This year I'm going with Elizabeth Johnson, "Ask the Beasts," and seeing the "wild beasts" as fellow creatures, not instruments of Satan! Jesus in an unpeopled place, together with the animals, tempted by Satan but this time triumphant, now confirmed and confident in his mission. I'm going to urge my congregation to spent Lent themselves "with the wild beasts," being close to Nature virtually and really, loving the world so it becomes part of them and will therefore be forever part of their lives.
This year I'm going with Elizabeth Johnson, "Ask the Beasts," and seeing the "wild beasts" as fellow creatures, not instruments of Satan! Jesus in an unpeopled place, together with the animals, tempted by Satan but this time triumphant, now confirmed and confident in his mission. I'm going to urge my congregation to spent Lent themselves "with the wild beasts," being close to Nature virtually and really, loving the world so it becomes part of them and will therefore be forever part of their lives.
Glad you like it, Andrew! I think this could be a key passage for the idea of Jesus as the "New Adam" -- Adam the Earth Creature, not yet he and she.