People who sin because of their compulsions are not having much fun, nor is their life spectacularly fulfilling. They may experience relief or temporary gratification of one sort or another, but fundamentally they are unfree. In a sense they are non-persons. They are being driven by their passions, both conscious and unconscious. Whatever they may think, their actions do not derive from the personal center, from the heart. Their behavior is dictated by their instincts and by the inner tyranny that results from the mindless absorption of beliefs and values from outside. A puppet government controls their conduct. It is not responsible to them; its allegiance is elsewhere. This is why many people go through years of agony on the road to conversion. They feel oppressed by the past they have internalized, yet simultaneously there is no energy for revolution. Augustine stated as much:
Proud persons commit many sins, but not all of them are committed proudly. They are defective. Some are committed by the ignorant, some by the weak, and many of them are done by persons who are weeping and grieving.
Michael Casey
A Guide to Living the Truth, p. 27.
