Why would I become a Freemason?

Why would someone join an organisation that is over 300 years old? What aspect of such an old institution could possibly be relevant in modern times? These are valid questions that can be easily answered..

Never before in human history has society ever been so ‘connected’. Never before have our morals been so easily adjusted. Never before have we been so greatly influenced by external mediums, and never before has a social norm been able to spread so quickly.

We live in a time where we are connected to the real world purely through a device we hold in our hand or sit on our lap. We have lost the real connection to our society that we once had. We get our news in the form of notifications instead of discussions with our peers. We write on people’s profile walls instead of making phone calls. We selfishly disregard the information we don’t want to see and only ‘like’ the information we do. In essence, we are so ‘connected’ that we have lost all our real connections.. we have become self absorbed and only think of what we can do for ourselves, not what we can do for others.

Freemasonry is an age old institution that brings those real connections back. Freemasonry prompts us to contemplate what our place is in the world and what impact we can make to the society we live in. Freemasonry promotes selflessness and causes us to think not of what we can do for ourselves, but what we can do for others. Charity is a virtue that is very dear to a Freemason, not only charity of the coin, but charity of the heart. Charity towards making the world a better place when we leave, than what it was when we arrived. Freemasonry asks us to think about time, the time we have left and the best way in which to spend it. Freemasonry gives us the tools to constantly measure our lives and actions by a timeless moral code rooted in antiquity; but more relevant today than ever before.

Freemasonry is not just something we do to fill some time a couple times a month, it is not just us attending the lodge and going through the motions. Freemasonry is a way of life that instructs us to live with high morals and to always try to be better than we were yesterday. Freemasonry is what guides us to make the best decisions and steer our actions, not for ourselves, but for the betterment of the world we live in. As a Freemason, we sacrifice our selfishness to make the world a better place, one man at a time.

This video from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in the United States of America is a very touching explanation of Freemasonry in the modern world. Although it is from another country, it is just as relevant to us.