Discovering the Christian meaning of "Suffering" The Christian meaning of suffering as explained so beautifully by Pope St. John Paul II in “Salvifici Doloris,” is deeply rooted in our Christian anthropology and correspondingly, in our corporal and metaphysical intelligence. “Suffering seems to belong to man’s transcendence…” (Salvifici Doloris 2). We are actually wired by God, to benefit individually and collectively from the experience of suffering which, paradoxically, has the capacity to push ...