Why do we call the week that starts today “mute” or “deaf”

• Dogma
• April 22, 2024
• 8:35

The sixth and last week of Great Lent is called Palm Week. In the minds of believers, however, she has remained known as “mute” or “deaf”. How does this characterization come about?

The fact that the joyous Sequence of Greetings is not held this Week may have led to this… misunderstanding.

A glance at the liturgical books of our Church is enough to convince us that only “mute” and “deaf” is not the Week before Holy Week. The sixth and last week of Great Lent is called Palm Week.

For six days before the Sabbath of Lazarus and the Sunday of Plagues, the worship of the Church urges us to follow Christ, as he first announces the death of His friend and then begins His journey to Bethany and Jerusalem.

In the center of attention is Lazarus – his illness, his death, the mourning of his relatives and Christ’s reaction to it all. That is, the last week is spent with spiritual reflection on Christ’s coming encounter with death – first in the person of His friend Lazarus, then in the death of Christ Himself.

The “hour of Christ” of which He so often spoke and towards which His entire earthly ministry was oriented, is approaching.

The resurrection of Lazarus was done to make sure of “The common resurrection”. It is something exciting to celebrate every day for a whole week this meeting between life and death, which is slowly approaching, to become part of it, to feel with all our being what John implies with his words:”

Jesus, when he saw her, wept and those who had gathered… he was filled with the spirit and troubled himself… and wept” (John 11, 33-35).

In liturgical terminology, Lazarus Saturday and Plague Sunday are the “beginning of the Cross”. (I.M.P.). Despite this, our pious people call this week “deaf” or “dumb” with the sole justification that Masses are not held this week and therefore neither does the bell ring.

In the past, this was also cultivated by the priests themselves as perhaps a justified attempt for a little rest just before the great work of the Holy and Great Week.

The Standard of our Church also dictates this Week the Masses that are celebrated throughout Great Lent. That is, the Midnight Prayer, Hours and Vespers in the morning, the Great Communion in the afternoon, the Holy Liturgy on Wednesday and Friday as well as the Little Communion with the rule of Saint Lazarus on Friday afternoon.

The only Sequence that is absent is the Sequence of the Greetings of the Virgin Mary, which is also the only joyful note in the mourning period we are going through.

The fact that the joyous Sequence of Greetings is not held this Week may have led to this … misunderstanding.

The last week of Lent, since Holy Week begins on Sunday with its own fasting, is the final revelation of the meaning of Great Lent which is repentance, fasting from sin, joy and the revival of the liturgical element of the Church !

Let’s make sure that we don’t lose what our Church has to offer us this week too, avoiding frivolous and non-existent advice about our devotional life.

Timely and apt as always the speech of Father Moses of Agioreitos for these Holy Days and Great Days. “Always on Good Friday, be alone like Christ waiting for the last nail, the vinegar, the spear. The dice to listen undisturbed in the distribution of your possessions, the insults, the provocations, the indifference. Sunday does not come before Friday, then you forget the martyrdoms of the Good Friday streets of our life. Don’t be surprised, don’t be afraid of the unexpected syrup.

The showers of heaven do not dry up. The strip will come on Saturday night. Then you forget the martyrdoms of the streets of the great Friday of our lives”.

Source: I.N. Agios Nikolaos the new, Thebes