The Argentinian's two goals - both from the penalty spot - paved the way for a possible semi-final with Chelsea and also took his tally of career Champions League goals to 51.
However, despite ultimately being comfortable for the Spanish giants, it was not a vintage performance after Milan had arrived at the Nou Camp having held the reigning European champions to a goalless draw in the first leg at the San Siro last week.
Messi, who missed a brace of excellent chances inside the first seven minutes, opened the scoring on 11 after he had been chopped down in the box by Luca Antonini.
Against the run of play, Milan were level on 33 when Zlatan Ibrahimovic's slide rule pass fed Antonio Nocerino who made no mistake with a clinical low strike into the bottom left-hand corner from 12 yards.
As Barca responded to Milan's equaliser, Xavi forced a decent save out of Christian Abbiati.
But when Alessandro Nesta grappled with Sergio Busquets, while Xavi was preparing to take a corner, Messi was granted an opportunity to restore the home side's lead and he duly obliged by firing his second penalty into the opposite side of the net four minutes before half-time.
After the break, Messi curled a 25-yard free-kick inches wide before Andres Iniesta scored Barcelona's third goal from close range on 53 following a fortunate deflection in the area.
Kevin-Prince Boateng headed a rare Milan chance over while Tiago and Adriano both missed glorious opportunities to extend Barca's lead.
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