190^th anniversary of his birth we commemorate this year, wrote: «Who can limit the treasures bestowed by God to Man, or His prodigious mysteries? Is it the soul that we present, that we see with the eye of our imagination, that we perceive like imperceptible inhabitant of the air, is the soul either here or there of the barrier raised by the Eternal to human intelligence? Whatever the case may be, my soul is an atom of the Universe's soul. And this belief ennobles me, it raises me above mere materialism: it inspires me with respect for the other atoms emanated by God, and it forces me to be worthy of the approval of the multitudes of atoms that are like me and that, through example rather than by doctrine, must do good, because they belong to the essence of the Eternal Benefactor ... And why should I be jealous of the butterfly, much more beautiful than me, if the Almighty has wished to give it a soul?».

The other great Italian, Giuseppe Mazzini - whose one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of his death we solemnly commemorated last March in Genoa at a crowded international convention to the indifference of the Italian Government - was a real religious spirit, the highest religious spirit of modern times. «The essence of any religion - he wrote - lies in the capacity, unknown to pure science, to make men transform thought into fact, and to harmonise practical life with the concept of morality».

Faith for Mazzini - as Ugo Della Seta stated - was based around two transcendental certainties: the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. But his God is not a God imprisoned in the dogmatics of the various theologies, because He is a God of Life, whose work is incessant, whose revelation is continuous and this revelation must imprint Mankind with a greater degree of education, of spiritual elevation. In the footsteps of the Mason Lessing, Mazzini's God does not ask the faithful to believe in certain dogmas, nor the participation at certain rites: but rather the holiness of life that is testified by the holiness of the work carried out.

Even though there is no certainty that Mazzini was initiated, he was one of the most tangible interpreters of the Mason's morality. Brother Johann Gottlieb Fichte so effectively described him in his own distinctiveness as a man that ceases to be religious in order to act religiously, given that Freemasonry frees Man from his religion to elevate him to the dignity of the universal Man which nonetheless has his own religion.

In November 1996 in Rome, the Grand Orient of Italy organised an international convention on science's answer to three existential questions: who are we, where do we come from, and where are we going. At the present state of affairs, science has been able to single out particles of matter that are always more microscopic, but it still questions itself on that quid, that vital energy that is the origin of the universe.

But that energy does not stupefy nor worry the Mason because, through the long lasting work of inner examination carried out in the Temple, he is capable of drawing nearer to the mystery which for thousands of years has tormented Man, reaching the conclusion of God's existence through a matured conviction rather than by an act of faith.

It is not by chance that one of the greatest initiates and thinkers, Pythagoras of Samo - who theorised on the identity of the microcosm and the macrocosm and on the universal soul of the world - exhorted us to look to the sky as the source of illumination and knowledge.

And this insight nurtures the soul of the Mason conferring him with that serenity and moral force that guides his way in the profane world. The incessant search for the sacred, to which he is committed in an inexhaustible desire to better himself and others, sharpens him day after day making him a sure point of reference and comparison along with all men of good will.

The ethics that pervades the Mason brings him to repudiate the contamination of unscrupulous business, careerism, materialism or power acquired illegally, privileging the disinterested dedication to ones neighbour, especially the outcast and suffering as well as cultural enrichment, together with the desire for knowledge of himself and others, in order to transfer that extraordinary heritage of beauty, goodness, and truth acquired during the initiatic course to the profane world.

This altruistic spirit makes the Mason particularly sensitive to material and spiritual growth, and above all, to the defence of freedom for all men because he believes that he is son of the same Father, brother of all men without distinction of race, religion, wealth, sex, age or social condition.

And the Mason, who more than any other human being has always been pervaded by a spirit of universality, can and must draw closer to the young, our certainty for a better future, to defend them from the present standardisation, to instil them with the desire and pleasure of the search for the sacred which, like the difficult initiatic path for the formation of a true man, is an individual conquest and guarantee of authenticity, a faculty that is being lost in a world headed towards an exalted globalisation.

But this indispensable and urgent work of education and preparation of the young for the exceptional responsibilities that await them can only be carried out along the guidelines that we have long set out: the exaltation of the humanitarian spirit, the awakening of the fundamental values of freedom, equality, brotherhood, tolerance and the spread of an interdisciplinary education enlivened by a sound ethic basis.

The commitment of the Masons of the Grand Orient of Italy of Palazzo Giustiniani will therefore always be centred around the increase, on the one hand, of all those philanthropical and solidarity bodies in existence such as the Asili Notturni of Turin, the Pane Quotidiano of Milan, assistance given to the infirm and the terminally ill, and on the other, of those cultural activities such as the International League for the Rights of Man, the Università Popolari in several Italian cities and the Centro Studi e Ricerche Università Internazionale Pitagora of Crotone, which was conceived for the preparation of public and private managers endowed with that panoramic vision of the problems that the society of the Third Millennium faces. Then there is the journal MASSONERIA OGGI, the national and international conventions on figures of great moral substance and on themes of particular relevance, such as that of freedom and Freemasonry in a changing society, and towards the young, the DeMolay orders for boys and the Rainbows and Job's Daughters for girls, along with the institution of schools and voluntary associations and health services.

I cannot conclude this commemorative speech of the Equinox of Autumn, which for us Masons in the season in which the ritual works recommence and which is so rich in esoteric meaning, without recalling that the fateful date of the 20th September also represents a fundamental event in the history of our Country which, with the passing of the Bersaglieri through the breach of Porta Pia, conquered the long-awaited unification that was so desired, at the cost of many lives of patriots among whom were numerous Masons.

This unification, which elevated us to the rank of a modern independent and respected Nation, and whose importance we remembered in December 1996 at Montecatini in a Convention organised by the College of Venerable Masters of Tuscany, cannot tolerate the vulnus that some obscure minds would like to inflict behind reasons that are substantially racist and therefore inadmissible. Often these reasons are connected to the question of Southern Italy that has been neglected for too long, but which must be faced with urgency and a firm desire to find a solution in a spirit of solidarity and development of the enormous potential of Southern Italy. And even in this sector, which is so vital for the destiny of our Country, every Free Mason must be permanently mobilised.

The Masonic concept of Homeland, irrepressible root of common tradition , ethos, and culture has by now become the patrimony of the consciences of the Italian People. Even the Catholic Church, which judged that fateful 20^th September 1870 as fatal, today has taken sides with us, united against the assailants of our authenticity.

The debt of gratitude towards the Fathers of our Nation and those Brothers that spread and defended the immortal ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood is inextinguishable and must be handed down to future generations in the knowledge that, thanks to them, Italy has been raised to the rank of Nation and that the regular Freemasonry has every right, therefore, to claim its role of irreplaceable moral guide in the defence of unlawful interference to our beloved Italy - free, sound, laborious and fair in a Europe of peoples, united to create a world according to the divine plans foretold by Giuseppe Mazzini and shared by Giuseppe Garibaldi, in peace, progress and brotherhood.

The evil of extremism, which has taken the lives of many innocent victims, together with indifference, egoism, hatred, and violence exposes our planet to the risk of irremediable damage. This must be avoided by finding a balance of the various diversities, through tolerance and in the respect for freedom and the dignity of Man that as Masons we have always out into practice.

Let us leave the path at sunset, let us open ourselves to the Sun that will rise with the Winter Solstice and triumphantly illuminate the Earth in spring, let us prick up our ears to the words of all men of good will: it is the Word, it is God, it is universal Love !

VIRGILIO GAITO

GRAND MASTER

The Equinox of Autumn 1997