Artist Timothy P. Schmalz sees his sculptures as a way to evangelize, especially to people who don’t think they are looking for Christ in their lives.

Schmalz, the Ontario-based artist who is known for his “Homeless Jesus” and “Angels Unawares,” among other works, spoke at an exhibit of his works based on Matthew 25 hosted by St. Joseph Parish in Libertyville on May 18.

“I want to bring something beautiful, something people who aren’t Catholic will appreciate,” Schmalz said. “I want to get to the point where people say, ‘That’s cool,’ where people who don’t know who this saint is, who don’t know who Mary is, will say, ‘This is beautiful. Who is that?’ and be drawn in. … The Gospels are so much needed today. People are starving for Christ. They are starving for spirituality. It just has to be presented in a way that people can see it.”

St. Joseph parishioner Allyson Cayce was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to Libertyville. Cayce, who commissioned a sculpture of Mary, Untier of Knots from Schmalz a few years ago, just learned that it would possible in April, and the exhibit was mounted in May.

“It has gotten a great reception,” she said.

Deacon Howard Fischer, director of operations at St. Mary of the Annunciation in Fremont Center, said the parish has commissioned Schmalz to create a sculpture of its patron.

Such sculptures help not only evangelize but also to connect Catholics to their faith, Fisher said.

“I think that the physical representation is important, because it appeals to our senses,” he said.

The exhibit at St. Joseph Parish, which ran through May 31 in a storefront near the church, offered viewers the opportunity to see Jesus in the poor and marginalized people they see around them.

The “When I Was …” series started with the life-size statue of a homeless Jesus sleeping on a park bench. That statue has been installed around the world at more than 50 sites, including in front of the Catholic Charities building at 721 N. LaSalle St.

It was based on a person he saw sleeping on the streets of Toronto, Schmalz said, someone who was completely shrouded in a blanket.

“I saw this person, and I thought, ‘This is Jesus,’” he said. “I created exactly what I saw that day with subtle differences. I pulled up the blanket just a little [exposing the feet] and put the wounds of Jesus in them.”

That led to the rest of the series, he said.

“When I finished the ‘Homeless Jesus,’ I knew there was more to the Scripture,” he said.

The “Matthew 25” exhibit includes life-size sculptures: “When I was Sick,” “When I was Naked,” “Homeless Jesus,” “When I was Hungry and Thirsty,” “When I was in Prison,” and “When I was a Stranger.” The complete “Matthew 25” series has been previously installed in Rome and in Cleveland.

Schmalz said he found “When I Was Naked” and “When I Was in Prison” especially challenging to conceptualize.

“When I Was Naked” was difficult because he did not want to create a nude Jesus, he said. The eventual design — a figure of Jesus covered only by a piece of cardboard — came to him one night when he was in Rome, staying in a hotel called Vatican Views, and saw homeless people across the street protecting themselves from the elements with cardboard.

“When I Was in Prison” was more of a personal challenge, he said, because he didn’t like the idea of seeing Jesus in criminals.

“I don’t like murderers. I don’t like people who commit crimes,” Schmalz said. “I hate them and part of me wants to see them tortured. The challenge to love your enemies is hard.”

Chicago-area audiences might also be familiar with Schmalz’s sculpture “Thou Shall Not Kill,” which shows Jesus weeping over a gunshot victim, which was recently installed near St. Sabina Parish on 78th Place, near a wall of photographs of homicide victims.

Others may have seen Schmalz’s “Be Welcoming” sculpture, depicting an angel disguised as a stranger sitting on a bench with his belongings on his back. It was blessed by Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, at St. Mary of the Lake Church, 4200 N. Sheridan Road, in September 2022. Cardinal Czerny serves as Pope Francis’ prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Schmalz said his favorite saint is Padre Pio. He made a sculpture of St. Pio of Petrelcina in a confessional, under a crucifix. What viewers don’t see until they approach the other side of the confessional screen in the sculpture, even taking a seat on the penitent’s side, is that it is Jesus looking out at the penitent.

Schmalz said he believes that it was the Holy Spirit that prompted that decision.

“I knew it was going to be Padre Pio in a confessional,” he said. “But I didn’t know that the image of Jesus would be there.”

Schmalz said he always tries to leave himself open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit when he works, even if it means scrapping weeks worth of effort.

That happened with a sculpture commissioned to fight human trafficking: Schmalz’s original idea was to depict victims in a cage. But the thought, “They’re pulling our children underground,” kept coming to him, so he discarded his clay models and started over.

The completed sculpture, depicting St. Josephine Bakhita raising a trap door and trafficking victims climbing out, was installed outside the church of St. Francis of Assisi in Schio, Italy, in 2023.

Schmalz is now working on an installation of monumental Stations of the Cross. The smallest measures 12 by 12 feet; most are larger, and their background include many of the parables in the Gospels. They are to be installed at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando, Florida, and in the gardens at Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence outside Rome.

Schmalz has done several monumental secular bronze sculptures as well, but moved into the arena of religious art after completing a sculpture of the Holy Family that was commissioned by the Canadian bishops and was later presented to St. John Paul II, about a year before he died. The late pope kept a small version of it in the Vatican where he could see it every day, Schmalz later learned.

Since then, many of his sculptures have been installed in Vatican City and in Rome, including “Angels Unawares,” which depicts 140 migrants from different eras and ethnicities crowded onto a boat, with a pair of angel’s wings rising from the middle of the group. Pope Francis had the original of the sculpture installed in St. Peter’s Square in 2019; replicas have gone on tour, including one that was displayed at Loyola University Chicago in 2021, and been installed elsewhere.

Now Schmalz’s work is almost all based on religious themes.

“To do the greatest sculptures ever, I have to have the greatest subject matter ever,” he said.

Making the sculptures, working through a design in clay and then creating molds and casting in bronze, is a form of prayer, said Schmalz, who listens to an audiorecording of the Bible as he works.

“We have to open up the idea of what prayer is,” he said. “I understand creating Christian sculpture as prayer.”