This coming Sunday is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. In Liturgical Year B, the first reading of the year, the 1st Sunday in Advent is Mark 13:32-37. The reading, in part, appears again at the end of the liturgical cycle of Year B – here on the 33rd Sunday when we proclaim Mark 13:24-34. Our gospel reading is the end piece of the larger “Olivet Discourse” in Mark 13:1-37. In the Gospel of Mark there is no passage more problematic than the prophetic discourse of Jesus on the destruction of the Temple. Continue reading →