Tell the children of Israel to be holy for I, the Lord, am holy. The 19th chapter of the Book of Leviticus from which today’s First Reading has been taken is sub-titled, "Moral and religious obligations." The contents of this chapter appear to be an expanded version of the Ten Commandments, and from the sub-title, it is clear that to the Book’s initial audience, religion and morality go hand in hand. To the children of Israel, the Ten Commandments together with the other regulations that with time came to be attached to it are both religious and moral norms. The commandments served to check and assess an Israelite’s relationship with God and with his/her fellows. In the passage, we hear God placing a demand on the sons and daughters of Israel, challenging them to faithfully observe the commandments as proof of their participation in God’s holiness. The Lord demands that these adopted sons and daughters of his become holy because He, the Lord, is holy. The question that begs the reader, then, is this: in what does this holiness demanded of the Israelites consist? You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another. You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart…the list is endless. But for our benefit, this list has been shortened to a single commandment: love of the neighbor (cf. John 13:34). Holiness consists in loving. Or rather, love is the other name for holiness. God is holy because God is love (cf. I John 4:8). Consequently, God's demand that the children of Israel become holy in the manner of God’s holiness means that they must love because God is love. As the Gospel reading reminds us, we remain faithful to God’s command to love when we reach out to those in our midst who are less fortunate. If the Lenten season, then, is given to us so that we can work on our holiness, this means that Lent is a time for working on how we love. All the Lenten regulations that we observe should have love as their sole goal and end. At the end of the Lenten season, I should be able to evaluate myself on how much love I have shown to those around me.