text: What's really lost is how the early Church regarded divorce. I have read that the early Church fathers never rebuked Constantine's divorce laws, which were pretty liberal. Some have spoken about marriage breakdown as sinful but not a barrier to finding happiness through remarriage. For example, Epiphanius of Salamis (later, St. Epiphanius) in his most well-known work, Against Heresies, stated that there were valid reasons for divorce for both husbands and wives. Also, since this breakdown was considered a sin, it was subject to penance, but once this was fulfilled, the couple regained their life with the community.
  
  I read Jesus's words as pertaining in particular to men who had the freedom to throw away their wives. For women, this had extreme consequences. I'm not sure it meant "you will stay married no matter what." As you know, in my Church (Eastern Orthodoxy), we follow the model above. There is nothing Christ-like in the exclusion of people from the community or the Eucharist.