few days ago, a Q. ·. H. ·. I drew attention to a passage from St. Paul in his Epistle to the Christians of Ephesus. That led me to reflect on the sacredness of temples and ancient and modern traditions, but mainly in the symbolic value is given to the stone in our Western culture.
Beyond the important building tradition of the ancient cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, whose works are a clear sign of a deep technical knowledge and the sacred dimension of art of erecting temples, the truth is that Masonry, as we know, is the fruit of Christian cultural space. That is, takes place in a widespread geography in what kind Raimon Panikkar called Christian culture. Therefore, these ancient traditions of corporate builders of antiquity will be subsumed and enriched with new meaning, typical of Judeo-Christianity.
In Christian iconography, God is a Cosmocrator. Christ assumes the role of builder of the world. The figures of God the Father and God the Son can be seen in countless frescoed holding a compass in his hand. It is a compass with which trace the creation of the world. This tradition will lead to the name of the Great Architect of the Universe. We refer the reader to the image of the powerful picture of William Blake as an example of the persistence of this image within the religious and poetic ideas of the West.
But beyond this link between the Divine and construction, Christianity has given the stone a deep meaning from its very roots. Christ, speaking to Peter, he says on this stone-Peter himself will be built His Church. From this statement is built around an allegorical context, structure and figural symbolism intended to give an ontological dimension stone. That is, the stone is no longer just the stuff with which to build but takes the size of the constructor itself. Here is a substantial difference from the pagan world, we discover in the very moment when man is compared, allegorically, with the stone.
Stone is
Christ himself, as Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Christians of Ephesus, when he says that "They are no longer foreigners and aliens, but who are citizens of God's people and members of the family of God. Are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone. For him the whole structure is held together, and you lift up into a temple consecrated to the Lord. For whom you also are integrated in the building to a dwelling place of God by the Spirit. "
The Christian becomes a temple consecrated stone potential. But potential as-as we find reaffirmed in the Fathers of the Church and figural conception of Benedictine monasticism, not every stone can be inserted in the sacred wall but one that has previously been square. Hence, the symbolic dimension of the raw stone to be squared, pointed with clarity by St. Bede in the eighth century, there is only one step.
This qualification of the square stone (called cube by Masons) and the Christian symbol suitable for the integration of the temple was consecrated, we found highly prevalent in the eighth and ninth centuries. But far from complete their path as a model of transformation, the stone turned into a symbol of the man who works on himself it reaches a higher expression of Autum Honorio (circa 1080 - post 1125), which will require every man who literally built a church, which is a Cuadratus hominus a squad man, someone who has succeeded in making his rough stone able to find a place in the construction of the Temple. The artist must train not only in technique and ability, but also a moral practice examples which should search the scriptures. By reading the work of Theophilus about art techniques, entitled Diversarum Artium Schedule-considered very important for its technical meaning, we find the concept that a man who builds a Temple can not but recognize the premise of the interior construction of a temple in the reign of virtue, mission that is called learning from the use of tools. This symbol will be collected and developed extraordinary levels by the very tradition of the early Masons, the cathedral builders.
While the pagan world in the construction of temples to be labor of slaves, in the Christian world every link in the long chain from the quarry to the finest capitals, will be left men who are aware of the work they do and, moreover, will probably not complete. We could cite many examples of entire peoples dragging carts carrying large stones from the quarry to the work. It does not matter if it's the stonecutter rough start a splinter of rock to the mountain, or if the pawns apprentices to move those huge moles local lodge or the artists who come to sculpt the leaf veins acanthus in the profiles of the stone columns. What really matters is that they are free men, who have embraced, by vocation or family tradition, a profession that keeps them in contact with the sacred, to become part of the Temple itself.
modern Freemasonry is-should be-heiress In this spirit, which is trivialized when it is reduced to an institution that socializes, which focuses on only its undoubted capacity for dialogue and brotherhood among peoples or limited to charity and philanthropy. It's all part of modern Freemasonry: Sociability, fellowship, human rights, fight for freedom of peoples and equality of people. But all this if first we put the DNA of that seed planted centuries ago, which sprouted a method of inner transformation that the human animal becomes a spiritual man can understand and transmute his own nature.
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