CHRISTMAS: A TIME FOR TOLERANCE
Bro. P.D.
Newman, 32°
Valley of Corinth, Orient of MS (A.&A.S.R.,
S.J.)
The Christmas season is a very special time
– one of coming together. For our Jewish Brethren, it is the festival of Chanukkah, which celebrates the
rebellion of the Maccabees and, according to the Talmud, recalls the purification of the Temple during which time
the many wicks of the menorah are
said to have miraculously burned for eight whole days and nights on a ration of
holy oil which otherwise would have lasted but a single day. For our Muslim
Brethren, the Christmas season signifies Ramadan,
the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, during which period Muslims believe that
the first portions of the Quran were
dictated to the prophet Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. And of course, for us
Christians, the Christmas season celebrates the miraculous birth of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, from a virgin mother within a humble stable in the
town of Bethlehem; a Savior who, after a mere thirty-three and one quarter
years of preaching and spreading his ministry, was suffered to die upon a Roman
cross, only to rise from the grave three short days later that he might ascend
to His Father’s House, and there prepare a place for all of those inclined to
accept and embody his powerful message of love and forgiveness.
Less well known, perhaps, is the role which
the Christmas season plays for our Pagan Brethren, among whom even our very own
Hiram, King of Tyre and Grand Master Hiram Abiff would have inevitably been
counted. Paganism is an oftentimes misunderstood umbrella term which refers to
any religion that is not descended from the Abrahamic tradition; that is to say,
any religion that is outside of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Therefore,
the traditional religions of Sumer, Chaldea, and Egypt, for example, would fall
under the category of Pagan beliefs.
The significance of the Christmas season for
Pagans, and indeed the suspected root of all winter holidays, is an astrological
one. For them, it commemorates the time during which the light and life-giving rays
of our sun are at their annual weak point. The winter solstice, occurring on
December 21, is the moment at which the sun reaches its lowest point on the
horizon and remains in that demoted position day after day, unable to climb any
higher, for a total of seventy-two hours. Following these three days of
bleakness, however, on the morning of December 25, the sun miraculously begins
its resurrection-like ascent back into the arching heavens, and thence sends
its golden rays back to our little world, thereby warming the barren soil in
preparation for the coming year’s crops and flora. The Greeks and Romans
celebrated this remarkable day as Dies de
Natalis Sol Invicti, or the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun; the day on
which our central star, like the mythical phoenix bird of Alchemical lore, is
reborn from its own cyclical demise.
Indeed, the Christmas season is a very special time – one of coming
together. So, whether you happen to ascribe to the faith of Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, or even Paganism, the Christmas season is one during which
all Masons have an ideal opportunity to come together as Brothers and celebrate
something which truly unites us, as opposed to focusing a thing which would otherwise
set us apart. For, just as we were all Raised at the same non-sectarian altar
of Freemasonry, so are we also united as a universal brotherhood of man under
the Fatherhood of an ever watchful eye of God, and that will remain true regardless
of the titles by which each religion chooses to address Him. As Ill.Bro. Albert
Pike explains in the lecture he penned for the Rose-Croix Degree, one of the
primary duties of a Scottish Rite Mason is to “Be tolerant of the faith and
creed of others, [for] tolerance is not simply a duty, but an inescapable
conclusion.” (M&D) Therefore, in addition to the lessons of charity and giving
which every gift-imparting Christmas so thoroughly teaches, this season let us
make the most of this grand opportunity to celebrate and learn another vital
and indispensible lesson of Masonic relevance: the loving lesson of religious tolerance
– a lesson which can be discerned within the very pages of the Volume of the
Sacred Law itself, wherein we are charged by the saint and apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans to “Love one
another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence
and showing honor to one another.” (Rom. 12:10)
Thank you, Ladies
and Brethren, and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas season!
Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 F&AM
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