at least not on the local CBS affiliate. but there it was, all 15 or so seconds of it. a voiceover asks if you, the viewer, would recognize jesus christ if he were to return today. a generic picture of a stereotypically poor child. another photo, this time of a scruffilly bearded homeless fellow wearing a tattered hat. and for a moment, a split-second, my mind’s train of thought becomes the subway containing that image from the writings of borges, from a prose poem entitled paradiso xxxi, 108. he is speaking about the longevity of revered faces as they are repeated through the faces of all manking.

“We may see them, and not know it. The profile of a Jew in the subway may be that of Christ; the hands which give us some coins at a change-window may recall those which some soldiers once nailed to the Cross.
Perhaps some feature of the Crucified Face lurks in every mirror; perhaps the Face died, was effaced, so that God might become everyone.
Who knows whether we may not see it tonight in the labyrinths of dreams and remember nothing tomorrow.”

it is always sweet (or bittersweet) to be reminded of passages that still move you.

and then it all went away a second later, obliterated by a surreal inanity, because the voiceover then told me that i didn’t have to be concerned anymore about recognizing christ, because he’s back and in a physical body already! the photo is now of this guy, vaguely middle-eastern, bearded, smiling and wearing a cowled white robe with blue trim. fade to black and the voiceover repeats itself over this simple text:

christ has returned in a physical body.

this was followed by a phone number. a local number in the 770 area code. i called it. and what happen’d?

“we’re sorry. this number is not in service.”