GARDEN OF MY SOUL | KAIROS GLOBAL | SEPTEMBER 2023

Author: Anil Israel

Intro: Music has the power to lift a troubled soul. What kind music fills my soul? Anil Israel invites us to ponder. 

What words are to the mind, music is to the soul. Harsh words can leave lasting wounds. Kind words can be like soothing balm. Likewise music too can brighten or darken a soul. There are different types of music and we are constantly flooded with one or the other either passively or actively. 

When King Saul was tormented by evil spirits, he called for David to play comforting music. Whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him (1 Samuel 16:23). Music thus has the potential to uplift a troubled soul. St Cecilia is called the patron saint of music, as she is said to have heard heavenly music in her heart. 

Have I ever tasted heavenly music? What kind of music am I constantly exposed to? What impact is it having on me? We might accept music as harmless and immerse ourselves casually in whatever music is thrust upon us. Growing up as a young child, I vividly recall that our waking hours were mostly flooded with radio or television. Every morning, the radio was turned on and in the evening when the television was off, the radio was on again. Most of the radio content broadcasted was secular songs from the movie industry.

Decades of exposure to film music, left my life soaked with songs from the entertaining world of cinema. It became so much a part of my life, that participating in games using such songs was a fond way of amusing ourselves. My craving for film songs was so deep that I ended up getting all my favourite songs recorded on audio cassettes, immediately when I started earning. I knew exactly which song had which track number and on which playlist. I could even creatively compile snippets from different songs and weave them together with other snippets from other songs, so as to create a musical story. 

Thanks be to God that he went persistently in search of the lost sheep – me. Fortunately, by God’s grace I came to realise that the amorphous world of entertainment strongly kept me grounded to the attractions of futile passions and worldly pursuits. A Catholic priest once remarked how entertainment leads us to sin. This wise insight somehow clung on to my soul. After half-a-year or so, we were convinced that we ought to bid adieu to the hollow world of earthly music, and gradually replaced it with a holy collection of Christian songs and gospel music. By God’s unfailing grace we have been strengthened to refrain from secular music for almost two decades now.

Unhealthy worldly music strongly attracts our focus to temporal perishable rotten cravings, including those which may drastically tarnish our soul. Biblical music, on the other hand, has its lyrics rooted in holy scripture and therefore has the capacity to raise our dampened spirits. They help us reorient our lives towards the heavenly realm. Reading the Word of God helped me discover that many of the songs we sing for Holy Mass are actually inspired by verses from the Holy Bible.  

My soul is like a garden. Some good seeds can sink in and bear good fruits. Other harmful seeds are like weeds that suffocate and strangle the good works the soul attempts. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit (Matthew 7:17). Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10). We are all called to be fruit bearers – the kind of fruits that endure (John 15:16). Everything that enters my ears is like a seed that can be productive or destructive. With what sort of music am I incessantly feeding my precious eternal soul?

St Therese of Lisieux saw herself as ‘the Little Flower of Jesus’ because she was just like the simple wild flower in forests and fields, unnoticed by the greater population, yet growing and giving glory to God. Therese did not see herself as a brilliant rose or an elegant lily, but simply as a small wildflower. St Kateri Tekakwitha is known as the ‘Lily of the Mohawks’. Do I see myself as a tiny flower in the Lord’s garden?

Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8) and they hid themselves. Let us visualise for a while, that if today the Lord were to walk in the garden of my soul, what would be growing there? Would it be delightful or disgustful? If there are weeds, what am I doing about it? Am I reverting back to the divine Gardener through confession and Holy Eucharist, to uproot the weeds that disgrace the garden of God (Ezekiel 28:13)?

Mankind lost connection with God in the first garden in Eden (Genesis 2:8). In the second garden called Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36), God is found in the midst of our suffering. In the third garden near Golgotha (John 19:41), hope is found in resurrection. The final heavenly garden – the garden of eternal life is the place of ultimate victory and overcoming. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelations 22:2). Restoration is promised to the lost. Every garden represents a different stage of our lives and God is in every garden.

May we invite the divine Helper dwelling deep within to illuminate our conscience, that we may recognise that which is distracting me from responding to divine grace and doing God’s holy will. May we consciously opt to say ‘no’ to those things that clutter our souls with thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18). May we strive to expose ourselves to whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable (Philippians 4:8), for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). May we cooperate with the power from on high (Luke 24:49) to endeavour and bloom into a fragrant flower in God’s beautiful garden.

Anil Israel lives in Mannheim, Germany with his wife Sunitha and their 5 children.