According to what I have read by authors who specialize in the subject, I have understood that even if we repent, confess our sins and are forgiven during confession, many of us must go through Purgatory… a purification process that can begin here on Earth, through the pursuit of holiness and penance.
It is not about paying for sin, that has already been done by Salvation in Jesus; it is about recognizing the extent of our misery, which does not do justice to the infinite merciful love of God, or, as Father Paulo Ricardo says, it is about welcoming this Salvation, through faith and works of charity, works of rejection of the world, works of struggle against sin, works of an ascetic life.
Purification is not without suffering. We must praise God for the salvation he has offered us and act to welcome it, while acknowledging our propensity for sin. This acknowledgment and the painful effort to correct ourselves ultimately bring us indescribable joy, often accompanied by consolation and progress in faith and holiness.
In other words, we can also say that Purgatory consists of knowing oneself to be unworthy of such great divine Love, of experiencing a kind of pain at the idea of knowing oneself to be unworthy, because we constantly make mistakes, despite the immense gratitude for Salvation and the hope of joining God.
It is when nostalgia turns towards the future, within the limits of our understanding, when it evokes a joy to come, the nostalgia for eternal happiness. And, paradoxically, this feeling already has a foretaste of joy.
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