You may not have heard the name of Blessed Floribert Bwana Chui, who was beatified on Sunday, June 15, in Rome, but it is likely you can identify with his struggle. At the Sant’Egidio African Easter Congress in 2002, he said:
Prayer is fundamental: I believe in the Eternal One, and I believe that in prayer He will grant me what I ask of Him. But, well, recent events seem to contradict what I just said. I’ve lost everything. Was I perhaps unjust? Why didn’t God listen to my prayer? Why didn’t He protect my life? But I also think that God is not a machine designed to fulfill my requests. So, I realize, rather, that prayer helps me understand what is happening, and it reminds me of my fragility—the fact that I am only a man, a man who always needs help.
With these words, he cut straight to the heart of perhaps the most common Christian doubt: What to do in an unjust world?