Remembering Uthum Herat who when he died in 2009 after a brief illness was Deputy Governor, Central Bank

Sermon preached at Uthum’s funeral service by Priyan Dias (schoolmate and friend) Sunday 25 October in the Chapel of the Transfiguration at St. Thomas’ College

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

“…During [a] tribute [at the memorial service for Mr H.L de Silva, one of the most eminent lawyers of recent times] Uthum said that the three qualities he appreciated most in Mr de Silva were his self effacing nature, his humility, and his refusal to force his views on others. Reflecting on what he said that day, I think those qualities were manifestly true of Uthum himself. If there is a single descriptor that encapsulates all those qualities, it is the quality of being meek. 

Before I start however, I would like to thank the management of this school for allowing Uthum’s body to lie in state and for his funeral service to be held in this chapel. He probably preached his first sermon here in the Chapel of the Transfiguration] as a schoolboy, before going on to be a lay preacher in the Methodist church. He was also one of the college’s most distinguished products – and distinguished in a most authentic way, as befits a product of a Christian school. Uthum’s spirituality itself is a testament to his conciliatory nature, something borne out in his public life as well – he was born a Baptist, was nurtured in an Anglican school and spent a lifetime of service in a Methodist church without ever holding any formal office there. 

It may be easy to be meek if one’s achievements are few and far between. This was not true of Uthum. At S. Thomas’ he was a college prefect and a member of the all-conquering chess team in the mid nineteen seventies. He also entered university, never an easy task those days from a Colombo District school, after the introduction of the District Quota scheme. At university, he partook fully of the heartbreak and the excellence that characterizes, even today, the Sri Lankan university system. He chose to enter Jaffna University, being the only place that offered the double maths and statistics combination. However, due to various but not uncommon circumstances, he had most of his lectures at the Vidyalankara Pirivena and graduated with a degree from the Sri Jayawardenapura University – that was the heartbreak. The excellence consisted in the fact that with his first class degree, he found no difficulty in finding a place for and completing his master’s and doctoral degrees at Purdue University, considered to be on the fringe of Ivy League status in the U.S. Returning from the U.S., he joined the Central Bank and rose rapidly in its ranks through sheer merit, being appointed a Deputy Governor at the age of 51. Prior to that, he served as the Alternate Executive Director for South Asia at the IMF in Washington D.C. for 3 years.

All these achievements however sat lightly on him. To his family, he was a tower of strength and a source of great practical wisdom. In his church, he was just another member, though an accomplished lay preacher. Also, his Sunday School class for GCE (O-Level) students was in such demand that no child dropped out of Sunday School until (s)he went through his hands. Furthermore, despite all his impressive achievements, he never sought or secured any of the status symbols commonly associated with success. He never built a house for himself. He never owned a vehicle. He never got married or had a family of his own. He also died young – perhaps the ultimate failure?  

How do we understand this man, who on the one hand achieved so much, and on the other acquired so little? What is it that motivated him? … I cannot escape the conclusion that Uthum’s life was a copy of his Lord and Master [who also] had none of the symbols associated with success. 

Jesus did not have a home of his own. “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests”, said Jesus; “but the Son of Man has not a place to lay his head”. He did not own any private means of transportation, and had to borrow a donkey for his last ride into Jerusalem. He never got married, and by his membership, adorned and ennobled the state of singleness. Finally, he died young too. We are asked as Christians to follow the example of Christ, not necessarily as literally as Uthum has done. But because Uthum had the mind of Christ (something else we are charged to have), it appears that many of the actual details of his life were strangely similar to his Lord’s. Uthum was certainly not perfect – something he would have been the first to admit – but he was definitely serious about his discipleship in Christ. 

Even as an Assistant Governor of the Bank, he used to travel to work by bus, reaching the bank well before 7 am, perhaps to beat the rush hour traffic or to get started on his 12 to 14 hour workday. He was extremely – I would say breathtakingly – generous with his money – a fact I am privy to only because I am intimately associated with a cause that Uthum supported; I would not have known otherwise, because Uthum’s donations were always anonymous.  

Like all highly intelligent and creative people, Uthum had his idiosyncrasies, the chief of which was his insistence on carrying an umbrella wherever he went. Among the many email anecdotes I received in just these 2 days since his passing, is one from a mutual friend associated with FOCUS (Fellowship of Christian University Students) about an encounter with an umbrella toting stranger inside Zurich airport, who upon closer inspection turned out to be none other than Uthum himself. My brother used to say that all Uthum had to do in order to disguise himself was to leave his umbrella behind. He took all these jibes good-heartedly, since he had a great sense of humour. 

We thank God for Uthum’s life that has been a witness to the values of the world to come, and one that challenges us to live this life in a more authentic way. We bid farewell then to this most beloved son, nephew, brother, uncle, friend and colleague, with undeniable sorrow in our hearts, but with thankfulness too for an exemplary life, and with the hope that we get from Christ’s death and resurrection.