There’s an old Chinese proverb, perhaps you have heard it, but it goes something like this:  that the human tongue has the capacity to destroy a thousand lives without ever shedding a drop of blood. And how true that is. What we say makes a difference. Gossip, untruth said about another can simply destroy another person’s life and we’ve all seen it. Words have meaning. Words are powerful and how we use our vocabulary and the words that we put together and what we say to and about one another makes all the difference in the world. 

Jesus asks in the gospel today of his disciples, “who do people say that I am?” Who do people say that I am? 

And they say, “some think you’re Elijah. “Some think you’re one of the great prophets.” Jesus doesn’t want to hear what other people are saying. What are the words that you say? Who do you say that I am? 

And how you answer this question will make all the difference in the world. And it’s Peter who says, you are the Christ, meaning the anointed one of God. It’s a profession of faith on Peter’s part as to who it is that Jesus is. That question of: who do you say that I am may be the most important question that you ever answered in your life. 

And in our lives of faith, I don’t think he answered that question once. Many times we have to say who it is that Jesus is for us in our lives of faith. And how we answer that once again makes all the difference in the world. 

Because the way we answer that question shapes our behavior. How it is that we’re going to follow Christ as Christ’s disciples. How it is that we’re going to pick up our cross and carry it. Professing our belief in the Christ, the risen one. 

What we say and what we do makes all the difference in the world. That’s what integrity is all about. When things align in our lives as disciples of the lord. When we say that you are the Christ, the son of God, then it shapes our behavior. It shapes our discipline. It shapes what we say and what we do for one another. “Who do you say that i am?” Jesus asks.  

A question posed to us over and again that we come back to. And each time we come back to it, hopefully our faith is deepened. And our commitment is deepened to follow him even more closely.