"I thought "f" means "and following"."
Tried to fool the simple Greek peasant with your city ways, eh?
I'll answer later as I am off to bed. In haste though, Orthodoxy speaks of a particular and a final judgment. This verse you quoted is one of those the Fathers pointed to when they speak of God's love being like fire, purifying those with a similitude of Christ and tormenting and consuming those who do not.
Definitely, and likewise the Purgatory is an expresison of divine love, thus understood. A Catholic reads this passage and notices that the building tested by fire is complete art the time of testing, -- in other words, we read of the particular judgement in this passage, rather than divine love and lifetime trials in general. And this is what purgatory is: a process of purgation of a soul on its way to Heaven.
Much popular pieties have accumulated over this, some questionable. For example, the concept that time applies to souls in Purgatory in any real sense is a popular piety that figures in prayers. But the only dogmatic thing about the Purgatory is that it is a part of the particular judgement, finite in some sense, culminating in entry into Heaven, and related to lesser sins that God in His mercy forgives.
III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY1030 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.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.604 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:605
- As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.606
1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."607 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.608 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
- Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.609
604 Cf. Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820; (1547): 1580; see also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000.
605 Cf. 1 Cor 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7.
606 St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4, 39: PL 77, 396; cf. Mt 12:31.
607 2 Macc 12:46.
608 Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 856.
609 St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 41, 5: PG 61, 361; cf. Job 1:5.(Catechism of the Catohlic Church, ARTICLE 12 "I BELIEVE IN LIFE EVERLASTING")