The following text is the contribution of Fr. Joan Morera Perich SJ, a Catalan Jesuit priest whose academic and spiritual journey has been deeply connected with the study of Christian nonviolence.
He graduated in Computer Science at the University of Girona, then studied Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, focusing on the comparison between the nonviolence of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah and that of Jesus of Nazareth. Author of several essays and publications, including Diàleg de sords? Pedagogia per reconciliar conflictes (2009) and Dismantling the Hells. Practising the Nonviolence of Jesus Today (2018), Fr Joan Morera SJ is also co-founder of the Working Group on Christian Nonviolence, engaged in pedagogical training on nonviolence through the Move nonviolence project. His work focuses on peace, reconciliation and conflict management through conferences and workshops in different Spanish cities, offering practical tools to live the radicality of the Gospel in contexts of tension and violence.
In this piece, Fr. Morera SJ explores the challenge of faith lived in times of war, questioning how Christian nonviolence can be not just an ideal, but a concrete action of resistance, hope and transformation. Through biblical analysis and spiritual reflection, he invites the reader to rediscover the power of faith as an active force for change in the world. Fr. Morera SJ has produced a beautiful video to accompany this text, making it even more profound and stimulating for personal and community reflection. You can watch the video at the following link: https://youtu.be/MmhNf-EYdcg
By Carla Bellone
Assistant to the Secretary for the Service of Faith
Living Faith in Times of War
Living faith in times of war is a mission underground, where no sun is shining. The seed needs to keep alive the trust that the power of life is inside, the trust to believe that dying every day is a way of nurturing others.
In wars, God seems fully hidden by atrocities and violence. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 50, the suffering servant takes the blows of evildoers while performing a nonviolent internal training of his own senses, educating them to resist without bouncing violence, trusting the Creator of all that exists, learning how to love the enemy.
In Jesus’ words, this is a tremendous effort, especially when cruelty and savage crimes trigger implosions of deep rage in us. We are all humans, and looking at innocent populations getting trampled over and over again is a real pressure for the temptation of retaliation. However, the gift of forgiveness is not the only petition to do in prayer. Prayer is a connection with the love that underlies the profound dimension of all things.
Keeping this cry of a violent reality in our prayers transforms our heart. This tension makes it mature. Then we feel that we must act on what we believe, and we need this rage to be transformed into creative, nonviolent actions—personal actions of commitment for peace, like the ones Jesus proposed: disobeying by excess for, and not against, the oppressor.
Or public, collective actions that are attention-grabbing, engaging many people around dignity and humanity. Indeed, in the midst of brutality, gazing at beauty is a source of breath, a source of God, providing spiritual aid to the desperate.
Nonviolent disobedience is prophetic and requires strategy, a network of people, and creativity to touch people’s hearts. Furthermore, it requires faith—faith in the One who addresses the universe in the direction of love; faith to oppose the blind conviction that weapons and military budgets will bring us peace; faith to remember that politics is not always corrupted by the ambition of power, money, territory, and fame, but is especially the aim for the common good; faith that, behind the dark cloud of these stormy wars, there is a warming sun shining for the evil and the good in the world.
Keeping and acting on this faith is actually our mission.
