Another way to separate the hyperbole from the Miraculous Reality is to ask "Why must we consume Jesus' Flesh and drink His Blood?"
The best way I can understand that is from personal perspective--that we are creatures. Creatures must consume to remain alive. Even angels must consume. Perhaps J.R.R. Tolkien might call this "elvish bread", but we even have many Old Testament references to the Eucharist (Tobit describes St Raphael as eating what appeared to men as meat).
Even satan is doomed to consume, but he doesn't have God's Presence to feed him. Rather he must eat "dirt", he must eat man for we are "dirt" (Gen 3:19). Even Dante's Inferno describes satan "eating" the souls of the damned. The wicked can be described as being "consumed" by their sin. In fact, the worse the addiction to sin, the worse the cannibalism. (I've researched just such evidence with homosexual homicides:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/bitemarks/2.html
"He goes on to point out that homosexual homicides, when they have bite-marks involved, tend to have them on the back, arms, shoulders, face, and scrotum of the victim.")
How does being in Communion with Christ deliver us from sin?
It's "Grace" that God feeds us since we are first spiritual creatures and it is our soul that will endure beyond the flesh. God feeds us with His speech, for His mere speech is Power that creates. With a simple command, "Let there be light" God creates that which can know Him.
Jesus is the "Word" of God, not just a lower case letter but with a capital "W" (Bush ought to like that).
In chapter 34 of Exodus, the mere conversation that Moses has with God causes the prophet to be "radiant":
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/effulgent
adjective
1 beaming, beamy, effulgent, radiant, refulgent
radiating or as if radiating light; "the beaming sun"; "the effulgent daffodils"; "a radiant sunrise"; "a refulgent sunset"
"Radiant" also describes power.
This is what happened when God puts His Word into us.
Another summary of a personal experience:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1506344/posts?page=5#5
"A devotion to the Rosary and Holy Eucharist has helped me reverse my life of bad habits. The deeper I search for an understanding to Our Blessed Virgin and the Mysteries of the Holy Eucharist, the less I find vices attractive. The Rosary has helped me forgive those who've hurt me, and the Eucharist helps me remember my faults (especially to those I've slighted). With a changing heart, I'm sensitive of my actions. I've become a child again, a child who sees the world and all it's beauty with a new splendor and a new life to discover. And more importantly, I see God in a Divine Mercy that I could not have seen when in the grip of sin. I see better how much He Loves us."
The mother/child relationship.
Apostolic Faiths know that we can never honor the Blessed Virgin enough!
There is a connection with a mother and her offspring that is beyond a familiar mother/child intimacy but something sacred. Why else would God command Moses, "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." Exodus 34
Our Christ nourishes us with far greater Graces than what a loving mother offers when nursing her offspring.
St Don Bosco's Dream of the two Pillars:
http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/1985_June/Two_Pillars.htm
The Blessed Virgin is the Vessel of Purity. We must moor ourselves to Purity before reaching for the Fruit of Life, the Eucharist. As would be impossible for Jesus, Purity Eternal, to be served on a dirty dish, the Virgin Mary had to herself be unstained of original sin. Similarly, we too must be without sin before being in Communion with Christ. This is an uncompromising Truth of a soul's relationship with God.
Why are the Sacraments a physical expression using physical substance?
I see it as this: because God created our existence. He uses the things around us to bring Us closer to Him. The substance of this world is not "evil" since it wasn't made by evil. No, God created the world and saw that it is "good". Jesus gave us the Holy Eucharist to give us an unbloodied and appetizing feast for the soul. What we might initially find repulsive is our pride fooling our spiritual senses. We have to give our trust to His Promise of our Salvation. We owe Him our obedience, and in remembrance of His Sacrifice, we continue in Apostolic succession to revere and accept the Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is the ultimate Leap of Faith that brings us a Martyr's reward without our unworthy human sacrifice, but is paid for with Jesus' Sacrifice. It is not a poet hyperbole but the Divine Reality to our Eternal Salvation.