“The presence of virtues is the natural state of man, while the passions are the unnatural condition. We have altered and perverted the energies of the soul and steered them from their natural state to the unnatural state. According to St. John of the Ladder, God neither caused nor created evil. “We have taken natural attributes of our own and turned them into passions.” The same saint gives several examples to make this clear. “The seed for childbearing” is natural in us, but we pervert it for fornication. The anger which God gave us against the serpent, to wage war against the devil, is natural, but we have used it against our neighbor. We have a natural urge to excel in virtue, but instead we compete in evil. Nature stirs within us the desire for glory, but that glory is of a heavenly kind, for the joy of heavenly blessing. It is natural for us to be arrogant – against the demons. Joy is ours by nature, but it should be joy on account of the Lord and for the sake of doing good to our neighbor. Nature has given us resentment, but that ought to be against the enemies of our souls. We have a natural desire for food, and not for profligacy.”
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