Why is it that sometimes one feels sorrow and remorse without any effort (almost naturally) for a certain sin, but at some other times one feels very lukewarm and even if he forces himself, he still does not feel any regret in his heart?

St. Basil the Great responds, “Such a compunction comes from the gift of God to stir up desire, that the soul, having tasted the sweetness of such compunction or sorrow, might be stirred and drawn to imitate such a grace. For it is shown that if it is given even to those who have not much stirred themselves, how much more shall it be given to those who desire and labour always to be in the compunction of the fear of God, and that those who lose this grace through indolence are without excuse. But the fact that sometimes we force ourselves and yet are unable to obtain it is proof thereby that we are negligent at other times—for it is impossible that one who has not continually exercised himself either in meditations or in the divine ordinances should suddenly turn to prayer and immediately obtain what he seeks. Yes, and it shows thereby that a soul of this kind is oppressed by other vices and passions, the ascendancy of which does not allow it the freedom for those things it wishes to possess, according to what the Apostle dealt with, saying: I am carnal, sold under sin; for what I want, this I do not perform, but what I hate, this is what I do (Rom. 7:14-15) and again: But now it is no longer I who am doing this, but rather sin that dwells in me (Rom. 7:17).

“God has permitted this very thing to befall us for a good purpose, so that through the very things that the soul suffers against its will, it may in time be corrected and converted to him who will alleviate it of its burdens (cf. Ezek. 18:23; 33:11) and at length come to know itself and recover its senses and understand that it has been seized and held down in the snares of the devil (cf. 1 Tim. 3:7; 6:9; 2 Tim. 2:26), into which it has fallen of its own accord, so that as a captive what it does not want it performs and what it hates it does (cf. Rom. 7:15). But if it turns to the Lord so that he may liberate it from the body of this death (Rom. 7:24), immediately it shall discover mercy, provided it repents wholly and from the heart.”¹⁴⁵⁷