Optimi corruptio pessima. The worse kind of corruption is that which attacks the best in us, the highest of the theological virtues. If there is nothing in the world better than true charity, there is nothing worse than false, for the more an apparent good resembles some real and great good the more it attracts and imperils us.
If foolishness and more or less conscious cowardice leads those who ought to represent true charity to give occasional approval to the false, incalculable evil may result. Persecutors accomplish much less for they fight in the open, and we are clearly bound to oppose them or, if need be, to give our Lord the testimony of our blood in martyrdom. More could be said, but this is not the place for it. Yet a simple glance at the subject can give us a deeper appreciation of the necessity for purifying charity to free it of all dross, of all that seemingly resembles it but really forms only a silly or perverse caricature of virtue.
To remind ourselves how much more we need the purifying cross than most of us think, we have only to notice how much that is human insinuates itself into works for God. When the Lord desires to make one of His servants a saint, the divine will may be terrible on poor human nature. Years of suffering come, when the soul must carry the cross daily; but after it has passed through the time of trial, it rejoices because of what it has been through, understanding at the last something of the necessity of the cross for Christian life. Without the cross no Christian can become spiritual and really live the divine life, so mercifully accorded to us."