Acts 20 : 28-38 / John 17 : 11-19
It is said that if you truly love someone, then the test of that love is the ability to free that person by letting go of that person.
In other words, when we really love someone, we would not think being possessive of that person.
On the contrary, we would let that person have the freedom to choose to love us or not.
Jesus loved His disciples and He showed them the full extent of His love at the Last Supper by giving Himself to them.
Yet when the time came for Him to depart from them, He didn't hang on to them, but rather He entrusted them to the Father.
Similarly for St. Paul, he knew that he was leaving the church in Ephesus for good and he had to let go of them despite loving them so much.
He commended them to God to build them up with His grace.
These two instances showed us the example of a non-possessive love.
Some of the problems in our relationships stem from a possessive love, if at all we can call that love.
When we are possessive of others in our relationships, it may show that we have yet to understand the depth of God's love for us.
May the coming feast of Pentecost be an outpouring of God's love into our hearts so that we can truly love others as God has loved us.