“You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone,” said Alphonse Gabriel Capone, better known as Al Capone—the boss of the Chicago organized crime world in the 1920s and 1930s. This gangster managed to have over a thousand armed bandits and more than half of the city’s police force on his side. He regularly paid personal salaries to senior police officers, prosecutors, mayors, legislators, and even U.S. congressmen, while also seeking public favor. For instance, during the economic crisis, the Chicago mobster was one of the first to establish free soup kitchens for the unemployed.
With such power, influence, connections, authority, and money, using all sorts of covers, Al Capone seemed omnipotent in his own eyes and elusive to federal agencies. But these were only illusions. The day came when neither Capone himself, nor the officials he bribed, nor his armed men could do anything to save their boss from the power of justice and imprisonment for such a “trifle” as tax evasion. After serving part of his sentence in several prisons, seven years later, at the age of forty, the once-powerful mobster was released early—virtually helpless, physically and mentally ill—only to live another seven miserable years in freedom.
Al Capone is just one in a long list of those who mistakenly chose the same power of influence for a better life but were doomed from the start.
Long Live Reason!!!
Perhaps most people rightly recognize the superiority of the power of the mind over any other earthly force. All achievements of progress are monuments to human thought. However, not all achievements of human thought are beneficial; many are destructive to a nation’s morality, health, and ecology.
In late 18th-century France, during the French Revolution, society and its national governing body, the Convention, officially recognized the superiority of the power of reason over any other force. On November 10, 1793, a grand procession and symbolic coronation of the “Goddess of Reason” took place at Notre Dame Cathedral. Faith in God was mocked and rejected, Bibles were publicly burned, and sincere followers of the Gospel were persecuted.
Yet, strangely, the elevation of the human mind produced an unexpected paradox. The cult of reason plunged France into a moral, political, and economic crisis such as the country had never known. Human laws were unable to restrain low passions, and the nation fell into chaos and anarchy. After three and a half years, the lesson was learned. The same National Assembly that had banned the Bible restored the freedom to read God’s Word, which gave a colossal boost to the distribution of the Bible in Europe.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…” (The Bible, Romans 1:21-24).
The Greatest Miracle
It may seem that the greatest power belongs to those who hold political, military, and judicial authority. Perhaps Napoleon Bonaparte thought so too, until his exile on the island of Saint Helena. There, he recorded a conversation: “What do you think of Christ?” Napoleon asked. General Montholon admitted he had never thought about it. Napoleon replied: “So much the worse for you!”.
Napoleon continued: “In the days of my glory, people died for me with joy… And now, who fights for me? Such is the fate of great men! What a deep abyss between my fall and the eternal power of the Son of God!”. He noted that while his empire crumbled, the cause of Christ, who died 19 centuries ago, remains as powerful as ever. “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded powerful states… on force. Jesus Christ founded His kingdom on love, and even now, thousands would joyfully give their lives for Him”.
The Strongest
Where is the real strength? It is in the hands of the Strongest—the One who can bestow a creative rather than a destructive power on anyone who admits their weakness and believes in Him. His name is known to all—Christ. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (The Bible, Matthew 11:28).
From Humiliation to Freedom
In the early days of Christianity, the pagan writer Celsus mocked Jesus for calling the “outcasts and downtrodden”. The Christian thinker Origen replied: “True, Jesus called the humble and insulted, but He did not allow them to remain a worthless rabble… out of the material you discarded as useless, He fashioned people, restoring their self-respect”.
“…and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (The Bible, Isaiah 9:6).
