John 21:14

The third time] i.e. the third appearance to any considerable number of Apostles collectively. The appearances, private or semi-private, to Mary Magdalene, the women, the two disciples, Peter, and James, are not reckoned. The appearances on the mountain in Galilee, and to the five hundred, had apparently not yet taken place.

This being a 'spiritual' Gospel, the allegorical interpretation of this incident is to be firmly maintained. So interpreted, it constitutes a renewed call by the risen Lord to the Apostles to become 'fishers of men,' and a renewed promise to be with them in their work. The details also, the unbroken net, the fish and the bread, probably even the number of the fishes, are to be mystically interpreted, but the meaning of the last is uncertain. The other chief Johannine book, the Apocalypse, abounds in the mysticism of numbers.