Cabletow 4th issue - GM Ebdane - Grand Lodge of the Philippines

The Cabletow
THE TROWEL :OUR MOST IMPORTANT TOOL
As Master Masons, we are to use all the implements of Masonry as our working
tools, but especially the trowel.
Why is the trowel our most important working tool?
First, just as operative Masons employ the trowel to spread mortar between
the stones to make a solid structure, we use the symbolic trowel for spreading the
cement of brotherly love and affection, which creates a firm society. This cement, in
the words of our Monitor, “unites us into one sacred band, or society of friends and
brothers, among whom no contention should ever exist except but that noble
contention, or rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree.”
Secondly, just as operative masons utilize the trowel to spread the plaster of
beauty over the masonry to help perfect the building, we use the symbolic trowel
for giving the finishing touches to our labors in order to achieve aesthetic satisfaction.
Thirdly, just as operative masons make use of the trowel to strike edges off the
building stones to fit them in their places, we use the symbolic trowel for learning to
distance ourselves from passion and lust in order to take our rightful places in the
community.
Fourthly, we employ the symbolic trowel to fashion ourselves into cubes. We
should recall that in the first degree of the Symbolic Lodge, a cube is the perfect
ashlar, by which we are reminded of that state of perfection at which we hope at
last to arrive by a virtuous education, our own endeavors and the blessings of God.
Above all, we should visualize the symbolic trowel as a stylized equilateral triangle,
which is the traditional symbol of the Grand Architect of the Universe, in whose
name we labor. The trowel is, indeed, the symbol of the absolute, inconceivable
and unimaginable Divine Being, whose perfection each one of us should strive hard
to approximate.
In effect, we are at once the working tools and the pieces of work we are
striving to fashion.
By aid of the symbolic trowel and other symbolic working tools, each Master
Mason labors incessantly and indefatigably to build himself into a magnificent temple,
the various parts of which fit with such exact nicety that it has more the appearance
Cabletow 52
by eF.R.eN