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Roman Catechism
Man’s Passions Rebel Against God’s Will
The same should also be the fervent prayer of those in whose souls God already reigns; who have been already illumined with the divine light, which enables them to obey the will of God. Although thus prepared, they have still to struggle against their own passions on account of the tendency to evil implanted in man’s sensual appetite. Hence even though we are of the number of the just, we are still exposed to great danger from our own frailty, and should always fear lest, drawn aside and allured by our concupiscences, which war in our members, we should again stray from the path of salvation. Of this danger Christ the Lord admonishes us in these words: Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. It is not in the power of man, not even of him who has been justified by the grace of God, to reduce the irregular desires of the flesh to such a state of utter subjection that they may never afterwards rebel. By justifying grace God no doubt heals the wounds of the soul; but not those also of the flesh concerning which the Apostle wrote: J know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good.
The moment the first man forfeited original justice, which enabled him to bridle the passions, reason was no longer able to restrain them within the bounds of duty, or to repress those inordinate desires which are repugnant to reason. This is why the Apostle tells us that sin, that is to say, the incentive to sin, dwells in the flesh, thus giving us to understand that it does not make a mere temporary stay within us as a passing guest, but that as long as we live it maintains its abode in our members as a permanent inhabitant of the body. Continually beset as we are by our domestic and interior enemies, it is easy for us to understand that we must fly to God’s help and beg of Him that His will may be done in us.