Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.

A number of years ago, there was a movie that came out by Terence Malak, he was a director

called The Tree of Life.

And it's very artsy, Farty.

I really liked it.

But in it, there's this young man, young boy, actually growing up in Texas, rural Texas,

kind of small town, Texas.

And he has this father and his mother, Brad Pitt plays the dad.

As the story unfolds, his dad and his mom kind of represent two different ways of being.

The dad represents that, okay, when you live in this world, you've got to be tough and

you've got to take what you deserve and you've got to earn it.

He's the law of nature.

Whereas the boy's mom was just, was always giving things freely.

She was always gentle.

She was always patient when the team needed her to be patient but didn't deserve her to

be patient.

And she represented the law of grace.

Now in Catholic circles, the law of nature and law of grace are not opposed to each other.

In fact, we believe that grace builds on nature and perfects it that they're united.

But in our lives, a lot of times, we either believe, a lot of times, we believe in the gospel

of nature or the gospel of grace.

What I mean by that is this, that I talk to many, many Christians, Catholic Christians,

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