John Duns Scotus insisted on the absolute and perfect freedom of God to love and forgive as God chooses, which is the core meaning of grace. Such a God could not be bound by some supposedly offended justice. For Scotus, the incarnation of God and the redemption of the world could not be a mere reaction to human sinfulness, but in fact the exact, free, and proactive work of God from the very beginning. We were “chosen in Christ before the world was made,” as Paul says in Ephesians (1:4). Sin or problems could not be the motive for divine incarnation, but only perfect love! The Christ Mystery was the very blueprint of reality from the very start (John 1:1). God’s first “idea” was to pour out divine infinite love into finite, visible forms. The Big Bang is our scientific name for that first idea, “Christ” is our theological name, and it is all about love exploding itself out in all directions.
For Scotus, God never merely reacts but always supremely and freely acts, and acts totally out of love.
—from the book Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
by Richard Rohr
