The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I don't care what that song proclaims about those days late in November through all of December, this is the most wonderful time of the year!
That's right! As far as I am concerned, this is the most wonderful time of the year. It starts now and, this  year will continue through the very last day of May.
The truly most wonderful time of the year - Lent/Triduum/Easter.
Cannot beat it!
Other days may be appealing. Other days may be filled with fond memories and rich, good feelings but no other time of the year even comes close to these days - the days from Ash Wednesday all the way through to Pentecost Sunday.
This is truly the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
We have entered the time of Lent - 43 2/3 days. (I know. We always speak of forty days but if you do an actual count from Ash Wednesday to the Wednesday of Holy Week counts out to 43 days. And then on Holy Thursday the instruction is that Lent  ends with the beginning of the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. Thus 43 2/3 days.)
This vast span of time begins by inviting us to do, to give and to give up. Doesn't sound much like a wonderful time.
And starting this whole thing with ashes and those words, "Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return." Well, that doesn't exactly sound like an invitation to jump for joy!
But what, really, is happening here? Or should be happening here?
How about - this is a time for crafting a living love story or a living love-poem?
Approaching the Lenten Season, ask yourself: Why am I doing whatever it is that I am choosing for Lent? Why?
What is your motivation?
Obvious answers come back, especially after hearing that bit about returning to dust!
I'm doing what I do to makeup for my sins - to show my sorrow - as penance for what I have/have not done.
And that is all fine and good but what happens if we dare to dig deeper.
Why be sorry?
Why want to repent?
Could it be that somewhere deep down it is possible to find a trace of something called "love"?
Deep down we just might discover that it is our love for God, our love for Jesus that drives us to be sorry for the wrong we have done, the good we have not done.
Discover that love; admit to that love and watch what begins to happen to the disciplines we choose for Lent.
Driven by love, we work to show through Lent the primacy of God in our lives.
Extra prayer time means extra time spent with our Beloved.
Extra good works means extras acts as demonstrations of love for our Beloved.
Suddenly the time of Lent begins to be transformed into something beautiful - a love story in action.
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
And then comes Triduum - those unspeakable days of wonder.
Love story? No greater love has anyone than this - to lay down one's life for one's friends.
And we see and remember and celebrate God's great love for us as witnessed in Jesus Christ. God is not to be outdone in loving!
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
And all of that is followed by those Fifty Days of festival unlike any other in all of human history, fifty days to celebrate the beauty that emerges from God's love for us and ours for God - life, fullness of life, eternal life.
By the time our journey has coursed through the days of Lent and Triduum, even nature itself is getting more beautiful, more radiant! Mother Nature cannot hold back any longer. She begins to join the great prom of love!
In all the days of the year, what days can possibly compare with those of Lent/Triduum/Easter?
We have come to those days.
We have come to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
Write a beautiful love story.
Etch a beautiful love poem.
Sing a beautiful love song.
What wondrous love is this, Oh my soul, oh my soul? What wondrous love is this, oh my soul?
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.