Archbishop Cushley has called for Catholics to show "care and respect for God's creation" in his message for the Season of Creation.
He spoke at the annual Archdiocesan Caritas, Justice & Peace Mass at St Columba's on Monday evening, on the World Day of Prayer for Creation (01 Sep). It launched the Season of Creation, which runs until 04 October.
He said: "God has created us in His own image and likeness – not to make us proud, not to let us do as we please, but so that we can love Him and serve Him – and indeed serve His Creation. And that dignity confers a duty upon us. God entrusts the world to us, not for our pleasure and satisfaction, not to behave in a possessive and domineering way, but in a spirit after His own heart.
"We know that the Spirit of God is creative, not destructive. For us to behave authentically, then, as human beings, in the image and likeness of God, we are to care for and to respect God’s creation, in a way analogous to the Creator, who lovingly has called all of it into being.
"If we are anything, we are merely stewards. Our response as Christians, then, is to give thanks to God for His great gifts, to learn our modest place in all of creation, and to take up the grave responsibility of stewardship for all that has been entrusted to us."
He added: "As we join our Holy Father in this Season of Creation, let’s give thanks for all God’s blessings – of light, of life, of love, of each other, and of his many gifts to us; and let’s take up our duties to our world and to each other, to the glory of God the Creator."
Read the full homily here. Thanks to Callum Timms from St Mary's in Bo'ness for streaming the Mass.