Three years ago this month, we dedicated our Homeless Jesus sculpture before 7 pm Sunday Mass at St. James. Here is the story:
An anonymous donor met with me in March 2018. The donor had recently been profoundly spiritually moved by seeing a famous bronze sculpture of Jesus depicted as a homeless man lying partially covered on a bench. This sculpture, Homeless Jesus, was created by Timothy Schmalz with the hope of reminding people who experience it that, as stated in Matthew 25:40-45, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.” He wanted to commission the artist to make a new sculpture and have it permanently installed in the ground in front of St. James Church.
A group was formed to evaluate the proposal and to make final recommendations to me and the Pastoral Council. The group reached consensus for accepting the donation but then took considerable time examining different options for the sculpture. Ultimately, they too reached consensus that the donor’s suggested place was the best. The sculpture arrived in Louisville soon and was installed on our lawn in the front of the church facing Bardstown Road. A safe was mounted in concrete adjacent to the sculpture. The Pastoral Council for St. Brigid and St. James agreed that all proceeds from the sculpture will automatically pass to Catholic Charities. The proceeds are given regularly to the Cathedral to assist in their excellent daily outreach of a meal and a range of social, medical, and legal resources to the homeless community.
Although there is much we cannot do to end the plague of homelessness in our city, the presence of this Homeless Jesus and the opportunity it provides for passers-by to contribute to feeding the “least” among us is a constant reminder of the Christian call. As St. James wrote in his Epistle:
“If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also, faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Fr. Gary
