In all of his letters, St. Paul is very insistent on his prerogatives as an apostle. His experience of Jesus, his encounter with God, validated his role in the early church even though he “was not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.” However, his personal religious experience was not enough. He needed to see how his own encounter with God fit into the larger picture of the life of the Church. “I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received.” Paul knew that he belonged to what we call today “the tradition” of the church. Similarly, our own faith must include both our personal relationship with Jesus and the tradition of the Church.
