Carmel Lodge No. 680 F.&A.M.

Origin of Constitutional Observance

   The Masons of Medieval Europe, from whom we trace our historical origins, were dedicated to the establishment and promotion of public order. They were the builders of all the major edifices erected in Europe in the Twelfth through the Seventeenth Centuries. Such construction only occurred in those places where established civil order guaranteed peace and harmonious cooperation among the local citizenry. Only then could time and wealth be devoted to the erection of the massive stone edifices built by our operative forbearers.

   While Masonry teaches loyal and active support of the civil magistrate such loyalty should never be confused with blind obedience to an unjust ruler. Loyalty to the civil authority presupposes a civil authority loyal to its people, governing in response to the people’s will and securing everyone’s basic rights and liberties. Many leaders of the American Revolutionary War were Masons. They recognized that the inferior status of the Colonies was inconsistent with the natural order of democratic government for freedom-loving people. They temporarily set aside their regard for the established order, the British Colonial Government, to establish a new order to guarantee those inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  These early American, patriotic Masons demonstrated the noblest support of established civil authority: they temporarily set aside their loyalty when that authority was clearly and oppressively wrong to replace it with one dedicated to freedom and liberty.

  Dedication to active service as a citizen is the special charge of all Masons. Today, when a man is initiated into a California Masonic Lodge, he is enjoined to be exemplary in the discharge of his civil responsibilities, by never suggesting or supporting any act which might subvert the peace and good order of society. He is further enjoined to pay due obedience to the laws under whose protection he lives and never to lose sight of the allegiance due by every citizen to his or her country.

   We expect the individual Mason to work at the duties of citizenship, making himself available for service to his community, state and nation. Only through this service can the privileges which we enjoy as Masons and as Americans be saved for posterity.

   We commemorate the signing of the United States Constitution to make our Constitution more immediate in our lives, to prevent it from becoming “ancient history.’ We bring it into our contemporary understanding. We emphasize the need for civic education, wisdom and virtue; for the willingness to sacrifice immediate personal gain for the greater long-term benefit of all; for commitment to our constitutional system of ordered liberty; for the ingenuity to solve complicated new problems, as we have done so many times in the past. What better way for any of us to direct our active support for the system of government we cherish than to emphasize these qualities which will sustain the cornucopia of benefits engendered by the personal creativity and vitality of the American people and encouraged by our constitutional system of government.