By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While Jesus' death shows the depths of his love for humanity, it is his Resurrection that proves he is the Son of God, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope used his March 26 weekly general audience to underline the importance of celebrating the 50-day Easter season.

The pope came to the Vatican by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, and returned to the papal villa by helicopter after the audience.

St. Peter's Square was still decorated with some of the tulips, daffodils, pansies and blossoming trees that were set up for the pope's March 23 Easter morning Mass. An estimated 30,000 people attended the audience, which was marked by brief sprinkles of rain.

The pope told the crowd, "Death was not sufficient to demonstrate that Jesus was really the Son of God, the expected Messiah."

Hundreds of people over the course of history have dedicated their lives to doing good and to bringing justice, the pope said. But "they died and remained dead," he said.

"The death of the Lord demonstrates the immense love with which he loved us, going so far as to sacrifice himself for us," the pope said. "But only his Resurrection is sure proof, the certainty that what he affirmed is true and that it is valid for us, is valid for all time."

While the Resurrection is celebrated every Sunday all year long, he said, the Church asks Catholics to focus on its meaning and rejoice over it more intensely in the days immediately following Easter.

"All the liturgies of the Easter season sing the certainty and joy of the Resurrection of Christ," he said.

Faith in the Resurrection is what makes Christianity what it is and gives Christians the strength to live in hope, the pope said.

"Isn't it the certainly that Christ is risen that gives courage and prophetic audacity and perseverance to the martyrs of every age?" he asked. "Isn't the encounter with the living Christ that which converts and fascinates the many men and women who, since the beginning of Christianity, continue to leave everything to follow him and put their lives at the service of the gospel?"

It is possible to meet the Risen Christ, as did the women who encountered Jesus as they went to visit his tomb and the apostles who met him on the road to Emmaus, the pope said.

"The Lord is walking alongside us and he explains the Scriptures" and shares himself in the breaking of the bread, he said. "This should make our hearts burn within us so that our eyes may be opened" as were the eyes of the apostles walking to Emmaus.