Many years ago, when I sat where you sit right now and went to Mass on All Saints Day, I heard a particularly striking homily from the priest. He said when we are younger we aspire to be so many things from an astronaut, to a firefighter, to a police officer, to a scientist, to a superhero, to a princess, to any other thing we could possibly fathom, whether real or imagined. Then he said something I will never forget, he said yet I wonder how many of us would have said we wanted to be a saint.

It was one of those things that really stuck with me, and I thought about that question for a long time, beginning to wonder the same thing. And then it occurred to me: if we are honest with ourselves, we are afraid to entertain such an idea because it seems more of an ideal than a reality.

In fact, all too often, when we hear about the saints we rarely ever hear about what they did day in and day out, or even how they lived their lives before their conversions. Instead, we hear about the miracles that are attributed to them, the great wonders they worked while on earth, and the holiness they constantly radiated.

Yet, something we might tend to forget is that these saints were just like you or I, who experienced the same things we experience, struggled with the same things we struggle with and who were guilty of the same sins and faults that we commit.

A couple of years ago, I discovered a great book, a book that should give us all hope and a book that sheds some light on who the saints were before they were saints. It is simply called: “Saints Behaving Badly” with the subtitle: “The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil Worshippers Who Became Saints.”

And, it highlights countless saints, from the famous to the unknown, who lived less than holy lives before God changed them. St. Callixstus of Rome, for example, was an embezzler, a brawler, a twice-convicted felon until he repented, became a priest, was elected pope and died a martyr. St. Camillus was an Italian mercenary soldier, a cardsharp and a con man, who repented and then founded a Congregation, known as the Servants of the Sick and spent the rest of his life caring for those who were sick and dying. St. Pelagia, was an actress in Antioch, who led a very unsavory life, until one day she heard a homily by a bishop which caused her to repent and even ask that same bishop to baptize her. St. Augustine, a man who recounts all of his sins in his own book, lived a worldly and less than holy life, was converted, baptized and became bishop.

This is a sampling, a small sampling of the countless men and women who lived ordinary and sometimes incredibly scandalous lives, but who, once converted, persevered until the end in order to attain something even greater than the seemingly great lives that they thought they had, a life that nothing in this world could compare to.

Yet, what makes them different, what makes them saints, is the simple fact that given the lives they lived, given the things that they did, they realized that they could just as easily fall back into that same life, and so they fought adamantly for that not to happen.

And, while that is what they teach us, that seems to be the only part that we hear about, which is why sainthood seems so unattainable and so idealistic.

But, it’s not, because every single one of us here has the same potential, every single one of us here can become a saint, because we have all been called to holiness and to live that call to the same radical and extraordinary degree as those whom we celebrate today. Because, holiness is simply a fancy term for one who desires Heaven and to become a saint is to live our lives on earth so that we can attain that Heavenly homeland.

And, while it is not easy, as St. Pio put it: “It is difficult to become a saint. Difficult, but not impossible. The road to perfection is long, (he says) as long as one’s lifetime. Along the way, consolation becomes rest; but as soon as your strength is restored, you must diligently get up and resume the trip.”

That is why each day is an opportunity to change our lives and to let that change affect and permeate every single thing that we do, and every single thing that we say in order to make Heaven that much closer, to make it a reality rather than ideal.

It was St. Josemaria Escriva who said it best, he said: “To reform. Every day a little. This has to be your constant task if you really want to become a saint.”

Because, the desire for sainthood, is a desire to grow closer to God in this life and the way that happens, as with any relationship, is to spend time with Him, to love Him above all things.

Because, contrary to what people might think, given what the saints did, some may think them crazy, but they weren’t, they were and they are men and women in love and love makes a person do seemingly foolish and careless things, which is why from severe fasting and penances, to barely sleeping and instead spending long nights in prayer, to throwing themselves in a thorn bush or a frozen lake, to even pricking their finger and writing the creed in their own blood, we need only look at someone who is in love, because while extreme, in some cases, they lived with such careless abandon for the world, because the world does not allow them to express the fullness of their love, yet, these were the ways they felt they could express that love.

And, while love does make us do seemingly stupid things, it is those same things that purify that love, it is those things that make that love stronger and it is those things that made the saints who they were and who they are.

Therefore, let us always follow the example of the saints, let us call upon them often for inspiration, for help, and for guidance, knowing, indeed, that, in the end, they were just like you or I, with one difference, they realized their potential for Heaven, they accepted it and they stopped at nothing to get it.

The question then we must ask ourselves, is do we, too, want the same?