If He wished us to be holy, why did He give us a body with such instincts?

Do not fear, for the body’s urges, passions, and outbursts are not of your own making, but are the creation of the good God who loves humanity; and all that He creates is good. The very impulses that destroy your relationship with the Lord are the selfsame impulses that aid you in the way of the Lord — when they are surrendered into the hands of the Holy Spirit.

The body in its entirety is, as St. John Chrysostom says, “as a harp beneath a harper, and as a ship under the pilot. And these are not contrary to those who guide and use them.”⁸⁰⁹ Sin entered both the soul and the body of the human being together, and so the whole person was corrupted. But, being the weaker of the two, it was to the body that evil deeds were attributed, and a sinful person came to be called “carnal.”⁸¹⁰ Balance in the human being was disturbed, and he lost control. He needed a helper to support his soul in ruling the body and the body in submitting to the soul. This Helper is the Holy Spirit.