The abomination of desolation

In my translation, it says, "the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place."

Over and over, Christ is teaching a pattern of what's inside being what matters. He continues to quote Hosea 6:6 to state the God requires mercy not sacrifices, in other words, tenderness of heart rather than frozen ritual.

The only way we are able to guard against ritual becoming our "God" is to continue to cultivate a Godly spirit, tenderness, love, mercy, patience, etc. By seeking this type of heart, we keep ourselves guarded against those who preach a "harder" loveless Christianity. If we all, all of us, lose our hearts, and lose our focus, then soon the inevitable rush of legalism and ritualism slides toward a worship of something that bears less and less resemblance to "God" (tenderness, patience, forgiveness, love) and more resemblance to something that is quite the antithesis of God, even though we don't intend that.

Even with good intentions, if we lose our hearts, we head toward a day that we worship the antithesis of the Father of Jesus, and soon the sacrilegious object that causes desecration will be the focus of the Holy Place. When we are so far away from the mark, by our hardened hearts, we will be ripe for destruction. Temples will not stand. The lack of love will cause true prophets to be rounded up and persecuted by false prophets. And all of this comes from losing our own hearts.

The heart of God keeps us away from that state. We have to interpret the text with an eye to what it represents, and stay away from the slow decline into legalism. Words become cages that bar us from seeing the meaning, but only to a point. We can also not slide into deconstructionism and nihilism by over interpreting our words. A straight path, but tempered by love and faith.