Last fall I told you about a statue in Toronto, at Regis College, called “Homeless Jesus”. It’s a life sized bronze statue of a man laying on a park bench wrapped in a blanket. The only way you might gain a clue to his identity is that his hands and feet are pierced, as Christ’s were on the cross.

 

Rejected by two Roman Catholic cathedrals in New York and Toronto as being “too controversial”, it found a home in front of the Jesuit Order’s Regis College, across from the Whitney Block in Queen’s Park, home to much of our provincial government’s public service.

 

The sculpture was inspired by Matthew 25:40, which says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

The statue has drawn a great deal of attention since last fall. The artist, Canadian sculptor Tim Schmalz, took the original five foot model to Rome where it was blessed by Pope Francis. It will have a permanent home in the Vatican, on a street leading to St. Peter’s Square.

 

Schmalz has also made replica bronze castings. One of them has found its way to a small town near Charlotte, North Carolina, where, installed outside an Episcopal church, it is proving to be as controversial and powerful as the original statue was.

 

The rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Davidson, NC, the Rev. David Buck, was quoted as saying “You love it; you hate it; it makes you think.”

 

Neighbours are of a different opinion.

 

One describes the statue as “creepy”. Another wrote a letter to the local newspaper, saying, “My complaint is not about the art-worthiness or the meaning behind the sculpture. It is about people driving into our beautiful, reasonably upscale neighbourhood and seeing an ugly homeless person sleeping on a park bench.”

 

The local neighbourhood association, which acts as arbiter on such matters as unsightly property, has taken no position of the statue.

 

One woman, who called the police to report a vagrant on the streets of the upscale town, was offended. She mistook the statue for a live person while driving by the church late one night. She said the sculpture sends the wrong message.

 

“That’s not who Jesus is. Jesus is not a vagrant, Jesus is not a helpless person who needs our help. We need someone who is capable of meeting our needs, not someone who is also needy.”

 

The rector of St. Albans replied, “It’s Jesus representing the most marginalized of society. We’re reminded of what our ultimate calling is as Christians, as people of faith, to do what we can individually and systematically do to eliminate homelessness. Part of a faith commitment is to care for the needy.”

 

So what does that mean in Grey Bruce?

 

Make no mistake; we have serious housing and homelessness issues.

 

But we work in partnership as a community. Can we strengthen our partnerships and work together to find real, genuine solutions for homelessness?

 

I would like to think we don’t need the reminder of a provocative statue to do something concrete for the homeless and those on the margins of our community. Or maybe we do. But if “Homeless Jesus” were to appear in our community, what would you be thinking?