From the beginning the churches took care to preserve the letters they
received from the Apostles, since in them they had authoritative witnesses to
the faith. It was more difficult then than it is today to gather these
documents, and even save the perishable material of papyrus from dampness.
Before long, there was an initial collection of the first seven epistles
arranged in the order of decreasing length: the four ¡°great¡± letters to the
Romans, to the Corinthians and to the Galatians, and ¡°the letters from
captivity¡±. Others came to be added: first, those to the Thessalonians which are
actually the oldest; and then those that were passed on under the patronage of
Paul: the letters to Timothy and Titus which were written some twenty or thirty
years later, and the beautiful letter to the Hebrews, written most likely under
the influence of Paul but by an unknown author. A phrase from the ¡°second letter
of Peter¡± (not written by himself but about fifty years after his death) is
evidence that from this time the letters of Paul were counted among the inspired
Writings (2 P 3:15-16).
Paul saw himself as ¡°the apostle to the pagan nations¡±, seeing there his
personal vocation beside Peter (to whom God had confided the charge of
evangelizing the Jewish world) not only in Palestine, but also throughout the
Roman Empire, wherever they were established. Paul received this mission from
Jesus himself at the time of his conversion (Acts 22:21; Gal 2:7); so highly
fundamental was it in the divine project of the mission and extension of the
Church that it remained unfinished at the time of his death. The spirit of Paul,
one of the great manifestations of the spirit of Jesus, is always at work in our
midst through his letters.