This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead. It appears this third appearance of the risen Jesus to his disciples took place several days or even weeks after the event of the resurrection. The dust that was raised by the events preceding and immediately following the resurrection seems to have been finally settling. Normalcy was slowly coming back. The people seem to have put everything behind them and were moving on with their lives. It had been a tumultuous time for this community and they could not wait to let those events recede into the past. Even Peter and company finally overcame their fears and came out of “hiding.” But rather than remain in Jerusalem, they decided to move back to the village in Galilee (Peter, his brother Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee must have been Galileans since they were called by Jesus while fishing in the Lake of Galilee). Jesus’ appearance which is the content of today’s Gospel reading took place sometime after Peter and company had settled back in the village. Maybe for lack of ideas on how to proceed without their master, or perhaps to kill boredom and put some food on the table, Peter and company decided to try their hand on their old profession. Unfortunately, their night-long laboring yielded nothing. We can excuse the group and attribute their failure to make any catch to their couple of years away from this profession. They must have become rusty at the profession. Or maybe, just as had happened in some of the earlier appearances, their failure to catch any fish was divinely orchestrated. Something was brewing somewhere! 
I don’t think Peter and company had abandoned Jesus or the movement that they had founded together. Their going back to fishing must have been a means of cooling off their heads in an effort to retrace their steps. Unknown to them (and perhaps to us as well), every decision that they were making was divinely guided. Jesus’ hand was all over the group’s decision not only to go back to the village, but also to go back fishing. It is no mere coincidence that this appearance takes place on the very lake where Jesus had met and summoned the pair of brothers. It is no coincidence that on both occasions, the pair of brothers happen to make no catch despite laboring the entire night. Jesus was making a statement, and it is a statement that Peter and company read only too well. It was a second summoning by Jesus of this group of disciples. Just like he had done in the other appearances, Jesus “expounded” on the Scriptures and opened their minds so that they could see in the events that littered the life of Jesus the fulfillment of the Scripture. In addition, he proceeded to do something that was meant to put a spark in the memory of the group: he broke bread with them! Without saying a word, Jesus was reminding them that he had already given them an assignment (do this in memory of me). He was once again calling them to be fishers of men and women.