Ah, that’s the present purpose of John’s prophecy... the Christians were martyred by Nero, and thus the Church suffered greatly.
I’ve understood that there can be and often is past, present and future meaning to prophecy, that a given meaning doesn’t always apply to a given era.
However, if you percieve the prophecy as also having future meaning, then there is a future meaning to the woman, which you interpret to be Israel and therefore your church in addition to being Mary, crying out in pain, as well as the present or contemporary meaning to John when he wrote it.
I was expecting an answer along the lines of the woman/Israel/church crying out in pain meaning persecution and martyrdom under Tribulation, to be honest.