The Lesser of Two Weevils blog had a post on the Kerry excommunication snafu and I noted a comment made which is a pet peeve of mine (BTW-I agree with the thrust of the comment, this is just theological nitpicking.)

The first: my beloved, Himself, pointed this out to me. The Vatican is not going to excommunicate Kerry, or make any statement about him personally. If they do, America (and perhaps other nations?) will never elect another catholic leader.

Second point. I've heard this desire to excommunicate Kerry referred to as defending or protecting the Eucharist. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Eucharist God? I mean, we're not talking a symbol of God, or the image of God, or a container for God. We are talking God in substance. So how can mere mortals protect God?

Emphasis mine.

Again, I'm in agreement with the post. I just have this pet peeve about how the Eucharist should be understood. Sacraments are symbols, instrumental symbols, channels of grace, etc. The Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ, more specifically, it is the sacrament of his body. The Eucharist is NOT Christ. It is a sacrament of him. The trend since the Reformation (if I make speak in generalities) has been to exalt the status of the Eucharist and the "true presence" to make a dogmatic point. It has now reached the point that conservative Catholics freely use Eucharist and Christ interchangeably. This is wrong. The Eucharist is not Christ.

A sacrament has two poles to it, sign and grace. If you have all sign/symbol and no grace, then you have no sacrament. If you have all grace, no sign, then there is no sacrament. The conservative trend has been to devalue the sign value and focus on the grace aspect, i.e., "real presence." The point is that if a sacrament loses its sign value then it is no longer a sacrament. The Eucharist is a sign and instrument (of grace).

One analogy I like to use to describe sacraments is that of a stop sign. A stop sign is a sign of the authority of the government telling you to stop your vehicle momentarily. Now think of it this way, what if the stop sign not only told you to stop, but actually had the power to stop your vehicle? then it would be a "sacrament." It would not only be a sign but an instrument of the state. In the same vein, the sacraments signify something and then make that "signified thing" actually happen. However, if there is no signifying, then the whole sense of sacrament falls apart.