My third and last post on Ammachi (for the time being). I must confess I'm being rather mischievous and naughty here, delighting in making the 'shocking' suggestion that the rare 'oneness with God' we Christians tradionally credit Jesus with possessing (making him ontologically distinct from the rest of the human race) may now be manifesting itself again in the body of a woman in India. No less a figure than Thomas Aquinas said that 'multiple incarnations of the Logos' were not inconceivable. This in no way takes away my own profound reverence for (and sense of interior connection with) the living and Risen Lord, who was graced by vocation to image the divine at one particular moment in history and whose relevance I believe to be timeless and universal. But I have little difficulty accepting the possibility of other manifestations, other symbols of God, for other times and cultures. Is Mother Ammachi such a person, transcending our ordinary categories of saintliness? (for those who need caution in this area, see Guruphiliac for contrary views) She seems to me to be a person of rare and wondrous holiness and comparisons beyond that are really not important. Nonetheless, her capacity to express and manifest unconditional love to thousands upon thousands of persons week after week, for hours on end, is nothing short of 'miraculous.' To echo Jane Goodall again,
"She stands before us. God's love in a human body."
