One of my favorite images in both theology and spirituality is the idea that it’s a long and winding road from the head to the heart.  I wonder…that day 2000 years ago…on which end of that long and winding road stood Peter, Andrew, James and John when Jesus called out “Come and Follow”.  Where were they at the very moment when they had to choose…in their heads or in their hearts…because no matter what…there always comes that moment in all of our lives when we have to choose.  It’s the moment when words fail us…when ideas run out of ideas…when even logic ceases to make sense.   I wonder about this because it has everything to do with you and me and how it is that we are called by Jesus and the really difficult decisions we have to make on our long and sometimes winding road to Discipleship.

That’s what it’s all about anyway…this gospel passage…you and me…church…Today I want us to consider this word Disciple.    I want us to think about what a disciple is…how to recognize a disciple…what disciples do…how disciples act.   The more I’ve thought about it the more it seems that…Discipleship is much more about the heart than the head.  You notice…these four fishermen…are never called Converts…in fact no one in Jesus’ ministry are called Converts…they’re always called Disciples even though clearly they converted from Judaism to Christianity.

There’s an important distinction I think between a Convert and Disciple.   And it’s not that one is right and the other is wrong because in a certain sense we were all Converts at some point in our lives.  Here’s the important distinction.  A Convert is someone…very well intentioned…a person who is curious…someone who investigates a particular concept…a certain movement or belief system…in this case Christianity…and then simply believes.  Being a convert is very much an act of the intellect…to sift through the evidence and then proclaim it to be true.  And then sit back and say…I am ______...I am a Christian…I am a Catholic. 

But we’re not reading about mere coverts here today…we’re hearing the story of the 1^st four Disciples.  We ourselves must be working on our own Discipleship.  This is something a bit different.  A Disciple takes Conversion to the next level.  Just like the Convert…the Disciple is someone who is curious…someone who investigates…someone who hears a compelling argument but then most importantly acts on it…a Disciple does something physical…drops his nets and follows…picks up her cross and carries it…actually takes food and gives it to the poor…literally puts coats on cold people…audibly speaks out for those who cannot speak for themselves…actually goes over the Maternity Shelter in Temple and offers to help in whatever way necessary…physically puts some money in the collection basket so that this church can continue to do the important work of Christianity in our community.  Discipleship is a physical response…an act of the will...a choice based on a profound-ness that is often unexplainable!

Meister Eckhart was Medieval Theologian who said…Silence is the Language of God.  I also think that Silence is the language of the heart.  And maybe that’s the nuance between Conversion and Discipleship that I want us to consider today…the difference between the Head and the Heart…between living out the gospel or just thinking about it.  That day 2000 years ago…something must have happened to their hearts…the silent language of God must have said something profound.  How else can you explain their immediate and un-negotiated response?  You notice there was no conversation.  Not much from Jesus and nothing from the fishermen.  Jesus invited and they followed…no questions asked…and yet a watershed moment in Salvation History…one of the most important events in the creation of The Church.  And in answering the call…without words…they spoke volumes that we still hear today.   It’s what you and I are supposed to do…at home…in our neighborhoods…at work…at school…here at church…we are called to get out of our heads and into our hearts…to the place where God’s words won’t be in competition with the barrage of words jamming our signals.  Something happened that day in His call to Discipleship.  I like to think that there was something in his eyes as they caught their eyes.  I suppose that if Jesus were to walk into this church right now…there would be something in his eyes that would immediately pierce into our hearts and speak the Word beneath the words.  And…mystically…we wouldn’t understand the words per say…but the Word would move our whole being. 

That’s the only thing I thing I think could have happened that day.   The fishermen dropping their nets was totally impractical.  They quit their jobs and probably had no idea how or when they would be paid for their new jobs of being Jesus’ Disciples…one of them the first Pope.   There’s nothing in the text that talks about their day off or their retirement plan or whether they get two of three weeks vacation per year in this new job of theirs.  This is before they even figured out what they were going to tell their wives when they got home. “You did what!”…I can imagine Peter’s wife exclaiming.  But they encountered something profound…something powerful…something they’d never encountered before…the 2^nd person of the Holy Trinity…Jesus…The Word…Christ…and their hearts where moved and they were so attracted to it…certain without fully understanding it! 

You and me…engaged in lives with no clear answers either.  Why did I become a priest?  Why did you marry the person you married?  Why did you take the job you took? Why do we pray? Why are we here in this Church today?  I don’t totally know.  Something bigger than ourselves…although we may not even realize it…called out to us this morning to drop everything we were doing and come here with no words or explanation.  It’s possible that some of us don’t even know why we’re here…we just are.  And maybe that’s as it should be.  Maybe there doesn’t need to be some well-crafted sales pitch.  Maybe there needs to be less words.  That was certainly the case for these four fisherman.  No words…just encounter with God.   Ultimately words can only take us so far…they can’t hold the deepest truths of the heart spoken to us by the Voice of God.  And that’s why the pathway from the Head to the Heart is windy…sometimes confusing…even at times un-navigable.  Our only task is to wander our way down that road and…on the way…drop everything to follow him.