Today, exalted in the cross Jesus appears as the Salvation for all those who look upon Him with faith. To enter into communion with God, man has to be "clean". Yet, the more he moves into the light, the more he senses how much he stands in need of cleansing. This is why religions have established systems of "purification".

However, Jesus has brought a radical transformation to the concept of purity before God: it is not ritual actions that make us pure. Purity and impurity arise within man’s heart which is cleansed by faith (cf. Acts 15:5-11). Such faith is due to God’s initiative toward man (it is not simply a choice that men make for themselves).

—The washing that purifies us is Jesus’ love that reaches to the end. In the great aspiration of humankind to purity, the Gospel of John —Jesus himself— tells us the course: He, who is God and Man at the same time, makes us capable of God.