John 21:9

Coals] i.e. charcoal. Fish] or a fish.

Bread] or a loaf How Jesus prepared this meal is a mystery, but why He did so is plain. He wished, after the Resurrection, as well as before it, to set Himself forth as the bread of life, or the spiritual food of mankind, and He did so, as in John 6, by a symbolical act. There is probably a reference to the Holy Communion, as was perceived already in the 2nd cent. The recently discovered inscription on the tomb of Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 a.d.), contains the words, 'Everywhere faith led the way, and set before me for food the fish from the fountain, mighty and stainless, which a pure virgin grasped, and gave this to friends to eat always, having good wine, and giving the mixed cup with bread.' Here the fish is Christ, the fountain baptism, the pure virgin the Church (see Lightfoot, 'Apost. Fathers,' pt. 2, vol. 1, p. 480). In the catacombs at Rome also, in the cemetery of St. Lucina, is a fresco representing a fish (i.e. Christ) bearing upon its back a basket full of sacramental bread.

Yet was not the net broken] The earlier draught of fishes with the breaking net symbolised the Church on earth, imperfect in its organisation and methods, and allowing many souls to escape from its meshes. This draught, in which the net is unbroken and every fish is brought safe to shore, symbolises the Church triumphant in heaven, freed at last from all earthly imperfections, and embracing in its membership all genuine servants of God whose salvation is now for ever assured.