Parable of the Sower: a mini-history lesson of Sydney's founding

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)

Our second day in Sydney was packed with activities. We strolled the central business district, enjoyed a panoramic view of the city from Sydney Tower, visited the famous Opera House and Circular Quay, took a ferry to get around the harbor, and gobbled up some fast food at Harbourside. Along the way, we met fellow WYD pilgrims from the U.S., Canada, Italy, and Australia. The highlight of the day was attending a solemn Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, a magnificent gothic church designed by William Wilkinson Wardell, completed in 1928, and designated as a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI in 1930.

Yesterday's Gospel reading was the Parable of the Sower (Mt 13:1-9). I found the scripture passage a particularly timely reflection, not only because of the WYD and the pope's apostolic journey here, but because of Australia's early colonial history. The story of Sydney's founding is dramatically recounted in Thomas Keneally's "A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia."

In brief, the early colonization of Australia was the result of transportation, a policy instituted by Great Britain to relieve its crowded prisons by transporting convicts to settle in distant lands. In 1787, Capt. Arthur Phillip was commissioned to lead a fleet of 11 ships and establish a colony in New South Wales (on the east coast of the Australian continent). Although transportation was a form of punishment, it was certainly a more lenient sentence than the death penalty or life imprisonment. Indeed, some of the convicts and their guards considered the journey to Australia an opportunity to start a new life.

The original plan was to establish a settlement in Botany Bay, located a few kilometers south of Sydney Harbor, based on a favorable report by the explorer James Cook 17 years earlier. However, Phillip found the location, the condition of the soil, and the local vegetation unsuitable and, upon further exploration, chose to establish the penal colony in Port Jackson. It was here that the first European community was able to find satisfactory soil, an abundant source of food, and an ideal configuration for a harbor.

It's possible that the penal colony would not have survived in Botany Bay. And even though it struggled during its early existence in Port Jackson, the "good soil" in which it was planted allowed it to eventually thrive and become a flourishing metropolis.

Returning to the Parable of the Good Sower and the WYD, like Capt. Phillip, the "witnesses" of the gospel today are in search of good soil. Let us pray that the Good News is planted in suitable ground: in the hearts and minds of 200,000 pilgrims traveling to Sydney this week in search of new life.

Captain Arthur Phillip

Commander of the First Fleet