It is no surprise, then, that at the centre of the Church's life there must be a 'pastoral practice of penance and reconciliation', which 'comprises all those tasks for which the Church is responsible on all levels in order to be able to promote both'. Such practice flows from the Gospel as naturally as light from the sun or a stream from a powerful wellspring. Without this pastoral practice the Church's proclamation of the forgiveness of sins will be empty and fruitless. It would become, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 'cheap grace', which 'amounts to a justification of sin and not of the sinner'. This is tantamount to 'preaching forgiveness without penance, baptism without communal discipline and absolution without confession.
Cheap grace is grace without anything succeeding it'.
After the gift of his Body for us, and his Blood shed for the remission of sins in the mystery of the Eucharist, the gift-sacrament of the forgiveness of sins is a most helpful and practical sacrament. This happens through the mediation of the bishop or priest who represents Christ to the Church and the Church to Christ. This sacrament guarantees in this manner the personal access of Christ to the whole community. The new rites of reconciliation drawn up according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council are designed to bring out both the individual and communal dimensions of sin and forgiveness. It is important to see in this sacrament the action of Christ our Head for the good of us, his members.