Purgatory Necessary After Death for Final Purification
"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (Catechism, 1030).
"The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect" (Catechism, 1031).
Scripture testifies that to be absent from the body, i.e., dead, is to be present with the LORD. "6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the LORD: 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD" (2Corinthians 5:6,8).
No intermediate place of purgatory for purification is mentioned in Scripture. The Master told of Heaven and Hell as the destination of the departed, giving no Scriptural foundation for Purgatory. "22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's Bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:22-23). Instead, the Scriptures warn of the necessity of preparation for Heaven prior to departure from this life. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD" (Hebrews 12:14).
Only judgment follows death. "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The purification that makes man fit for Heaven was accomplished solely by the sacrifice by the Son of God on the Cross. "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb 10:10). If we obstinately refuse to trust the LORD Jesus Christ's sacrifice as the sole foundation of our forgiveness and acceptance with God, then we shall not escape God's judgment. "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.
For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on Earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven" (Heb 12:25). Neither sacraments nor purgatory, but the blood of Christ can purge and make us fit to stand before the Living God. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?" (9:14).