And there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
We are all the one body of Christ, whose head is God, whose members we are. Some perhaps are the eyes, like the prophets. Others are more like teeth, as the apostles who passed the food of the gospel teaching into our hearts… Some are hands who are seen carrying out good works. Those who bestow the strength of nourishment upon the poor are his belly. Some are his feet, and would that I were worthy to be his heel! He pours water on the feet of Christ who forgives the lowly their sins, and, in setting free the common man, he bathes the feet of Christ.
And there are differences of administrations. There are different kinds of sacred ministries distributed by the same Lord, from whom as God and through whom as man we receive them, so that He is ministered to in different ways by different people. So Anselm.
The Holy Spirit adapts himself to each person. He sees the dispositions of each. He sees into our reasoning and our conscience, what we say, what we think, what we believe.
Just as a faculty of the human body will be idle when the causes that stir it into activity are not present, so with the soul. The eyes will not perform their functions except through the light or the brightness of day. The ears will not comprehend their task when no voice or sound is heard. The nostrils will not be aware of their office if no odor is detected. It is not that the faculty is lost because the cause is absent. Rather the employment of the faculty comes from the cause. It is the same with the soul of man. If the soul has not breathed in the gift of the Spirit through faith, even though it will continue to possess the faculty for understanding, it will not have the light of knowledge. The one gift, which is in Christ, is available to everyone in its entirety, and what is present in every place is given insofar as we desire to receive it and will remain with us insofar as we desire to become worthy of it. This gift is with us even to the consummation of the world. This is th...
Thus, enriching the consolation, he adds mention of the Son also, and of the Father. And again, he calls these gifts by another name, designing by this also an increase of consolation. Wherefore also he thus said: there are diversities of ministrations, but the same Lord. For he that hears of a gift, and has received a less share, perhaps might grieve; but when we speak of a ministration, the case is different. For the thing implies labor and sweat. Why do you grieve then, says he, if he has bidden another labor more, sparing you?
One who hears about gifts might be upset if someone else has a greater one. But when it comes to service, things are the other way round. In this case, labor and sweat are implied. Why do you complain if they have been given more to do so as to spare you? Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians
