What is Purgatory? Purification or Punishment or Both?

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” which is experienced by those “who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC 1030). It notes that “this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1031).

The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.

See also: Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

What is Purgatory? Is its purpose purification or punishment (or both)?

Related: How do indulgences work? Do they reduce punishment? Do they accelerate purification?
 
We can understand this, perhaps, by understanding what the “holiness” is, to which we are called in Christ.
CCC 1709 He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven.
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We are given - infused with - the virtue of charity in Baptism. Charity is the very love with which God loves. In God, charity is absolutely pure. In us, usually the charity which we have from Baptism may have grown in the living of the Faith, but is often mixed with loves of human origin and end - loves of, desires for, things and goods created by God, but for our own satisfaction and not in worship and adoration and love for God in Himself. That is, we typically have - and want to keep having - loves for things that please us, “mercenary” loves, self-centered loves. These loves have no place in God, and so are imperfections in us, impurities in our souls - until they are purged from us.

If we fail in our lifetime to purge our souls of self-centered and mercenary loves, then Purgatory will do it “for” us, or “to” us. Thus the material image of fire, which we can understand as something that can purify gold, for example, of its impurities. The sufferings of purgatory would entail, I suppose, certainly the absence of pleasures that we used to embrace, to satisfy the impure loves that we did not reject while we had the grace and time to do so on earth. Additional sufferings would perhaps be useful to help us realize that those useless pleasures and loves are a bad thing, not a good thing, for us, and thereby purge them from our embrace. Maybe. This helps me to understand it, anyway.
 
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