Sean ensured that the people in his life knew he loved them. He frequently hugged his parents, especially when his dad returned home from work. He would listen intently to anything his loved ones wanted to talk about, taking an interest simply because they thought it was cool. And he prioritized his friends and time spent with them – always. If you want to love like Sean, then make sure the people you love know it – and not just from how you speak, but also from how you act.

Sean loved you just for being you. He was a friend to all, regardless of how cool or smart or talented they were. Sean loved because that is simply what he was created to do. That is what we are all created to do. To love like Sean is to mimic this simplicity. It is to banish the self-interest and tribal divisions that cloud our capacity for love, and to love the person in front of you just as they are, and for their own sake.

Christ loved him, so he loved Christ. Faith was not some intellectual pursuit for him, nor a fierce internal struggle. It was a way of life. It was to be an altar server, to give thanks to God before every meal He has given us, to ask for His strength in doing what is right. This is also how to love like Sean – to love Christ by living in His way. As Father Burke Masters noted in his homily at Sean’s funeral Mass, Sean wrote “we should not be afraid of death or suffering because Jesus’s cross always wins.”

This is what it means to love like Sean – to love God above all else, and to love your neighbor as yourself. If this sounds simple or basic, then good. The greatest truths are often such. The simplicity of this love does not make it easy. But practice makes perfect, and so we practice by loving the person in front of us, by expressing that love through action, and by tying this love back to that love Christ demonstrates for us in His sacrifice. However, Sean, ever the Beatles fan, would probably put it much more simply: All you need is love.