The
fundamental object of this International Congress is the involvement
of men who belong to different religions and have different
languages and cultures, in the attempt to start on a common path
towards that concept of "Peace", which should be the aim of any
human society.
One
might ask oneself what Freemasonry has to do with the subject of
this Congress, being neither a religion nor a religious movement.
Perhaps it is not common knowledge that a fundamental requirement in
order to belong to the Masonic Movement is the belief in a Supreme
Being, whether it be the God of the three monotheistic religions, or
of any other of his manifestations it is not important, what is
required from a Freemason is the relationship with the idea of the
Divine, which in Freemasonry is allegorically represented by the
concept of the Great Architect of the Universe. So this is a
fundamental point, the atheist and the agnostic cannot enter the
Masonic Movement. This means that, even if Freemasonry is not a
religion it is undeniable that its philosophy, which the short time
at our disposal does not allow us to examine, contains an
unequivocal relationship with the "Holy", fruit of the expression of
that divine essence which is present in every man.
Briefly, for those who have never heard of Freemasonry or for those
who have confused ideas on the subject, I would like to remind them
that in spite of its peculiarities, as a Sociologist I can affirm
that nevertheless it is to be included in those phenomena defined as
associative. Freemasonry is an Association among the oldest in the
world, whose members are interested in ethic and moral values, whose
precepts are communicated through ritual representations that use
ancient symbols of the building trade, allegorically, of a type of
conduct to follow.
So
we are not in the presence of an orthodoxy but rather I would say an
orthopraxy, a way of thinking where the freemason is asked to
practice his own religion, whichever it might be, and to consider
Freemasonry as a moral code of support to that religion.But now let
us see what contribution masonic
thought can give to the concept of "Peace".
The
Philosophy, which is at the base of masonic thought, has its roots
in the concepts of Humanist and Renaissance thinkers and among these
I would like to point out today, to represent the idea of "Peace",
the figure of a thinker that I would undoubtedly place among the
foremost authors in the creation of that cultural humus from which
the masonic thought has taken much in its concept of man, I am
speaking of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
I
must say that re-reading last part of the document listing the aims
of this congress, I have been struck by the coincidence of this text
with some of the most important philosophical and moral concepts of
Pico.
The
GLRI, which I represent, in honour of Pico della Mirandola, has
given to its Official Review, which is our trait-d'union with the
external world, the title of The Hominis Dignitate, taking
inspiration from the famous oration of the dignity of man by Pico,
which is the true Manifesto of Italian Humanism.
And
it is in fact the theme of "Peace" which is the heart of the Oration
that, Pico himself says, should have been a kind of doctrinal "Hymn
to Peace", and which makes the thought of Mirandola the best heir to
cusanian motif of the pax fidei.
The
theme of "Harmony" of the philosophical doctrines gathers the
positive heritage of the debate between Aristotelism and Platonism
in the middle of the 15th century, and which Pico
considered as an example of innumerable other doctrinal conflicts.
Pico is convinced of the possibility of reaching the unification of
humanity, and of a universal peace in Christianity.
When Pico speaks about "Peace" and "Harmony" he commits himself on
the one hand to the universality of truth in all its multiple
expressions, and the integrability of the efforts made towards it,
but also the limits of various positions, and therefore the need to
go beyond them, thus perceiving the conflicts inherent in the
intellect.
The
two central themes of Pico's thought, indissolubly bound, of the
dignity of man and of the harmony between doctrines, or of the
creative freedom as an exceptional note of the human being and of
truth as progressive unification of the efforts of all towards the
truth, this "hymn" to dignity and the "song" of peace are consigned
an exquisitely rhetorical argumentation with the use of splendid
allegories.
In
fact many hints from the thought of Pico are to be found in Masonic
allegories: one example above all is the idea of progressive
perfection of man in his advancement towards the supreme goodness,
underlined in masonry by the "Jacob's ladder" which, as Pico
remembers in the Oration "From the depth of the earth one strives to
reach the light of the heavens" symbolizing the passage of the life
of man. And it must be underlined the importance of the practical
role that Pico assigns to "ethics", which could, if applied by all
men, stop the slaughter between states and establish "Peace" on
earth.
In
the light of the above considerations, one might be led to interpret
the Masonic thought in terms of eclecticism or even syncretism, but
truly what we are faced with is the recognition of a plurality of
view points and ideas mutually interchangeable and sentient to a
great harmony in a never ending research in the field of human
understanding and endeavour.
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