God has clearly expressed his love for us as He sacrificed Himself, being open to mediate our sins to the Father, the UST Central Seminary Pastoral Director said during the Palm Sunday Mass at the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church on April 2.

At the start of his homily, Fr. Marcelino Saria, O.P., emphasized that God is doing something more as He suffers on the cross just for our sins, putting up questions to reflect on the reason behind His actions.

“Does God make us feel guilty so that we will follow His Father’s commandments? I don’t think so,..after the emotion of guilt, then we will simply go back to our life of sin,” Saria said regarding guilt as one of the possible reasons for God’s sacrifice.

Saria added that God is also not protecting us as this will mean that He simply disregards our sins.

“[God] is mediating us to his Father, he is patching things up for us to His father… the process reminds us that we have the capacity to love and sacrifice for the people whom we love,” the Pastoral Director said.

Like a doctor treating a patient to cure an internal illness, the Lord also saves our spiritual selves along with our physical and emotional health as He is open to treat our sins and for us to reconcile with the Father.

In this Holy Week, Saria said that God’s love is best to use to reflect upon ourselves as we wonder what extent we can go through for someone we love.

“Have I truly loved someone to the point of getting hurt, to the point of sacrificing myself to the other?” he asked.

He affirmed that this is what God did as He became a slave to direct us, and as we love in the same manner as the Lord, we are led to how we can give value, meaning, and direction to our lives.

During this Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Catholics carried their palm leaves to be blessed in the Church which signals the beginning of the Holy Week.