In losing , we lost someone who knew himself, loved and lived for others, and built 

the life-giving relationships that to him, defined a life-well lived. Many struggle with self-identity and 

feel overwhelmed by the speed of the modern world, but Luke had strong self-knowledge and 

confidence in himself that kept him grounded and focused through all challenges in his life.  

In his article “Why we need to slow down our lives”, Pico Iyer writes “It’s easy to feel as if we’re 

standing two inches away from a huge canvas that’s noisy and crowded and changing with every 

microsecond. It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that 

canvas (which is our life) really means, and to take in the larger picture.” (Week 1). Not only did Luke 

have a clear vision of what his canvas looked like and how he wanted it to look, he was the artist, 

making the canvas conform to his vision no matter the obstacles that stood before him. In college, he 

faced obstacles in integrating into the community early on but that did not that stop him from painting 

his college canvas into what he wanted to be. He had a drive self-confidence that allowed him to 

succeed in the classroom and in the community, while also keeping a broad view of his future and how 

we wanted to live his life. But it initially took him time had to learn to take a step back. Coming into 

college, he was nervous that the academic tracks at the school were limiting in terms of future paths, 

but he took one piece of advice to heart: “So you can relax and put aside the thought that you are 

deciding your career path when picking your major.  It’s much more complex than that...but also much 

more exciting.” (Week 4).   Once he realized the future has a wide array of possibilities regardless of 

what you study, he took off studying and pursuing what interested him and never looked back. 

Throughout his career he always had the bigger picture of his life in mind, and that helped lead him to a 

life well-lived. 

Luke also was strong in his convictions. Former Notre Dame President Fr. Hesburgh once said “I 

took a stand for something, and I wasn’t about to stop.” (Week 2). Despite facing challenges from 

people around him at times, he stayed true to what he thought was right, believing that fighting for 

equity, diversity, and inclusion was more important than upholding community standards or traditions. 

He did not proclaim himself to be a serious activist or take undue credit for drastic social change but 

stood up for what he believed for on small scales and did not let himself be changed by others. This 

plays into his general life theme of strong self-knowledge and confidence in who he was. 

His self-knowledge was where he was strongest. He was happy and confident in who he was and 

didn’t feel the need to change for anyone. Firstly, he had good perspective—once he learned to look at 

the whole canvas, he was able to make every stroke of his brush with the image in mind. That is not to 

say that he overstated the importance of every little decision, but rather he knew that because of the 

grand nature of the painting of life, he did not stress as much over small things and was able to make 

decisions with confidence. For example, many suffer from decision paralysis—when a big decision 

makes one unable to make a choice—but because of his ability to put decisions into perspective and 

confidence in himself to make the best out of the decision he made, he was able to have peace in his 

choices. For example, when deciding to quit baseball—the sport he had been playing his whole life—to 

pursue water polo, he was able to commit to it in a heartbeat. It may have seemed like a big decision in 

terms of magnitude but was not a difficult one at all. His ability to be confident and make decisions 

served him well in his life. He was able to build his strong self-knowledge and confidence through a 

delicate balance between introspection and caution of over self-analyzing. Firstly, his sense of 



perspective of the canvas was helped by keeping in mind the nature of his own mortality. In college, he 

learned of ways to do this: Sr. Alethia Noble said, “My life is going to end, and I have a limited amount of 

time. We naturally tend to think of our lives as continuing and continuing.” (Week 3). For him, it was still 

somewhat grim, and he didn’t feel the need to go as far as to meditate on death every day. But he felt 

that at least one moment of introspection can be helpful. He also found self-identity and confidence by 

not over-analyzing himself and steering clear frequent deep ‘reflection’ and ‘introspection’. When 

turning inwards, he lived by the following: “‘Why’ questions trap us in our past; ‘what’ questions help us 

create a better future.” (Tasha Eurich Week 6) Instead of looking for reasons for everything and 

justifying his unhappiness, he looked for ways to improve. He gained insight rather and introspection 

and lived in this spirit.  

One example of this solution-based thinking is his approach to obstacles. Instead of looking at 

why he was annoyed with his circumstances and blaming the obstacles themselves, he asked what he 

could do about them. He looked at what he could control, did his best in that respect, and didn’t worry 

about anything else. When he was in college, he did his best in his classes and social life but let 

everything else that he couldn’t control happen.  

Luke also learned from those around him. In his quest for self-knowledge, he talked to people 

close to him to get an outside perspective on his own life. (Week 5). He heard from others that he was 

honest, confident—sometimes arrogant—but confident, and focused. The beliefs and values apparent 

to others matched his internal values, reinforcing that he was true in his identity.  

His self-knowledge, perspective, and confidence were important parts of what Luke defined as a 

life-well lived, as these traits helped guide him to that life. But more important than all else to his life 

well-lived were his connections to others. He lived his life in community with family and friends, and 

those relationships were the core of his life experience. His family—sisters, parents, grandparents—and 

friends made his life better, and he wanted nothing more than to have a positive impact on their lives. 

He always said, “If there is one thing I could do with my life, it would be for those I held close to me with 

to have positive memories of me and our time together.” The things he liked to do for fun—water-ski, 

travel, see nature—were all enhanced by sharing them with others. He tried to build community 

networks in his life that brought people together and helped everyone lived lives well lived. “How 

wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation, would come along with 

more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to 

rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us. How wonderful would it be if 

solidarity, this beautiful and at times inconvenient word were not simply reduced to social work and 

became, instead, the default attitude in political, economic, and scientific choices as well as in the 

relationships among individuals, peoples, and countries.” (Pope Francis Week 7). 

One last note: Luke believed that he lived a life-well lived through his relationships, knowledge 

of himself, and the simple everyday activities that made life great (sports, exercise, seeing the world, 

etc.) But he wants everyone listening here today that not all lives well-lived look that same. They may 

share common characteristics, like community, but what you find joy and fulfillment can be different to 

person. The one thing that must be done first however, is to know yourself. Before you can pain the 

canvas, you need to know what paint to use.