When I was growing up we belonged to Our Lady of Grace parish, where I went to school as well. OK, times were different then, and no parish would do this now, but back in the say (say, 1960) the most-highly anticipated publication among certain folks in Edina was the annual OLG parish report, where the parish listed-- by name, mind you-- how much every registered parishioner gave for the year. When the mail arrived with the report, sometime in mid-January, then the judging would begin. People couldn't help it. My parents were among them (even though they were otherwise very conscientious Catholics).. I recall conversations where folks would look at particular names, and note that the family gave, say, $100. Then it would start: "That's terrible," the conversation would go. "They have that big house in Indian Hills, and two brand new cars. Every year they go to Florida over Easter vacation" (yes, that was a big deal in 1960 and no, it wasn't spring break). "And they only gave a lousy $100?" It would become a great judging frenzy as people looked at how much others gave. Human nature, I guess. Maybe it is that kind of judgmental attitude which is behind Jesus' remarks today (Lk 21: 1-4) about the widow who put only two small coins into the treasury. Don't judge her, Jesus seems to be saying, by comparing her small contribution to the contribution of others, because her contribution is much more significant to her than the larger ones are to those who make them. Fair enough, of course. But there is a deeper point. Jesus is cautioning us not to judge at all. We never know the true state of someone else's finances, let alone their heart. Whatever metrics we're going to apply will almost-certainly be wrong. And that's true in more than just our contributions to the Church. We've got more than enough to worry about just making sure that our own house is in order. Sure, it is always fun to look at others and criticize-- so easy to do. And so pointless. What the widow gave was the perfect amount for her. Can we say we do the same in our own lives?