We've been having this conversation about the Eucharist, and there are a couple Church fathers, in particular Clement of Alexandria and Augustine, who use words like symbol and figure when talking about the Eucharistic elements. What we have to keep in mind is that these words are English translations of Greek and Latin concepts that do not mean exactly what the English words mean. To the point, symbolic does not mean "only a symbol," and figurative does not mean "only a metaphor."

The word symbol (especially in Augustine, but reading Augustine correctly will help you understand Clement of Alexandria correctly) should be understood very much like the way the word SIGN is used in the Gospel of John. A sign is something that points to a deeper reality. So the bread and wine are symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, in the sense that they point to the deeper reality of the Body and Blood. The Body and Blood are MORE real than the bread and wine, because after the consecration, the bread and wine only exist in the tangible aspects (accidents) and do not have substance (essence), but the Body and Blood of Christ exist in substance, even though they do not have tangible accidents. The point is that to say the bread and wine are symbols, does not mean that what they symbolize is not really there - actually it's the opposite - to say that the bread and wine are symbols means that they are the less real reality that "show" us the more real reality that underlies it. Another way that Augustine would say this is that the symbol BECOMES the reality.

The word "figure/figurative" is more tricky, but for all practical purposes you can read this word in the same way. The bread and wine are present "in a figure" - the point being that the Body and Blood are present IN REALITY.

One final note, for fun, as a reward if you read this to the end. In the ANF translation of Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2, where Clement is trying to tell us not to get drunk, there is a Greek word there that means "the discomfort and nausea that follow the immoderate use of wine and the intoxication" and that is characterized by "head shaking." In other words, a hangover. The Greek word for a hangover is apparently kraipale - which the translator renders as "crapulousness." What a great word! So the next time you have a hangover (not that I'm advocating that), you can say, "Man, I feel crapulous!"