Is in Lord's Supper

The word "Is" in the wording of the Lord's Supper is a good word to study. Catholics insist it means Jesus turned bread and fruit of the vine into his body and blood. They say it isn't a figurative representation but an exact statement that the fruit of the vine is my blood.

This is my body

This is my blood

This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Unfortunately for Catholics Jesus used the same word in his parables.

The kingdom of heaven is like...

Thus it is used for figurative language where something is represented by something else. There is also a problem seeing the cup as the entire New Covenant. It is clearly a representation.

The word is also present tense, since Jesus hasn't died when he spoke it the blood of the covenant was still future, so it has to be a current representation carried into the future.