It's the people that matter.

Mary and Child at St Nicholas Church.  

On Saturday, a three of us went on a short pilgrimage within Bangkok to visit St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.  

What we discovered was more than we expected.  It was a most impressive Orthodox church built within suburban Bangkok.  It was so beautiful, inside and out.  Inside, the whole church was adorned with icons.  Just amazing.  You could feel the utter sacredness of the place.

Then in the midst of being immersed in this sacred space, there arrived a young Thai guy who was a member of the congregation.  From the very moment of his arrival, he made us welcome and at home in his church.  We expressed our appreciation of his church as being so beautiful and sacred, thanks to the wonderful icons.  His immediate response was - "It is not the building but the people within it that matter".  That stays with me.  How wise!  

I watched the Pope's visit during the week to Iraq with great interest.  He stood in churches that had been destroyed and desecrated by vicious terrorists under  the guise of  Islam, and prayed.  Powerful!  What he was doing there was not to rebuild churches but to build up people who had been so badly impacted by the great tragedy that had hit their lives. He stood with suffering people to help them rebuild their lives and communities. They were not to become lost and forgotten souls, collateral damage of a terrifying war. They matter, and so do their churches then matter, symbols of their worth and dignity.  

Sometimes we lose perspective.  We ever need someone like that young, Thai, Russian Orthodox guy in Bangkok or the Pope in Mosul to remind us.