Fr Clyde Harvey

At the request of Mrs Hassanali, Fr Clyde Harvey represented the Roman Catholic Church at the Memorial Service for the late President, which took place at Queen’s Hall on Wednesday, September 13. The following is his contribution to this inter-religious service.

Fellow citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, invited guests, my brothers and sisters

A Reading from the Gospel according to Luke – Ch.22:24-27
A dispute arose between the disciples about which should be reckoned the greatest, but Jesus said to them, “Among pagans it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor. This must not happen with you. 

No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves. For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves?  The one at table, surely?  Yet, here am I among you as one who serves!
The Gospel of the Lord.

In societies which value power and prestige, the Presidency can be seen as the pinnacle of human achievement, to be aspired to and even actively sought as the mark of true greatness. “Yet here I am among you as one who serves”. Noor Hassanali did not seek the Presidency. We called him to that office. He entered into it, not with the hubris of one who sought the power and prestige. 

We experienced him among us as one who serves. Indeed, he shaped the prestige and used the power of his office in ways that enabled the least of our citizens to identify with him and to feel at home in President’s House, even as we would all like to feel at home as one family in Trinidad and Tobago.

When he left office in 1997, a senior citizen showed me a crumpled picture of him which she always carried in her purse. She had met him on a public occasion. He made such a deep impression that she went home, cut out a picture of him from a newspaper and put it in her purse.

Noor Hassanali

In his quiet dignity and all-embracing wisdom, we saw a different vision of Presidential possibility, of how an individual, in that office, might transcend ethnicity and creed, drawing us together as one.

One who truly serves always seeks to unite. We lost him before we lost him. When his term of office ended and illness deprived us of his physical presence, we knew that the tone of our national discourse had changed. His death reminded us of what we were missing.

In mourning our loss and honouring his memory, we are invited to consider again our understanding of power and prestige, even as we review our vision of Presidential possibilities.

Today more than ever, in every sphere of national life, our nation needs leaders who stand among us “as one who serves”. Today more than ever we must ask our leaders to put humility before hubris, before ego, service before self, generosity before greed.  May the memory of President Hassanali empower us to demand that humble service of our leaders now and in the future.

Let us pray
(I invite all our leaders to take a quiet moment to reflect on the substance and the style of our leadership)

Gracious God, Creator of all that is, in Jesus Christ we have the perfect example of Your true nature as God of love and peace. In his example of service, we are called to walk the way of humble service ourselves, as the true measure of our love for You and for our neighbour.

We thank you for Noor Mohammed Hassanali, who in attaining the highest office of our land gave us a powerful example of servant leadership. His humble graciousness and compassionate interest in the least of us endeared him to all of us.

May the memory of his humble service inspire our leaders now and for generations to come. We ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN.