“God Spoke in Many and Various Ways” (Heb 1:1): Prefaces of the Nativity as an Example of the Polyvalence of the Mystery o Salvation

Abstract

The psalmist, contemplating the works of the Lord, exclaims, “How deep I find thy thoughts, O God, how inexhaustible their themes!” One of the central characteristics of the mystery of salvation is its polyvalence. Salvation is a multifaceted reality embracing the totality of human experience. No experience of genuine consolation can be left out of the circumference of God’s intervention in behalf
of His people; the Old Testament calls this foundational experience “the Exodus.” The liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt provided not only the grammar for articulating experiences of salvation, but also a unifying reference point for the entire trajectory of Israel’s history of salvation, both before and after the Exodus. The Christian equivalent of the Jewish foundational event is the Paschal Mystery, which, being an overarching narrative, serves as the root metaphor for the Christian experience of salvation.