In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  
Today's gospel beautifully points out to us three particular things. First, of the importance of prayer. Jesus teaches us by His example that prayer should be central to our life, that we need to lift up our hearts to God each day, asking for His grace, His assistance, and above all, that we may do His will. We need God's help to carry out His will and to do what is most pleasing to Him. So Jesus shows us this by example of the importance of prayer in our life and to never allow ourselves to neglect our prayer life.
St. Alphonsus Liguori made a point in which he said that for those who do not pray, it will be almost impossible for them to get to heaven, stressing how important prayer is to help us on the spiritual life, to follow Christ, to use the graces God gives us, and to receive God's grace to help us to persevere in following Jesus Christ in a world which is often rejecting Christ and His teaching.
We see the calling of the apostles, and we are reminded in this that each of us has been called. Each of us are disciples and have been called to follow Christ. Each of us has been assigned by God a mission in which we are to serve Him in this short time on earth, by which we give Him honor and glory. In that, of course, to be witnesses to Christ to the world, to share our faith, to pray for the conversion of sinners, and for those who reject Christ and His teaching. We must never allow ourselves to think that our prayers are not effective in this matter, but we must pray each day for the conversion of sinners and strive to give witness to Christ to all whom we meet.
Finally, we see our Lord's mission of bringing healing. Of course, this mission continues to this day through the sacraments of the Church. The sacraments of the Church continue to bring healing to all through baptism, through confession, through the Holy Eucharist, through the anointing of the sick. Especially, we should recognize that that same power that came forth from Jesus in the Gospel comes forth from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, especially when we receive Him in Holy Communion. We cannot say enough about the great power that we receive when we receive Christ in His body, blood, soul, and divinity, that He can bring healing to us, both spiritual and physical.
Today we honor St. Peter Claver. St. Peter Claver died in 1564, in Colombia. He was a Jesuit from Spain, and he called himself the slave of the slaves forever. His specific mission was taking care of the spiritual and physical needs of slaves in Colombia. It's said that he baptized and converted over 300,000 slaves, taking care of their physical needs and spiritual needs, and imploring for them to be treated with dignity. He gave himself to this work. So he's the patron of Colombia, he's the patron of African missions. We can ask him today to help us to see the dignity of each person we come in contact with, that we must always recognize that dignity is endowed by God Himself.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.