Cure vs Healing

Cure may occur without healing; healing may occur without cure.
Cure separates body from soul; healing embraces the whole.
[Cure looks at what sort of disease a person has; healing looks at what sort of person has the disease—derived from Hippocrates. Cure categorizes; healing individualizes. Cure addresses disease; healing addresses illness.]
Cure isolates; healing incorporates.
[Cure is technical; healing is relational.]
Cure costs; healing enhances.
Cure combats sickness; healing fosters wellness.
[Cure fixes; healing corrects. Cure is reactive; healing is proactive.]
Cure fosters function; healing fosters purpose.
Cure alters what is; healing offers what might be.
[Cure controls; healing frees.]
Cure is an act; healing is a process.
[Cure closes the past; healing opens the future. Cure is a goal; healing is a quest. Cure seeks to change reality; healing embraces reality. Cure takes charge; healing takes time.]
Cure acts upon another; healing shares with a sister, a brother.
[Cure speaks; healing listens. Cure is produced by power; healing grows from surrender.]
Cure manages; healing touches.
[Cure depends on dispassionate skill; healing depends on compassionate care.]
Cure seeks to conquer pain; healing seeks to transcend pain.
[Cure is taunted by suffering; healing is taught by suffering.]
Cure avoids grief; healing assumes grief.
Cure encounters mystery as a challenge for understanding; healing encounters mystery as a channel for meaning.
[Cure often issues from fear; healing usually issues from faith.]
Cure rejects death and views it as defeat; healing includes death among the blessed outcomes of care.

-Fred Recklau (author of Partners in Care, Medicine and Ministry Together)

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