According to Catholic Tradition - Was Jesus' experience on Earth scripted? Or did human actors shape it? God does not play dice with the universe. - Albert Einstein


The Bible gives us reason to believe that God (presumably, God the Father) chose the time of Jesus' arrival on Earth.

My Question:


According to Catholic Tradition - Was Jesus' experience on Earth scripted? Or did human actors shape it?


Specifically:


According to Catholic Tradition - Were the people who came into contact with Jesus acting of their own free will? Or did God "move" them to act in a certain way to fulfill prophecies and lay the foundation for the Gospels?


For reference, a similar question was asked about Judas Iscariot.
First Answering

Q. According to Catholic Tradition - Was Jesus' experience on Earth scripted?
No it wasn't, but it followed a known 'script'.

Q. Or did human actors shape it?
Yes they did.

Q. Specifically: According to Catholic Tradition - Were the people who came into contact with Jesus acting of their own free will?
Yes they were.

Q. Specifically: Or did God "move" them to act in a certain way to fulfill prophecies and lay the foundation for the Gospels?
God moved - but did not force - those acting in accordance to his will, but not those acting contrary to his will. In the latter, the way it is described is 'he allowed' them to act they way they did. In both cases, the actors remain[ed] free.


  [T]here is no predetermination by the Divine of what the human will
  freely chooses; it is not because God foreknows (having foredecreed) a
  certain free act that that act takes place, but God foreknows it in
  the first instance because as a matter of fact it is going to take
  place[.] - Please see below.




[Attempted] Explanation Second

Starting with 'why is man free?'


  cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1743
  "God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel
  (cf. Sir
  15:14),
  so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain
  his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him" (GS 17 § 1).


From Free Will | New Advent please note that:


  (2) Theology studies the questions of the existence, nature and
  attributes of God, and His relations with man. The reconciliation of
  God's fore-knowledge and universal providential government of the
  world with the contingency of human action, as well as the harmonizing
  of the efficacy of supernatural grace with the free natural power of
  the creature, has been amongst the most arduous labours of the
  theological student from the days of St. Augustine down to the present
  time.


The Jesuit school — with whom probably a majority of independent theologians agree, say:


  God knows in the scientia media what Peter would do if in given
  circumstances he were to receive a certain aid, and this before any
  absolute decree to give that aid is supposed. Thus there is no
  predetermination by the Divine of what the human will freely chooses;
  it is not because God foreknows (having foredecreed) a certain free
  act that that act takes place, but God foreknows it in the first
  instance because as a matter of fact it is going to take place; He
  knows it as a hypothetical objective fact before it becomes an object
  of the scientia visionis — or rather this is how, in order to
  safeguard human liberty, we must conceive Him as knowing it. It was
  thus, for example, that Christ knew what would have been the results
  of His ministry among the people of Tyre and Sidon. But one must be
  careful to avoid implying that God's knowledge is in any way dependent
  on creatures, as if He had, so to speak, to await the actual event in
  time before knowing infallibly what a free creature may choose to do.
  From eternity He knows, but does not predetermine the creature's
  choice. And if it be asked how we can conceive this knowledge to exist
  antecedently to and independently of some act of the Divine will, on
  which all things contingent depend, we can only say that the objective
  truth expressed by the hypothetical facts in question is somehow
  reflected in the Divine Essence, which is the mirror of all truth, and
  that in knowing Himself God knows these things also. Whichever way we
  turn we are bound ultimately to encounter a mystery, and, when there
  is a question of choosing between a theory which refers the mystery
  to God Himself and one which only saves the truth of human freedom
  by making free-will itself a mystery, most theologians naturally
  prefer the former alternative. - cf. The Nature and Attributes of
  God | New Advent




PS The Navarre Bible New Testament Compact Edition note on Mk 14:12-21 (RSVCE) is:


  Jesus' initiative in giving instructions for preparation of the
  Passover (vv. 13-16) and, particularly, the mysterious warning in v.21
  show how intricately God's plan and human actions connect up: "Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate
  coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's
  plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first
  sermon on Pentecost: 'This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the
  definite plan and foreknowledge of God' (Acts 2:23
  (RSVCE)).
  This biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over
  were mere passive players in a scenario written in advance by God"
  (CCC,
  599).