Spiritual reflections from surviving a near-tragedy

“Is this how I’m going to die? Lord, I’m not ready!” This was the instantaneous thought going through the mind of Father Dale Kinzler, at the time the Pastor of St. George’s in Cooperstown and now a retired yet active priest of the Diocese of Fargo. It was the morning of September 14, 2021, (the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) when he saw a semi-trailer truck bearing down on him from the left at high speed. The ensuing crash would severely injure Father Kinzler and, after several surgeries, put him into months of grueling rehabilitation.  

Many people, from the rescue workers who pried him out of his demolished vehicle, the medical staff who treated him in the emergency room, on the surgical table, and during rehab, and his parishioners called his survival a miracle, and perhaps it was. Looking at what remained of his vehicle, it’s hard to argue the point. 

Father Kinzler says, “another three feet and I would have been crushed inside the vehicle instead of just my lower body being injured.” It was that realization that prompted Father Kinzler to write a book reflecting on his close-to-death experience and how he attributes his survival and rehab to his faith.  

The book Three Feet from Death: Reflections on an Amazing Rescue takes the reader into the mind of Father Kinzler both as a vulnerable human being experiencing a physically jarring and painful event, and that of a man of God who took the opportunity of his survival and rehabilitation as a chance to reflect further on his understanding of his faith. 

Three things stood out for me as I was reading about his experience. First, he purposely puts us in his place behind the wheel of the car as the semi-truck crashes into it. He tells us to “fasten our seatbelt” as he describes the details of that day in second person. I felt the terror he felt as he slammed on the car’s brakes, trying to avoid hitting the semi. I could hear the metal crunching around me, the glass shattering in front of me, the unimaginable pain in my legs as if I was there. Father Kinzler’s effort to put me in his place woke me up to what he was trying to convey through the rest of the book. I found myself constantly imagining myself in his place through the crash, the surgeries and the rehabilitation. I came to realize almost first-hand through his descriptions that his survival truly was a miracle. 

Second, while lying in his hospital bed shortly after the crash, he meditates on his survival and what may have led to it. Father Kinzler describes what he calls a “Celestial Conference.” What does he mean by this? He says God’s time is not our time. In what was mere seconds here on Earth, God foresaw much earlier. It’s possible that a Celestial Conference took place, which may have included his guardian angel, his deceased relatives pleading with God to give him more time to complete his tasks on Earth, and priests and bishops he knew in the past, all interceding on his behalf. 

On page 28 he states: “No doubt the Blessed Virgin Mary and her husband St. Joseph, ready at the side of Jesus, stood front and center with the multitude I have just described. I can just imagine Mother Mary tugging at Jesus’ sleeve just as she did in Cana when she interceded on behalf of the newly married couple… she could just as easily have said that moment… ‘Father Dale is going to need help quickly.’” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this is actually what happens during our times of strife? What a beautiful reminder of the intercession of not only our Blessed Mother, but of those in Heaven we love who are praying and interceding for us, as we should pray for them. 

Thirdly, as Father Dale goes through his painful and lengthy rehabilitation, he works daily to get better physically. He also takes the opportunity to remind us that, just like in physical therapy, we can also get better spiritually through daily prayer. He says all of us have a heart, mind, and soul to get better spiritually. Father Kinzler states on page 41: “I am finding, in my case, a renewed zest for prayer. I am taking the wake-up call of my accident as a reminder to give God first place in my life.”  

There is, of course, so much more to this story. What I took away from reading this book was the opportunity to not only peer into the mind of a man enduring pain and healing, but to peer into the incredible faith that lies in the heart of a priest.  

To order a copy of Three Feet from Death, contact Hurley’s Religious Goods and Holy Family Bookstore, both in Fargo, or the University of Mary bookstore in Bismarck.