"Archaeologism"

There is a "heresy" in the Church known as archaeologism - the belief that things should be done a certain way simply because the early Church did it that way. This heresy is the motivation behind house Masses, ceramic chalices, use of leavened bread, or having people stand around the altar at Mass. It's also the motivation behind having the priest face the people in Mass. After all, Jesus faced his apostles at the last supper, right? (Actually, that's not true, as Cardinal Ratzinger points out in his book Spirit of the Liturgy).

Why is archaeologism a heresy? Because it denies the work of the Holy Spirit in Church history. It portrays the Church as something that ought to have been frozen in its infancy.

People who tend to justify things like house Masses because "that's how they did it in the early Church" apply their theory inconsistently. If they really wanted to be like the early Church, they'd have to throw their guitars in the trash. Instruments in the early Church were associated with paganism and were forbidden. Women would have to wear veils in Church, and men and women would have to stand on opposite sides of the church (pews did not exist then, people stood during Mass). Women would be forbidden to sing. Depending on which period of the early Church one arbitrarily chooses to imitate, the congregation might not even be able to see the altar during the consecration. (In some periods of church history a curtain was drawn around the altar during that time - the curtain rods still exist in some of those churches).

I laugh at the very thought of us getting rid of our guitars, drums, organs, pianos, and flutes, and returning to early Church music like this:



Those who resort to archaeologism would never desire a return to music like that. (I personally find it beautiful, though).