The impression we get from the New Testament hardly permits us to claim that these men were great or ingenious in the worldly sense ... What counts is that Jesus Christ has called him, pressed his seal upon him, and sent him forth.
"You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit" (Jn 15:16) An apostle then is one who is sent. It is not he who speaks, but Christ in him. In his first Corinthian epistle St. Paul distinguishes nicely between the instructions of "the Lord" and what he, Paul, has to say. The Lord's words are commands; his own, suggestions. The apostle is filled with Christ, saturated with thought of Christ; the Lord, whom he represents, is the substance of his life. What he teaches is not what he has learned from personal "experience" or "revelation", it is God's word, uttered upon God's command: "God, therefore, and make disciples of all nations ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Mt 28:19) To this end alone has the apostle been called, and his very limitations seem an added protection to the truth he bears. When Jesus says: "I praise thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and prudent, and didst reveal them to little ones," it is an outburst of jubilation over the unutterable mystery of God's love and creative glory. (Mt 11:25) Spiritually, the apostle is seldom more than a "little one"; precisely this guarantees the purity of his role of messenger.
From The Lord by Romano Guardini
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