In our last article we looked at The Mark Master Degree and learned about the 3,300 Masters, or Overseers. Let’s delve a bit deeper into the Overseers of the Mark Master’s Degree. 

We observe three overseers in the Mark Master’s Degree, the Junior, Senior and Master Overseers.  Junior, Senior and Master.  Does that sound like three officers that you are familiar with in Masonry? 

The first section of the Mark Master’s Degree presents us with a drama as we observe craftsmen from the quarries with work for inspection.  We observe the overseers each perform their responsibilities in inspecting the work of the craftsmen. We see the junior officer inspect, measure and determine that the work is suitable for further inspection by a more senior officer.  We also see that the more senior officer determines that not only the work is suitably inspected, but also verifies that the one presenting the work is the artist that created it.

Finally, at the most senior inspecting officer, we see that he not only inspects the work, and verifies the worker, but verifies that the worker has signed his work with his mark, his autograph.  He then authorizes the payment of wages for the workers he has just verified.  So we see the overseers first inspect the work for suitability, secondly inspect it for suitability and associates the work with a particular worker, and finally inspect the work for suitability, associates the work with a particular worker AND verifies that the worker’s mark is on the work that he has done.  

When confronted with a unique piece of work the Overseers, working as a unit, determine that the work does NOT conform to the charge that they have been given and so they reject the work, and as we would phrase it, they trashed it.  

We next see the workmen receiving their wages from the Senior Warden where a problem arises.  The Overseers then act as witnesses presenting their testimonies to the presiding officer, indicating their belief in the guilt of the presumed imposter.  The junior presiding officers testify as to the presumed guilt of the workman. 

The presiding officer, however, goes straight to the source asking the workman pertinent questions regarding the circumstance in which he finds himself.  Finding that the presumed imposter is indeed a brother, but one who is ignorant of certain procedures, he orders the brother to be first reprimanded and then taught.  We learn of the penalty for claiming what is not your own, of the seeking of truth, the defense of a brother, and the benefits of correct instruction among other moral illustrations.

Following this drama presentation, the candidate proceeds with the obligations and rituals common to many of the Masonic degrees.  Included in this Degree work, however is the story found in Matthew 20:1-16. Wherein we are taught the lesson that the owner has a right to do with his own as he will.  

I think that in this degree we can see that diligent honest work stands the test of close inspection.  That the overseers, while being more expert workmen, were NOT privy to the knowledge and wisdom of THE presiding officer.  That limited perspectives can lead to honest errors that result in erroneous judgments. That ignorance of the law may also lead to false judgment, and that reprimand may be painful to receive, but it also leads to instruction that dispels ignorance.

There are many other lessons within the Mark Master’s Degree as well.  We chew on such lessons during our monthly York Rite Chapter and Council meetings.  We invite York Rite Masons to come visit.  We invite Master Masons who have not yet make the pilgrimage on the York Rite road to pursue the wisdom illustrated in the York Rite of Freemasonry and seek to join with us as we learn to dispel ignorance regarding our Masonic lessons.  

The Mark Master’s Degree is a rich lesson indeed.