Hidilyn Diaz made history for the Philippines by winning the first Gold Medal in the last Tokyo Olympics in the weight lifting competition. In order to succeed, she went through rigorous training and sacrifices. But what’s most inspiring is that all throughout her preparations and competitions, she never forgot to pray.

When she received the gold medal, she raised it with her left hand for the world to see and also raised with her right hand the Miraculous Medal of the Blessed Mother. She wanted to show that her success was not only the fruit of her talent and rigorous sacrifices but also thanked the Blessed Virgin Mary for her divine assistance.

Here’s a woman who knew how to be grateful. She exemplifies the grateful Naaman in the first reading of this 28th Sunday Mass was cured of leprosy (2 Kgs 5, 14), and the Samaritan in the gospel who was the only one among the 10 lepers who returned to thank the Lord for their healing.

Human as Jesus was he was disheartened, saying, ”Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” (Luke 17.18).

Somebody said, "Gratitude is memory of the heart." Ingrates have no memories, no remembrances. In local parlance, walang utang na loob.

Ungrateful people are proud. What they accept as help from people they consider as something due to them

Are we grateful people? Just think of our prayers to God. Aren't they almost all prayers of petition, “gimme, gimme Lord”?

I have nothing against prayers of petition because I also pray a lot of these. But do we remember to thank God for what we have received like the gift of life, our health, an extraordinary talent, business expertise? Or, the free gifts of God like the air, sunlight, water, plants which we take for granted as absolutely ours.

Are we grateful also for failures, adversities and bad experiences which help us to learn from?

One last thing to remember. When a person is grateful, the benefactor feels inspired to do more for the recipient. And if this is the natural response of human beings, how much more with God as shown in Jesus’ feeling toward the grateful Samaritan.

So, always be grateful to God and your benefactors.

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Humor for an empty hat. A priest, visiting a remote small chapel, delivered a 30-minute sermon on "gratitude." At the conclusion of the sermon, he said, "And remember, however small the gift, always be grateful to the Lord."

When the hat came back to him, the priest shook it carefully, but heard no sound. Then he turned it upside down. But nothing came out. It was empty!

Seeing this, every eye in the congregation watched to see if the priest would practice what he had just preached. Whereupon, the clergyman raised his hands to heaven, still holding the empty hat, and said, "I thank You Lord that, at least, I got back my hat!"

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Tribal Filipino Sunday. Today is designated by the Church as “Indigenous People Sunday and Extreme Poverty Day.” The event focuses our attention on our oft-forgotten, neglected if not considered as second-class citizens of the country as well as our extremely poor people.

Due to their minority number and living in scattered isolation, indigenous Filipinos tend to be forgotten and neglected. What's worse is that, in some cases, heartless lowlanders take advantage of some peaceful, timid people by driving them away from their ancestral lands.

Ironically, Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD, a German missionary in Oriental Mindoro who practically spent his whole life in the Philippines, said that the term "Christian" has a negative connotation for many indigenous because lowlanders who come to grab their lands are called "Christians." What a very distorted and perverted name.

An Aeta, a Manobo, a Mangyan or a Tagbanua is just as much Filipino as you and me. Consequently, these tribals should not be regarded as second-class Filipinos.

Likewise, their human rights must be recognized and defended. The Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Filipinos of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines makes it clear that "the most effective defense is the recognition of their ownership rights over their territories."

Land is everything for indigenous people.