Exactly! Catholicism can’t even define what Purgatory really is. Is it a place? A dimension? A state of mind? Is it where physical pain is experienced when we won’t HAVE physical bodies? Is it only some kind of spiritual pain or suffering? Does time exist there? Lots of unanswered questions and very few specifics. What could such suffering accomplish other than to somehow appease a righteous God who already has imputed the righteousness of Christ to us and our sins and iniquities are removed as far as the east is from the west? Yes, human pride prevents many from accepting that salvation is a GIFT - that we do not earn or merit or deserve it. It takes humility and simple child-like faith to please God.
Or HOW could it appease a righteous God whose wrath at sin was poured out on Jesus, the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins?
Jesus said, "It is finished!"
In the Greek, that is Tetelestai meaning *It is finished*
http://biblehub.com/greek/5055.htm
Strong's Concordance
teleó: to bring to an end, complete, fulfill
Original Word: τελέω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: teleó
Phonetic Spelling: (tel-eh'-o)
Short Definition: I end, accomplish, pay
Definition: (a) I end, finish, (b) I fulfill, accomplish, (c) I pay.
HELPS Word-studies
Cognate:
5055 teléō (from 5056 /télos, "consummation, completion") – properly, to complete (consummate),
i.e. finish (qualitatively) the necessary process – with the results "rolling-over" to the next level (phase) of consummation.
See 5056 (telos).
The whole point of the cross is for Jesus to take on Himself the penalty for our sin so that we don't have to.
And, yes, it does mean getting a pass when we shouldn't. That's what forgiveness is all about. It is being released from the penalty of the sin we have committed.
And when we forgive others, we release them from the debt they owe to us to atone or account for the wrong they did us.
It means free and clear, never bringing it up again. If there's still any accountability for some action or sin or wrong, then there has been no forgiveness.
What Catholicism teaches as forgiveness is not what Scripture does.