Living the Benedict Option #2 – Life in the Graveyard
By Nathan
We have a saying in Alleluia… one way or another, we’re gonna end up in Dearing. Many years ago, that’s where the community put our graveyard.
On MLK day, one of the community’s elders took his last trip to Dearing. He was an awesome brother, full of joy and zeal for the Gospel. He’d been living the Alleluia life for almost as long as I’ve been alive. I’m grateful for his life and his faithfulness.
He’d been sick for a number of years, though always joyful. To hear his widow tell it, it sounds like his end was peaceful and not unexpected. In fact, it sounded like a real occasion of grace. An old prayer before bedtime asks God for a restful night and a peaceful death. I think that prayer was answered.
A Special End.
An Alleluia funeral is a special affair. It starts with opening the grave. Yes, I mean digging the grave by hand. Now that I live in Dearing, I’ve had the opportunity to open graves more than a few times.
Digging a grave for someone that you love is a thing of somber beauty. Members of the community tend to have big families, so it’s often an occasion for members of the family and close friends to come together and do something unforgettable. Stories get told. People laugh a lot and often cry. Sometimes we sing songs.
I helped some of my best friends dig their father’s grave a few years back. It was very good. I wouldn’t have traded that time for the world.
The digging itself can be a bit of an adventure. After about three feet of sand, diggers hit a layer of hard Georgia red clay that just doesn’t want to budge. We use a little handheld jackhammer for that layer. From that point on, the gravediggers fight inch by inch down to 54 inches. It gets hot during the summer.
Stairways to Heaven.
The visitations and funerals vary a bit because members tend to follow the standards for their denominations. For Catholics, it’s a wake and Mass. For other’s a prayer service.
Funerals tended to be crowded before Covid, but that’s changed a bit because of the weirdness of the pandemic. Death still brings us together to celebrate the life of the deceased and pray for God’s mercy and grace. We just stand a little further apart.
Alleluia really shines at the burial. Many people come to the graveside to close the grave. Unlike most funerals where the grave gets closed after everyone leaves, closing an Alleluia grave is a group effort.
After the priest or minister says the final benediction, a band starts up and shovels come out. Everyone joins in both the singing and the burying. Some of the hymns we sing are slow and moving, but many have a livelier beat. Southern gospel songs like “I’ll Fly Away” are not uncommon.
A line forms alongside the grave starting with the next of kin, and everyone gets the chance to throw a couple shovels full of dirt on the coffin. No one leaves until the dirt is flush with the surface and a cross has been drawn on it. I don’t know if anything can bring closure to a person’s life quite like closing up their grave.
A Party in the Graveyard.
On Easter Sunday last year, I took the opportunity to visit the graveyard for a short time of prayer. Cemeteries are holy ground. I walked among the graves, taking note of the names. Some belong to very dear friends or their parents. Some belong to people who died years long before I came back to Augusta. A few belong to children of my dear friends. I think those hurt the most.
But in that moment, I felt a stirring of excitement. I believe in the resurrection from the dead. One day, when the final trumpet sounds, those graves will open. And there will be shouts of joy and victory as my beloved dead rise to eternal life.
The Alleluia Community is more than a good place to live. It’s more than a good place to die. The graveyard in Dearing is sown with the seeds of immortality. To the world, it looks like a place where lives have met their end. By faith I know that the lives are merely holding their breath, waiting for the moment when our Lord opens the book of Life and reads out all our names, one by one.
And on that day, there’s going to be a party in Dearing.
For more stories about living the Benedict Option in Alleluia Community, check out the archive.
To read more about my conversion, check out Demoniac, now available on Amazon.
