Blessed Duns Scotus, faithful disciple of Saint Francis

Today is the feast day of Blessed Duns Scotus; from CatholicCulture.org:

Newly beatified in 1993 by John Paul II, the Franciscans and other particular calendars may celebrate the optional memorial of Blessed John Duns Scotus, a Scottish Franciscan priest and theologian who died in 1308. He was the founder of the Scotistic School in Theology, and until the time of the French Revolution his thought dominated the Roman Catholic faculties of theology in nearly all the major universities of Europe. He is chiefly known for his theology on the Absolute Kingship of Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his philosophic refutation of evolution. He is also known as the "Doctor of Mary Immaculate" because of his defense of the Immaculate Conception.

Ignatius Press recently released the film, Blessed Duns Scotus: Defender of the Immaculate Conception, which won major awards for Best Movie and Best Actor at the 2011 International Catholic Film Festival. I've not yet seen it, but hope to soon. Watch the trailer here. And for a short, introductory biography, see Pope Benedict XVI's July 7, 2010, general audience:

Because of the fame of his holiness, his cult soon became widespread in the Franciscan Order and Venerable Pope John Paul II, wishing to confirm it, solemnly beatified him on 20 March 1993, describing him as the "minstrel of the Incarnate Word and defender of Mary's Immaculate Conception" (Solemn Vespers, St Peter's Basilica; L'Osservatore Romano [ore] English edition, n.3, 24 March 1993, p. 1). These words sum up the important contribution that Duns Scotus made to the history of theology.

First of all he meditated on the Mystery of the Incarnation and, unlike many Christian thinkers of the time, held that the Son of God would have been made man even if humanity had not sinned. He says in his "Reportatio Parisiensis":  "To think that God would have given up such a task had Adam not sinned would be quite unreasonable! I say, therefore, that the fall was not the cause of Christ's predestination and that if no one had fallen, neither the angel nor man in this hypothesis Christ would still have been predestined in the same way" (in III Sent., d. 7, 4). This perhaps somewhat surprising thought crystallized because, in the opinion of Duns Scotus the Incarnation of the Son of God, planned from all eternity by God the Father at the level of love is the fulfilment of creation and enables every creature, in Christ and through Christ, to be filled with grace and to praise and glorify God in eternity. Although Duns Scotus was aware that in fact, because of original sin, Christ redeemed us with his Passion, Death and Resurrection, he reaffirmed that the Incarnation is the greatest and most beautiful work of the entire history of salvation, that it is not conditioned by any contingent fact but is God's original idea of ultimately uniting with himself the whole of creation, in the Person and Flesh of the Son.

As a faithful disciple of St Francis, Duns Scotus liked to contemplate and preach the Mystery of the saving Passion of Christ, as the expression of the loving will, of the immense love of God who reaches out with the greatest generosity, irradiating his goodness and love (cf. Tractatus de primo principio, c. 4). Moreover this love was not only revealed on Calvary but also in the Most Blessed Eucharist, for which Duns Scotus had a very deep devotion and which he saw as the Sacrament of the Real Presence of Jesus and as the Sacrament of unity and communion that induces us to love each other and to love God, as the Supreme Good we have in common (cf. Reportatio Parisiensis, in IV Sent., d. 8, q. 1, n. 3). As I wrote in my Letter for the International Congress in Cologne marking the seventh centenary of the death of Blessed Duns Scotus, citing the thought of our author: “just as this love, this charity, was at the origin of all things, so too our eternal happiness will be in love and charity alone: ‘willing, or the loving will, is simply eternal life, blessed and perfect’” (AAS 101 [2009], 5).

Read the entire audience on the Vatican site.

Comments

[Jared Goff]

There are some interesting and important changes in the final paragraphs of the current edition of the audience quoted in the post. The new rendering found on the Vatican website "adjusts" the Holy Father's earlier understanding of Scotus' teaching on the will.

Compare the edition the post links with: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9357

[Sharon]

What are those changes as perceived by you Jared?