Three deacons and one priest from the Seattle Archdiocese celebrating Mass with the Tzutuhill Mayan people of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. What a blessed experience.

Homily - Celebration of Life Memorial Service for Nicholas Anthony Lowe - October 21, 1992 - January 4, 2013

​I love the Gospel story of the Healing of the Paralytic.

Isn’t it true that sometimes in life we all need a little help? We cannot make our way in this world all on our own, no matter who we are and what hand we are dealt in life.

We need the loving care of others to help us to get to where we are going, to lift us up, to join us in the struggle, to be our right hand, or left hand, to help us open the door.

I think Luke’s Gospel story is fitting as we celebrate the life of Nicholas Anthony Lowe.

Nick had so many friends and so many loved ones in his life, a network of support and care these past two years.

They all wanted to help Nick in any way they could.

So many helped him to overcome whatever barriers were in his path in this life and some helped Nick find eternal life.

What beautiful signs of faith,of hope and most of all of love from a village of friends and family who joined Team Nick.

The compassion shown to Nick and his family sometimes from complete strangers is an example of what life should be all about.

There is a beautiful lyric in a song by the band U2 that helps us to better understand today’s Gospel message in light of Nick’s life.

It comes from the song “Walk On.”

“Love. It’s not the easy thing. The only baggage that you can bring. It’s all that you can’t leave behind.”

Let me repeat that...

“Love. It’s not the easy thing. The only baggage that you can bring. It’s all that you can’t leave behind.”

Our human lives are short on this earth. If we follow the example of the Jesus Christ, healer of the paralyzed man, we know that the only real thing that matters in life (the only thing) is love.

Or put by another musical group, Mumford and Sons, “Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free. Be more like the man you were made to be.”

Nick became that man in the end. He embraced the love. He shared the love. He lived the love.

Whether it was his special recipe BBQ sauce or a chance to go fishing with family on Puget Sound or hanging with his best friend Stachio playing X-Box.

God is the author of that love. Christ’s human actions here on earth were the embodiment of that love to help us all to better understand how much we are loved by God.

As we see in the Gospel story, love is more than just an emotion or a feeling.

Love is the self-giving acts we share with one another. It’s the things friends do for one another. It’s what family does for each other. It’s the random acts of kindness done by complete strangers.

This is the only baggage we get to take with us as we step into heaven. And nothing else.

All that we build. All that we make. All these we must leave behind. But our shared love with one another is what we get to carry with us on the journey. That is the key that unlocks the door.

Just like the people who so loved the ailing man in today’s Gospel story they brought him to Jesus, the people who have surrounded Nick these past two years so loved him they wanted to make sure the door was open for him to meet his Creator.

This should give us all hope. That someday we too will enter the splendor of heaven, where every tear will be wiped away, where there’s no such thing as pain and suffering, where we will be together again for all eternity.

That reality was the reason for Christ’s self-giving action of love on the cross. Jesus wanted to make sure the doors to heaven were opened for all of humanity

I had the humbling honor of being with Nick and his family in the end.

Nick had told his mom he was having a hard time finding the door. Lisa asked him to promise to give her a sign to let her know he’d made it through the door.

As we both held Nick’s hand last Friday night, we prayed for the door to be opened.

As he breathed his last breath, the door stood before him and Nick walked through it. And in that moment on his face there appeared a smile, the sign his mother asked him to send her to show he had found the door. He had found the way into paradise.

What a beautiful memory we can all keep until we meet Nick again.

As we heard in the first reading, “There is an appointed time for everything. A time to be born. And a time to die.”

Nick understood that. Nick understood that his suffering was his cross to bear and he never complained about it. Not once.

Because of Christ loving act for all of us, death does not have the final word. Life has changed. Not ended. When this earthly dwelling turns to dust, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.

For all of us today, this temporary separation is painful. But Nick would not want us to be sad or shed too many tears. He would want us to live our lives to the fullest as a way of honoring his life. Can you hear his voice now?

For his mother, Lisa, Nick was her voice of reason, her wise-beyond-his-years baby boy. She will forever hear his voice in her heart as she navigates this life now without him. But she will do so with the hope that this life is not the only thing there is. There is something more. Something eternal.

For Nick’s family and friends who got tattoos of a sparrow to show support for Nick, the same tattoos of a sparrow I found on both of Nick’s hands, my friends that sparrow has been set free to soar.

So, as we remember happier times with Nick, as we remember that beautiful smile, as we remember our beloved Nicholas Anthony Lowe, let us also never forget:

This is not goodbye. Only see you later.

----

Nicholas Anthony Lowe's Obituary

Catholics Come Home - Lou Holtz Edition

Catholics Come Home is calling an audible as the college bowl season heats up.

It's substituting at QB former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz as its pitchman to welcome Catholics back the pews.

Here's what the new TV spot looks like and below is an article about the latest release from Catholics Come Home.



(Reprinted from National Catholic Reporter)
Former Notre Dame coach's latest play call: Come home, Catholics
Brian Roewe | Jan. 2, 2013

Sports fans who gather around TVs to watch this year's college football championship game will see Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly calling defensive formations and audibles to his players. But during commercial breaks, they'll see a former Fighting Irish coach making a call of his own -- for Catholics to "get back in the game" of going to Mass.

"For victory in life, we've got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

The key to winning is choosing to do God's will, and love others with all you've got," says Lou Holtz, coach of Notre Dame's 1988 undefeated championship team and the star of Catholics Come Home's latest national commercial campaign.

"If you or your family haven't been going to Mass every week, get back in the game. We're saving your seat on the starting bench this Sunday," says Holtz, himself a Catholic.

The commercials began airing Dec. 27 and run through Jan. 8. The timeframe runs parallel to college football's bowl game season, which reaches its apex Jan. 7 with the 2013 BCS championship game in Miami between Notre Dame and the University of Alabama.

The 30-second Holtz "evangomercial" is set to air in various markets and programming, and estimates to reach 70 million households. Cable sports network ESPN, where Holtz works as an analyst, will broadcast this year's BCS championship.

"All those viewers who follow the wisdom of Coach Holtz -- keeping focused on the goal in life: Heaven. They will be the true winners when their final down is played," Catholics Come Home president and founder Tom Peterson said in a news release.

Catholics Come Home is a lay-led media apostolate that seeks to use television ads as an evangelism tool, and has multiple bishops on its advisory board. It formed in 2008 and has run campaigns in unison with 35 dioceses across the U.S., including Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago and Phoenix.

In December, it crossed outside U.S. television markets for the first time, heading north to Canada for a campaign in Vancouver, British Columbia. The football-themed ad comes a year after Catholics Come Home's first national campaign, which aired commercials in 10,000-plus cities during the 2011 Advent and Christmas seasons. Citing Nielsen data, it said that campaign, dubbed "the largest family reunion in history," reached more than 125 million viewers an average of 10 times each.

In January 2012, NCR first examined Catholics Come Home during the national campaign, finding varying degrees of success for the commercials in actually bringing Catholics back to church and retaining them once there. In responding to that story, Peterson reiterated that the benefits of his organization's ads extend beyond numbers and can act as a catalyst to increased evangelization efforts in the diocese. "

[Catholics Come Home] cannot be responsible for keeping people in the pews over the long-term, as that is the mission of the parishes," he wrote in an email. With Holtz a familiar face to fans, Peterson hopes the coach's pep talk will help those who see it rediscover a passion for their faith on par with their passion for football. Ultimately, that requires not just passive watching, but an active commitment to God, beginning with weekly attendance at Mass.

"Faith is not a spectator's sport; it must be lived," Peterson said.

[Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer.]