We had a priest friend over for dinner the other night, and the conversation eventually turned, as it always seems to these days, to the topic of the problems in the Church-- declining attendance at Mass, financial issues, the need to close or consolidate parishes, shortage of priests. It is a familiar list, and, while folks have talked about these things for most of the last 20 years, nothing seems to change. I wonder why that is. In today's Gospel (Lk 17: 1-6) Jesus talks about the need to forgive. If your brother wrongs you seven times in a single day, and returns seven times and says "I am sorry," you should forgive him, Jesus says. In other words, there should be no limit to our forgiveness when those who have wronged us seek to be forgiven. The Church-- the body of Christ, the community of believers-- has certainly been wronged again and again by the men who are in authority over the last 20 years or so. The clergy abuse crisis, in all of its dimensions and permutations, comes immediately to mind, but there are other issues as well. There is no doubt that the leaders of the Church have sought forgiveness. In February of this year, at the Vatican's global abuse summit, the bishops engaged in a penitential liturgy seeking forgiveness. Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness, as did Pope (now Saint) John Paul II. But I'm not sure that there has been forgiveness, at least from most of the people of God. Forgiveness is a choice, an act of will, a decision to release negative feelings towards an offender or a situation. Talk to any parish priest and he'll tell you that the feelings of anger, frustration, disappointment and betrayal are still out there. Maybe the problem is that the people don't really believe the leadership when it seeks forgiveness. Perhaps the requests come across as staged, PR events, actions for the record by men who still "don't get it." I hear that a lot. Or maybe folks don't want to forgive. Maybe it feels too good for people to have the moral high ground over the leadership for a change-- you've got no right to tell me what to do, folks feel like they can say, after what you and those like you did. There is power in that, and for an organization where power has historically been concentrated in such a top-heavy way, maybe people in the pews (or who used to be in the pews) won't forgive because that means they give up that power. All I can say is the Jesus commands us time and again to forgive. That is the centerpiece of the Lord's Prayer. It comes up often in the Gospels, as it does today. I'm afraid that until we can truly live that command in the context of the problems of the Church, we'll be condemned to keep having conversations like the one I mentioned at the start of this post.