We have just seen once again the successor of the Apostle Peter washing the feet of his brethren. As on other occasions, he also took the children for a ride in the popemobile. These are signs that simple people see as an expression of what Jesus did, of his abasement, closeness and submission for everyone, culminating in his passion and death.

 What had begun in the womb of Mary - the incarnation of the Son of God - in a hidden place in Palestine, sample then, on the way of the Cross and on the Cross, its most dramatic aspect. Jesus bore upon himself all the evil, physical and moral, of all times: all the sins and all the sufferings, especially those of the innocent. This is why Pope Francis invited us to kiss the crucifix, also because Jesus suffered all this for each one of us.

The omnipotent God does not defeat injustice, evil, sin and suffering with a striking victory, but in a way that humanly seems like a defeat. This is how Francis explained it. And when there is nothing left and all seems lost, when the night has become darker, God intervenes and resurrects.

"Jesus, who chose to walk this path, calls us to follow him on the same path of humiliation. When at certain moments of life we find no escape route for our difficulties, when we fall into the thickest darkness, it is the moment of our humiliation and submission total, the hour when we experience that we are fragile and sinful. It is just then, at that moment, when we must not conceal our defeat, but open ourselves trustingly to hope in God, as Jesus did" (Pope Francis, General Audience, 16-IV-2014).

For his part, in the book "Jesus of Nazareth" - and also throughout his pontificate, especially in his homilies during the Easter Vigil - Benedict XVI has explained in a suggestive way the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. An event - as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms - that belongs to history and at the same time surpasses it, goes beyond it.

In Christ, writes the now Pope emeritus, human nature "undergoes a kind of radical 'qualitative leap' in which a new dimension of life, of being man, is opened up (Jesus of Nazareth, II, 2011, p. 318). The body of Christ, as St. Paul had already pointed out, is transformed into a "cosmic body". And thus it has become "the place where men enter into communion with God and with one another, and can thus live definitively in the fullness of indestructible life" (Ibid.).

With the resurrection of the Lord, as Benedict XVI has explained on other occasions, much more happens than a "mutation" at the culmination of man's "evolution. In the resurrection, the indestructible Life is manifested in a "burst of light," an "explosion of love"; and from it a new world emerges (cf. Benedict XVI, Homily at the Easter Vigil, April 15, 2006).

With this radical event, with this ontological leap - a leap in being - "a dimension has been inaugurated that affects us all and that has created for all of us a new sphere of life, of being with God" (Jesus of Nazareth, II, p. 319). The Christian tradition therefore speaks of a "new creation".

Now, how does this affect "me" and how does it reach me in such a way that it involves me and even makes it possible for me to participate in the transformation of the world through love? This, which would be unthinkable and an unimaginable dream, opens up for each of us through faith and incorporation into the Church through baptism (cf. Benedict XVI, Homily at the Easter Vigil, April 15, 2006). From then on, every Christian can say with St. Paul: I live; yet it is no longer I alone, but Christ lives in me (cf. Gal 2:20).

The resurrection of Christ and its consequences thus transcend history but leave their mark on history. The risen Christ left behind witnesses, first and foremost the apostles, with their enthusiastic and daring preaching, which, according to Joseph Ratzinger, cannot be explained by mere speculation or inner experiences.

But why has God revealed himself in this way, only to some people like Abraham, only to some peoples like Israel, and not in an overwhelming way to the powerful of this world? Benedict XVI answers: "It is proper to the mystery of God to act discreetly. Only little by little does he build up his history in the great history of humanity (...) He suffers and dies and, as the Risen One, he wants to reach humanity only through the faith of his own, to whom he manifests himself. He never ceases to knock gently at the doors of our heart and, if we open to him, he slowly makes us able to see" (p. 321).

This, he concludes, is the divine style: not to overwhelm with external power, but to offer and arouse love. Therefore, if we listen to these witnesses and open ourselves to the signs with which God always gives us faith in them and in himself, we can discover that he is risen and that he is the Living One.

All this is pedagogically expressed and actualized by the liturgical signs of Easter, beginning on the night of Holy Saturday: the fire that becomes light (truth and love go together), the living water (the life of grace as friendship with God and participation in his very life), the singing of the Alleluia (the joy of being with Christ and of proclaiming him to all).

Thus the meaning of life, which was obscured and enslaved by sin, is revealed and liberated. And so, following God's own way, Christians are called to strengthen Christ's victory with the "weapons" of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love (cf. Benedict XVI, Easter Message, April 12, 2009). All this is what we celebrate especially at Mass every Sunday, making "report alive" the resurrection of the Lord.

This is the same thing that Pope Francis has been teaching in perfect continuity. Christ, by his humiliation - his radical impoverishment for us - shows us the way to the Christian mission statement : attention to sinners and the poor, to the sick and the weakest. And the Church wants to remain poor - in the Sacraments, in listening to the Word of God, in the attitude of every Christian towards the most needy - and "a people of the poor" (cf. Pope Francis, Lenten Message, 2014).

God continues to act through those who make themselves poor for others: poor by detachment from things Materials (using what is necessary and rejecting what is superfluous), by welcoming divine gifts and by generosity and mercy towards others, approaching material, moral and spiritual misery.

God is at work in those who travel -during their lives in an ever deeper and at the same time simpler process- that path (the "passover"), the "passage" from humiliation to resurrection.

From humiliation to resurrection. It is the joyful path of the Church and of Christians, called to be light and warmth - reason, justice and mercy - in our world.