There can be a tendency among some Christians to conflate the term ‘disciple’ and the term ‘apostle’, to treat them as being somehow synonymous. Sometimes you will hear people speak about the ‘twelve disciples’ rather than the ‘twelve apostles’, and, if this isn’t imprecise enough, it doesn’t help that the Evangelists do this too. To add another level of confusion, ‘the Twelve’ is a term that also needs to be carefully distinguished from both ‘disciple’ and ‘apostle’. For instance, Saint Paul was not one of the Twelve, but he was certainly a disciple and also describes himself as an apostle. Saint Matthew is certainly one of the Twelve, but also a disciple, and an apostle, too. And he is also called an Evangelist, just to add to the confusion.

Let’s clear this up. A disciple is someone who learns from a teacher. The term has a Latin root, discere, to learn; a discipulus, then, is one who learns: student, a pupil. ‘Apostle’ has a Greek root, apostolos, meaning one who is sent out for some purpose, like an ambassador. In today’s Gospel reading, the Twelve are described first as disciples and in the very next verse as apostles. In their situation as learning from the Lord, they are disciples; once they are sent out by the Lord to do a job, they become apostles. So the terms ‘disciple’ and ‘apostle’ aren’t synonyms.

None of us here today, of course, is one of the Twelve. Those posts have been filled, and the Twelve, whose names we heard listed today, occupy a special function in the Church as the foundation stones on whom the Church is built by the Lord (Revelation 21:14); they were the first Christians, whose job it was as apostles to begin making others into disciples; teaching others about the Lord who gave them this role. We learn elsewhere (Matthew 19:28), too, that they have a role in the judgment of the twelve tribes of Israel.

But now those twelve Apostles are dead, and still the Church endures, so clearly there is some other mechanism that enables that. Though we can’t be one of the Twelve, we can certainly be disciples, indeed we must be disciples. In fact, we will never cease to be disciples; to be in heaven is to be in a process of learning more and more about the infinite riches of God. So to be a Christian is to be a disciple, and never cease to be that, whatever our other jobs might be. And being a disciple means having a thirst to know more about the things of God.

How are we to slake that thirst? The Scriptures are the first place to look, of course, but it is helpful to read them with the help of a good commentary. If we are not in the habit of regularly reading the Bible, then this is something we should start; only I wouldn’t advise starting at Genesis and ploughing through to Revelation – most people get bogged down in Numbers and Deuteronomy. It’s best to break it up a bit. There are good reading schemes out there which can help. Other reading is helpful, too, both theology and spirituality. And these days there are great podcasts and audiobooks that you can listen to when doing other things like driving or cooking. These things help us to understand the person whom we plan to spend eternity with; and the more we know, the more we understand, the more we love the One who is Love itself.

So, all of us are disciples. What about apostles? In the Catholic Church we are apt to speak of bishops as being the ‘successors of the Apostles’. While we believe this to be true, there is surely a wider sense in which all active Christians are also called to be apostles. We seem to be experiencing something of a growing curiosity about the faith in recent years. Our own generation is one of the most uncatechised; most of our fellow-citizens know very little about our Lord and his message, and what they do know has often come through the filter of people who themselves know little but think they know a lot. The first place people will turn is to their friends whom they know to be Christian, and if one of our own friends wants to know more, we need to supply that want. If we have been good at being disciples, then perhaps we can be good apostles and make a good answer straight away. However, even if we can’t, surely it’s always acceptable to admit that one doesn’t know right now, but to undertake to find out and report back. The internet can be very helpful to get answers.

So: being both a disciple – a student, and an apostle – a teacher, is the calling of every mature Christian. Let’s look at ourselves and ask whether we match up. Of course we don’t, but we can all always do a bit better.