among men” (Creed of the People of God, 27). Suffering, like faith, should be accepted as a mark of God’s special love: “it has been granted to you that … you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (Phil 1:29). Making the same point John Paul II reminds us that “in bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ” (Salvifici