What kind of soul will you have?

One of Socrates' most enduring teachings was:

It is better to suffer wrongdoing than to do wrong oneself.

Socrates’ argument for his position is simple: surely suffering injustice is terrible, but what is worse is the corrosion of soul that takes place when one commits injustice. In other words, being unjust is far more damaging to the moral structure of a person’s character than enduring the slings and arrows of injustice.

So there’s the question, what kind of soul will you have? What kind of person will you be? Will you do whatever it takes to get what you want? Or will you accept even great suffering in order to do what is right? Everything else in your life will flow from your answer to that question.

Where could we find a clearer instantiation of the principle that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it than in Jesus crucified? Sinless, blameless, he nevertheless took upon himself all the sin of the world: hatred, cruelty, stupidity, violence, institutional corruption, betrayal, denial—all of it. But rather than lashing out in answering violence, he said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do.”

I read this today in the speech delivered on May 13, 2023, at Hillsdale College’s 171st Commencement Ceremony, The Most Important Decision in Life, by Bishop Robert Barron.