You honor your mortal, physical body by bathing often. You do this knowing that at death your body will be interred in the ground. Well, then, why do you not bathe your spiritual, immortal soul in a comparable manner? Consider, in the hour of death, that as your human body is surrendered to the earth for its dissolution, your human soul will appear before God in heaven for its particular and eternal judgment. Therefore, honor your spiritual, immortal soul even as you cherish your human flesh by purifying it often in the cleansing fount of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The Church's sacramental life was established by Jesus Christ within the all-embracing procession of the holy Trinity. It was to his apostles, their successors and the visible Church that Jesus entrusted the administration of his high-priestly sacramental ministry under the guardianship of the Holy Spirit: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." [Jn 20:22-23]