Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Sometimes, paranoia can cause a person to commit greater sins such as to kill, either through character assassination or even physically, in an attempt to get rid of what one irrationally perceives to be threat.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Holy Innocents were martyred or
killed because King Herod was a paranoid and insanely jealous
man. He was constantly worried and paranoid that he would lose his throne, since the Romans had given him the throne as a gift, and the Romans could just as easily take it away and give it to someone else. This led King Herod to irrationally see Jesus as a threat to his sovereignty and power, and Jesus had to be exterminated to protect his interests. Since he did not know what Jesus
look like and where Jesus was, he decided to kill any
babies around, with the hope that one of them would turn out to be
Jesus.
Some of us too can sometimes be paranoid or
jealous about something. As a result, great sins could be committed to
protect what we think is rightfully ours. Have we forgotten that our ultimate purpose is to glorify God in all we do? Why are some of us so easily paranoid and jealous? May we come to realise that our paranoia and jealousy stems from our ego and pride, and learn to walk humbly in God's presence.
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