Melville H. Nahin, 33°
1924 San Ysidro Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90210–1521

Masonry is the perfect holiday gift.

I live in Los Angeles where the weather is generally very beautiful. It's still difficult for me, as a transplanted Midwesterner, to think of a Christmas season without snow and ice. Yet as every store window in the "City of Angels" indicates, the season is upon us.

This morning as I dressed, I heard the commercial usually associated with a telephone company, "Reach out and touch someone." Wouldn't it be wonderful if each day, this time of year and always, we did extend a welcoming hand to every person we meet? Isn't that feeling of camaraderie the real spirit of the holiday season, and isn't that really what Freemasonry is all about—love and peace? As we enter this holiday season, whether we are observing Christmas or Chanukah, some of us may not yet have purchased all our gifts. May I suggest the gift of Freemasonry?

To a man who is not yet a Mason, let us introduce him to the beautiful philosophies and ceremonies of our great Order. Let us tell him about the wonderful social life we have as Brothers of the Mystic Tie. Let us tell him about our rituals, our history, and our wonderful people who have shared and still share our fraternal ranks. Let us give him the gift of knowing about Masonry so that he may choose, if he desires, to become a part of us.

As to the members of our great Craft who do not attend meetings very frequently nor participate in our activities, let us reintroduce them to the philosophy, beauty, and friendship within our Lodges and Temples so that they may again partake of the beauty of our Order whether within the Blue Lodge, the Scottish or York Rite, or the Shrine, for each in and of itself is Freemasonry in action. Freemasonry is too fine a gift not to share.

It is most appropriate in the month of December to observe the two major religious faiths of the Western world, both of which are of particular significance to Freemasonry. Those of Jewish faith light their first candle on the Menorah in the Festival of Chanukah and those of Christian faith celebrate the birth of He who brought so much to this world, if only we would acknowledge and practice what He taught.

As the men from the hills of Judea, under the leadership of Judas Maccabee, sought to establish, within their nation, the freedom to worship God as they pleased, to express the beliefs of their own consciences, to govern themselves without foreign domination or interference, so did a band of patriots in the American Revolution, many of them prominent Masons, seek to establish in this country the very same principles. And these are the same principles which men in every war our country has ever fought have sought to preserve for all humanity. These are the ideals represented by the Square, Level and Plumb, the jewels of the three principal Blue Lodge officers. These emblems permitted men of such great and divergent opinions as Senator Barry Goldwater, President Harry Truman, and Chief Justice Earl Warren to meet within a Blue Lodge in Washington, D.C., and to share fraternal intercourse without recrimination or political controversy.

Freemasonry has principles for every season: the right of each man to deal with and be dealt with by other men and other nations justly, fairly, and reasonably—on the Square; the right of each man to be judged according to his own personal worth and ability, regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin—on the Level; the right of each man to live according to the dictates of his own reason, according to his own beliefs, walking uprightly before God and man—on the plumbline of his own conscience.

As we observe the festive holidays of this holy season, may we confidently hope that someday, in the not too distant future, the Masonic principles of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth shall become the embodiment of every man's thought, word, and act. And so it shall really come to pass, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they war anymore." Then, too, may the words of the Master of Galilee come into being, and there shall be peace on earth, good will toward men. What greater gift could there be for all humankind?

Melville H. Nahin is an attorney in Los Angeles, a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California (1998–99), Past Venerable Master of Los Angeles Valley, present Chairman of Los Angeles Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic, Past Master Ionic Lodge No. 520 and Southern California Research Lodge, and Chairman of the Board of Governors Shriners Hospitals for Children–Los Angeles Unit.