How do we KNOW that Mary was beautiful?

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I’ve pulled a bit of a quote from the “jumpers” thread that got me thinking:

How do you know this? We have no photos of her, only artistic renderings, or images produced by those who have had visions of her. How do we know what she truly looked like and that she was beautiful? Would God have chosen only the most beautiful for his Son? Why? What would that say about the plain and perhaps not so attractive? Would they not be worthy?

If we assume that because God made Mary as the second Ark of the Covenant, and therefore made her perfect and part of perfection is beauty, then that tells me that God does indeed have a sense of what is beautiful and what is not, and would not make her to be ugly. And so then, what does that mean about how God sees those of us who are not considered beautiful looking people?

That does not follow. There is no necessary connection between moral beauty & bodily appearance - indeed, the devil “makes himself appear like an angel of light”; yet is no less devilish for that.​

Does anyone else see where I’m trying to go with this?

~Liza

One can’t build anything certain on what is obscure ​

That sort of reasoning would lead to thinking that because only wicked peoople suffer, & because Jesus suffered, Jesus must therefore have been very wicked. For obvious reasons, that is completely worthless reasoning - but it represents of strand of OT thinking. In John 9 - the episode of the man born blind - the disciples adopt just that sort of thinking: “Who sinned - this man, or his parents ?” But their assumption was invalid; sin was not the reason for his blindness.

There is no evidence for the appearance of the BVM - apart from such general guesses as can be based upon what little is said of or implied about her in the NT. As to Jesus, there were two schools of thought, one of which drew on Isaiah 52.12-53, & concluded that He must have been ugly.

There are probably people who have worked out (to their own satisfaction at least) that the Caucasian type is the best human type, therefore, the BVM “must have” been Caucasian; & not Jewish at all. The moment we replace the Bible by our own fantasies about what we think is best, we’re in trouble.

If we reason from outer beauty to inner, St.Alphonsus Liguori must have been a revolting old man, unlike certain models and “pop stars” He is often shown bent double with sickness - bur does anyone seriously imagine that they are comparable to a Saint such as he ? It is terribly superficial to judge by appearances, & the Bible warns against it explicitly:

• 1Sa 16:4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”
• 1Sa 16:5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
• 1Sa 16:6 When they came, he looked on Eli’ab and thought, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before him.”
• 1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”