Why does Purgatory exist?

When our body dies, there are three possible states for our soul:

1.) If our soul is in a state of mortal sin, then its eternal destiny is hell. Hell is a place where the fallen angels and damned human beings suffer the permanent separation from God and a never-ending agony infinitely worse than anything that we can experience here on earth or ever imagine.

2.) If our soul is in a state of sanctifying grace (all its mortal sins have been forgiven), and has repaired all the damage done by the sins committed during its life on earth, then it is immediately escorted at death to the bliss of Heaven. There the soul experiences the utter joy of being with God in Heaven. This happiness is infinitely greater than all the pleasures, joys and happiness that can be experienced on earth (even by Catholic Saints). And this delight will never end.

3.) If our soul is free of the guilt of mortal sin, its eternal destiny is Heaven. But if it has not fully repaired all the damage done by its sins, or if the soul stills has some attachment to venial faults (if it has not purified itself of desires that are sinful in any way) — the soul must be purified and cannot go to Heaven ... yet.

This is why Purgatory exists.

Souls sent to Purgatory are sent there because they have a debt to pay. Anyone that does not have true sorrow and repentance for any mortal sin is lost forever to the fires of hell. Purgatory is for those who, although they have sinned, even mortally, repented and confessed these sins. But every sin must be repaired. Our Lord frequently commanded the people to do penance for their sins. This is NOT the “penance” that a Catholic priest gives after you have confessed your sins to him. That penance is part of the process to obtain God’s forgiveness, but it does not work to repair the damage.

If you break your neighbor’s window, you have to confess to them that you were the one who did it. Then you ask them to forgive you. If they forgive you, that is fine but there is still the matter of the broken window. You have to fix it. You must repair the damage you did when you broke it. We can easily think of many other examples of repairing the damage done by our mistakes. This makes it easy to understand why we must repair the damage done by our sins. If we do not repair all of the damage done by each of our sins before we die, then we could never enter into the presence of God in Heaven. The Holy Bible warns us that nothing unclean can enter Heaven.

It is much easier to do penance in this life. If we wait until we die, we will suffer horribly in Purgatory. The reason is that, if we choose to make reparation now, God rewards us greatly because we are choosing to exercise our free will in Faith to offer up some sacrifice to do penance. After we die our wills no longer choose right or wrong. Our wills become either united to God’s Will forever, or permanently opposed to God and His Most Holy Will. Also there is no Faith in eternity because we will know with certainty what we accept now on Faith in this life. Therefore, the cost of repairing the damage of our sins is much greater because there is no special reason for God, in His generosity, to reward our Faith or our sacrifices. We will have to suffer very much in order to expiate our sins. Many Saints have asserted that the physical pains are equal to that of hell. Knowing this, many people today do not believe in Purgatory. They say, “How could God be a loving God if He sends people to Purgatory? Why doesn’t He just let them into Heaven instead? Where is His Mercy?”

Purgatory is God’s Mercy.

Because God is perfect, the slightest sin offends Him very much, in a way that, probably since we’re not perfect, we don’t understand. When someone commits an offense against God, atonement for these sins must be made to satisfy Divine Justice. When we have offended an all-good God, we have no right at all to the eternal bliss of being with Him forever in Heaven. But because God loves us so very very much, He has made it possible for us to reconcile ourselves with Him. He made this possible, when He gave His life for us on the Cross, reconciling God with Man and opening the gates to Heaven. His love for us opened those gates, now our love for Him has to get us through them.

It is God’s Mercy and grace which touches the sinner’s heart to realize the horror of their sins which offend Almighty God so much, the risk of their salvation, and the damage to the general moral order and to the world and all souls. Moved to contrition, hopefully they will beg God’s mercy. Full of confidence, they should hope in that mercy which first gave them the sincere repentance. This frees them from the damnation that they deserved, but if they are never purified from the stain of their sins, they will lack the purity of the "wedding garment" required by the King. (St. Matthew 22:11-14)

So when we die, if we are not perfect (and very, very few are), we cannot enter Heaven. As we said, the Holy Bible tells us this. If the only other option was hell, that is where we would and should go. What are the chances of anyone but a martyr or a small child going straight to Heaven? Slim to none. God wants us in Heaven. For those who have not died in the state of mortal sin, there is a chance. God has made a way for the imperfect to merit Heaven - Purgatory. There they can repay their debts, even though, technically, their time to pay what they justly owe is over. There could have been only Heaven and Hell. You made it or you missed it. In His Mercy, God made it possible for His Justice to be satisfied after death.

But there is another aspect of Purgatory that people do not realize. It is not God at all that sends us to Purgatory, we do it ourselves - willingly. Besides the obvious reason that it is our sins that send us there, there is another reason. If a soul was able to go to Heaven with stains on their soul and not go to Purgatory, it would not be Heaven for them at all. It would be more painful for that soul to be in the presence of God with the slightest mark on their soul, then for them to be in the very depths of Purgatory. Without that “wedding garment,” we ourselves would shun the presence of God until we had purified ourselves unto perfection. And then, shining like the sun, we would run into our Heavenly Father’s arms, blissfully happy for all of eternity.