Did the Pope say "allow ourselves to be smitten" by the love of Jesus?

Last night's "Smitten by his love" post brought email from ddh:

Your suspicion that the Pope did not say "smitten" is correct. After an introductory paragraph in Portuguese, the Pope switched to his native Spanish and said, according to the Vatican:

Pero la Cruz invita también a dejarnos contagiar por este amor, nos enseña así a mirar siempre al otro con misericordia y amor, sobre todo a quien sufre, a quien tiene necesidad de ayuda, a quien espera una palabra, un gesto.

I translate this sentence as:

But the Cross also invites us to let ourselves be infected by this love, it teaches us always to look at the other person with mercy and love, especially to the one who suffers, the one who needs help, the one who awaits a word, a gesture.

So, what he really said was "contagiar" or "to be infected." By the way, most native Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish without great difficulty, although not perfectly. I think for English speakers the effect is akin to listening to a Robert Burns poem.

Who is in a position to confirm whether the effect of Spanish on native speakers of Portuguese is like the effect of Robert Burns poetry on native English speakers? Perhaps no one, but I like the analogy anyway. It's poetic.

Also poetic — or so it feels to me, in translation — is the Pope's invitation to expose ourselves to contagious love. Love as disease is a very old metaphor. Lovesick. Fever. But here the idea is an outbreak, an epidemic of love spreading everywhere.

In English, "contagion" feels — at least to me — more positive than "infection," though "infection" is used positively in phrases like "infectious laughter."

Consulting the (unlinkable) OED, I see that one old meaning of "infect" is: "To instil in (someone) an opinion or belief, esp. a pernicious one, as heresy or seditious views. Of an (esp. pernicious) opinion, belief, etc.: to persuade, win over (someone); to seduce. In early use also in a good or neutral sense."

1559   J. Whyte Serm. in J. Strype Ann. Reformation (1824) I. vii. 154   Books..full of pestilent doctrines, blasphemy and heresy, to infect the people.
1588   ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 26   Being infected by him with the true knowledge of the gospell.
1660   Exact Accompt Trial Regicides 55   The end of your Speech is nothing, but to infect the People.

This metaphor is important in the understanding the value of freedom of speech. Are we susceptible to infection or does exposure build up our resistance to what is harmful?

There's no verb like "infect" for the English word "contagion," which hampers the translator of "contagiar." But I assume that the Spanish word the Pope used traces back to the Latin word that led to "contagion" and that is  con- together + tangĕre to touch. "Infect," by contrast, comes from the "classical Latin infect-, past participial stem of inficere to dye, to stain, to impregnate, to imbue, to taint, to poison, to affect with disease, to corrupt < in- in- prefix2 + facere to make, do, put.")

That "impregnate" makes me ideate about things Popes say against the use of birth control and the similarity of opening oneself to the contagion of love. But let's not get distracted. The concrete image within "contagion" is touching, and "infection" connotes putting in. That makes "contagion" sound like what women do, and "infection" seems like the way of the man.

But the Pope said "contagiar," so let's look at "contagion," which has as its oldest meaning "The communication of disease from body to body by contact direct or mediate." Figuratively, we see it defined as "Hurtful, defiling, or corrupting contact; infecting influence," a usage that goes back to Chaucer in the 14th century:

c1386   Chaucer Second Nun's Tale 72   My soule..That troubled is by the contagioun Of my body....
1776   Gibbon Decline & Fall I. xxi. 591   His mind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism.
1836   C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece II. xiii. 190   The contagion of these vices undoubtedly spread through the nation.

A second old figurative use is "Contagious or spreading moral disease; moral corruption," and then, in a positive way, closest to the Pope's meaning, "The contagious or ‘catching’ influence or operation of example, sympathy, and the like."

1781   Gibbon Decline & Fall II. 117   The contagion of loyalty and repentance was communicated from rank to rank.
1863   A. P. Stanley Lect. Jewish Church I. xviii. 397   A contagion of goodness, of enthusiasm, of energy..almost impossible to resist.

ADDED: Some attention should be paid to the idea of "invitation." God/Jesus/the Cross does not infect or produce contagion on its own. Its action is to invite. We have to accept the invitation to get the contagion/infection. It's voluntary. The human mind counts. But if you allow yourself to be touched/impregnated, then you will have something that surpasses the rational mind. These images are very helpful in thinking more generally about freedom of speech and the right to receive the speech of others. Censorship represents the fear of contagion, but if you see the speech as an invitation and the human mind as capable of deciding which beliefs to accept, contagion is less fearsome.

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Nothing insectoid. It's not a theme day.

Purely canine:



That just happened.

When I was editing this, whenever Abby heard herself, she went into action as a guard dog, to protect us from the unseen threat, which was her in the movie. I had to put on headphones to finish.

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Larvae Day.

After writing about larvae in my first 2 posts this morning, I go check out what's new at Instapundit, and the first post over there is about larvae — and not the same larvae. It's not as if some big larvae story hit the news overnight and everybody's got to talk about larvae.

If this were the first scene in a movie, this morning laughing about larvae would feel ominous, and within the next half hour, larvae would be threatening all of humanity.

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The movie industry is "laying down too many big bets without anything else on the agenda."

Said Steven Gaydos, of Variety magazine. "They have to kick their dependency on $300m blockbusters. If they don't, they're going out of business." But it's not going to happen:

"Look at Comic-Con and then tell me if you think Hollywood is going to cut back on its comic-book dependency.... Look at how that event was covered by the critical establishment.... By and large, people are not looking for intelligent, edgy, mid-range movies. They're looking for superheroes and special effects. They're looking for amusement rides. They're like the kids in Pinocchio who still want to go to Pleasure Island. They're voting to be donkeys."

Coming up: Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Thor 2, Fantastic Four 3 and another Godzilla.

Looking at this from the distance — I am old, and I haven't gone to the movies in a year — I think: Good, I hope they fail. Why should I care if these studios collapse of their own rot? I try to summon up some empathy. In the last post, I was surprised by empathy for the soldier fly, bred inside a closed appliance for the purpose of food. (I refuse to consume non-free-range larvae.)

Who are the workers of Hollywood, that we should care? They seem quite awful. Maybe Hollywood should make more movies about the good people who work behind the scenes. A fantastic 4 of The Gaffer, The Grip, The Best Boy, and The Seamstress. We mainly see the snobbish bastards who — as movies have taught us — inspire our lust to gaze upon downfall.

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A countertop kitchen appliance for growing your own insects, to be used as food.

University of Vienna grad designer Katarina Unger has invented Unger's Farm 432:

... a small-scale fly incubator... which "enables people to turn against the dysfunctional system of current meat production by growing their own protein source." In particular, Unger focused on black soldier fly larvae as her research showed that they are the most efficient insect converters of protein at 42 percent, plus a lot of calcium and amino acids.

The video is so good — with its cheer-inducing music — that instead of feeling disgust at the idea of eating the larvae, I felt empathy for the li'l guys, which is a whole other reason to stick to steak.

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"Smitten by his love."

"The cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love, teaching us always to always look upon others with mercy and tenderness," said Pope Francis, in Brazil. I don't think he was speaking English. But... smitten.

It's just the past participle of "smite," which is a strange old word that we associate with God striking someone dead. We think of it used comically, affecting an old-time locution.

Here are some uses of "smitten" I found in the (unlinkable) OED:

1819 Shelley Lines Castlereagh Admin. ii, The abortion with which she travaileth Is Liberty, smitten to death.

1671 Milton Paradise Regain'd iv. 559 But Satan smitten with amazement fell.

1848 Thackeray Vanity Fair xvii. 149 Young..Lieutenant Spatterdash..was evidently and quickly smitten by Mrs. Crawley.

Here's the Shelley poem in full:

Lines Written During The Castlereagh Administration.

1.
Corpses are cold in the tomb;
Stones on the pavement are dumb;
Abortions are dead in the womb,
And their mothers look pale--like the death-white shore
Of Albion, free no more.                                   5

2.
Her sons are as stones in the way--
They are masses of senseless clay--
They are trodden, and move not away,--
The abortion with which SHE travaileth
Is Liberty, smitten to death.                              10

3.
Then trample and dance, thou Oppressor!
For thy victim is no redresser;
Thou art sole lord and possessor
Of her corpses, and clods, and abortions--they pave
Thy path to the grave.                                     15

4.
Hearest thou the festival din
Of Death, and Destruction, and Sin,
And Wealth crying "Havoc!" within?
'Tis the bacchanal triumph that makes Truth dumb,
Thine Epithalamium.                                        20

5.
Ay, marry thy ghastly wife!
Let Fear and Disquiet and Strife
Spread thy couch in the chamber of Life!
Marry Ruin, thou Tyrant! and Hell be thy guide
To the bed of the bride! 

ADDED: After receiving email about the Spanish words spoken by the Pope, I wrote another post.

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"I’m just asking you to wrap your mind around that, wrap your mind around: No prom for Trayvon."

"No high school graduation for Trayvon. No college for Trayvon. No grandkids coming from Trayvon, all because of a law, a law that has prevented the person who shot and killed my son to be held accountable and to pay for his awful crime."

That's terribly sad, but what law? George Zimmerman was acquitted because of the due process law that requires the state to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and I don't think Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton means to attack that law. There's something sickening about seeing this poor woman wheeled about in her tragedy to mouth words of attack on the Stand Your Ground law that had nothing to do with Zimmerman's acquittal. Subjectively, perhaps Ms. Fulton gets satisfaction, but those who are using her should be identified, shamed, and denounced.

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