When I think of Lent, I think of suffering—particularly my own suffering. Lent brings up the juvenile dread I felt as a child when I knew that candy and TV were on the chopping block. Even throughout high school and college, I always associated Lent with a melancholic focus on penance.

Listening to the Church’s Lenten prayers this year, I’ve had to reconsider. On Ash Wednesday, we prayed that “as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.” The first Sunday of Lent, we prayed: “Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ.” Last Sunday’s collect expanded on this theme: “Nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.”

When we put these together, we get a different picture of Lent. Penance is not our goal or even our focus—it is our “weapon.” We embrace the “observances of holy Lent” in order that, with “understanding” and “spiritual sight made pure,” “we may rejoice to behold [Christ’s] glory.”

In these prayers, the Church teaches us the proper order of penance, purity of heart, and vision. Penance is a tool for gaining purity of heart; temporary abstinence from lower goods lets us hold higher ones more closely. Purity of heart, in its turn, disposes us to the vision of God. Seeing Jesus is the purpose of Lent—penance is not.

Saint Paul describes the Christian life as a race. I’d like to compare it to a horse race. Penance is like the blinders a racehorse wears so as to keep his eyes on the goal. Purity of heart is like the one-track-mind of a good racehorse, and the vision of God is the finish line. If the horse tried to keep his eyes on the blinders, he would actually hinder his running. Similarly, if the horse were satisfied when he had his eyes firmly on the track, he would stop running. A good horse only stops when he reaches the finish line.

A good Christian is like a good racehorse. We don our blinders during Lent, but we don’t put our eyes on them. If we look too hard at our fasting or abstinence, we’ll probably get dizzy and fall over in the first few steps! No, we turn our eyes to the track, but even then, we’re not satisfied. As the eyes of our hearts are purified of disordered desires, we don’t stop as if we’ve attained the goal. No, we keep running in the vigor and freedom of virtue. We run hard all the way to the finish, to the understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and the vision of his glory.

Lent is not a time to focus only on penance, and it’s not a season for those who seek self-restraint for its own sake. Lent is a time when Christians wield penance as a sword, cutting away disordered attachments for the purification of our hearts. Lent is a season to use this newfound restraint and purity to run to the vision of God.

This Lent, let’s “Run so as to win” (1 Cor 9:24). Wield penance, seek purity, see Jesus!

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Photo by Matson Photo Service on Library of Congress