Let the Christian beware of rebelling against the free and boundless grace of God and desecrating it. That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. 43-44 SCM 1959 edition. If you did not catch the sarcasm with which Bonhoeffer writes and that he admires the Anabaptists, read the passage again. We cannot be facile and say bygones will be bygones, because they will not be bygones and will return to haunt us.
True reconciliation is never cheap, for it is based on forgiveness which is costly.
Forgiveness in turn depends on repentance, which has to be based on an acknowledgement of what was done wrong, and therefore on disclosure of the truth. You cannot forgive what you do not know. I hope very much that people, especially those who have not previously had the opportunity of doing so, will will come to the Commission to tell their stories. God provides second chances. Forgiveness is about starting over rather than forgetting about transgressions The South African experience teaches us that reconciliation is not possible without truth telling.